PowerMac G5 Switch from PC

The G5 will have to have an older OS, such as 10.5 Leopard. If you don't own that already or if it doesn't come with an OS, it may be a pain to get.

If you want to surf the net...the G5 would probably be a great option...as it is a PPC, it won't get any Intel viruses...but the selection of browsers that work with a PPC running 10.5 is getting thin.

If you want to keep gaming, I would keep the gaming PC you built. BTW, how much are you allocating for the purchase of the G5?

1055TFORLIFE said:

Well, I'm very new to this forum but I know alot about computers. I have recently build a gaming pc that Ive been mainly using for browsing the net instead of gaming. So I decided to switch to a mac. In my opinion most new Macs are very overpriced and I dont need anything they offer in terms of performance. So I've narrowed it down to getting a G5 and selling my gamer. The one that Im looking at is this http://support.apple.com/kb/sp96 specifically the M9032LL/A, I'm planning to upgrade the Hard drives to an ssd and a 1tb WD Black Caviar, the ram to 4gb and adding some fans for airflow. But not knowing how I proceed on that since I know 0 things about soft ware or even what hard ware to get(in terms for mac, since Ive been working on pcs for quite a while). I think a new copy of OSX will be needed, but being so noob at this I dont know anything at all.

Thank you

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If you are not use to working within the limitations of a machine then you might pass on the PowerPC Macs and look more toward the Intel Macs.

The difference is the processor. There was a switch from Motorola/IBM to Intel in 2006. That also meant a switch in coding, both for apps and the OS. No PowerPC Mac can run better than OSX 10.5.8 Leopard, which is 2008 vintage. App support is getting scarce for 10.5 and 10.4, let alone anything earlier.

Coming from a PC background myself I can understand your interest in modding the G5 with fans and such, but understand that when Apple designs these machines everything is essentially customized to that model. Introducing new fans (if you can even find the space) may imbalance things. The G5s actually do very well with the fans they have. My work G5 has been on 24/7 since early 2005 and I only hear the fans when I start up in a specific way (your supposed to hear then when you do that).

But, if you do enjoy trying to wring the best performance out of a machine than the PowerPC Macs may be for you. All of us here are here because that's what we are trying to do. Get the best out of great machines that we can.

That might not the best Power Mac to get- in fact, it was the least reliable Power Mac G5 made. You can look at other models here.

As for the power it offers, it will be significantly slower than your gaming PC. Though the clock speed might be similar, a lot has happened in the 9 years since those models came out. For most Power Macs, you should run Leopard. It will be pretty good at web browsing. I personally would recommend Leopard Webkit for browsing, but you have many choices.

1055TFORLIFE said:

The guy wants $80 plus the shipping, all I want is something to watch Youtube, facebook, etc. I do not want any gaming at all, I just need a simple browser

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With the PowerPC Macs this often tends to be a workaround. Either a specific app for the job (Mactubes, Fluid) or using outdated plugins. The latest version of Flash for PowerPC is 10.x something. There's a hack to fool websites into thinking you are using Flash 11, but it's still the same earlier version.

As much as I like OSX. That would be a horrible decision. Selling a modern PC with a modern OS guaranteed at least 10 years of support plus being able to run current software (I'm not saying anything is wrong with old software) would be a big mistake. It's going to be a dead end at some point. Windows is now very secure thanks to Windows 7 and Windows 8. Don't do anything questionable and download files from a known source (which you should do with any OS) and you'll be just fine. I've been using Windows for years and have yet to download a Virus.

If the PowerMac is only $80 why bother selling a $1500 PC to buy it? I doubt you'd even get that much for it anyway. Sounds like someone needs to settle down and think things through.

If its between the G5 and new PC, keep the new PC. Or trade for a newer intel Mac.

You should really consider a used Mac Pro. You'd be much happier with it.

Jessica Lares said:

You should really consider a used Mac Pro. You'd be much happier with it.

