Hi all, I need some advice. I have never owned a PowerPC before but I have been reading the PowerPC forum a lot and my interest in peaked. I was wondering which PowerPC you guys would recommend, I want it mainly to tinker with as I have a few intel Macs. I would mainly use it to do some upgrades to, surf the web, email, and maybe a little bit of photo editing and maybe just some very very light work in iMovie. I hope some of you guys with experience can point me in the right direction. As this is just a little hobby of mine I would ideally like to spend no more than $500 if thats possible. Thanks in advance for your help!
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Advice for PowerPC purchase
- Thread starter Medic278
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Well for one your going to want to be careful before you spend any amount of money on a PowerPC:
1. What camera do you own? If you shoot raw at all you need to be compatible with the latest that PowerPC was compatible and that was Aperture 2, Photoshop CS4, Adobe DNG Converter 6.4. To list a few, if your camera isn't there then your stuck messing with JPEG format. I myself almost had that problem, but my camera is the last they added to the Adobe DNG Converter that was compatible with PowerPC architecture.
2. Again if your messing with iMovie, I think the newer formats, whatever they are aren't supported in PowerPC. Need to research that one. It really depends on your equipment.
3. I recommend at 4 GBs of ram, I have 2 which works for now. Most people from what I've heard won't even max out the 4 GBs, but who knows.
4. Might want to get a better video card such as an Nvidia 6800 GS/GT, 7800GS, or ATI X800 XT, most of these will be flashed cards, these are for the AGP based G5s.
5. I recommend no lower than a dual 2.0 GHz machine, which is what I have and it works great and as far as I know you can get them cheap, got mine for 130 dollars on ebay.
1. What camera do you own? If you shoot raw at all you need to be compatible with the latest that PowerPC was compatible and that was Aperture 2, Photoshop CS4, Adobe DNG Converter 6.4. To list a few, if your camera isn't there then your stuck messing with JPEG format. I myself almost had that problem, but my camera is the last they added to the Adobe DNG Converter that was compatible with PowerPC architecture.
2. Again if your messing with iMovie, I think the newer formats, whatever they are aren't supported in PowerPC. Need to research that one. It really depends on your equipment.
3. I recommend at 4 GBs of ram, I have 2 which works for now. Most people from what I've heard won't even max out the 4 GBs, but who knows.
4. Might want to get a better video card such as an Nvidia 6800 GS/GT, 7800GS, or ATI X800 XT, most of these will be flashed cards, these are for the AGP based G5s.
5. I recommend no lower than a dual 2.0 GHz machine, which is what I have and it works great and as far as I know you can get them cheap, got mine for 130 dollars on ebay.
Thanks for the quick reply, I will have to research this. As this is just a hoppy machine cause I am interested if I can't really do movie thats no big deal. I just hear everyone talk about the PowerPC's with a fair amount of passion and really want to experience what its all about it sounds pretty cool. Thanks for the info though! When you say a dual, do you mean a dual G4 or G5, again please forgive my ignorance. I also didn't realize that they could be had so cheaply that is awesome!
Yes, it is a lot of fun as a hobby. Before you know it, you will be buying more, each of every model...lol.
Its sounds addicting, but fun at the same time. I think it would be a really fun and interesting hobby to get into. I see a lot of you guys having a lot of fun with them and I want to get involved.
I found this PowerMac G5 http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Power...le_Desktops&hash=item4ab6a63a0a#ht_500wt_1219 It looks pretty decent and I think the price is good, what do you guys think? Whats the max RAM on this machine?
That looks like a good price, for what you get up from mine, more speed, more harddrive space, etc. I'd say get it.
Thanks for that clarification, do you think its a decent machine? Or am I better off looking for a dual or quad core?
I have a dual 1.8gzh with 8gb of a Ram, I love it. Its not a serious machine. Nor does it have the abilty to be a serious machine for what I do, but for a hobby computer. Its awesome. I use mine all the time
Same here. I have a pretty bad ass HP with Windows 7 right next to my macs but I just use it when I have to (intelbased programs or demanding tasks) - for all my browsing, music and general fun I use G5's and G4's.
If you want something that's upgradable, PowerMacs are definitely the way to go. PowerBooks and iBooks are a nightmare to upgrade in comparison to PowerMacs. I'd recommend any G5 so long as it's a dual core or dual processor. You can also pick up an nVidia GeForce 7800GS (for AGP) or 7800GTX (for PCI-E) if you want more graphics power.
A dual 2.3 GHz is a decent machine. One thing to be aware of in the G5 range is some of the high end G5's came with liquid cooling (dual 2.5, dual 2.7, and Quad core 2.5). Apparently the dual 2.7's were prone to leak, so many people advise to stay away from them. The cooling system was redesigned for the later models (quad core), specs on these systems can be found here: http://support.apple.com/kb/SP37
and info on the cooling system can be found here: http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...rmac-g5-liquid-cooling-info-leaks-issues.html
I've got one dual 2.7 and three dual 2.0 G5s. A fourth dual 2 flaked out and had to be tossed, but have not had problems with the others. I have seen no leaks in the dual 2.7, but I'm wary! Benchmarks will show the dual 2.7 run about 25% faster - but that's just benchmarks. Depends what you are doing.
If I was you and wanted to get the best performance, I'd max out the RAM and buy an OWC SSD. One of the dual 2.0 G5's I have has 8 GB RAM and a 120 GB 3G OWC SSD. The performance is impressive.
Hey thanks for the post, that has a lot of really valuable information and thanks for the links I read through them and learn quite a bit I didn't know before. I have to say I like the idea of as SSD I have one in my MBP and I love it, plus the prices are starting to come down which is always nice. I really think the support you guys give is awesome, there are so many knowledgable people who have responded I really appreciate everyones insight its just awesome, no one is condescending like some of the people that reply to intel threads and I appreciate that! I know my questions are noob questions but thanks for helping out anyway!
I advise you to get a Late 2005 (PCI Express) model, either 2.0 or 2.3GHz. They don't have the problem of failing logic boards which is always a total write-off for these machines. They support faster graphics cards, memory is cheap and the overall noise is pretty low.
Thanks for the reply, I will try and find one. I appreciate your help since I know very little about PowerPC's.
I just wanted to say thanks to all those who replied I really appreciate it. I recently pulled the trigger on a PowerMac g5 and am in love it with even though it hasn't come in it. I look forward to joining your vibrant community and can't wait to get the machine I will post the specs later once I find them in the confirmation email! Once again thanks to all those who helped me out I greatly appreciate it!
Congrats on the purchase. Glad to see someone else holding on to the PowerPC architecture. I have yet to find a forum elsewhere with as many helpful and nice people.
Thanks I can't wait for it to come it I am really excited. It just looks like a fantastic machine and I bought it locally for a pretty good deal so I couldn't be happier. This is going to be a hobby computer for me as I have several intel mac and I am really looking forward to it.