My iMac G5 17" just died this morning. I woke it from sleep mode and it froze up with vertical lines going down the screen. Now it gives me a blue screen with vertical lines whenever I boot it up. Judging by what I read from multiple sources, this is a logic board failure.
That being said I think I am finally ready to upgrade Intel and was wondering if any parts are interchangeable between the iMac G5 and a white Intel iMac? I figured I might be able to save some money if I can salvage the RAM, the HDD, the DVD drive, or maybe even the screen.
Also, given the iMac's susceptibility to logic board failure and other problems, should I buy a 2006 Intel iMac as I planned, or would it be more worth it to break the bank and buy a 2006 mac pro?
Be careful about buying a 2006 iMac. They are good, but stupid Nvidia put their defective chips in and many early Intel iMacs saw GPU failure. My brother used to have a perfectly good 24-inch Intel iMac. The whole thing was ruined because of Nvidia's chip. As for part compatibility, the first iMac G5s are very different from early Intel iMacs. I guess you could use the hard drive, but not much else. The iSight imac G5s are a little more similar, but that's mostly how the components are (badly) arranged inside the case. I would just strip the iMac of RAM that you could use somewhere else or sell, and get the HD out as well. iMac G5s look nice, so if you don't end up selling it for parts like we did with ours, it would make a good display ornament. BTW, I am not sure about the screen. I have the feeling some connection may be different or the resolution on the G5 screen won't be as good as on an Intel iMac.
----------
Yeah it looks like a Mac Pro is my safer bet. Judging by the immaculate lifespan of my Power Mac G4, It'll definitely last me a lot longer than the 10 months I had my iMac.
Also, are the early aluminum iMacs known for any problems? And how many RAM slots does a 2006 Mac Pro have?
My brother has a 2008 Mac Pro. I believe they may have 4 RAM slots. The thing is, RAM for older computers, especially Mac Pros, is a ton of money. They are great computers but have underpowered GPUs, and putting in a new one will require extra steps to make it compatible. I recently saw a 2.8Ghz 8-core 18GB RAM 2008 Mac Pro on eBay! Such an awesome deal at $616 w/free shipping. However, these things are better at doing multiple tasks at once than one thing, and it's a lot more work having an old tower than having any kind of all-in-one Mac from 2007 or later. Granted, I can see how the tower is obviously easier to fix if anything were to go wrong. As for buying an iMac, I would look at 2007 or later. I think you can get a 2007 iMac for like $300-400 dollars. I would say $300-350? I haven't looked at the prices lately. Again, stupid companies put their faulty hardware into iMacs. I believe 2010 and 2011 (maybe even 2012) iMacs received faulty hard disks. I don't know why Apple doesn't pay the same amount of money for ONLY Hitachi drives. They insist on sometimes putting stupid Seagate drives in their computers. We had to take ours in to get it fixed. It's a recall, so the only cost to you is your time... which is valuable for many people. If you want a used iMac, I would get a 2008-2009 one. (anything newer would obviously be a lot of money)
