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About to get a G5 tower. How to tell if LCS is one of the "old versions" or the newer ones?

dustinschings

dustinschings

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 8, 2011
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I am about to pick up a PowerMac G5. Is is a 2x2.0GHz Early 2005 model, SN: G85197W0RU2

Is this a liquid cooled model? If so, do you know if it is the old delphi LCS or the newer version that was less prone to leaking?

Thanks in advance!!

Dustin
 
Good to hear actually. While I don't have a problem rebuilding one of the LCS (still have some O rings for it) I would much prefer to not have to bother!

How is the performance on yours? How much RAM and what GPU do you have?

Dustin
 
ATI Radeon 9600
4GB RAM

From what I've read, this was a baseline model for 7,2 pmG5s so it has just 4 instead of 8 ram slots & has PCI instead of PCI-x. I prefer that despite slower bus speed actually as I can share peripherals between my G4 & G5. Performance is not bad. I use it just fine & don't feel any slowdowns other than what would be expected for a 12 year old box. If anything, software limitations With 10.5.8 are more noticeable to me although no deal breakers as of yet. Still a very useful box to me.
 
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It has been a LONG time since I have had a G5 to be honest, and most recent one was just an iMac at that. Got tired of the LCS ordeal. Finally saw one too good to pass up, (this one) for free. Seems to be bone stock minus a HDD. Looking forward to having a faster PPC again.

Dustin
 
You'll enjoy it, especially for the right price. Aside from your HDD, maxing out the ram is a great idea. IIRC it was around 25 bucks shipped, so pretty cheap & certainly worth it. If yours doesn't have it, adding the BT card & AirPort Extreme + their respective antennas is nice. Mine had neither. The cards are cheap but the antennas are around 15 each. Still, I'm in mine for around 70 bucks total & no stinking LCS system to deal with, so I'm very happy. Good luck.
 
Yes, I already priced out the RAM, 4GB for $15 shipped. So that is awesome. I will have to wait to see if WiFi and BT and antennas are included. I am betting that even if the cards are installed, the antennas are missing, as usual...

I do have a 250 or 320GB WD Blue for it, so no worries there. The optical is broken they said, but I am not sure if it is truly broken, or possibly fixable. If I have a spare SATA Optical, is there anything stopping me from connecting it to the second SATA port (using a sata extension cable or something)? I ask because I know the optical drives in these are still IDE.

Glad to hear that this one is slightly older. It barely affects anything considering the age of even the newest PPC, and like you said, it opens up my upgrades to those of the G4 systems as well. I am looking forward to this a lot!

Dustin
 
Hmm, I've never tried that honestly. Assuming your Sata cable is long enough & using care, I think you could fish one through to the Sata ports on the logic board. Another option would be a Mac compatible Sata controller card but being that these are pci, that could be tough find & expensive to acquire. I know that's a small space but you might be able to find a Sata to pata(ide) converter card so you can use a new drive with the old ide cable. Lastly and most obvious, you could certainly find an ide SuperDrive somewhere for pretty cheap & replace the drive although with those old SuperDrives, I've fixed a few by cleaning them & the optical lense.
 
Oh I will. May just need cleaned or a new belt. I believe they said it does not eject or something. Will get mroe information when I actually acquire it. Hopefully I can make the 1 hour trip this week/weekend.

Dustin
 
I got the G5 today. Man, what a snappy little machine. Perhaps I am just used to my iMac G4 speed, but this thing screams, and it only has 1.5GB RAM. (iMac has 2GB). Cannot wait to max the RAM to 4GB and get a better GPU. (If anyone has an AGP card better than the Radeon 9600 they want to let go, please PM me!)

I have Leopard all setup now the way I like it and really enjoying this machine. It is in near perfect shape, and only needed a HDD (they included both sets of mount screws which is pretty cool). DVDRW was toast so I replaced with a spare. Cannot believe it was free. So happy with my little space heater :)
 
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I forgot to mention that the Airport Express card is installed, but as I suspected, the antenna is missing. I saw on eBay that someone sells a long black antenna that connects where the stock one used to, but the seller is in China. Any idea if these work well, and if so, where I might find one in the USA? (Don't want to wait a month for it to arrive.)

No BlueTooth card installed though.
 
dustinschings said:
I forgot to mention that the Airport Express card is installed, but as I suspected, the antenna is missing. I saw on eBay that someone sells a long black antenna that connects where the stock one used to, but the seller is in China. Any idea if these work well, and if so, where I might find one in the USA? (Don't want to wait a month for it to arrive.) No BlueTooth card installed though.
Click to expand...

I purchased mine from a Chinese vendor and they work great. I do not know of a US seller off the top of my head. When you buy from the linked vendor, you actually get two, so if one craps out you have a replacement or if you score a second PMG5, you're set. They took about 3 weeks to get to me.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281360475340?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

Until you get them, just make one out of a twisty tie & gently stick it into the port. Twisty ties work scarily well for what they are. How to video below.


