Should i buy a PowerMac G5 dual 2.3 ghz or a low end 2006 Mac Pro

If you are fine with the limitations, get a G5. They are cheaper than Intel machines because of that.
If you want more freedom and are willing to spend a bit more, get an Intel Mac Pro.

G5s range from about $40-$120. See sold listings. 2006 Mac Pros range from about $230-$400. See sold listings.
Big difference.

Tip: Get a broken G5 and fix it. It's usually cheaper.
Listings

The G5 will be cheaper to buy and dearer to run.
The Intel will be dearer to buy and cheaper to run

Money up front now or later. What is more important to you?

poiihy said:

Tip: Get a broken G5 and fix it. It's usually cheaper.
Listings

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In general, I'd say that's horrible advice unless you REALLY know what you are doing.

G5s are superb when they work right, but can be nerve-racking when wrong.

I'll buy broken G4 towers all day, as I can almost always fix them or at least isolate the problem.

Once you move beyond the basics like upgrading hard drives, RAM, expansion cards and optical drives G5s are a nightmare to work on. Parts are hard to access, even harder to diagnose, and tough to find once you do.

I WILL NOT buy a G5 unless it will at least chime. I've bought G4s that were not much more than a shell. That's how much I think of working on them.

To answer the original question, though-

The first generation Mac Pros have their issues like difficult to find(and expensive) RAM, but in general are solid machines. The biggest advantage they have in today's world is software support. Although officially they aren't supported by the current version of OS X, there are plenty of guides to help you install.

You'll find that prices on the secondary market track pretty closely with the amount of RAM installed. If you are going to go the Mac Pro route, I'd suggest sourcing one with at least 4gb of RAM and preferably more. OWC sells the correct RAM for these, but it's fairly pricey and it's better to just get it already installed unless you get a really great deal on one.

bunnspecial said:

In general, I'd say that's horrible advice unless you REALLY know what you are doing.

G5s are superb when they work right, but can be nerve-racking when wrong.

I'll buy broken G4 towers all day, as I can almost always fix them or at least isolate the problem.

Once you move beyond the basics like upgrading hard drives, RAM, expansion cards and optical drives G5s are a nightmare to work on. Parts are hard to access, even harder to diagnose, and tough to find once you do.

I WILL NOT buy a G5 unless it will at least chime. I've bought G4s that were not much more than a shell. That's how much I think of working on them.

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Oh really? didnt know that, never had a G5.

bunnspecial said:

In general, I'd say that's horrible advice unless you REALLY know what you are doing.

G5s are superb when they work right, but can be nerve-racking when wrong.

I'll buy broken G4 towers all day, as I can almost always fix them or at least isolate the problem.

Once you move beyond the basics like upgrading hard drives, RAM, expansion cards and optical drives G5s are a nightmare to work on. Parts are hard to access, even harder to diagnose, and tough to find once you do.

I WILL NOT buy a G5 unless it will at least chime. I've bought G4s that were not much more than a shell. That's how much I think of working on them.

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I hear you.

Two years ago the G5 at work bought the farm. So my boss let me have it and replaced it with a Mac Pro.

Troubleshooting that G5 was a nightmare, but ultimately I decided just to swap out the entire logicboard, chip, heatsink and all. Found someone on eBay who had exactly that ($60 for logicboard, CPU and heatsink) so it was just simply swapping. That made my decision about what to swap out ridiculously easy.

Now, I don't know if it was the chip or the logicboard but the replacement has been absolutely fine. Someday, when I get that G5 back I'll see if I have either a spare logicboard or a spare CPU.

Getting that board out though was tough. There are PLENTY of manuals and online guides for dual G5s and the original 1.6Ghz single G5, but very, very little for single processor 1.8Ghz G5s. I finally found a service manual from some Apple shop in Australia that had it online.

On my G5, there is a plastic pin that keeps the shield over the processor and heatsink. I found it very interesting that the high tech device I was told to use was one of those screw-in ceiling hooks. Screw it in, pull it back out with the pin attached.

Not an instruction you're going to find on iFixit.

eyoungren said:

Two years ago the G5 at work bought the farm. So my boss let me have it and replaced it with a Mac Pro.

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What do you mean the G5 "bought the farm"?! How can a machine buy a farm? You mean it was used to buy a farm? So a human bought a farm using the G5. Right? But why did your boss give you the G5 after it was used to buy a farm?? Why would someone buy a farm online anyway? You can't ship a farm through the postal service. You have to go there. I would think it would be more logical to go to a realtor and see the farm and then buy the farm, than to order the farm online (how do you even do that?).

poiihy said:

What do you mean the G5 "bought the farm"?! How can a machine buy a farm? You mean it was used to buy a farm? So a human bought a farm using the G5. Right? But why did your boss give you the G5 after it was used to buy a farm?? Why would someone buy a farm online anyway? You can't ship a farm through the postal service. You have to go there. I would think it would be more logical to go to a realtor and see the farm and then buy the farm, than to order the farm online (how do you even do that?).

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He just means it broke

redheeler said:

He just means it broke

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^^^Exactly.

I walked in one Monday morning and my screens were off and the fans on the G5 were going full blast. I thought perhaps there'd been some sort of glitch/power interruption, etc, so I shut the Mac off and then pressed the button to turn it back on.

Chime. Black screen. Nothing. Shut it down and tried again and this time no chime but the fans came on full blast.

