What do you use your PowerPC for?

17" PowerBook G4 (when it's working): Main browsing machine on the couch or outside home, email and word processing, main iTunes library.

PowerMac G4 Quicksilver: Media machine, graphic design and layout, browsing, time machine backup server, light email and word processing, music streaming.

iMac G5: Light word processing, kids research (internet) computer.

iMac G3 (when working): iTunes music streaming.

Occasionally for replying to threads like this. Sent from my 12" PowerBook G4.

Unfortunately Retina displays and SSDs have spoiled me for just about everything else. If only I could go back. At least PPC will always be fun to play with

However, that doesn't stop me from being surprised at how useful these machines still are. I find myself increasingly using them for some light tasks, such as Skype on my iBook G4 and iTunes on my MDD with Apple Pro Speakers.

Digital Audio G4: word processing, web browsing, torrenting, streaming audio, gaming--basically everything I need a computer to do! And boy is this thing fast with the SATA card and a WD Black drive.

Anyone else have a Digital Audio G4 and notice that the sound quality seems higher than normal? Everything I play from it sounds a lot richer than the audio from my PowerBook or Windows laptop. It's a very nice listening experience with my Bose speakers.

eMac (USB 2.0) 1GHz education model - Used as my main machine. I use it to browse the internet (Typing this on it now) as well as YouTube. And once i get my copy of Dreamweaver 8, It'll be used to resurrect my personal Entertainment based website that has been offline since 2008.

PowerMac G4 FW800 DP 1.25GHz - Started life as a Single 1GHz model i have since upgraded the motherboard and am waiting for a DP 1.25GHz CPU to arrive. This is my secondary machine. I use this for all my Music storage As well as my DVD Player (on rare occasions), Web Browser, and for Video Editing.

PowerMac G5: Mostly used as a print server, media server, and file storage. I have Adobe CS something installed which I use occasionally. I sometimes will do word processing or excel on it with Office 2008. It's nothing my Mac Pro can't handle but I don't keep the MP in my place in Boston where I live 90% of the time.

PowerBook G4, 1GHz Titanium: I have purchased this out of nostalgia and a desire to play around with Retro computing. It is the fastest laptop capable of booting in OS9 so I'm excited to play around with it... if it ever comes in the mail.

Power Mac G5: My main machine. Photoshop, iMovie (Soon to be Final Cut), music creation (my main use), documents, recording video games via my dazzle, etc.

PowerBook G4 1.67gHz: Same things as G5 but on the go.

A.Goldberg said:

PowerBook G4, 1GHz Titanium: I have purchased this out of nostalgia and a desire to play around with Retro computing. It is the fastest laptop capable of booting in OS9 so I'm excited to play around with it... if it ever comes in the mail.

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My son has the Titanium DVI. I got it for $25 from a business equipment liquidator on eBay. The only thing wrong was that the hinges were broken which damaged the LVDS cable and it therefore had bad video problems.

I swapped the display with the one from my dead TiBook/400 and my son has been using it ever since.

You'll love it! He has max ram (1GB) and a 100GB hard drive and runs Leopard on it. It's a rocket and I envy him sometimes because it's so fast. I can only imagine the performance you'll get from it in OS9.

Gaming (Nintendo Wii)

eyoungren said:

My son has the Titanium DVI. I got it for $25 from a business equipment liquidator on eBay. The only thing wrong was that the hinges were broken which damaged the LVDS cable and it therefore had bad video problems.

I swapped the display with the one from my dead TiBook/400 and my son has been using it ever since.

You'll love it! He has max ram (1GB) and a 100GB hard drive and runs Leopard on it. It's a rocket and I envy him sometimes because it's so fast. I can only imagine the performance you'll get from it in OS9.

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I used to own one until I traded it for my DAG4. The 1mb cache really makes a difference vs. the early AluBooks!

466MHz DA
Used for file storage and management
It is at a different place and is almost always offline (only recenly when I had an iPhone 5 to connect it to)

Zotaccian said:

Gaming (Nintendo Wii)

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This... You know Xbox has a PPC as well, correct?

Anyway, I use mine for various tasks. My iBook G4 is my note taking laptop in school, my G5 is one of my 3 mains, PowerBook G3 is for Classic games, MDD is a side computer that I'll use to quickly do some things or use it for media, and my eMac is a jukebox. Just because they are old, doesn't mean their not useable. I have to tell that to people in school because they always ask why I use such an old computer.

Gamer9430 said:

This... You know Xbox has a PPC as well, correct?

Anyway, I use mine for various tasks. My iBook G4 is my note taking laptop in school, my G5 is one of my 3 mains, PowerBook G3 is for Classic games, MDD is a side computer that I'll use to quickly do some things or use it for media, and my eMac is a jukebox. Just because they are old, doesn't mean their not useable. I have to tell that to people in school because they always ask why I use such an old computer.

