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G5 buying advice

L

Lastic

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 19, 2016
879
757
North of the HellHole
I occasionaly look around if there are any interesting G3/G4/G5's to buy and found a nice listing , about an 1 hour/2 hour (depending on traffic) drive from my home.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g5/specs/powermac_g5_dual_2.3.html

The seller has it listed as ( so I think it's the above specs)

Powermac 11.2. Dual G5 Processor @2.3GHz. Late 2005. 5,5GB RAM. 250GB 5400rpm HDD. 16x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW). GeForce 6600. compleet en werkend. Originele stroomkabel, Apple keyboard en Mighty Mouse. - 120 EUR

I'm typing this on my G5 which I bought from Ebay Germany 2 years ago for 145 EUR , which has 5,5 GB RAM and has been upgraded with an OWC SSD, ATI Radeon 9650 over time , hooked up to 2 x 20" Cinema Displays.

Here are my current G5's specs :

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g5/specs/powermac_g5_2.0_dp_2.html

Do you think it would be worthwhile to sell my current one and buy the other one ?
It's basically my tinker box as you can tell from my posts and because of the dual-screen I use it a lot
also for my networking labs, might venture into audio and/or graphics one day if I have time.

What interests me personally in the one being sold is faster Processor, RAM can be upgraded to 16 GB and it looks in a nice condition , I can visually check it and talk to the seller.

What do you Gentlemen & Ladies think ?
 
Lastic said:
I occasionaly look around if there are any interesting G3/G4/G5's to buy and found a nice listing , about an 1 hour/2 hour (depending on traffic) drive from my home.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g5/specs/powermac_g5_dual_2.3.html

The seller has it listed as ( so I think it's the above specs)

Powermac 11.2. Dual G5 Processor @2.3GHz. Late 2005. 5,5GB RAM. 250GB 5400rpm HDD. 16x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW). GeForce 6600. compleet en werkend. Originele stroomkabel, Apple keyboard en Mighty Mouse. - 120 EUR

I'm typing this on my G5 which I bought from Ebay Germany 2 years ago for 145 EUR , which has 5,5 GB RAM and has been upgraded with an OWC SSD, ATI Radeon 9650 over time , hooked up to 2 x 20" Cinema Displays.

Here are my current G5's specs :

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g5/specs/powermac_g5_2.0_dp_2.html

Do you think it would be worthwhile to sell my current one and buy the other one ?
It's basically my tinker box as you can tell from my posts and because of the dual-screen I use it a lot
also for my networking labs, might venture into audio and/or graphics one day if I have time.

What interests me personally in the one being sold is faster Processor, RAM can be upgraded to 16 GB and it looks in a nice condition , I can visually check it and talk to the seller.

What do you Gentlemen & Ladies think ?
Click to expand...
I think you really want it or are seriously considering it.

If it's upgradeable to more than what you have now, a good price (to you) and you plan on using it then go and get it.

More ram is always useful!
 
If it's gonna be your tinkerbox, I could really recommend it. It has the best G5 processor, the 970MP, and the 16GB of RAM capability, which are great additions for such purposes. It's precisely why I'm so happy with my lucky Quad find, two 970MPs and the ability to upgrade the current 10GB to 16GB, allow me to do a lot of tinkering in OS X and Linux with the best PowerPC Macs have to offer.
 
The difference is PCIe over PCI-X among other things, so adding expansion cards means your options are greater and usually cheaper, not to mention graphics cards.
 
Dronecatcher said:
I'd hold out for a Quad as the machine you're looking at isn't a massive leap over what you already have.
Click to expand...

Low price, quality Quads have been hard to come by in Australia. So I was happy to settle with a good deal on a "don't know if it works" DC 2.0, which I overhauled and upgraded to a 2.3.

I can confirm, considering I have the DP 2.0 (7,2) with 8GB and a DC 2.3 (11,2) with 16GB, running side by side. The DC really does have a significant advantage in terms of speed. The DC feels faster and runs quieter and cooler.

I'd say go for it. Max out the RAM and if you want to, put in a Quadro FX 4500 (or Geforce 7800).

G5-DCvsDP.jpg

[doublepost=1506989796][/doublepost]The L2 cache is twice the size on the DC too.. I imagine that would account for a lot of the general snappiness.
 
