Trade iMac G5 for PowerMac G5?

[MacRazySwe]

Hi guys,

Was offered to trade my old 17" iMac G5 1.6GHz which is out for sale, with the following specs for a PowerMac G5.

-1.6GHz
-1GB RAM
-64MB VRAM
-Bluetooth
-80GB HD

For this PowerMac G5

-2x2GHz
-1.5GB RAM
-128MB VRAM
-160GB + 80GB HD
-24 inch Benq display

Would you guys do it? I'm a bit worried about the water-cooling in the PowerMac. It's an old computer, and from what I've heard, the water-cooling system needs servicing and often breaks down. I believe the PowerMac is a much better computer, plus I get a 24" screen which I will be able to use with my MacBook Pro. In worst case scenario, I can always sell the PowerMac. I've seen them sell for around 3000 SEK, which is equivalent to 400-450 dollars. This is twice, if not more, of what the iMac G5 seems to be going for.

I already have an iMac 21.5" and a MacBook Pro (2007 model). Initially I planned on selling the iMac G5 (which the new iMac replaced a few months ago) in order to get some spare cash for a new MacBook Air. However I figured it could be nice to have a stationary computer at my dads place though, rather than just the MBP.
It seems that I won't be getting a lot of money for my own iMac G5 either way, so I figured I could just as well trade it for something fun. What I don't want however, is a lot of issues and technical problems. Moreover I do not want to ruin my floor from a leaking water-cooler.

What would you guys do?

[Intell]

That PowerMac G5 is air cooled and much faster than any G5 iMac.

[gryffinwings]

Originally Posted by MacRazySwe

Hi guys,

Was offered to trade my old 17" iMac G5 1.6GHz which is out for sale, with the following specs for a PowerMac G5.

-1.6GHz
-1GB RAM
-64MB VRAM
-Bluetooth

For this PowerMac G5

-2x2GHz
-1.5GB RAM
-128MB Ram
-24 inch Benq display

Would you guys do it? I'm a bit worried about the water-cooling in the PowerMac. It's an old computer, and from what I've heard, the water-cooling system needs servicing and often breaks down. I believe the PowerMac is a much better computer, plus I get a 24" screen which I will be able to use with my MacBook Pro. In worst case scenario, I can always sell the PowerMac. I've seen them sell for around 3000 SEK, which is equivalent to 400-450 dollars. This is twice, if not more, of what the iMac G5 seems to be going for.

I already have an iMac 21.5" and a MacBook Pro (2007 model). Initially I planned on selling the iMac G5 (which the new iMac replaced a few months ago) in order to get some spare cash for a new MacBook Air. However I figured it could be nice to have a stationary computer at my dads place though, rather than just the MBP.
It seems that I won't be getting a lot of money for my own iMac G5 either way, so I figured I could just as well trade it for something fun. What I don't want however, is a lot of issues and technical problems. Moreover I do not want to ruin my floor from a leaking water-cooler.

What would you guys do?

1. Not all G5s came with water cooling, and as far as I know, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, the only ones that came with water cooling were the Quad G5s.

2. The one your looking at, looks like a Dual Processor 2GHz model, which in this case has air cooling only, which will not have the problems you mentioned.

3. In the specifications that you listed, you listed ram twice for the G5, I'll assume that it comes with 1.5 GBs of RAM and a 128 GB Hard Drive.

[MacRazySwe]

Originally Posted by gryffinwings

1. Not all G5s came with water cooling, and as far as I know, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, the only ones that came with water cooling were the Quad G5s.

2. The one your looking at, looks like a Dual Processor 2GHz model, which in this case has air cooling only, which will not have the problems you mentioned.

3. In the specifications that you listed, you listed ram twice for the G5, I'll assume that it comes with 1.5 GBs of RAM and a 128 GB Hard Drive.

So no water-cooling. That's great! What about the fan-noise? Are they loud? My iMac G5 sounds like a jet-plane. Dual G5's should be even worse, right?

Ooops, I'm a bit tired. Well the 128MB was the VRAM. The PowerMac has two HD's, one 160GB and one additional 80GB HD. I edited the first post.

[Intell]

Originally Posted by gryffinwings

1. Not all G5s came with water cooling, and as far as I know, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, the only ones that came with water cooling were the Quad G5s.

The 2.5 dual, 2.5 quad, and 2.7 dual all came with liquid cooling.

Originally Posted by MacRazySwe

So no water-cooling. That's great! What about the fan-noise? Are they loud? My iMac G5 sounds like a jet-plane. Dual G5's should be even worse, right?

