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Advice on Potential Purchases Thread
- Thread starter TheShortTimer
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You can thank collectors and the "retro craze" for that I guess.
Having said that, it depends on the item. G5s were hard to get hold of a couple of years ago when prices went up, up, up. They have come down a lot since then. Certain models go in and out of vogue, so while people are happy enough to pay through the nose for Clamshells today, Alu G4s priced in the same category go unsold despite being much more capable and useful machines.
Strange thing is, in the Apple laptop market you can now buy an Intel MacBook cheaper than a PPC PowerBook
PPC prices seem to be on the up
Cheers
Hugh
I've noticed this too. I'm somewhat tempted to buy something like the 2006 Macbook Pro because it has the same aesthetics as the 2005 PowerBook G4, but tends to be cheaper than the PB G4.
I'm afraid that's the route I've taken - a 2008 MacBook and recently a 2009. With Snow Leopard I get the best of both worlds and can still run PPC apps and games.
Cheers
Hugh
Thanks for the advice everyone. My present Sawtooth has developed some problems (perhaps I should create a post about it) and I didn't want to find myself in a situation where I no longer have a desktop PPC Mac that's capable of natively running OS 9 when required - which led me to consider the QS.
Totally agree. Ages back, I came across a G3 iMac on the street but regrettably didn't take it. I landed so much tech from using Freecycle. Maybe I ought to resume my scouting on there.
This is why I'm absolutely delighted that I snagged particular things a long ago when they'd fallen out of favour and in some cases, I obtained them in multiples, because what was previously dirt cheap or even given away is now commanding sky high prices on eBay. What really brought things home to me was when I witnessed an exchange of words between a trader at a flea market and one of my employees. The former was chastised by the latter for selling an Amstrad CPC cassette tape at the stall instead of retaining it for sale on eBay where it might have potentially fetched good money.
Despite living in London, collection only has worked well for me with so many items because it immediately dissuades many people due to the prospect of travelling to pick up the item.
The QS was being offered for £30, which seemed slightly too steep in price considering that I paid £20 for my PM G5 and it came with an HDD! Perhaps I've been spoiled by low prices.
Totally agree. Ages back, I came across a G3 iMac on the street but regrettably didn't take it. I landed so much tech from using Freecycle. Maybe I ought to resume my scouting on there.
This is why I'm absolutely delighted that I snagged particular things a long ago when they'd fallen out of favour and in some cases, I obtained them in multiples, because what was previously dirt cheap or even given away is now commanding sky high prices on eBay. What really brought things home to me was when I witnessed an exchange of words between a trader at a flea market and one of my employees. The former was chastised by the latter for selling an Amstrad CPC cassette tape at the stall instead of retaining it for sale on eBay where it might have potentially fetched good money.
Despite living in London, collection only has worked well for me with so many items because it immediately dissuades many people due to the prospect of travelling to pick up the item.
The QS was being offered for £30, which seemed slightly too steep in price considering that I paid £20 for my PM G5 and it came with an HDD! Perhaps I've been spoiled by low prices.
I'd say that's a good deal for a Dual - as long as you have a spare HDD on hand.
Thanks for the advice everyone. My present Sawtooth has developed some problems (perhaps I should create a post about it) and I didn't want to find myself in a situation where I no longer have a desktop PPC Mac that's capable of natively running OS 9 when required - which led me to consider the QS.
Totally agree. Ages back, I came across a G3 iMac on the street but regrettably didn't take it. I landed so much tech from using Freecycle. Maybe I ought to resume my scouting on there.
This is why I'm absolutely delighted that I snagged particular things a long ago when they'd fallen out of favour and in some cases, I obtained them in multiples, because what was previously dirt cheap or even given away is now commanding sky high prices on eBay. What really brought things home to me was when I witnessed an exchange of words between a trader at a flea market and one of my employees. The former was chastised by the latter for selling an Amstrad CPC cassette tape at the stall instead of retaining it for sale on eBay where it might have potentially fetched good money.
Despite living in London, collection only has worked well for me with so many items because it immediately dissuades many people due to the prospect of travelling to pick up the item.
The QS was being offered for £30, which seemed slightly too steep in price considering that I paid £20 for my PM G5 and it came with an HDD! Perhaps I've been spoiled by low prices.
For a single 733mhz, yes it is but I don't think that is a bad price for a dual 1ghz at all. A stock QS doesn't get any faster than that and OS9 will scream on it. I paid $35 USD for my dual 1ghz daughter card and heatsink alone while building mine up a few years back.
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Yup. One of the side-effects of this corona quarantine is that more people have time to shop online until the money runs out.Perhaps I've been spoiled by low prices.
I picked up a couple of IBM butterfly laptops a couple of years ago for approx £70 and £85. Both have the crucial unique and scarce floppy drive and drive cable and one came with all the extras, including a port replicator. Tonight, one other butterfly with no floppy and a dead BIOS battery (soldered onto the motherboard) went for £407. I had expected £120-£150 with an outside chance of approaching £200 because of the present circumstances. It's a seller's market right now.
I would not hesitate at £30 for that QS all things condidered.
I'm trying to make arrangements but the UK lockdown has complicated matters.
I got it! For £25 GBP.
