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Post Your PowerPC Setup
- Thread starter Goftrey
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Thanks for that. After blowing out the internals (which didn't take much, obviously the machine has been well maintained) I used two microfiber cloths -- one damp to clean and the other dry to buff as I went along.
Looks nice, and the same approach restored the white keyboard, too.
Even though I appreciate newer versions of Mac OS X, 10.5.6 running on this dual G5 is completely fluid and remains intuitive. Still kickin'!
Sailmac-
A magic eraser work very well for tough spots.
I agree with you about leopard. I enjoy it as well. tough to distinguish it from snow leopard.
Hell, the home computer (Intel quad) is perfectly capable of running Mavericks, but I just see no reason. It is responsive and does what I need it to. I don't need or want all the stupid little integration with the cloud or social media.
TFF and Webkit have gone a long way in bringing the machine a modern web browser.
When work finally gets around to getting my office a new computer (Windoze Lenovo box) it will act as a server for my ppc G5.
A magic eraser work very well for tough spots.
I agree with you about leopard. I enjoy it as well. tough to distinguish it from snow leopard.
Hell, the home computer (Intel quad) is perfectly capable of running Mavericks, but I just see no reason. It is responsive and does what I need it to. I don't need or want all the stupid little integration with the cloud or social media.
TFF and Webkit have gone a long way in bringing the machine a modern web browser.
When work finally gets around to getting my office a new computer (Windoze Lenovo box) it will act as a server for my ppc G5.
Thanks for that. After blowing out the internals (which didn't take much, obviously the machine has been well maintained) I used two microfiber cloths -- one damp to clean and the other dry to buff as I went along.
Looks nice, and the same approach restored the white keyboard, too.
Even though I appreciate newer versions of Mac OS X, 10.5.6 running on this dual G5 is completely fluid and remains intuitive. Still kickin'!
No problem! It made my MacBook Pro look much better. The latest you can put on that is 10.5.8. Leopard. I would either use Tiger or Leopard. Anything before that is nowhere as good and anything after that is too new to run on it.
Hi, I'm new here, but I've been a MAC guy since 1999. I got rid of my G4 (stupid) and got a 1.8Ghz dual core G5 when they first came out. Of course in 2 months the Intel version came out, so I had gotten in on the back end of a less than optimal product line. SO, anyway, my wife's sister kept sending huge files of family movies and stuff, so it got filled, and I had to go to an iMac. BUT, I kept the G5. I brought it back to life and got G-Tech ext. HDs to match it, it konked out twice as a result of WWW activity, (trojans, I guess, I don't know, my computer science degree is from 1981, when it seemed this whole computer thing was going to take off). Then I went to law school. After getting sick of saving $$ for folks who didn't deserve to, defending or helping liars, and other morally repugnant stuff, I went back to try to re-learn programming, using CDW. No good @ C or C++, so I waited to find an IDE, got Komodo Edit, started html, css, javascript and Python using Wing 101 IDE. SO ANYWAY, after my G5 dual crapped out the other day, I called my Apple guy, and he said he had a single core 1.6, which I decided to go with. I am not going on the web with it, just using it for iTunes, Books, and family archives. It sounds better, is quieter, and a mite slower, but I LOVE IT. I would have gotten a new MAC, but I love the G5 feel, style, and am not obsessed with speed or anything but having a machine that can hold my resource books while I program, and my archives. It may be a dog, but I love it. Sorry for all the BS backstory, but, I just wanted to show that there are people who have a ghost of a whisper of an idea whassup who love these old deprecated dawgs. Peace all, out ... 
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Is it just me, or are iMac G5s the least responsive and snappy PPC Macs out there? I've had a better experience with the eMac.
The eMac we have is running Tiger, not Leopard, and has 1GB more RAM than my G5. My G4 PPC is dual core, so somewhat snappier in ways. It also seems like it's less efficient for a G5 to be in such a tight case like that. This thing builds up lots of heat as well. The 'Pro' G5s are another story. Those were late PowerPC machines that actually kicked butt for their time, unlike the iMac G5s. People say their quad-core, even dual-core PowerMac G5s still run very nicely today and that they have no issues with them. However, you know there is an issue when some people put water-cooling kits inside their quad-core G5s.
My 90s dream office:
![HIiNaFi.jpg]()
.
I built that desk too, very nice considering it was built an an hour with an air stapler, a jigsaw, pencil, and a tape measure.
I built that desk too, very nice considering it was built an an hour with an air stapler, a jigsaw, pencil, and a tape measure.
