Found a G5

[cw48494]

So I picked up a PowerMac G5 while thrifting for $60, turns out it's a quad with a 7800gt and 4gb ram, threw in an SSD and installed Leopard. Now I'm here, knowing nothing of PPC.

Ordered a few games, should be arriving in the mail any day. Prey, COD2 and a couple misc.

Anything I should know/do to enhance usability?

 

[eyoungren]

Well. You pretty much got the top of the line with all options PowerMac G5. Normally I'd suggest optimizing Leopard, but you have a Quad.

However, if you use it to web browse you might want to take a look at TenFourFox. It's a fork of Firefox for PowerPC based Macs.. There is a link in my signature to optimize it.

 

[MacCubed]

Well. You pretty much got the top of the link with all options PowerMac G5. Normally I'd suggest optimizing Leopard, but you have a Quad.

However, if you use it to web browse you might want to take a look at TenFourFox. It's a fork of Firefox for PowerPC based Macs.. There is a link in my signature to optimize it.

100% recommend these tweaks! Erik did a great job and with these, TFF isn't slow on my PowerBook!

 

[redheeler]

So I picked up a PowerMac G5 while thrifting for $60, turns out it's a quad with a 7800gt and 4gb ram, threw in an SSD and installed Leopard. Now I'm here, knowing nothing of PPC.

Ordered a few games, should be arriving in the mail any day. Prey, COD2 and a couple misc.

Anything I should know/do to enhance usability?

What a nice find. A quad G5 is as good as it gets in the PPC world. Enjoy.

100% recommend these tweaks! Erik did a great job and with these, TFF isn't slow on my PowerBook!

I suppose I should give them a try on a few of my PPCs then.

 

[MacCubed]

What a nice find. A quad G5 is as good as it gets in the PPC world. Enjoy.

And for $60?? That's a steal!! I got my DP G5 for 60 bucks

 

[RedCroissant]

So I picked up a PowerMac G5 while thrifting for $60, turns out it's a quad with a 7800gt and 4gb ram, threw in an SSD and installed Leopard. Now I'm here, knowing nothing of PPC.

Ordered a few games, should be arriving in the mail any day. Prey, COD2 and a couple misc.

Anything I should know/do to enhance usability?

Disabling spotlight is something I'd recommend but not something that's necessary given that it's a Quad. Congratulations to you!

I would start out with the following apps:
1.) Monolingual (for getting rid of the Intel code in Leopard that you don't need),
2.) AppCleaner,
3.) Carbon Copy Cloner (making easy clones of your HDD for easy transfer to another),
4.) Real Player (for the fun of downloading awesomeness including Pandora music),
5.) VLC (for playing anything that Quicktime won't,
6.) Perian preferences pane,
7.) Boxer (for emulating DOS games),
8.) NEStopia (for emulating Nintendo games), and
9.) Stainless (web browser based on Safari/Webkit that's really fast and with a very simple interface).

Have fun!!

 

[Altemose]

Alternatively, you can use this tweak file to automatically use eyoungren's tweaks. Check out the thread here.

 

[cw48494]

Thanks guys! Lots of help. Anybody know how to get flash working?

Also, somebody recommended I try WebKit, is that better than TFF?

E: Bought some more games. Doom 3, Quake 4 and Halo: CE.

 

[Altemose]

Anybody know how to get flash working?

Also, somebody recommended I try WebKit, is that better than TFF?

Adobe Flash support stopped after version 10.1. This left us PPC users with a poor performing, insecure, plug in that is no longer usable. There are hacks out there to spoof the version number to something like Flash 11, but they only change the version number and leave them vulnerable. I would recommend avoiding Flash and using HTML 5 or alternatives where you can. TenFourFox does not support the use of plugins any longer, and therefore is limited to technologies like HTML 5. That is a great thing because Cameron Keiser, the developer of TenFourFox built it with optimizing HTML 5 in mind.

Leopard WebKit is going to be a bit faster than TenFourFox, but lacks the overall expandability (through add ons) and customization that TenFourFox offers. You can use both browsers simultaneously, so it is not a bad idea to have a copy on your system. Keep in mind that TenFourFox is the most secure and up to date browser, so any sort of private matters like banking should be performed through TenFourFox.