I have a dual 2.0. Its fans do rev up a bit when under load, but when idling, it's fairly quite. Much quieter than a Dell box of the same age. I think the PM G5's tend to be quieter overall then the iMac G5's, but they can get much louder if they are having cooling problems.

[MacRazySwe]

I think I'll go for it. In case I don't like it I can always keep the screen and sell the PowerMac for some profit.

[tayloralmond]

Originally Posted by MacRazySwe

I think I'll go for it. In case I don't like it I can always keep the screen and sell the PowerMac for some profit.

Best of luck. I'm sure you'll notice the performance leap. That PowerMac is twice as fast as your iMac and is much easier to upgrade in comparison. Not to mention the fact that the PowerMac can hold 8GB of RAM compared to the iMac's 2GB. It's definitely a good idea.

[gryffinwings]

Originally Posted by MacRazySwe

I think I'll go for it. In case I don't like it I can always keep the screen and sell the PowerMac for some profit.

Just make sure you have OSX 10.5 for maximum usability.

[tayloralmond]

Originally Posted by gryffinwings

Just make sure you have OSX 10.5 for maximum usability.

Also, make sure to look up how to optimize Leopard by doing things like disabling spotlight, dashboard (I didn't do this because I like dashboard, but some people disable it), changing the dock to 2D, changing the minimize effect to "scale," etc. If you optimize it, it'll really scream compared to that iMac.

[DrakkenWar]

Being the past owner of a dual 1.8 with 4gigs of ram at the time, you really do not need to disable anything to see a HUGE performance difference between the iMac and the G5.

The fan noise does take a bit of getting used to though . I like the description of "under load" it gets a bit loud. There were times my G5 would drowned out my AS/400 I had beside it under the desk when I still had to know AIX for work reasons!

They are great machines, so much easier to upgrade, with expansion out the wazoo! Go for it! You will not be disappointed. Just make sure you have enough space to shove the beast into, they are rather larger beasties.

Best of luck, let us know what you think when you get everything sorted.

~Drake

[VanneDC]

Is it a agp pm or a pcie pm?? 8gb is only for the pcie powermacs.

[Nameci]

16GB for pcie powermac G5, 8GB for AGP.

[VanneDC]

I stand corrected, thx namci, I though some agp pm has 4gb as their limit?

[gryffinwings]

This is likely at AGP G5, which there are some good options available for. Like the a Flashed 7800gs, Mac OE 6800 Ultra DDL, Flashed 6800GT, or ATI FireGL X3, or ATI X800 XT will all make good upgrades for video cards for the G5. As stated, 8 GBs of RAM for the AGP models, I've heard that most anybody needs is 4 GBs. I myself am running 2 GBs and am fine with it for now.

As for the fans, mine came clean, no dust that I can really see, and my fans don't ever come on that much, they do occasionally rev up and it is a little loud, but for me it's not bad and it'd doesn't happen very often.

[Nameci]

Originally Posted by VanneDC

I stand corrected, thx namci, I though some agp pm has 4gb as their limit?

I guess the single processor were limited to 4GB... the duals were 8GB, the dual cores were 16GB...

----------

Originally Posted by gryffinwings

This is likely at AGP G5, which there are some good options available for. Like the a Flashed 7800gs, Mac OE 6800 Ultra DDL, Flashed 6800GT, or ATI FireGL X3, or ATI X800 XT will all make good upgrades for video cards for the G5. As stated, 8 GBs of RAM for the AGP models, I've heard that most anybody needs is 4 GBs. I myself am running 2 GBs and am fine with it for now.

As for the fans, mine came clean, no dust that I can really see, and my fans don't ever come on that much, they do occasionally rev up and it is a little loud, but for me it's not bad and it'd doesn't happen very often.

Fan noise is very subjective... my dual core PM G5 is much much quieter than my PM G4 1.42DP FW800...

[Giuly]

I haven't done it on a G5, but AFAIR you can switch the fans with 80mm (or 92mm, or 120mm) silent ones. It might require some soldering to fit the connectors.

If they're overly noisy and you hesitate to solder a bit of cable, you can get sets that contain all fans for about $15-$20 on eBay.

[minifridge1138]

My 1X1.6 G5 is pretty quiet.
The clicking of the disk head is louder than the fans.

Let us know how it turns out and what you think.

[macdatadrive]

Originally Posted by gryffinwings

1. Not all G5s came with water cooling, and as far as I know, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, the only ones that came with water cooling were the Quad G5s.

2. The one your looking at, looks like a Dual Processor 2GHz model, which in this case has air cooling only, which will not have the problems you mentioned.

3. In the specifications that you listed, you listed ram twice for the G5, I'll assume that it comes with 1.5 GBs of RAM and a 128 GB Hard Drive.

VRAM is video ram.