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Thanks everybody for the advice, I will contact the seller and see how it goes, in the end this is also a huge deciding factor for me.

The seller has a lot more so I will have to struggle not to buy something on the side :D

The temptation list :

Server config:

-Xserve 1,1 slot load complete and working. Dual G4 procesor @1.33GHz. 2GB RAM. ATI VGA PCIe graphics. Fibrechannel card. 10/100/1000 Ethernet card. 4x 180GB 7200rpm Apple drive modules.

-Xserve 1,1 tray load with working ogicboard. Without powersupply, ram or hard drives. (4 Apple Drive Modules without HDD's) -

-Xserve RAID SFP. 9x 500GB 7200rpm Apple drive modules. Dual independent RAID controllers, 2GB/s up and down fibre channel link. With original Apple powercables.

-Xserve RAID. 14x 250GB 7200rpm Apple drive modules. Dual independent RAID controllers, 2GB/s up and down fibre channel link.

-HP Storageworks Fibrechannel switch 16 ports, 8GB/s throughput.

-6x Apple Original SFP Cable white.
-2x SFP fibercable.
-Manuals, disks and accessoires complete with the xserve RAID SFP.
-19" rack PDU with 8 EU AC sockets and main switch.
-19" rack flightcase 12U with 1m usable depth , front and back panel en rotating wheels. Case is like new.
-Xserve RAID rackmount hardware -boxed.
-Monitor HP with DVI and VGA input. USB hub.
Powercables included.

Computers:

-Powermac 7.3. Dual G5 Processor @2.0GHz. 5GB RAM. Mid 2004. 150GB 5400rpm HDD. 16x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW). SCSI expansion card. Complete and working. Original powercable, Apple Keyboard and Apple Pro mouse white.

-Powermac 11.2. Dual G5 Processor @2.3GHz. Late 2005. 5,5GB RAM. 250GB 5400rpm HDD. 16x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW). GeForce 6600. complete and working. Original powercable, Apple keyboard and Mighty Mouse.

Fibrechannel card in each G5.

-Powermac 3.3. Single G4 Processor @450MHz. 'Gigabit Ethernet'. 2 GB PC100 RAM. 20GB 5400rpm HDD. Original powercable. Including Apple Pro keyboard and Apple Pro mouse black

-iMac 1. Bondi Blue. G3 Processor @233MHz. Tray load 24X CD-ROM. 32MB RAM. 6GB HDD. Complete with assorted keyboard and puck mouse. Including Imation SuperDisk (same color). Bunch of diskettes. Original powercable.

-iBook 2.1. Blueberry 'Clamshell'. G3 Processor @300MHz. 64MB RAM. 6GB HDD. Tray load CD 24X CD-ROM. With original adapter and battery. Accessoires box with Apple Mic, manuals and disks.-

-identical iBook with broken HDD.

-Mac Mini 3.1. Core 2 Duo @2.0GHz. Early 2009. 1GB RAM. 120GB HDD. 8X SuperDrive.

-iMac 5.1. Core 2 Duo. 17"
-2x Apple Cinema Displays with ADC connector.

-Apple ADC to DVI converter.

Extra's:

LaCie HDD 500GBx2 in RAID0 FireWire800.
Adobe publishing collection.
Random stuff en accessoires.
 
A treasure trove of goodies!

What else would you be interested in? The working Xserve1,1 stands out. It all depends on if you have a use for it though.

The guys I bought the G4 twins from sent me a 3 page spreadsheet of their PowerPC systems. I've got to go through it with a fine toothed comb and bring out the all-deciding red pen. Fortunately, they sent me serials for most of the machines so I can do my research first.
 
AphoticD said:
The DC feels faster and runs quieter and cooler.
Click to expand...

I'll concede that's a significant improvement. From experience, overkill RAM and high end GPU I never found made an ounce of difference.
I pretty much do the same stuff on my DP 2.3 that I did on my Quad - although the Quad could do 4K video which the 2.3 can't.
 
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I had a choice between the DC2.3 and the 2.0 and went for the latter. Reading up, it seemed as if the 2.3 was still capable of making a racket when stressed, whilst the 2.0 kept its cool. The marginal increase in oomph didn't trump the noise pollution for me. For that reason, the Xserves never interested me in a home environment.

