You can also get a fully decked out Raspberry Pi for $120!
Now, if I had spare time on my hands, that's the thing I would get to waste it all!
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PowerMac G5 Switch from PC
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You can also get a fully decked out Raspberry Pi for $120!
Now, if I had spare time on my hands, that's the thing I would get to waste it all!
-did someone offer you $1500 for your gaming pc...or are you thinking that's what you can get?
-coming from a modern pc to a G5 might not be best idea (last version of osx support is leopard,flash is no longer updated,overall speed ect)
-let assume you get $1500 for your pc (unless have offer,except a lot less) lets also assume you don't want to spend a ton of money...then as you already have a monitor,mouse,keyboard (even though not apple) a perfect choice would be basic new mac mini at $599
-the mini will do everything you throw at it,except high end gaming...but if you leave game setting at lower end it can preform quit well...you will get latest osx mountain lion,access to all the modern browsers,flash ect ect that the G5 will fall on it's face with.
Now if you just want G5 for the computer fun of it (who doesn't love a good old ppc) and understand the major limitations...then happy buying!
-coming from a modern pc to a G5 might not be best idea (last version of osx support is leopard,flash is no longer updated,overall speed ect)
-let assume you get $1500 for your pc (unless have offer,except a lot less) lets also assume you don't want to spend a ton of money...then as you already have a monitor,mouse,keyboard (even though not apple) a perfect choice would be basic new mac mini at $599
-the mini will do everything you throw at it,except high end gaming...but if you leave game setting at lower end it can preform quit well...you will get latest osx mountain lion,access to all the modern browsers,flash ect ect that the G5 will fall on it's face with.
Now if you just want G5 for the computer fun of it (who doesn't love a good old ppc) and understand the major limitations...then happy buying!
If you are new to Mac and you are not willing to go 'whole hog' on a new machine, then a powerPC in the $100 range will give you good exposure to osx and the Mac way of doing things. Just remember the machine you are getting is quite old, and as far as new stuff is concerned, you will run into issues.
With a g5, you will be able to surf, iTunes, photochop, productivity programs and play a bunch of 2000 - 2005 games. I got through my first degree with an iBook, so they are still useful machines.
With a g5, you will be able to surf, iTunes, photochop, productivity programs and play a bunch of 2000 - 2005 games. I got through my first degree with an iBook, so they are still useful machines.
What he said about Flash.
That's about all you have to worry about. Especially for sites.
You could use it to browse websites using Safari 5.0.6, with the Flash for probably around 4-5 years from now. Then you might get some issues with new technologies that would make your browser slow or where you couldn't view stuff reliable or banking sites etc. but other than that, Put a good Office version on it and a Creative Suite 3, and you're good to go easy. It's slow tho, but if you get like 2.3 dual core and put 16 GB a ram ... it'll browse for 5 years...
EOL
I don't watch a lot of youtube myself, but my daughter watches music videos on it all the time. She does it on a G5 dual 2gh I have connected to the tv by vga. It handles it fine with no lag and no frame stuttering. What it may do in the future, who knows, but for now it works fine. I use to watch tv shows off the web as I gave up cable about 5 years ago. Once again, no problems so far.
That's the thing: if you are willing to understand the limitations of a "no official support" architecture then by all means go with a powermac g5. I have and I plan on using it for a few years before I finally make the switch to an intel Imac. I made the choice out of affordability as do most people. Once I can get my wife's medical bills paid off and some credit card debt then I will be able to afford a new intel iMac (or at least a really nice used one).
I just know that one should not count out the Powermac G5 machines - at least just yet.
I just know that one should not count out the Powermac G5 machines - at least just yet.
I love my G5 Powermac and all, but I paid about $100 for an Intel Mac Mini on ebay a couple months ago. It's a core solo, but it meets my needs as a media and backup server. If I were you, I'd try and get one of those.