I purchased a BT card for $7.75 IIRC off of ebay. The correct unit for your flavor pm is Bluetooth Module Card A1115. Here's one for $10.00+free SH - not too bad.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-A1115...339226?hash=item4b0f2fd15a:g:dg4AAOSw5cNYTfS5

I have tried a number of DIY designs for the BT port and none have really worked. From my research, it's effectively a midget coaxial cable port. I know there are adapters that screw into a coaxial cable on one end and have the BT port on the other (forget the link off the top of my head) that plugs straight into the PM. I was thinking a coaxial cable plugged into the back of the PM may work well. IIRC the adaptor was around $5.00. So the long and the short of it is that while the aftermarket and DIY antennas work great for wifi, my DIY BT antenna designs have all failed so far- The OEM apple BT antenna is necessary for reliable BT signal and those are around $15-20.
 
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Hey, I didn't see this until after I did that trick, but thanks! It works marvelously, and I don't see the need to order an antenna now. As for bluetooth, I may go ahead and order the card and proper antenna as, yes, it seems to be a much different connector and probably not as easy to get a home made antenna to work.

Dustin
 
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I found that page to the BT antenna adapter. $6.95 shipped but IIRC last time I was looking around, I found the same bit at an online electronics/coax store for $3.95 shipped.

http://old-macs.com/Pages/Networking/G5RPSMAJ-LC/

Anyhow, yeah, alot cheaper than the OEM antenna. Most everyone has a spare coaxial cable taking up space or a standard router antenna. Hmm I wonder if you could attach an analog TV rabbit ear antenna and pick up BT that way LOL. That would be funny & certainly worth a picture :D
 
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That says its is a replacement for the "T" antenna, which is the airport one, not BT. This is very interesting however. Almost want to get one to test with a TV antenna like you said. I am nearly 100% positive that it would works fine, considering a bread tie is doing the trick now and getting me a great signal. TV antenna would pick up signal farther I am sure. And if I connect to a roof-top antenna....muahahahaha I can get WiFi from my friend's house a mile away ;)
 
dustinschings said:
That says its is a replacement for the "T" antenna, which is the airport one, not BT. This is very interesting however. Almost want to get one to test with a TV antenna like you said. I am nearly 100% positive that it would works fine, considering a bread tie is doing the trick now and getting me a great signal. TV antenna would pick up signal farther I am sure. And if I connect to a roof-top antenna....muahahahaha I can get WiFi from my friend's house a mile away ;)
Click to expand...

LOL You are completely right. That is the sort of public "derr herp-dee-derp" humiliation I get for not reading lol :) I know I saw one for the BT somewhere. I'll poke around and see if I can find it. It looks very similar to the wifi one and was a neat solution I thought.
 
Yeah. I think I can get a BT card and antenna for under $35, which isn't too bad though. I am just glad the WiFi works now. Don't think I will bother getting an official "antenna" for that. Can't see a reason to lol.
 
Ok so I gave a DIY BT antenna design another shot. This one actually worked well, producing a solid connection/signal to my Magic Mouse.
1430E3AD-3C1C-4ED0-9F3C-4623F6B1D6AF.jpg

Close up of individual pieces.
IMG_1816.JPG

I constructed this version from pieces of earlier attempts. Anyhow, once you get everything firmly pushed into the port, signal was consistent. In previous attempts, I would get signal but it would be intermittent making the MMouse skip which was really unusable (and very annoying). Anyhow, give this design a shot. It is comprised of

1 spring (about 5mm wide x 3.5cm long)
1 paperclip (regular size lol? - the width of the wire at its end is 1mm)
1 coil of solid core, uninsulated wire. (I just coiled it tightly around the paperclip so it would fit snugly in the interior port)

From your PMG5's BT port, you can see how there is a brass/metal ring that has a central gap and an outer gap. It is important that the paperclip and wire coil fit snugly and go all the way into the interior port. Once that is firmly in place, bring the spring forward, fitting into that outer ring.

Voila, a DIY, hillbilly BT antenna. :D
 
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Nice! Where did you scavenge the spring from, a pen perhaps? How about the coil at the tip of the paperclip? I may do this if I can get my hands on a BT chip for cheap!

Dustin
 
Honestly, I don't recall. I think it came from an old guitar pickup assembly, truth be told (I'm a musician so I have alot of guitar/bass & amplifier junk around). Anyhow, I mention the width because it was a perfect fit for that outer ring - snugs up right in there so any spring you find that is 5-5.25mm wide, I think would work pretty well for you and give a good snug, fit.

The small coil at the end I made myself by simply winding bare wire around the end of the paperclip and then compressing it together with my fingertips to make the coil above. Material used for this was solid core from a stripped wire that I used for guitar pickup assembly repairs. I'm almost positive that the internal wire for a bread twisty tie would work too. You'd just have to carefully strip the plastic off and then fashion the end piece.
 
dustinschings said:
Thanks! If I can locate the parts I will give this a go!
Click to expand...

Hey man, I wanted to note that there is a definite limitation to the distance BT works with my hillbilly antenna. It is constant to about 3 feet from the antenna. This works fine if you are right next to it but if for any reason you are in a situation where distance is needed, you will want to go with a OEM antenna.

I will work on my design some more to see if I can get more distance. I don't know what exactly to change - maybe a directional vs its current omni directional design. Ahh well, the stupid fun I have just so I don;t have to buy a $20 antenna :D
 
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