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Or a Mac Mini, even the early Intel models are faster than a G5, but a bit RAM limited.

While $80 seems a steal for such a machine, you need to understand what you'd be getting yourself into with PPC Macs. If you are willing to put the extra effort in to find workarounds to get things working then by all means go ahead - but PPC is completely unsupported and as such, requires a lot of patience in order to get it set up doing the things you want.

If you want to try out OSX then buy an early Intel Mac, such as a Mini. They can be had for reasonably cheap and will be a lot less hassle than a PPC-based one. Just don't sell your gaming rig until you're sure that OSX is right for you. While not discussed on here, read up on the OSx86 project to see if building a Mac might be up your street. Again, don't underestimate how much of a task this will be!

My opinion: if you aren't *really* *really* into Macs, then getting an old G5 is not a good decision.

At this stage, getting it to surf the web, with all the work-arounds needed, will be a real chore. To us old-timers who are used to it, it is a labor of love that we even get sick of at times.

If you didn't have Macs before, and didn't lust after a G5 (but couldn't afford it at the time)...this will be one giant pain in the a$$.

And as others mentioned, reliability with some of these G5's will be a problem. I thought they were all liquid-cooled, or am I mistaken?

Here's a thought...why not get something cheap and put Linux on it, and fool around with that? That should be perfect for surfing the web, and you would even learn something that would be useful with modern computers...

I should point out that I'm using the last supported official Safari on my G5. It isn't liquid cooled, and it's one of the original models (single 1.8 M9031LL/A). Safari doesn't really lag all that much (maybe just a millisecond second longer than my 2011 MacBook Pro), but start trying to open a lot of Windows and you do start to have issues. It'll also freak out on some of the HTML benchmarks testing that you can find.

And while I find it pretty smooth, a lot of it has to do with the fact that it was a school machine and taken very good care of and not someone's home machine. Very clean, very new from the inside out, and barely used except for Photoshop.

This msg is for the OP who posted the original question. My G5 Quad, the last and most powerful of the PowerPC Macs can handle pretty much anything out there and I use it for internet, email, playing 1980s games, etc... send me a private message and I can get you up and running with a setup like I have.

By transitioning to PPC you give up software support and performance, Dual and Quad G5's will of course be OK for basic web surfing. Still it is hard to understand why sell your setup and get into trouble, it is worth noting that G5's are not the most reliable machines and because they many times use nonstandard PC parts it is hard to find replacement, for power supply for example. Graphics card use different type of bios so you cannot just swap a card in even though it would use correct type of connector (AGP or PCI-E). Hard disk, RAM and optical drives are standard parts thank God.

blesscheese said:

My opinion: if you aren't *really* *really* into Macs, then getting an old G5 is not a good decision.

At this stage, getting it to surf the web, with all the work-arounds needed, will be a real chore. To us old-timers who are used to it, it is a labor of love that we even get sick of at times.

If you didn't have Macs before, and didn't lust after a G5 (but couldn't afford it at the time)...this will be one giant pain in the a$$.

And as others mentioned, reliability with some of these G5's will be a problem. I thought they were all liquid-cooled, or am I mistaken?

Here's a thought...why not get something cheap and put Linux on it, and fool around with that? That should be perfect for surfing the web, and you would even learn something that would be useful with modern computers...

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Well put. These rigs are absolutely a labor of love for many of us. For some, Macs were our first computers, and we've stuck with them because we love their design, durability, and staying power. The software I use meets all my needs, but then, I'm used to using software that I've learned can do a good job even though it doesn't have the power and features that current applications have. And I've learned that I don't need many of the features of current software. But this is only because I've been working with Macs forever and have learned to use helpful resources such as these forums to get my Macs where I need them to be.

If you truly want to jump into using PowerPC Macs, and if you can afford it, go ahead and get a G5, but also go ahead and get one of those cheap Wintel laptops as a Plan B, in the event that working with your new Mac is too much for you.