I did some re-arranging recently. This is what I came up with:
![JeanineSATA.jpg]()
In my Digital Audio 466, I installed a PC-based 4-port SATA card that has a Mac driver. Cox Orange had suggested it to me and after some tinkering, it works fine in multiple G4/G5 Macs. This setup is with 4 drives: 1 500GB, 1 250GB, 1 180GB, and 1 80GB. It was done both as a proof of concept and as a temporary backup measure.
Alongside the 4 SATA drives, I have three IDE drives and the original CD-RW drive installed. The two visible IDE drives contain an 80GB Tiger and 120GB Leopard, with Tiger on the bottom and Leopard on the top. The third drive is a 120GB IDE drive that takes the place of the original Zip drive underneath the CD-RW drive.
All told, I have seven drives for use with a little under 1.5TB of space. It's a far cry from the halcyon days of storing 2.5 TB in IDE drives, but it's a nice thing to have for an older G4 Mac.
In my Digital Audio 466, I installed a PC-based 4-port SATA card that has a Mac driver. Cox Orange had suggested it to me and after some tinkering, it works fine in multiple G4/G5 Macs. This setup is with 4 drives: 1 500GB, 1 250GB, 1 180GB, and 1 80GB. It was done both as a proof of concept and as a temporary backup measure.
Alongside the 4 SATA drives, I have three IDE drives and the original CD-RW drive installed. The two visible IDE drives contain an 80GB Tiger and 120GB Leopard, with Tiger on the bottom and Leopard on the top. The third drive is a 120GB IDE drive that takes the place of the original Zip drive underneath the CD-RW drive.
All told, I have seven drives for use with a little under 1.5TB of space. It's a far cry from the halcyon days of storing 2.5 TB in IDE drives, but it's a nice thing to have for an older G4 Mac.
I bought mine on Ebay for less than $20. Do a search for "Silicon Image PB3124-2SATA300 4-Port PCI-X SATA" The card must have a SIL3124 chip.
The driver for this card is available here:
http://www.drivers-download.com/en/downloadlist.php?id=72
The driver and card work in my G4 DA 466 and G4 MDD Dual 1.0, both under Tiger and Leopard. I haven't tried it in my G5 yet.
Cox Orange did much of the legwork to bring this to my attention.
I finally have a (somewhat) decent looking PPC setup to show off!
![ppc1.jpg]()
On the left is a Snow Summer 2001 G3 iMac. 600 MHz G3 processor, 384 MB RAM (upgraded from 256), 40 GB hard drive, 4x CD-RW, running 10.4.11. I have it booted to Classic quite frequently to play Munchies and Sim City 2000.
On the right is a Power Mac G4 (Gigabit Ethernet). 400 MHz G4, 640 MB RAM (upgraded from 64), 20 GB hard drive, 5X DVD-ROM, Zip drive, running 10.4.6 currently but I plan to change that to 10.2.8. I don't really do much with this one, mostly have it for nostalgic purposes.
![ppc3.jpg]()
![ppc4.jpg]()
I also have an original Bondi Blue iMac G3 (possibly revision A, I would have to double check on that) and an Indigo Early 2001 iMac G3. Those are currently in storage, but I plan on adding them to my collection as soon as I can.
On the left is a Snow Summer 2001 G3 iMac. 600 MHz G3 processor, 384 MB RAM (upgraded from 256), 40 GB hard drive, 4x CD-RW, running 10.4.11. I have it booted to Classic quite frequently to play Munchies and Sim City 2000.
On the right is a Power Mac G4 (Gigabit Ethernet). 400 MHz G4, 640 MB RAM (upgraded from 64), 20 GB hard drive, 5X DVD-ROM, Zip drive, running 10.4.6 currently but I plan to change that to 10.2.8. I don't really do much with this one, mostly have it for nostalgic purposes.
I also have an original Bondi Blue iMac G3 (possibly revision A, I would have to double check on that) and an Indigo Early 2001 iMac G3. Those are currently in storage, but I plan on adding them to my collection as soon as I can.
That Snow iMac looks like a real treat, although I personally prefer the more colourful ones because of the contrast between the upper and lower parts of the enclosure. Please post another pic when you have Indigo on display as well
Oh and one question: is the power indicator light white on the Gigabit Ethernet G4 or are my eyes playing tricks with me? I know it's green on my Sawtooth but I don't know when they switched from green to white in these things.
Oh and one question: is the power indicator light white on the Gigabit Ethernet G4 or are my eyes playing tricks with me? I know it's green on my Sawtooth but I don't know when they switched from green to white in these things.