The G5 has problems... even though its performance is great, you'll likely see it failing fairly quickly. Performance on Leopard is nice, especially with a graphics card upgrade, and as long as you stay away from Flash, you probably won't have many issues with speed.... You'll have to settle for older versions of programs, PowerPC support isn't common with most apps.
The G5 is a nice machine, as long as you know its limitations.
People are already finding ways to undo a lot of the measures added in Windows 7 and Windows 8 to increase the security... and limiting yourself to trusted websites isn't always an option for some people.
Even with some of the security features in Win7/8, it's still not as secure as Unix/Linux.
The G5 is a nice machine, as long as you know its limitations.
People are already finding ways to undo a lot of the measures added in Windows 7 and Windows 8 to increase the security... and limiting yourself to trusted websites isn't always an option for some people.
Even with some of the security features in Win7/8, it's still not as secure as Unix/Linux.
Shipping that hunk of machine will add a lot to the price. $80 is average. You can find the late 2005 models around $150 easily enough.
$80 isn't really a steal of the earliest ones, especially once you add shipping. I had a G5 a long time ago. I had an NEC display from that era too. Today either would be basically worthless. There's no way of knowing the exact condition of its internals, and repairs are expensive. As I mentioned shipping can tack on a lot due to its weight.
My boss must have gotten very, very incredibly lucky.
My work Mac is a 1.8Ghz G5 (single processor) with 4GB ram. It's been on continuously since he bought it in February 2005 and the only thing on it that's ever failed was a ram stick in the first year. It gets left running 24/7 (even on weekends and holidays) with sleep disabled and processor at full and I have never had a hardware issue with it.
My work Mac is a 1.8Ghz G5 (single processor) with 4GB ram. It's been on continuously since he bought it in February 2005 and the only thing on it that's ever failed was a ram stick in the first year. It gets left running 24/7 (even on weekends and holidays) with sleep disabled and processor at full and I have never had a hardware issue with it.
All the G5s that I have purchased or worked with survived a university for years. I don't know what they are used for, but I believe some were used for Music/Audio production, probably others for computationally intensive tasks (talked to someone who is a post-doc there, he is running an Octo Mac Pro for astronomy, so they do some heavy stuff). They all run fine, no issues whatsoever.
I meant that there will probably be issues with it -- especially if it has an LCS.
I don't think that it is probably going to break down- it might, and it has a higher likelihood of breakage than other Macs, but it isn't likely that it will break.
His is not an LCS model.
Going from a gaming PC to a mere PowerMac G5 is a HUGE downgrade. I myself tried to get into using a G5 at the time when a 2010 Mac mini was my primary machine, but couldn't handle the lack of software or overall sluggishness. I couldn't even imagine using a G5 over my gaming machine... It'd be miserable.
If you're seriously into OSX, buy a Mac mini. If you just want to try OSX, go to a store that has Macs and play with it. Don't get rid of a solid machine to for OSX. Totally not worth it.
If you're seriously into OSX, buy a Mac mini. If you just want to try OSX, go to a store that has Macs and play with it. Don't get rid of a solid machine to for OSX. Totally not worth it.
You are going to want mac osx 10.5 anything 10.6 will not work, also I would put in 8 gigs of ram. It is not a good idea to mod the fans.
Oh and it will be incredibly fast.
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I guess it depends on where you live - $80 here (in the UK) seems a pretty decent price - elsewhere, perhaps not. I had forgotten potentially how far a package might need to travel in the US!
I'm in Los Angeles, so it's a huge Apple market. This is the earliest dual 2.0 from 2003. Add shipping for something that weighs a ton, and it may not look so appealing. Also yeah UK pricing is probably a bit higher. Apple pricing + VAT in the UK is definitely higher than retail + sales tax here.
Very interesting conversation,,,,,I have some insights.
I currently have 3 G5s and am using them for basically what you want to use them for. i.e. Internet access, email etc. etc. etc.
Here are some of the problems you will have to overcome if you want to proceed.
If you buy the unit, make sure your monitor has HDMI or the guy includes the VGA to HDMI converter.
