iMac G5... how long does it have?

[4JNA]

long live the g5 imac.

...speed isn't a huge deal since I just browse the web/email/iTunes anyway. Thoughts?

i had a 17" 1.6 g5 that i donated to my brother-in-law and family. it was fixed under the recall (new logic board/power supply), after which i replaced the hard drive with a 500gb 7200rpm drive, added 2gb of ram, and loaded 10.5.0 before giving it away.

it has been used every day since late 2006, it has never had a problem, it is running 10.5.x (current) and is used as a family machine for everything from email/internet, to word/iLife apps, quicken, and also kids playing flash games. it's not fast, but it is stable and reliable and awesome.

i would think that your system would do even better and last for several years.

best of luck.

 

[raysfan81]

Nah its not, its one of those 12" white later models, made in 2001. Its a pretty decent computer for everyday use actually

BTW: If you like Classic Macs, you should join Classic Mac, which is a starting up forum about older Macs ;-) http://www.classicmacforum.com

I'm a member there as well. Its pretty cool. We should try to get it more exposure.

But back to the topic, if you could get an iMac G5 for cheap I say go for it as long as you get a chance to inspect it for defects beforehand.

 

[sikkinixx]

Well I think I am gonna go for it.

Basically the deal is my grandfather has my uncle's old G5 and it's been acting up on him (sounds like hard drive issue) and my uncle has been trying to find him a new Mac. He asked if I want to part with my 2.26ghz Mac Mini in exchange for some cash and the G5. I want the new Air anyway and my girlfriend has a nice new 21" iMac and I have a gaming PC and an iPad and iPhone and blah blah so I figured if the iMac can serve as an 'always-on' mac for my Apple TV etc then I might as well help out granddad out since I am kind of surrounded with computers Plus it gives me an excuse to buy the laptop and a nice new Dell monitor...

 

[sikkinixx]

So I did the deed today. Got the old beast at home now. Grandpa is happy with the mini (even though Migration Assistant was a nightmare...). Just formatted the G5 and got a fresh install of Leopard on here. A bit disappointed, its the first gen iMac G5 so no wifi, no gigabit ethernet... oh well.

My pressing concern though is the noise. WOW is it noisy. I fired up istatpro and its showing that my CPU fan is rev'ing at a ripping 4800 rpm on idle with 60 degrees.... I dont know if that is normal, I remember the G5's being hot running but the fan shouldn't be going so hard. Is there an SMC fan control like program for the PPC?

 

[MacHamster68]

if its the first generation iMac g5 , turn it on its screen (something soft please underneath , then turn the 3 screws at the bottom , and lift on the stand so the back comes off and you can see the internals , if it still has the original black with a golden stripe and a x on the top capacitors from nichicon

do yourself a favor and get them replaced sooner rather then later as they are the main course of all problems related to anything in the iMac G5, especially the ones close to the heatsink of the processor are known to bulge and leak , so are the ones for the graphics and the ones in the powersupply

 

[rtrt]

So I did the deed today. Got the old beast at home now. Grandpa is happy with the mini (even though Migration Assistant was a nightmare...). Just formatted the G5 and got a fresh install of Leopard on here. A bit disappointed, its the first gen iMac G5 so no wifi, no gigabit ethernet... oh well.

My pressing concern though is the noise. WOW is it noisy. I fired up istatpro and its showing that my CPU fan is rev'ing at a ripping 4800 rpm on idle with 60 degrees.... I dont know if that is normal, I remember the G5's being hot running but the fan shouldn't be going so hard. Is there an SMC fan control like program for the PPC?

have a feeling that 4800 could be the max speed - suggesting some kind of sensor problem maybe.

i dont think 60c is that high - iirc mine sat at 70 or so when it was doing something useful.

cant check sorry - its in pieces on the other side of the room at the minute.

re the caps thing - jim warholic has a good site if a little disorganised. i used his psu kit and it did the job for me. suspect the mobo soldering would be a little more difficult.

 

[sikkinixx]

Thanks for the replies.

The mobo was replaced on warranty a few years ago as it was effected by those bad capacitors. I don't feel like going through a soldering exercise so if they go again then it goes in the dumpster (well recycled...)

I opened it up (and broke a little plastic clip in the process... oops) and gave it a good clean. That has helped a bit. The dust inside the CPU area was pretty heavy. It's the lower CPU fan that is making all the noise. It's okay when I am not going anything heavy (like typing this up) and ClicktoFlash has helped keep surfing mostly quiet. One Flash vid and it goes REALLY loud though, I guess as the CPU is being used a bit more heavily.

I tried to get it out as per the Apple PDF but it didn't work so well, the little metal bar lifts up, but after that I can't wiggle it out... Very annoying. I wanted to get the part number off of it and buy one from eBay (they seem to run ~$20 on there).

I'm happily surprised at how well this old beast handles everyday tasks. Even using iTunes isn't too bad. I wish the screen was as bright as my gf's new iMac but hey, this dude is almost 6 years old so I can't expect the world.