I've been wondering...who still uses a PowerPC as a daily driver? And what specs are you using it with?
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Any Daily Drivers?
- Thread starter WirelessFidelity
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Daily Driver: 2.5Ghz Quad Core PowerMac G5, 16GB ram, 1TB hard drive, 4TB secondary drive, six displays (Radeon X1900XT, 2xNVIDIA 6600).
Daily Driver: 17" PowerBook G4 1Ghz (A1013), 2GB ram, 120GB HD (PowerMac G5 on right is a 2.7DP G5, 3.5GB ram, 320GB HD.
Second daily driver…PowerMac G5 2.3DC, 6.5GB ram, 1TB HD, 1TB secondary drive, six displays, (NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500, 2xNVIDIA 6600).
You might be interested in this thread as it's the main thread for posting our Macs: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/post-your-powerpc-setup.1399769/
Daily Driver: 17" PowerBook G4 1Ghz (A1013), 2GB ram, 120GB HD (PowerMac G5 on right is a 2.7DP G5, 3.5GB ram, 320GB HD.
Second daily driver…PowerMac G5 2.3DC, 6.5GB ram, 1TB HD, 1TB secondary drive, six displays, (NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500, 2xNVIDIA 6600).
You might be interested in this thread as it's the main thread for posting our Macs: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/post-your-powerpc-setup.1399769/
Like @eyoungren, there are a few regulars here that use PowerPC Macs as daily drivers, but I don’t believe there are many who are PowerPC exclusive.
Multiple machines bridge multiple gaps and if a workflow suits one architecture better, that’s what will be used. Although for the most part, the community here has attempted to bring as much functionality to PowerPC machines as possible through different tips, tricks, tweaks and hacks.
Which PowerPC do you have?
I own a G4 Cube. It is stock except for a new HDD and 1.5 gigs of RAM. I use a Optiplex and a school issued Chromebook for work.
Nice one. I hope to acquire a Cube at a decent price one day.
The G4 is capable of running Leopard (via LeopardAssist), which would possibly provide the most compatible experience via WebKit. You may want to fit a better GPU though, from what I understand, the smaller profile Geforce 6200 (flashed for Mac) is the best choice for the Cube.
Tiger will run faster and provide you with the Classic environment.
What kind of purpose do you intend to use the Cube for?
The G4 is capable of running Leopard (via LeopardAssist), which would possibly provide the most compatible experience via WebKit. You may want to fit a better GPU though, from what I understand, the smaller profile Geforce 6200 (flashed for Mac) is the best choice for the Cube.
Tiger will run faster and provide you with the Classic environment.
What kind of purpose do you intend to use the Cube for?
If the iPad does not count...I am PowerPC exclusive
Browsing Lightweight websites, perhaps. YouTube will be a frustrating experience, even with workarounds.
Leopard/SMtube/360P/mplayer with hard frame drop options or Coreplayer
Tiger/Tonvid FoxBox/PPC media centre or youtube-dl/360P download and play in mplayer or Coreplayer
At a real pinch drop to 240P
If I upgraded the Cube with a GPU like this, would web browsing and YouTube improve slightly? And how exactly would I mod it with that card? I think I need to tape some pins, and I know I need to flash it with a rom (don't know what rom though), and I need to modify the faceplate. Would it be a worthwhile upgrade?
One other issue: the slot loading DVD drive ejects very weak, it needs my help to eject it fully. Any way to lubricate or fix it?
The video card isn't the problem with YouTube playback, its the 450-500MHz CPU. YouTube gets worse year after year for legacy hardware, and you're just not going to have much luck with a system that old. Even "fast" single G4s are having more trouble with YouTube than they were even a couple years back.
That's definitely the case when playing in browser but the methods I listed will work at 450Mhz - at least at the moment anyway.
Not really. No GPU really will. A lot of that processing is targeted at the CPU.
It helps with games and graphic intensive apps, but processing code (internet) is mostly CPU dependent.
So my daily driver duties are split up between these three PPC macs, top most gets the most use, 2nd & 3rd down etc.
Powermac G5 dual 2.0Ghz, 4GB DDR ram 10.5.8
Powerbook 1.67Ghz 2GB DDR 10.5.8
Powermac G4 dual 1.0Ghz 1.5GB PC133 10.5.8
I also have a number of intel macs - my 08 aluminum unibody macbook gets a good amount of attention as well for when I req/benefit from a more modern OSX. Anyhoo, my ppc boxes clean up and get it done for me most of the time - even in-browser youtube works respectably well @360p for me. Is it YT on my 08AUMB or my ipad or iphone6? Nah not even close & frankly, I don't expect it to be. Is it acceptably usable as-is for my needs today? Yep.
PPC macs rock. My QS is still my fav
Powermac G5 dual 2.0Ghz, 4GB DDR ram 10.5.8
Powerbook 1.67Ghz 2GB DDR 10.5.8
Powermac G4 dual 1.0Ghz 1.5GB PC133 10.5.8
I also have a number of intel macs - my 08 aluminum unibody macbook gets a good amount of attention as well for when I req/benefit from a more modern OSX. Anyhoo, my ppc boxes clean up and get it done for me most of the time - even in-browser youtube works respectably well @360p for me. Is it YT on my 08AUMB or my ipad or iphone6? Nah not even close & frankly, I don't expect it to be. Is it acceptably usable as-is for my needs today? Yep.
PPC macs rock. My QS is still my fav
If your Cube has a Rage 128 card, then yes you’ll see some improvement with Quartz Extreme support that you’ll gain. That does help with standard stuff like window scaling and scrolling. Though you’ll see most of that same improvement with a much cheaper card like a Radeon 7500.
It can be used for the purpose you asked about but you have to be realistic, it's 16/17 years old - it's not going to be anywhere near the performance of a modern computer as the web now is full of junk the machine was not designed to wade through.
The enjoyment will come from exporing what you can get it do - the workarounds, the optimisations, the tweaking etc...if that is not your thing and you just want a job done, you need to look elsewhere.
As it stands it can still do great things - afterall, it was a premium computer in it's time. It will serve as a music station - iTunes and Spotify, you can write/record music with it with period software - the same extends to graphic design and movie editing.
Perhaps the best use would be to make a dedicated retro gamestation - particularly if you run OS9 on it, along with native games, there's many emulators it will run too - SNES, PS1, Gameboy, ZX Spectrum etc etc
The DVD drive is easily fixed. You'll need to remove it (see iFixit), then open it up. I'm pretty sure there's a rubber roller or similar in there that becomes shiny. Just give it a clean with isopropyl alcohol and the disks will soon be flying out the top of the Cube (or at least, fully ejecting). Worth cleaning the laser lens with a q-tip and alcohol at the same time, and might as well clean / re-silicone grease sliders / gears that have dried up grease on them too.
Turning the Cube on it's side will also work if you're too lazy for the above.
I use an iBook G4 12" Tiger every day, or rather every evening. I use it at a quiet time of day mostly for internet radio, visit a few low-tech message board (like this one) and browse ebay. UK radio is rubbish so I connect with more interesting stations as I wind down. I tend not to access YouTube or visit complex modern websites, I use a more modern desktop for that. So with those limitations I do tend to get good use out of the thing. Besides, it was... free!