Out of that treasure trove, I would be looking at the the blue Clamshells, the ACDs, the ADC converter and the Mac Mini. Possibly the GE G4 if it has a GeForce 3 inside.
 
Lastic said:
The seller has a lot more so I will have to struggle not to buy something on the side :D

The temptation list :

Server config:

-Xserve 1,1 slot load complete and working. Dual G4 procesor @1.33GHz. 2GB RAM. ATI VGA PCIe graphics. Fibrechannel card. 10/100/1000 Ethernet card. 4x 180GB 7200rpm Apple drive modules.

-Xserve 1,1 tray load with working ogicboard. Without powersupply, ram or hard drives. (4 Apple Drive Modules without HDD's) -

-Xserve RAID SFP. 9x 500GB 7200rpm Apple drive modules. Dual independent RAID controllers, 2GB/s up and down fibre channel link. With original Apple powercables.
Click to expand...

If you're buying an XServe, I've heard they require some earplugs too:p
 
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And Saturday I will go and pick-up my early birthday present to myself at a total of 600 EUR.

-Xserve 1,1 slot load complete and working. Dual G4 procesor @1.33GHz. 2GB RAM. ATI VGA PCIe graphics. Fibrechannel card. 10/100/1000 Ethernet card. 4x 180GB 7200rpm Apple drive modules

-Xserve RAID SFP. 9x 500GB 7200rpm Apple drive modules. Dual independent RAID controllers, 2GB/s up and down fibre channel link. With original Apple powercables

-HP Storageworks Fibrechannel switch 16 ports, 8GB/s throughput.

-2x SFP fibercable.
-Manuals, disks and accessoires complete with the xserve RAID SFP.

-19" rack flightcase 12U with 1m usable depth , front and back panel en rotating wheels. Case is like new.

-Xserve RAID rackmount hardware -boxed.

-Powermac 11.2. Dual G5 Processor @2.3GHz. Late 2005. 5,5GB RAM. 250GB 5400rpm HDD. 16x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW). GeForce 6600. complete and working. Original powercable, Apple keyboard and Mighty Mouse.

Fibrechannel card in each G5.
 
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Lastic said:
And Saturday I will go and pick-up my early birthday present to myself at a total of 600 EUR.

-Xserve 1,1 slot load complete and working. Dual G4 procesor @1.33GHz. 2GB RAM. ATI VGA PCIe graphics. Fibrechannel card. 10/100/1000 Ethernet card. 4x 180GB 7200rpm Apple drive modules

-Xserve RAID SFP. 9x 500GB 7200rpm Apple drive modules. Dual independent RAID controllers, 2GB/s up and down fibre channel link. With original Apple powercables

-HP Storageworks Fibrechannel switch 16 ports, 8GB/s throughput.

-2x SFP fibercable.
-Manuals, disks and accessoires complete with the xserve RAID SFP.

-19" rack flightcase 12U with 1m usable depth , front and back panel en rotating wheels. Case is like new.

-Xserve RAID rackmount hardware -boxed.

-Powermac 11.2. Dual G5 Processor @2.3GHz. Late 2005. 5,5GB RAM. 250GB 5400rpm HDD. 16x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW). GeForce 6600. complete and working. Original powercable, Apple keyboard and Mighty Mouse.

Fibrechannel card in each G5.
Click to expand...

Happy early birthday.
 
Lastic said:
And Saturday I will go and pick-up my early birthday present to myself at a total of 600 EUR.

-Xserve 1,1 slot load complete and working. Dual G4 procesor @1.33GHz. 2GB RAM. ATI VGA PCIe graphics. Fibrechannel card. 10/100/1000 Ethernet card. 4x 180GB 7200rpm Apple drive modules

-Xserve RAID SFP. 9x 500GB 7200rpm Apple drive modules. Dual independent RAID controllers, 2GB/s up and down fibre channel link. With original Apple powercables

-HP Storageworks Fibrechannel switch 16 ports, 8GB/s throughput.

-2x SFP fibercable.
-Manuals, disks and accessoires complete with the xserve RAID SFP.

