Extra Power Mac G5 - what to do?

I'd either get FCS2 for that or set it up as a server again. If you don't want it, I'd be happy to take it off your hands .

I'd love another G5.

But, things you can do.

Server; media's always there, you probably could set up an FTP client for pulling documents or backing up documents from work/on the road (this may be a problem depending on your employer)

Dedicated Render Machine; Sure it'll take longer then my Quad, but at the same time... No downtime whatsoever while waiting for things to render!

Office machine; If you work with Office:Mac and OSX programs, this machine would do the trick.

FCS2 machine; Need I say more? Although FCS2 for this G5 may be a bit of a budget overkill, I'd go with FCE.

Testbed Machine; Need to know what you can and can't install for OSX or other PPC OS? In that case, find out! Make multiple partitions and expiriment at leisure - just remember to keep nothing critical on it. ((Many a windows machine has fallen victem to curiosity ))

DAW (Digital Audio workstation); I do not know how it would fare, but it could potentially do this.

Photoshop machine; Like it says, dedicate it to photoshop and/or the other Fine Arts.

Pretty much anything you can imagine a computer doing, just a factor lower in sheer computing power then computers today. Its a good machine, but at the same time it can only go so far.

If the University ever puts the Death Knell on it, may I ask when do they put out the trash for collection? ((My uni literally threw away a bunch of eMacs - people were scrambling to get them before collection))

It's hard to say what you should do. On one hand I hate having a perfectly good computer sitting around collecting dust, but on the other hand there is no reason to be wasting energy with a machine that is "On" but not doing anything.

I would maybe give it another 6 months of it sitting around and see if something comes up where it could be useful. If not, perhaps it might be better being sold. It's a perfectly capable machine.