FLASH is probably the biggest problem. i.e. its not up to day. And getting the last supported version to load can be a pain.
OS X 10.5.8 for PPC is the highest OS you can load, which is not an issue if you have the disks.
iTunes - if you use iTunes this can be a big issue. I do not, but it creates another issue. Finding an PPC OS X 10.5.8 Music Player that works.
Safari is down level but it works fine. There are several other browsers that still work and do a great job, big issue is the Adobe Flash issue crops up all the time, especially when accessing YouTube.
Office type apps like NeoOffice and OpenOffice still have builds so this is not an issue.
Probably my biggest issue is the dropped support for the Hardware Platform and the OS by Apple. I am not an APPLEBOY, I use Windows machines in my network at home, and frankly love them. I got the 3 G5s for free, they are all dual CPU G5 processors and each have 8 gig of memory and 300 gig harddrives. And when I had the chance to obtain them for free, I could not resist. And what you will get from most Apple Lovers is YOU HAVE TO UPGRADE to a Pentium Apple machine. (sorry, not for me).
The hardware is beautiful, thats why they cost a fortune when they were new.
For a learning machine, its great, it does the job, and the issues I have mentioned above will allow a non Mac Person to learn the QUIRKS of a MAC.
Mind you Macs are not the end all be all of home computers, they do fail, and when they fail they usually fail in a manner that you as a novice user of the Mac will spend hours trying to resolve (probably by searching the internet for answers using your Windows PC). The First Mac I got was a G4, it was running Mac OS9, and within 10 minutes I got the Mac Equivalent of a blue screen of death, the gray screen with either the Sad Mac face, basically telling you your MAC thinks its a toaster.
I would keep your gaming machine for just that a gaming machine, and network your G5 with it. Ahhhhh Networking a mac with a PC,,,,thats another novel in itself.
Robert
I currently have 3 G5s and am using them for basically what you want to use them for. i.e. Internet access, email etc. etc. etc.
Here are some of the problems you will have to overcome if you want to proceed.
If you buy the unit, make sure your monitor has HDMI or the guy includes the VGA to HDMI converter.
FLASH is probably the biggest problem. i.e. its not up to day. And getting the last supported version to load can be a pain.
OS X 10.5.8 for PPC is the highest OS you can load, which is not an issue if you have the disks.
iTunes - if you use iTunes this can be a big issue. I do not, but it creates another issue. Finding an PPC OS X 10.5.8 Music Player that works.
Safari is down level but it works fine. There are several other browsers that still work and do a great job, big issue is the Adobe Flash issue crops up all the time, especially when accessing YouTube.
Office type apps like NeoOffice and OpenOffice still have builds so this is not an issue.
Probably my biggest issue is the dropped support for the Hardware Platform and the OS by Apple. I am not an APPLEBOY, I use Windows machines in my network at home, and frankly love them. I got the 3 G5s for free, they are all dual CPU G5 processors and each have 8 gig of memory and 300 gig harddrives. And when I had the chance to obtain them for free, I could not resist. And what you will get from most Apple Lovers is YOU HAVE TO UPGRADE to a Pentium Apple machine. (sorry, not for me).
The hardware is beautiful, thats why they cost a fortune when they were new.
For a learning machine, its great, it does the job, and the issues I have mentioned above will allow a non Mac Person to learn the QUIRKS of a MAC.
Mind you Macs are not the end all be all of home computers, they do fail, and when they fail they usually fail in a manner that you as a novice user of the Mac will spend hours trying to resolve (probably by searching the internet for answers using your Windows PC). The First Mac I got was a G4, it was running Mac OS9, and within 10 minutes I got the Mac Equivalent of a blue screen of death, the gray screen with either the Sad Mac face, basically telling you your MAC thinks its a toaster.
I would keep your gaming machine for just that a gaming machine, and network your G5 with it. Ahhhhh Networking a mac with a PC,,,,thats another novel in itself.
Robert
OP hasn't returned since the first hour of this thread, so I doubt he/she is reading any of this.