-19" rack flightcase 12U with 1m usable depth , front and back panel en rotating wheels. Case is like new.

-Xserve RAID rackmount hardware -boxed.

-Powermac 11.2. Dual G5 Processor @2.3GHz. Late 2005. 5,5GB RAM. 250GB 5400rpm HDD. 16x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW). GeForce 6600. complete and working. Original powercable, Apple keyboard and Mighty Mouse.

Fibrechannel card in each G5.
Click to expand...

That's an impressive purchase! I think you better put everything else on hold. You'll be busy for some time.. ;)

I take it you're a networking pro (or possibly student?).
 
AphoticD said:
That's an impressive purchase! I think you better put everything else on hold. You'll be busy for some time.. ;)

I take it you're a networking pro (or possibly student?).
Click to expand...

I told myself this would be the last PowerPC purchase , but haven't done the same for network gear yet .

Yup, working as a Network Engineer , this Sunday will be racking time, configs will be during the week.
Didn't need the RAID really but felt at this price , I could learn how to setup a RAID and the whole FibreChannel config , got some Cisco Switches also with Fiber .

The G5 will replace my current one , which I will sell along with my iBook .
The Xserve will probably be either my build server or something, haven't decided yet.

The current Intel Xserve is an eve-ng bare metal machine for running labs.
The HP will become a syslog or something server.
The Sun Fire will probably run different Servers in LDOMs.

Still got a lot of stuff to learn, IT never stops evolving
 
Lastic said:
I told myself this would be the last PowerPC purchase , but haven't done the same for network gear yet .
Click to expand...

It’s a tough habit to quit. I had my Power collection whittled down to just one (a G5 in storage). 10 months later and I’m back up to 11: 5x PowerBooks, 5x Power Macs and a G4 mini.

Lastic said:
Yup, working as a Network Engineer , this Sunday will be racking time, configs will be during the week.
Didn't need the RAID really but felt at this price , I could learn how to setup a RAID and the whole FibreChannel config , got some Cisco Switches also with Fiber .

The G5 will replace my current one , which I will sell along with my iBook .
The Xserve will probably be either my build server or something, haven't decided yet.

The current Intel Xserve is an eve-ng bare metal machine for running labs.
The HP will become a syslog or something server.
The Sun Fire will probably run different Servers in LDOMs.

Still got a lot of stuff to learn, IT never stops evolving
Click to expand...

Imagine how much this haul would have cost as new? At _least_ $10k
 
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Well it was worth it.

Unfortunately the 19" rack didn't fit in my car so I will have to go back with another car to pick that one up later next week so the Xserve and RAID will not be running yet so no datacenter pics :)

I did swap my SSD from the 7.3 G5 to the 11.2 and am typing this on the new G5 as you read it.

Picture 7.png

First impressions

  1. It's a lot snappier especially on browsers, they startup instantly and page loads and scrolling are like a 2017 machine
  2. Random remark , I can launch the minecraft.jar using OpenJDK 1.7 but can't play offline
  3. It shows one of both Gigabit Ethernet adapters as "Airport" should I install drivers or a custom build Leopard ?
  4. It has a louder idle hum as the 7.3 but it's looks to be more silent under pressure
 
Last edited:
Lastic said:
Well it was worth it.

Unfortunately the 19" rack didn't fit in my car so I will have to go back with another car to pick that one up later next week so the Xserve and RAID will not be running yet so no datacenter pics :)

I did swap my SSD from the 7.3 G5 to the 11.2 and am typing this on the new G5 as you read it.

View attachment 724307
First impressions

  1. It's a lot snappier especially on browsers, they startup instantly and page loads and scrolling are like a 2017 machine
  2. Random remark , I can launch the minecraft.jar using OpenJDK 1.7 but can't play offline
  3. It shows one of both Gigabit Ethernet adapters as "Airport" should I install drivers or a custom build Leopard ?
  4. It has a louder idle hum as the 7.3 but it's looks to be more silent under pressure
Click to expand...

Nice! You might need to invest in a van!

Maybe try resetting your network configuration. I take it your 7,3 had an AE card and the OS has just reassigned things to fit in with the old config.

