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eclipse

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 18, 2005
986
13
Sydney
Hi all,
I'm stuck on my wife's (hand me down) G5, a dual 2Gig G5 chips running 10.5.8.

It's reached end-of-life with support for much of the software I use, and is getting a little clunky and unreliable. (Taking sometimes 5 to 10 goes to switch it on, black screen of death, fan spinning up like it's trying to take off, and all that scary caper).

So if I was to buy a new iMac, would the iMac chip actually be significantly more powerful or faster than the dual 2 Gig G5's?

Also, what's the best way to migrate from old 10.5.8 to Mountain Lion? Should I time machine across? And what apps / software are significantly different? Should I keep the old iLife for family movies, or is the new one good? Thanks all!
 

Puevlo

macrumors 6502a
Oct 21, 2011
633
1
You'll get a different opinion depending on the review that you read, but most agree that the new iMac will be somewhat faster than your G5. They are about 2.5 GHz now.
 

eclipse

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 18, 2005
986
13
Sydney
You'll get a different opinion depending on the review that you read, but most agree that the new iMac will be somewhat faster than your G5. They are about 2.5 GHz now.

Excellent. Yeah, I just saw that there are quad-core 3.1ghz chips now, and the chips are probably a lot better. But I'm wondering about the whole install thing if I do go ahead? Can I time machine just my files and software across, but not the system itself? How would I go about this?
 

GimmeSlack12

macrumors 603
Apr 29, 2005
5,403
12
San Francisco
...most agree that the new iMac will be somewhat faster than your G5

Boy is that an understatement! Somewhat faster??? A new iMac versus an old G5 DP will be like night and day! It will be absolutely, hands down, significantly faster than the G5. No question.

Best way to migrate is using the migrate assistant software built into OS X using firewire.
 

eclipse

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 18, 2005
986
13
Sydney
Boy is that an understatement! Somewhat faster??? A new iMac versus an old G5 DP will be like night and day! It will be absolutely, hands down, significantly faster than the G5. No question.

Best way to migrate is using the migrate assistant software built into OS X using firewire.

OK, so just connect up the 2 machines, and tick the relevant boxes? Is there a Migration Assistant option to not migrate across the old Leopard OSX? All my stuff would just migrate across into Mountain Lion (except maybe software I've bought for the G5, like Scrivener. I think I'll have to download the more compatible version).

What about my G5 Leopard iMovies? Will they just plug straight into the new iLife?
 

comatory

macrumors 6502a
Apr 10, 2012
738
0
Dont worry you can select to transfer user data only,it will act like new system with your files in place.
 

eclipse

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 18, 2005
986
13
Sydney
Dont worry you can select to transfer user data only,it will act like new system with your files in place.

Excellent!

And another thing... but I'm not sure if this needs a new thread. What 'maintenance' should I do? My boy's PC (yuk!) probably needs a backed up D:drive startup disc complete clean-sweep of his computer (reinstalling the OS and everything from scratch) every 3 to 6 months. Should I be doing this with my macs now that mac is becoming more popular? Or is time machine good enough a backup that I can just not worry, and go about my business until something might go wrong?
 

comatory

macrumors 6502a
Apr 10, 2012
738
0
Excellent!

And another thing... but I'm not sure if this needs a new thread. What 'maintenance' should I do? My boy's PC (yuk!) probably needs a backed up D:drive startup disc complete clean-sweep of his computer (reinstalling the OS and everything from scratch) every 3 to 6 months. Should I be doing this with my macs now that mac is becoming more popular? Or is time machine good enough a backup that I can just not worry, and go about my business until something might go wrong?

You definitely dont need to do clean install of your Mac regularly, its actually the last thing to do when troubleshooting the mac.

However I'd think about having another backup on another physical disc, Carbon Copy Cloner or Superduper are great applications that work flawlessly just as time machine.
Or if you dont mind paying/dont want clutter on the desk/dont have ISP capping you, you might consider offsite backup such as Crashplan+
 

MarkC426

macrumors 68040
May 14, 2008
3,514
1,962
UK
Personally I wouldn't transfer Applications across from PowerPC to Intel (although most will probably work ok if Universal), I would install applications fresh to the new machine to avoid any problems.
Get an external drive and Superduper or Carbon Copy Clone to do a full clone of your Mac every now and then (as noted in thread above).
 

CrickettGrrrl

macrumors 6502a
Feb 10, 2012
985
274
B'more or Less
Also consider adding non-Apple RAM, you can add 2x 4GB sticks for a total 12GB very inexpensively (or go for 16GB), it will make your iMac fly.

I used Migration Assistant with FW and my Time Machine backups to transfer apps and data from a G5 iMac running Leopard to a 2011 iMac running Snow Leopard, then later deleted a few older apps I'd chosen to migrate over. No sweat, no problems, everything went smoothly and quickly. I have Mountain Lion on another partition though and have only added compatible apps selectively.

You can check which of your apps are Power PC only by clicking on About my Mac.
 

GimmeSlack12

macrumors 603
Apr 29, 2005
5,403
12
San Francisco
Personally I wouldn't transfer Applications across from PowerPC to Intel

Yeah I tend to agree with this. Just transfer your files and maybe preferences. After that, the OP will want to just start crafting a new System on the new iMac.

Man... you have no idea the difference your upgrade will be. I highly recommend getting an SSD in the iMac and using a high capacity external for large photo/music libraries. SSD's are so awesome.
 
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