Converting G5 to Intel

[hotrock3]

Before I get into this, I know the best option is to buy a new computer but this is what I have been asked to find out.

We have a G5 (specs below) that I have been asked to find out how much it would cost to upgrade it so that it becomes an Intel. I have no idea what to do since I have always jut gone out and bought a new one whenever we needed to up grade.

I know I'm gonna need a new Motherboard but other than that I'm not sure what else I will need.

G5 Specs - Dual 2 GHz Power PC, GeForce 6600LE, Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-100D. If there is anything more you need let me know.

Thanks ahead of time,
Andrew

 

[tempusfugit]

there is absolutely no cost effective or cost-worthy way of doing this. Sorry to be a buzzkill.

 

[Abidubi]

Regardless of which era of intel mac you want to make you will need the following:

New RAM, new video card, new motherboard, new processors, new heatsinks, maybe new fans too.

What you might be able to save:

The hard drive and optical drive (but you could put that in a brand new computer anyway) and the power supply... maybe.

In short, the only thing that will be reusable is the case, and even that will need to be cut to fit the different placement of the ports and PCI cards.




If he really wants to upgrade it though, buy a dual 2.3 or a quad 2.5 motherboard and processors and everything else will still work. If he wants an intel mac, buy an intel mac.

 

[kellen]

Upgrade path:
1. Sell G5.
2. Buy Mac Pro.

 

[hotrock3]

there is absolutely no cost effective or cost-worthy way of doing this. Sorry to be a buzzkill.

Upgrade path:
1. Sell G5.
2. Buy Mac Pro.

I know that already, hence the very first line of my original post. Thanks for telling me something I already know

In short, the only thing that will be reusable is the case, and even that will need to be cut to fit the different placement of the ports and PCI cards.

Thanks for actually reading my post, the information was helpful.

 

[Dr.Pants]

There was a motherboard made that could fit the back of the G5 vanilla, but its a P4, IIRC

You may want to look for a motherboard that has only a "single row" of ports on the back, like on the G5, just so that the amount one has to cut away is minimal. Otherwise one may have to cut away the fans in the rear. Just sayin'.

And purchasing a specific mobo for OSX is a good idea as well.

I can remember for a PSU, somebody took apart a PSU to fit the form factor. Otherwise, it should fit towards the front of the case.

 

[trainguy77]

The better question. Do you want this to be able to run Mac OS X natively? or just be intel and run windows and make hack it to run OS X?

EDIT:

If you want it to run mac os x natively you will need to use mac pro parts. so this is a start:

$750 motherboard: http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Apple-Mac-P...20-1976-A_W0QQitemZ320424655034QQcmdZViewItem

$779 CPU: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000I1OFK2
Times that by two.

Thats for new parts so I am sure you can get it much cheaper elsewhere. But this is just two of the items you will need. You also need RAM and the skills to mod the case. And probably a powersupply.

Its cheaper to buy a used mac pro.

 

[ungraphic]

Intel isnt the only manufacturer that makes a xeon based motherboards. For example, I looked into making a hackintosh with cheaper parts. I came across the Tyan Tempest 5000V;

http://cgi.ebay.com/Tyan-Tempest-S5...in_0?hash=item4a9ac7e6f2&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

$100 bucks for a 'Mac Pro 1,1' motherboard however, with a hackintosh you wouldnt have the stupid problems apple has put upon us with choice of video cards. Stilll a good deal cheaper than going the intel way.

If I knew how to mod cases and such, I'd be all over a hackintosh. Way cheaper.

 

[trainguy77]

Intel isnt the only manufacturer that makes a xeon based motherboards. For example, I looked into making a hackintosh with cheaper parts. I came across the Tyan Tempest 5000V;

http://cgi.ebay.com/Tyan-Tempest-S5...in_0?hash=item4a9ac7e6f2&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

$100 bucks for a 'Mac Pro 1,1' motherboard however, with a hackintosh you wouldnt have the stupid problems apple has put upon us with choice of video cards. Stilll a good deal cheaper than going the intel way.

If I knew how to mod cases and such, I'd be all over a hackintosh. Way cheaper.

Except sometimes you give up stability for the price.

 

[Dr.Pants]

Except sometimes you give up stability for the price.

Sometimes. At the same time, however, if one chooses the correct parts, (i.e., the Gigabyte i7 mobos used in the vanilla installs with a bootloader), upgrading can be less PITA then normal.

A better way to think about it - going non-apple for parts means that however much money that one saves has to be put back into the troubleshooting when OSX breaks. Keep a backup partition on a separate HD, the best advice I can give

 

[gugucom]

There ispractically no way around a hackintosh if you want to squeeze an Intel PC into a G5 case. You can never hope to get the Apple EFI firmware for anything but a 100% genuine Apple Mac Pro. So there is no way around making this a BIOS machine.

There are special boards in the UK who deal with hackintoshes in G5 I know. But be warned it is not cheap. You are likely to spend an awefull lot on adaptations to run the case connections, because no standard PC layout fits the Apple G5 case.

To hope getting away with less than 2000$ is not realistic and that would by a very nice used MacPro.