 

[Surrat]

Adobe Flash support stopped after version 10.1. This left us PPC users with a poor performing, insecure, plug in that is no longer usable. There are hacks out there to spoof the version number to something like Flash 11, but they only change the version number and leave them vulnerable. I would recommend avoiding Flash and using HTML 5 or alternatives where you can. TenFourFox does not support the use of plugins any longer, and therefore is limited to technologies like HTML 5. That is a great thing because Cameron Keiser, the developer of TenFourFox built it with optimizing HTML 5 in mind.

Leopard WebKit is going to be a bit faster than TenFourFox, but lacks the overall expandability (through add ons) and customization that TenFourFox offers. You can use both browsers simultaneously, so it is not a bad idea to have a copy on your system. Keep in mind that TenFourFox is the most secure and up to date browser, so any sort of private matters like banking should be performed through TenFourFox.

Congrats on finding a quad with 7800gt for so cheap!
Very good advice here, I also recommend TenFourFox as your browser of choice. Its completely up to date, and as safe as you can possibly get on PowerPC. Read up on the G5 Quad to learn about its setup, especially its water cooling system, thats something you need to keep an eye on. You can have up to 16gig ram in there, if you wanted, and also a Quadro fx4500 512mb video card.

Oh, as far as flash goes, forget it. There is no safe version for powerpc, NONE.
Forget about flash on that system and dont even install it.

 

[jbarley]

cw48494 - I have the very same unit as yours, I did install an SSD and upgraded the video card to a 512mb Quadro fx4500 and it runs like a dream.
I still cannot believe what with all the fans in this beast (10 at last count) it still runs quiet enough to sit on my desk less then 2 feet from me, totally unreal.

 

[WalnutSpice]

Well. You pretty much got the top of the line with all options PowerMac G5. Normally I'd suggest optimizing Leopard, but you have a Quad.

However, if you use it to web browse you might want to take a look at TenFourFox. It's a fork of Firefox for PowerPC based Macs.. There is a link in my signature to optimize it.

I have a Dual 1.8GHz G5 with Leopard. It runs pretty fast and I've done a few things to optimize it. Any tips for me that I may not know of? I see some people are disabling Spotlight on G4's, but my G5 can stream 720p YouTube, so I think it can handle spotlight just fine.

 

[WalnutSpice]

Congrats on finding a quad with 7800gt for so cheap!
Very good advice here, I also recommend TenFourFox as your browser of choice. Its completely up to date, and as safe as you can possibly get on PowerPC. Read up on the G5 Quad to learn about its setup, especially its water cooling system, thats something you need to keep an eye on. You can have up to 16gig ram in there, if you wanted, and also a Quadro fx4500 512mb video card.

Oh, as far as flash goes, forget it. There is no safe version for powerpc, NONE.
Forget about flash on that system and dont even install it.

Flash 10 runs great on my G5, performs worlds better than HTML 5. I've been using it as my main PC for a few months now (Not by choice, my PC fried) and it's been great. Plays 720p YouTube, runs iMovie 09(Not great, but it is 11 years old with the original GeForce 5200), internet browsing in Safari 5 is perfect with no slow downs. I have no viruses and everything is running great. If you're careful with what you're doing, it'll be okay. I definitely wouldn't run it as a long term main computer though. But for an in-between PC it'll get the job done, even with Flash 10.

 

[MacCubed]

Flash 10 runs great on my G5, performs worlds better than HTML 5. I've been using it as my main PC for a few months now (Not by choice, my PC fried) and it's been great. Plays 720p YouTube, runs iMovie 09(Not great, but it is 11 years old with the original GeForce 5200), internet browsing in Safari 5 is perfect with no slow downs. I have no viruses and everything is running great. If you're careful with what you're doing, it'll be okay. I definitely wouldn't run it as a long term main computer though. But for an in-between PC it'll get the job done, even with Flash 10.

The reason That flash runs better is that you are using safari, use TenFourFox! HTML 5 works fine on both my G4 and G5. Safari 5 is so outdated, and using flash with that is not a good combo. It screams security flaws

 

[Hrududu]

The reason That flash runs better is that you are using safari, use TenFourFox! HTML 5 works fine on both my G4 and G5. Safari 5 is so outdated, and using flash with that is not a good combo. It screams security flaws

Flash and Safari may be insecure, but some of us still like having YouTube playback thats higher than 360p which is something you don't get with TFF. YouTube is still one area that I use Safari and Flash on with my G5 systems.