That was a newspaper production day so I cut my losses, went home and got my PowerBook. Used that to put out the paper for three weeks until we got the Mac Pro.

redheeler said:

He just means it broke

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Ok but I don't see how buying a farm relates to break.
Are farms notorious for failures?

poiihy said:

Ok but I don't see how buying a farm relates to break.
Are farms notorious for failures?

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A simple lookup of the phrase "bought the farm" will reveal that it is a euphemism.

Bought the farm.

Could have originated from a couple of things, but it's a recent (20th century) saying.

It either refers to the death benefits of airmen being enough to allow their widows and orphans to purchase a farm, or death as the result of an airman crashing into a farmer's field or barn (or house).

In either case it's simply a phrase meaning something died. In the context of this thread, a 1.8Ghz G5.

eyoungren said:

Bought the farm.

Could have originated from a couple of things, but it's a recent (20th century) saying.

It either refers to the death benefits of airmen being enough to allow their widows and orphans to purchase a farm, or death as the result of an airman crashing into a farmer's field or barn (or house).

In either case it's simply a phrase meaning something died. In the context of this thread, a 1.8Ghz G5.

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Ouch D:
Better not buy a farm then... or you'd die!

It depends what you're looking for.

If you're looking to use it for modern web browsing- flash, youtube, Facebook, eBay, etc, go with the Mac Pro hands down. A G5 is barely tolerable in these respects (in my opinion, which I'm sure I'll get backlash for). With the G5 you're limited to the OS, the version of iTunes, and therefore may have issues synching your iPhone (if you have one).

If you already have a main computer PPC is fun to tinker with.

If you can afford it though, I'd go with the the Mac Pro. You'll be much happier in the end if you're using it for everyday computing.

No matter which you choose, I would also recommend not disabling the ABS on your car.

A.Goldberg said:

No matter which you choose, I would also recommend not disabling the ABS on your car.

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What kind of an idiot would disable the ABS?!

poiihy said:

what do you mean the g5 "bought the farm"?! How can a machine buy a farm? You mean it was used to buy a farm? So a human bought a farm using the g5. Right? But why did your boss give you the g5 after it was used to buy a farm?? Why would someone buy a farm online anyway? You can't ship a farm through the postal service. You have to go there. I would think it would be more logical to go to a realtor and see the farm and then buy the farm, than to order the farm online (how do you even do that?).

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lmfao!!!!!!!!!!

poiihy said:

What kind of an idiot would disable the ABS?!

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Or the airbags.

what do you mean the g5 "bought the farm"?! How can a machine buy a farm? You mean it was used to buy a farm? So a human bought a farm using the g5. Right? But why did your boss give you the g5 after it was used to buy a farm?? Why would someone buy a farm online anyway? You can't ship a farm through the postal service. You have to go there. I would think it would be more logical to go to a realtor and see the farm and then buy the farm, than to order the farm online (how do you even do that?).

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I must admit I am new to this expression as well.

A.Goldberg said:

I must admit I am new to this expression as well.

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Same, but to see it be taken so literally made my day

A.Goldberg said:

Or the airbags.

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Wow some people actually disable the ABS and airbags?! That's like comitting suicide... in the future.

A.Goldberg said:

It depends what you're looking for.

If you're looking to use it for modern web browsing- flash, youtube, Facebook, eBay, etc, go with the Mac Pro hands down. A G5 is barely tolerable in these respects (in my opinion, which I'm sure I'll get backlash for).

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I was lucky enough to pick up my G5 2.3 DP for £30 - it has a battered case however - and there's nothing I need to do online it can't handle. All depends whether you can find one at a reasonable price and what software you want to run.

A 2006 Mac Pro is more expensive up front, but has a variety of options for upgrades unavailable to G5s, consumes less power, is generally quieter, and has better software support (getting up to 10.10 if you're willing to tinker.) It'll also be substantially faster, and it's easier to physically make upgrades and repairs.

So my suggestion is to go with the Mac Pro.

poiihy said:

Ok but I don't see how buying a farm relates to break.
Are farms notorious for failures?

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Just where have you been living, under a rock maybe.
You gotta get out more...

Dronecatcher said:

I was lucky enough to pick up my G5 2.3 DP for £30 - it has a battered case however - and there's nothing I need to do online it can't handle. All depends whether you can find one at a reasonable price and what software you want to run.

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I don't know with u, but my G5 2.3 DP and Safari gets the pinwheel (or really slow) quiet often when visiting sites that requires JavaScript of Flash. Turning that off and things works great. But some sites do require JavaScript.

I like my G5 and have no plans right now on upgrading (it's my main computer), but if I had to choose between a low end Mac Pro and a G5 i would probably choose the Mac Pro. The main reason for that is Intel.
I'm don't always think "newer is better", but like I said....the web with JavaScript turned on works (sometimes) simply too slow on a G5. And forget about syncing an iPhone with iTunes (if you're using iOS 7+). And, there isn't a good YouTube application wither. YouView is fine, but crashes from time to time and so on.

In many ways it's a shame, because alot of the problems isn't because the G5 is "slow", but because it uses PowerPC.

proxyLain said:

I don't know with u, but my G5 2.3 DP and Safari gets the pinwheel (or really slow) quiet often when visiting sites that requires JavaScript of Flash. Turning that off and things works great. But some sites do require JavaScript.

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I have ClickToPlugin to disable flash content, but yes, I agree a JS heavy site will cause a hang but they also cause me grief on Intel too - luckily they're few and far between, usually encountered when doing a Google search.