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Early Xbox 360 development kits were just PowerMac G5s!

ptdebate said:

Early Xbox 360 development kits were just PowerMac G5s!

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Wow...

Gamer9430 said:

This... You know Xbox has a PPC as well, correct?

Anyway, I use mine for various tasks. My iBook G4 is my note taking laptop in school, my G5 is one of my 3 mains, PowerBook G3 is for Classic games, MDD is a side computer that I'll use to quickly do some things or use it for media, and my eMac is a jukebox. Just because they are old, doesn't mean their not useable. I have to tell that to people in school because they always ask why I use such an old computer.

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They can make a 3.42GHz Quad Core PowerPC Processor for the Xbox 360 yet Apple complained because they couldn't make a 3GHz PowerMac?

By the time the G5 was made they already had 2.80GHz CPUs by the time the 2005 late model G5 came out they had 3.0GHz and faster Pentium 4s. Sure don't seem like Apple tried that hard to keep PowerPC alive. There is really no reason that the latest version of OS X couldn't work on a G5. Apple could of made Snow Leopard PowerPC Compatible. Seems Apple went the Intel route because they didn't want to put the effort to keep PowerPC going. Maybe they should of kept the Mac Clones or PC Compatibility going....

Microsoft had custom made the chip specifically for the XBox. It wasn't made by IBM or Motorola, let alone Apple. It has the PowerPC architecture . Theoretically you could run OS X on an Xbox or play Xbox games on a Mac running the Xbox OS, but the Mac would be too underpowered, and the Xbox would be too over powered.

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Also, for the record, my Pentium 4 HT has a higher GHz than my G5, several G4s, and even my Late 2011 MBP. MBP has 2.4, G5 has dual 2.3, G4s have dual 1.25/1.33GHz. The Pentium has 3.xGHz, I don't remember off the top of my head.

Gamer9430 said:

Microsoft had custom made the chip specifically for the XBox. It wasn't made by IBM or Motorola, let alone Apple. It has the PowerPC architecture . Theoretically you could run OS X on an Xbox or play Xbox games on a Mac running the Xbox OS, but the Mac would be too underpowered, and the Xbox would be too over powered.

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Also, for the record, my Pentium 4 HT has a higher GHz than my G5, several G4s, and even my Late 2011 MBP. MBP has 2.4, G5 has dual 2.3, G4s have dual 1.25/1.33GHz. The Pentium has 3.xGHz, I don't remember off the top of my head.

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It was actually made by IBM.... Microsoft partnered with IBM to design and manufacture the Processor and Microsoft Partnered with AMD to design and manufacture the ATI GPU used in the 360.

MatthewLTL said:

It was actually made by IBM.... Microsoft partnered with IBM to design and manufacture the Processor and Microsoft Partnered with AMD to design and manufacture the ATI GPU used in the 360.

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Thanks for the correction, I could have sworn it wasn't made by IBM.

Gamer9430 said:

Thanks for the correction, I could have sworn it wasn't made by IBM.

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The PlayStation 3 was also a PowerPC. Although All I know about those are that the PS3 was a PowerPC CPU and ATI GPU however whereas the Xbox used a Quad Core 3.42GHz the PS3 only used a Dual Core 3.2GHz CPU.

The PS3 although has a Linux for it had a Weaker CPU, Weaker GPU, less RAM and easy to upgrade HDD the Xbox was the better choice as the Game library is bigger, the Xbox is more powerful and ultimately the reason i chose a Xbox over a PS3 (I was strictly PlayStation before the 360) I dont think the Wii is anygood (It only has a 700MHz CPU) and the SAME GPU as the GameCube and the Wii U is a flop and the Xbox One and PS4 are just all out stupid concepts

I would want a GAME CONSOLE not a media centre

The Wii and GameCube do not share the Flipper GPU. The Wii's GPU can render about 1.5x as many polygons and has a faster memory bus.

Intell said:

The Wii and GameCube do not share the Flipper GPU. The Wii's GPU can render about 1.5x as many polygons and has a faster memory bus.

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Thanks for the correction. Being that I will never own a Wii I dont know much about it other than its extremely weak. It has a 700MHz CPU 512MB (maybe 1GB) or RAM and all out **** graphics

Nintendo is similar to Apple, they don't care about specs. All they care about is the user experience.

Intell said:

Nintendo is similar to Apple, they don't care about specs. All they care about is the user experience.

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the Concept of the Wii is dumb, Although the Wii is soley a console its mosly a kids' console. Other than the Mario or Zelda Games on Nentendo they just ain't worth it in my book.

Intell said:

Nintendo is similar to Apple, they don't care about specs. All they care about is the user experience.

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Apple may not care much about specs, but I'm sure they like people who do. That profit margin is huge