It is white. I agree that the Snow is a great looking machine, but Indigo is my favorite of the bunch. When I get the Bondi Blue and Indigo ones, I will post some more pictures.
That is a beautiful iMac! Are you concerned about the table holding those machines as I do remember them being pretty heavy carrying them out of school...
I am, but it's a temporary solution until I can find time to get to Ikea. I'll have a real table there eventually.
Desktops
2 iMac G5 17”
2 iMac G3 Bondi Blue 15”
iMac G3 DV 15”
Macintosh Performa 6200
Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh
Power Mac G4 Cube
Power Mac G4
Portables
Powerbook G4 17”
2 iBook 11”
iBook G4 13”
And a few more that are sold too. A lot more PowerBooks and others that were sold in mid 90's to mid 00's. These are just computers that i had when PowerPC was the standard in Apple computers, 1994-2006. I have gotten these afterwards also
3 Power Mac G5
2 iMac G5 17”
2 iMac G3 Bondi Blue 15”
iMac G3 DV 15”
Macintosh Performa 6200
Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh
Power Mac G4 Cube
Power Mac G4
Portables
Powerbook G4 17”
2 iBook 11”
iBook G4 13”
And a few more that are sold too. A lot more PowerBooks and others that were sold in mid 90's to mid 00's. These are just computers that i had when PowerPC was the standard in Apple computers, 1994-2006. I have gotten these afterwards also
3 Power Mac G5
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The snow iMac is so beautiful, one of my favorites. My other favorites are the ruby and green (slot loading).
That Snow iMac looks like a real treat, although I personally prefer the more colourful ones because of the contrast between the upper and lower parts of the enclosure. Please post another pic when you have Indigo on display as well
Oh and one question: is the power indicator light white on the Gigabit Ethernet G4 or are my eyes playing tricks with me? I know it's green on my Sawtooth but I don't know when they switched from green to white in these things.
They switched Macs to white power lights in around 2000 or so, maybe late 2000 or about 2001. The white power button, IMO, is much nicer than the green one.
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Yeah, the slot-loading iMac G3s weigh 34 lbs. and the tray-loading models weigh 40 lbs. (the G4 tower is around 25 lbs. or so). That is enough to make a weak table sag for sure. Although, after having carried my 12 iMac G3s across the lands (my house) so many times, they don't feel so heavy anymore. Only, going upstairs with all of them is horrible.
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Yeah, the Snow one is cool. The only thing that bothers me is that the top bezel on iMacs can get discolored, and you can better see the color contrast between the bottom case and top bezel on the Snow iMacs. I want a Snow machine in my collection, and I have actually seen a couple go on Craigslist for like $25-$30, but I never really felt like obtaining another, let alone driving to someone's place.
My first G4 tower was a Digital Audio, which is fairly light as things go. The G4 towers gained a few pounds over the course of their production run, and an MDD with 4 hard drives is over 40lbs.
The MDDs almost always catch me off guard when I pick them up.
The worst computer moving job I've done recently has been the IBM rack mount servers I rescued from the dumpster last week. I had 8 of them, and they weigh 40lbs each with no drives installed. Most of them were fully populated with 6 drives each, and each of the server grade drives(on its sled) weighs about 3lbs. I had a freight elevator to help me load them in my car, but unloading them required carrying them up the equivalent distance of about 3 flights of(outdoor) steps in 95º weather. I was dead by the time I got those moved in.
The MDDs almost always catch me off guard when I pick them up.
The worst computer moving job I've done recently has been the IBM rack mount servers I rescued from the dumpster last week. I had 8 of them, and they weigh 40lbs each with no drives installed. Most of them were fully populated with 6 drives each, and each of the server grade drives(on its sled) weighs about 3lbs. I had a freight elevator to help me load them in my car, but unloading them required carrying them up the equivalent distance of about 3 flights of(outdoor) steps in 95º weather. I was dead by the time I got those moved in.