It’s definitely an Ethernet port. :)

It won’t need a custom build of Leopard. They shipped with 10.4.2, so anything later should support all of its features.

My experience was that the 11,2 idles quieter than two of my 7,2’s, but maybe the 7,3 was quieter? Could just need a dust blow out and a fresh coat of thermal paste on the DC CPU.

At least the 6600 GPU is silent and quite capable compared to the older standard 9600 and FX 5200.

Time to max out the RAM! I spent around AU$80 for 8x2GB from HK. You might find a better deal closer to home.

Looking forward to some pics of all the new gear! :apple:
 
AphoticD said:
Nice! You might need to invest in a van!

Maybe try resetting your network configuration. I take it your 7,3 had an AE card and the OS has just reassigned things to fit in with the old config.

It’s definitely an Ethernet port. :)

It won’t need a custom build of Leopard. They shipped with 10.4.2, so anything later should support all of its features.

My experience was that the 11,2 idles quieter than two of my 7,2’s, but maybe the 7,3 was quieter? Could just need a dust blow out and a fresh coat of thermal paste on the DC CPU.

At least the 6600 GPU is silent and quite capable compared to the older standard 9600 and FX 5200.

Time to max out the RAM! I spent around AU$80 for 8x2GB from HK. You might find a better deal closer to home.

Looking forward to some pics of all the new gear! :apple:
Click to expand...

Company car , so can't be complaining, just have to ask a friend with a 5 door car , my trunk was already filled with all the other stuff and backseat wasn't an option.

Typing this whilst running a very snappy Win7 qemu VM , which seems to spread the 100% CPU load on both cores so even with Roccat open my total CPU load is 70% at peak , impressive.

The seller told me he had cleaned all of them internally and the exterior which I believe, guessing the 7.3 was more of a pitch and this 11.2 has more fans I think adding to the hum but bearable, it's behaving so it can stay in the living room.

Yup , going to order the RAM this afternoon (10:49 AM here) , it now has DDR2, PC2-4200U-444 according to SysProfiler, is that the type I need ?
 
Lastic said:
Company car , so can't be complaining, just have to ask a friend with a 5 door car , my trunk was already filled with all the other stuff and backseat wasn't an option.

Typing this whilst running a very snappy Win7 qemu VM , which seems to spread the 100% CPU load on both cores so even with Roccat open my total CPU load is 70% at peak , impressive.

The seller told me he had cleaned all of them internally and the exterior which I believe, guessing the 7.3 was more of a pitch and this 11.2 has more fans I think adding to the hum but bearable, it's behaving so it can stay in the living room.

Yup , going to order the RAM this afternoon (10:49 AM here) , it now has DDR2, PC2-4200U-444 according to SysProfiler, is that the type I need ?
Click to expand...

That’s it (533Mhz). I’ve read that the 11,2 can take 4GB sticks for a total of 32GB, but Leopard can only see 16GB of it. If you intend to run Linux, I understand it will address all 32GB.

Chances are though that 16GB will do on a G5. In my experience, QEMU/KVM ppc64 VMs can be assigned a maximum of 1792MB each, so that’s worth considering when looking at a RAM capacity.
 
Lastic said:
  1. It shows one of both Gigabit Ethernet adapters as "Airport" should I install drivers or a custom build Leopard
Click to expand...
I think you can just rename the Airport service to Ethernet 2 or whatever you like and be done with it.

I had an similar issue with an fresh El Capitan install on my MBP and finally just renamed the service and had no further issue with it.

I also got concerned about it first like you and even chatted with Apple Support and they wanted me to finally reset PRAM, NVRAM etc.
I decided against the recommendations and just renamed it.
 
Last edited:
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philgxxd said:
I think you can just rename the Airport service to Ethernet 2 or whatever you like and be done with it.

I had an similar issue with an fresh El Capitan install on my MBP and finally just renamed the service and had no further issue with it.

I also got concerned about it first like you and even chatted with Apple Support and they wanted me to finally reset PRAM, NVRAM etc.
I decided against the recommendations and just renamed it.
Click to expand...

Renaming it should be enough.

I can recall doing a full reset of the network config by deleting;

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist

Reboot and then visit the Network prefs and it will auto-configure all of the interfaces.
 
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