As a nice surprise, it turned out that the seller and I are alumni from my undergrad alma mater. Small world.
Once I've got it powered up, I'll make a post in the eBay bargains thread but for now, here's some snaps:
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The question is, to spin or not to spin? For next to nothing, I can pick up a SATA 500GB HDD which would give me ample storage space for a multi-boot with OS 9, Tiger and perhaps Leopard and a flavour of Linux. I'm aware of the performance gains to be had with SSDs but the larger capacities are still somewhat pricey.
As you can see in the images, there's an internal port on the USB 2.0 PCI card, one idea that springs to mind is attaching a 128GB mSATA drive that I already have to a PCI bracket like this:
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...and then running a SATA to USB cable to the internal USB port. Would this work as a bootable method for daily usage? Or would the data transfer rate be faster if I used a SATA to IDE cable with the onboard ATA bus? I'd appreciate your insights and suggestions.
As a nice surprise, it turned out that the seller and I are alumni from my undergrad alma mater. Small world.
Once I've got it powered up, I'll make a post in the eBay bargains thread but for now, here's some snaps:
The question is, to spin or not to spin? For next to nothing, I can pick up a SATA 500GB HDD which would give me ample storage space for a multi-boot with OS 9, Tiger and perhaps Leopard and a flavour of Linux. I'm aware of the performance gains to be had with SSDs but the larger capacities are still somewhat pricey.
As you can see in the images, there's an internal port on the USB 2.0 PCI card, one idea that springs to mind is attaching a 128GB mSATA drive that I already have to a PCI bracket like this:
...and then running a SATA to USB cable to the internal USB port. Would this work as a bootable method for daily usage? Or would the data transfer rate be faster if I used a SATA to IDE cable with the onboard ATA bus? I'd appreciate your insights and suggestions.
How big a drive to you think or anticipate you will need? 128 or 256 GB SATA SSDs are very cheap.
The IDE bus will definitely be faster and much less CPU-intensive. I wouldn't use USB 2.0 for a permanent boot drive on a PPC Mac.
I was thinking of 500 GB to be on the safe side if I decide to be adventurous with a multi-boot scenario.
Thanks, then for now I'll use the 128 GB mSATA and see how I get on with that. If I find that I need more space, this can always be resolved easily later. The mSATA SSD mounted to the above PCI bracket and an appropriate cable connected to the IDE bus will get the QS up and running?
The bracket is just a passive mSATA-to-SATA adapter, so you'll need a SATA-to-IDE adapter as well (not the other way round!) to go to the QS' IDE bus. I have no personal experience with these though so can't comment on which ones to prefer or avoid.
EDIT: Unless you already have that bracket, I'd suggest an mSATA-to-IDE adapter instead many users here have had good experiences with.
I've used similar adapters with my Mini and iBook G3 and they work perfectly but for the QS this would also require purchasing an ATA 40 to 44 pin cable and a 2.5 to 3.5 cage so that the SSD fits properly within the HDD bay. The PCI bracket with a SATA to PATA/IDE adapter seems more straightforward as all I'd need to do then is connect it to the QS' IDE cable.
If you do that, get an adapter with a red PCB. I've heard those work better for this and I have one and it works flawlessly on my G4I've used similar adapters with my Mini and iBook G3 and they work perfectly but for the QS this would also require purchasing an ATA 40 to 44 pin cable and a 2.5 to 3.5 cage so that the SSD fits properly within the HDD bay. The PCI bracket with a SATA to PATA/IDE adapter seems more straightforward as all I'd need to do then is connect it to the QS' IDE cable.
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If you do that, get an adapter with a red PCB. I've heard those work better for this and I have one and it works flawlessly on my G4
Can you elaborate please about the red PCB adapter?
Well, somewhere in my research when I was looking into putting an SSD in my Power Mac G4, I read that the red PCB adapters work better/are more reliable. I forget where this was, but I bought a Startech-brand PATA/SATA bridge that had the red PCB off of NewEgg and it worked like a charm.
I can give you pictures of the box for mine if you'd like.
Thanks @RogerWilco6502, that does indeed help. ?
They're a tad expensive but at least you know for certain that they will work with your computer.
They're a tad expensive but at least you know for certain that they will work with your computer.
No problem! They are a bit expensive, I remember that from when I ordered mine.
@RogerWilco6502 I've got one of those. Maybe it's a very delicate part, but it started to fail on me a while later. Freezing and kernel panics whenever I was using a SATA drive with it from an IDE bus, but not when I was using a straight IDE HD.
This was on a B&W however, so who really knows...
This was on a B&W however, so who really knows...
Yeah, it is definitely a delicate part from how it feels. It doesn't feel cheaply-made by any means, but I do make sure not to stress the connectors too much on mine. It could indeed be the B&W, I've heard they're quite picky about hardware and such.
I use cheap $3 eBay Sata to pata adapters & cheap $20 128gb SSDs. They work great for perking up an old ppc g4 or g5 for around $25 usd - can’t beat that. OSX lives on the SSD. I usually keep an installation of OS9 on a 2nd spinner.
[automerge]1585188532[/automerge]
Nice looking QS BTW! Very cool
[automerge]1585188532[/automerge]
Nice looking QS BTW! Very cool