Haven't updated my current setup in awhile (I buy and sell quite often) so here it goes,
Power Macintosh 6500 250mhz
Power Macintosh 9600 300mhz
Power Mac G5 Dual 2.0ghz
Power Mac Quad 2.5ghz (newest addition and using it to post right now)
Power Mac MDD Dual 867mhz
Power Mac Quicksilver 800mhz
Power Mac Yikes 350mhz
Imac G5 Light Sensor 1.8ghz
Imac G4 17 inch 700mhz
Imac G3 Snow 500mhz
Imac G3 Bondi Blue 233mhz
iBook G3 dual usb 500mhz
iBook G3 Clamshell Graphite Firewire 366mhz
iBook G3 Clamshell Blueberry 300mhz
Powerbook G4 Titanium 1ghz
Powerbook G4 12 inch 1.5ghz
eMac 1.42ghz
Mac Mini 1.25ghz
Have other Macs but these are my only "power macs"
Power Macintosh 6500 250mhz
Power Macintosh 9600 300mhz
Power Mac G5 Dual 2.0ghz
Power Mac Quad 2.5ghz (newest addition and using it to post right now)
Power Mac MDD Dual 867mhz
Power Mac Quicksilver 800mhz
Power Mac Yikes 350mhz
Imac G5 Light Sensor 1.8ghz
Imac G4 17 inch 700mhz
Imac G3 Snow 500mhz
Imac G3 Bondi Blue 233mhz
iBook G3 dual usb 500mhz
iBook G3 Clamshell Graphite Firewire 366mhz
iBook G3 Clamshell Blueberry 300mhz
Powerbook G4 Titanium 1ghz
Powerbook G4 12 inch 1.5ghz
eMac 1.42ghz
Mac Mini 1.25ghz
Have other Macs but these are my only "power macs"
Here is my setup. I don't really have anywhere to put the PowerMac Quicksilver right now, because my Late 06' iMac occupies the desk. Maybe some rearranging is in order, huh? Anyways here are the specifications for the QS.
PowerMac G4 Quicksilver:
Power PC G4 7450e @ 867 MHZ
1.5 GB of PC-133 RAM
250 GB Maxtor IDE Hard Drive
Pioneer 2x DVD-RW Superdrive
ATI Radeon 9000 with 64 MB of VRAM
PCI ATA-133 Controller
PCI USB 2.0 Card
EDIT: I did not find out how to add a picture until today.
PowerMac G4 Quicksilver:
Power PC G4 7450e @ 867 MHZ
1.5 GB of PC-133 RAM
250 GB Maxtor IDE Hard Drive
Pioneer 2x DVD-RW Superdrive
ATI Radeon 9000 with 64 MB of VRAM
PCI ATA-133 Controller
PCI USB 2.0 Card
EDIT: I did not find out how to add a picture until today.
Attachments
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I'd post a picture of my setup, but it's quite dull, my G5 just sits in the corner of my dining room. It's in its retirement years, spends most of the day, sitting and sleeping, only coming on when someone disturbs it or it's time to back-up. It only has two connections, power and ethernet, and is a big bucket for my iTunes Library (which includes DVD rips), photographs and archived work.
PowerMac G6 dual 1.8Ghz
4Gb RAM
1.5Tb SATA HDD + 2Tb SATA HDD
PowerMac G6 dual 1.8Ghz
4Gb RAM
1.5Tb SATA HDD + 2Tb SATA HDD
I've undergone a radical re-arrangement in recent times. The below image is what I'm running right now:
From left to right under the table:
Gretzky (G5 Dual 2.0; 4GB RAM, 1.5TB HDD space)
Liz (G4 Dual 1.25; 2 GB RAM, 3TB HDD space
Jeanine (G4 Digital Audio 466; 1.5 GB RAM, 1.33 TB space)
The 17 inch Studio Display alternates between Liz and Jeanine. The G5 drives two HP 19 inch monitors.
The Cinema Display under the table is an HD model. I used it for a while before tiring of the workaround I used for a broken back foot: a guitar stand that made me aware of how much space it took up. I may come back to that monitor in the future, but not right now.
The MDD on the left is a non-functional Dual 1.0 FW 400. It's tempermental and I'm on the verge of scrapping it. I may find a QuickSilver to take its place as a possible backup server.
From left to right under the table:
Gretzky (G5 Dual 2.0; 4GB RAM, 1.5TB HDD space)
Liz (G4 Dual 1.25; 2 GB RAM, 3TB HDD space
Jeanine (G4 Digital Audio 466; 1.5 GB RAM, 1.33 TB space)
The 17 inch Studio Display alternates between Liz and Jeanine. The G5 drives two HP 19 inch monitors.
The Cinema Display under the table is an HD model. I used it for a while before tiring of the workaround I used for a broken back foot: a guitar stand that made me aware of how much space it took up. I may come back to that monitor in the future, but not right now.
The MDD on the left is a non-functional Dual 1.0 FW 400. It's tempermental and I'm on the verge of scrapping it. I may find a QuickSilver to take its place as a possible backup server.