 

[windowpain]

There is a thread on insanely mac here where someone has turned an old G5 case into a hackingtosh.

I did one with an old g4 case and it wasn't particularly easy. I now have it in another case and it runs a lot better. The G4 motherboards were a custom build and trying to get everything to fit into it wasn't easy.

I have no idea if the macpro motherboard (that trainman77 linked to) would even fit in there.

As others have said; you will need a new processor(s), a new motherboard, a new video card, new heatsink(s), probably new ram..

You should be able to reuse the DVD drive particularly if it is SATA.

If you are making a hackingtosh you will need a new powersupply, if you are using a macpro motherboard you might be able to use the old one..not sure really.

I think the easiest way would be to put a macmini inside the G5 case similar to this

 

[Consultant]

store.apple.com
get new Mac
sell old Mac

The better question.<blarb>

LOL. The OP doesn't even know whether he can upgrade G5 to Intel. You are selling the wrong thing to the wrong person.

 

[fireshot91]

If you really want to upgrade your Mac to Intel, you'd need to Upgrade RAM, Motherboard, Video Card, Processor, Fans, Heatsinks, and a new case.

So you're basically creating a new computer.

And if you want it to compete with a Mac Pro, you're spending close to $1500 for it, and your time (I have no idea if you have better things to be doing or not, so yeah).

I'd rather just keep/sell the G5, and get an iMac/Macbook/Macbook Pro/Mac Pro.

Well, if you're fine with the speed of the G5, or just want it to be a little faster, the Mac Mini would be a good choice. It'd be a lot faster than the G5.

 

[trainguy77]

LOL. The OP doesn't even know whether he can upgrade G5 to Intel. You are selling the wrong thing to the wrong person.

Except once we find that out we will know if he is meaning he wants to put Mac Pro parts into it or use standard intel parts...So its a question that should be asked. Maybe too technically worded though.

 

[hotrock3]

Thanks Guys,

I just needed some numbers to give to the boss to show him that it wasn't worth upgrading. He didn't trust my judgment alone and wanted other people's opinions. Unfortunately there is nobody else in the office that deals with this kind of stuff as I am the only editor and a new hire. Thanks for putting up with my "dumb" question and me playing computer illiterate. The boss has now been convinced to buy a new Two 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon MacPro.

Why we still had a G5? I don't know. The last editor was kinda.........well he got fired.

 

[Abidubi]

lol! From trying to upgrade a G5 to intel, to shelling out for an 8 core 2.93. Why was it even a question? Did someone think you could make a G5 as fast as a 2.93 8 core for less?

 

[alphaod]

Thanks Guys,

I just needed some numbers to give to the boss to show him that it wasn't worth upgrading. He didn't trust my judgment alone and wanted other people's opinions. Unfortunately there is nobody else in the office that deals with this kind of stuff as I am the only editor and a new hire. Thanks for putting up with my "dumb" question and me playing computer illiterate. The boss has now been convinced to buy a new Two 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon MacPro.

Why we still had a G5? I don't know. The last editor was kinda.........well he got fired.

I'd put that 8-core to good use or you know what

 

[hotrock3]

lol! From trying to upgrade a G5 to intel, to shelling out for an 8 core 2.93. Why was it even a question? Did someone think you could make a G5 as fast as a 2.93 8 core for less?

My boss is all about cutting costs where he can and he was sure we could just swap out processors. He knows very little about computers. I had already given him a part/price list to build a MacPro from the same parts and he didn't believe that it really cost so much more to build our own.

 

[product26]

anything is possible. I put my Quicksilver G4 internals in to a G5 case.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/261381/

 

[Consultant]

My boss is all about cutting costs where he can and he was sure we could just swap out processors. He knows very little about computers. I had already given him a part/price list to build a MacPro from the same parts and he didn't believe that it really cost so much more to build our own.

PLUS TIME. (to build, to test, to support, etc.)

Cost of time = (Wage + Health Care + Overhead + Etc. ) * hours

You rather spend more money on time than equipment cost? Jeez

High Performance, Low Cost Supercomputer At Virginia Tech is a Mac!
http://obamapacman.com/2009/08/high-performance-low-cost-super-computer-virginia-tech-mac-cluster/

 

[fireshot91]

That Supercomputer is made out of G5s in that picture.

 

[alphaod]

That Supercomputer is made out of G5s in that picture.

I guess when I have $5.2 million to spare, I'll know what to do with it

 

[nanofrog]

My boss is all about cutting costs where he can and he was sure we could just swap out processors. He knows very little about computers. I had already given him a part/price list to build a MacPro from the same parts and he didn't believe that it really cost so much more to build our own.

Uggh... I've dealt with this type before. It's as if even beating the information in with a hammer won't make a bit of difference. Just too dense.

 

[goMac]

There is no way to do it. The case is not compatible, even if you start recutting stuff.

The other people here are telling you to build a PC and stick it in your G5 case. It's not worth it. If you're going to build a PC just save time and put it in a PC case.

If you want a real Mac, there just is no way. At all. The cooling system for an Intel is entirely completely different, so the case wouldn't work. Not to mention, a used Mac Pro would be cheaper than just buying the parts alone.