It truly isn't as bad as some people may suggest, but it does involve some work and some research. And if you don't catch the bug to baby your new Mac, you're likely going to be dissatisfied with your purchase.

Finally, and as I've posted before, I love my iBook, and it does everything I need it to do (Web surfing, word processing, video playback, video conversion, music). I've made upgrades and tweaked the software to get it that way and, in turn, this has made it even more valuable to me. But there are times I want to toss it against the wall and stomp it to death as if it were a cheap Dell laptop. And it's certain that I'll be very unhappy when it can no longer keep up. With that, I'll never part with it if only because it's become an important part of my personal history. That, and it's a beautiful machine.

If you're ready to dive in with a great deal of enthusiasm, then please do. If you just want to see how a PowerPC Mac works, are willing to make the necessary upgrades and are okay with some limitations in certain tasks, then you're in for a very nice ride.

I now use a DC 2.3GHZ G5 with 8GB DDR2 Ram, a 320GB and a 500Gb hard drive, a geforece 6600 256MB graphics card and OSX 10.5.8. I own a small business developing websites for other small businesses using it and Adobe CS4. I used to use a DP 1.8 G5 with 3GB Ram but since my mother's nearly 10 year old computer has died I bought a new(er) one and am giving her my DP 1.8. While I agree that OSX Leopard is "outdated" (by Apple's standards) my machine is still as productive as any windows machine.

It depends all on what purpose the computer serves. From what you are stating OP a Powermac G5 will do just fine. For example, I can develop websites, play older games that I love (Doom 3, Warcraft 3, Dungeon Siege, Halo, Civilization, UT 2004, NES Emulation), surf the web including watching Youtube videos in 720P (hint: look for Youtube5 Safari extension), stay connected to family and friends via FB and, when my father-in-law needs, edit videos. There is nothing my machine can't do that a new iMac can do. Sure it's not as fast, but for me, it suits my needs just fine.

I look at it this way: if my machine blows up it's ~$150 to replace thanks to Ebay. If a new iMac blows up it's ~$1200 to replace.

Don't listen to the "Intel Only naysayers" unless you are a die-hard "I've got to have the latest versions of software" user.

heartsglory said:

Don't listen to the "Intel Only naysayers" unless you are a die-hard "I've got to have the latest versions of software" user.

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It's really hard to argue that it makes any sense for someone new to Macs to start at a dead end.

heartsglory said:

Don't listen to the "Intel Only naysayers" unless you are a die-hard "I've got to have the latest versions of software" user.

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If by 'latest versions of software' you mean 'Firefox hasn't been available on PowerPC Mac since version 3'

Buy an Intel Mini and put an SSD in it.

chrfr said:

It's really hard to argue that it makes any sense for someone new to Macs to start at a dead end.

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My mother can't afford an intel Mac since her and my dad divorced. This is her only option. Maybe the OP can't afford a new intel mac. I can't afford an intel Mac because of the economy and my wife's medical bills.

There's plenty of arguments FOR someone new to macs to get a PowerPC Mac.

heartsglory said:

My mother can't afford an intel Mac since her and my dad divorced. This is her only option. Maybe the OP can't afford a new intel mac. I can't afford an intel Mac because of the economy and my wife's medical bills.

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But for the OP, this isn't the case. He has a modern PC and is looking to sell it to buy an 8 year old obsolete Mac. It makes no sense.

The better perspective of this would be that the op hasn't owned a Mac before and he would like to try it out so instead of dropping 1200 or more on a new Intel Mac he can get the g5 and give it a try.

Find an intel pc. Your better off with that than a powerpc mac. Apple completely killed powerpc and theres like no modern browsers left either.

boneskid1 said:

The better perspective of this would be that the op hasn't owned a Mac before and he would like to try it out so instead of dropping 1200 or more on a new Intel Mac he can get the g5 and give it a try.

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New minis start at $600. Used ones are even less.