 

[MacCubed]

Flash and Safari may be insecure, but some of us still like having YouTube playback thats higher than 360p which is something you don't get with TFF. YouTube is still one area that I use Safari and Flash on with my G5 systems.

That's why I use QuickTime enabler works with up to 1080p. Great tweak, it plays YouTube videos outside of the browser window, almost like what MacTubes and YouView did but in QuickTime

 

[eyoungren]

I have a Dual 1.8GHz G5 with Leopard. It runs pretty fast and I've done a few things to optimize it. Any tips for me that I may not know of? I see some people are disabling Spotlight on G4's, but my G5 can stream 720p YouTube, so I think it can handle spotlight just fine.

Try the Secrets Prefpane. You can turn off lots of eye candy (animation) with it, turn off BeamSync (useless for Macs not using CRT monitors) as well as generally "optimizing" your system.

Keep in mind if you ever use this on any Mac that DOES have a CRT monitor you do NOT ever want to disable BeamSync. One user here didn't listen and borked his Leopard install.

 

[MacCubed]

Try the Secrets Prefpane. You can turn off lots of eye candy (animation) with it, turn off BeamSync (useless for Macs not using CRT monitors) as well as generally "optimizing" your system.

Keep in mind if you ever use this on any Mac that DOES have a CRT monitor you do NOT ever want to disable BeamSync. One user here didn't listen and borked his Leopard install.

I don't use my CRT with my G5, but what happens if you do??

 

[eyoungren]

BeamSync is vertical sync. You need it for CRT monitors to work with OS X. Turn if off and your CRT no workie with the Mac that has this turned off.

If you happen to be using an eMac or other Mac where the CRT is the primary monitor though…well…this happens

 

[Dark Void]

COD2

I'm assuming you mean Call of Duty? This is literally the best COD game. I remember when COD4 came out, and since it was simply called Modern Warfare, everyone thought it was the first game of the franchise - particularly console gamers. I was a PC gamer at the time and just kept to myself and cringed every time I heard a conversation about it.

Congrats on your G5. Sounds like you got quite a deal there.

 

[Altemose]

Keep in mind if you ever use this on any Mac that DOES have a CRT monitor you do NOT ever want to disable BeamSync. One user here didn't listen and borked his Leopard install.

Things like this is the reason why people should read whole threads and fully understand what they are trying on their systems...

 

[cw48494]

Alright, upgrading to 16gb ram albeit quite overkill. I'm running my g5 at 2560x1440 until I find a cheap 27"-30" 2560x1600 apple cinema display and all is well, although the system is fairly loud, like 60db; I'm planning to replace the thermal compound, but before I do, what is a good program to monitor temperature and where can I get it? The lcs looks fine, can't find any reason to believe it's leaked/leaking.

E: Scratch that, just found a program called XRG that's working, apparently my cores are running a little warm. CPU B1 hit 201F without doing anything too intensive. I suppose I will be opening this sucker up.

EE: Looks like cores idle around 100F, not sure if cause for concern.

EEE: Okay, final observation, issue with CPU B. I never see CPU A go above 120F whereas CPU B hits 200F.

 

[eyoungren]

I can't give you too much info on the G5 temps. I used a G5 for years, but it was a single. Temps were always around 120-130º or so, but I never paid attention when the machine was busy.

My iMac G5 though regularly hits 160º or so. Which scared me at first until I found out that that was a normal temperature range.

Still, 200º seems high.

BTW, iStatMenus is a good menubar item that not only monitors temp, but a bunch of other things.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1932210/istatmenus2.0.zip

 

[Altemose]

200 is a bit warm even for a high clock G5.

 

[WalnutSpice]

The reason That flash runs better is that you are using safari, use TenFourFox! HTML 5 works fine on both my G4 and G5. Safari 5 is so outdated, and using flash with that is not a good combo. It screams security flaws

I use my G5 as my main machine at the moment and have been a few months now. I do use TenFourFox at times but it stresses my CPU and makes everything slower. Also I watch a lot of YouTube, which Safari 5 and Flash 10 handles great. TenFourFox with YouTube's HTML 5 player doesn't work at all. I've also had no security issues.