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G5 Mac Pro uses?

sjinsjca

sjinsjca

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 30, 2008
2,239
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I was given a G5 Mac Pro. What a lovely machine. So beautifully built. It seems to be intact, complete with a disk drive. Next is to clean it up and get it working. Then...

...Any suggestions? It's a true Objet d'Art, but I'd like it to be useful too.
 
Its a Powermac G5, not a Mac whatever Pro.
Still, running under Leopard Server it makes a great server (especially once you figure out how to put 3 or even 4 additional hard disks inside)
 
I used a G5 as a work station for Graphic Design for 8 and a half years. Adobe CS4, QuarkXPress 8.5.1, Acrobat 9.4.5 Pro, Suitcase Fusion 3, Office 2008.

Lots of ads, lots of newspapers went through that Mac and it handled the load just fine. My coworker is using it now as her machine doing the same exact thing.

Big tip to tell the difference between a PowerMac G5 and a Mac Pro. If it's got two optical drive doors in front it's a Mac Pro. If it only has one, its a PowerMac G5.
 
With the right software, those G5's are absolute workhorses. It's just a matter of finding the right software.
 
sjinsjca said:
I was given a G5 Mac Pro. What a lovely machine. So beautifully built. It seems to be intact, complete with a disk drive. Next is to clean it up and get it working. Then...

...Any suggestions? It's a true Objet d'Art, but I'd like it to be useful too.
Click to expand...

Here is some of the software I run on my G5 if it will help you any.

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
AQUADock's Signature Mountain Leopard Theme
Adobe CS2
TenFourFox with MacTubes Enabler
MacTubes
Adobe Reader
Mozilla Thunderbird
Microsoft Office 2008
iLife 09
iWork 09
iTunes 10.6.3
Xcode 3.1.4
Spotify
Skype 2.8

That is some of the things I use on my G5. What specs are yours?
 
eyoungren said:
I used a G5 as a work station for Graphic Design for 8 and a half years. Adobe CS4, QuarkXPress 8.5.1, Acrobat 9.4.5 Pro, Suitcase Fusion 3, Office 2008.

Lots of ads, lots of newspapers went through that Mac and it handled the load just fine. My coworker is using it now as her machine doing the same exact thing.

Big tip to tell the difference between a PowerMac G5 and a Mac Pro. If it's got two optical drive doors in front it's a Mac Pro. If it only has one, its a PowerMac G5.
Click to expand...

A small Cinema (I mean really small, like 30 seats ; you can make reservations with your friends if you want to enjoy a movie in the privacy of your group) in my town has a G5 hooked to a projector.
It was bought in 2006 and it's still working fine today, in 2014, after 8 years.
Awesome machines.
 
hamiltonDSi said:
A small Cinema (I mean really small, like 30 seats ; you can make reservations with your friends if you want to enjoy a movie in the privacy of your group) in my town has a G5 hooked to a projector.
It was bought in 2006 and it's still working fine today, in 2014, after 8 years.
Awesome machines.
Click to expand...
Wow!!!
 
hwojtek said:
Its a Powermac G5, not a Mac whatever Pro.
Still, running under Leopard Server it makes a great server (especially once you figure out how to put 3 or even 4 additional hard disks inside)
Click to expand...

Having stuffed two extra drives into my Dual 2.0, I'll say this: it is not easy. The G5's form, while beautiful and elegant, is a bitch to root around inside. The swinging door of the G4 series is so much easier to work with.
 
robertdsc said:
Having stuffed two extra drives into my Dual 2.0, I'll say this: it is not easy.
Click to expand...
True. It's not. However, once I've ripped the guts out an old noname PC case I ended up with a beautiful drive cage closely resembling the G5 Jive and capable of supporting three 3.5" HDDs (if tucked very, very tight) or two of them without any issues. Cable routing was quite easy and the total cost nears $ zero.
 
They still are useful for Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and other Adobe stuff. Sketchbook Pro 6 (I think?) and one of the older Bamboo tablets too.

Scrivener aswell, which is recent.

That's why I keep my iMac G4 anyway.
 
hwojtek said:
True. It's not. However, once I've ripped the guts out an old noname PC case I ended up with a beautiful drive cage closely resembling the G5 Jive and capable of supporting three 3.5" HDDs (if tucked very, very tight) or two of them without any issues. Cable routing was quite easy and the total cost nears $ zero.
Click to expand...

What worked for me was using a drive cage out of the G4 MDDs. I bought a spare cage on eBay and stood it on its end. I then bent the top tab that screws into the G4 case and bolted it to the screw in the bottom of the G5.

Gretzky.jpg
 
robertdsc said:
What worked for me was using a drive cage out of the G4 MDDs. I bought a spare cage on eBay and stood it on its end. I then bent the top tab that screws into the G4 case and bolted it to the screw in the bottom of the G5.
Click to expand...

Very clever, I like the use of the PM G4 cage. I am going to look into doing this with my G5. What SATA card did you use, did you just tap into power from the SuperDrive?
 
noodle654 said:
Very clever, I like the use of the PM G4 cage. I am going to look into doing this with my G5. What SATA card did you use, did you just tap into power from the SuperDrive?
Click to expand...


It is a SATA/ESATA card from OtherWorldComputing. I bought it on eBay for less than $20. After it came to the house, I tested it by installing it into my spare G4 MDD Dual 1.0 and plopped two spare SATA drives into the cage. It booted from the spare drive that had Leopard on it. I then transferred it into the G5 with the results you see.

Power is indeed drawn from the SuperDrive and I was lucky to have all the molex parts necessary for providing power to the two drives in the cage.

The drive to the left closest to the grill is a 2.5 inch 1TB drive. The drive on the right is a 250GB drive. Both work well in the time I've had the card and setup. Knock on wood.
 
gavinstubbs09 said:
If you need software I've been working on the PowerPC Archive (in my sig). Take a look!
Click to expand...

If you need any assistance with this project, please let me know. I have a large archive of PPC software, and I run servers, so I would be able to contribute.

Are you planning to use SQL to manage the software database?

I should also note that you cannot hack Flash 11.5 to work on PPC: You can hack older versions to report a false version number, to circumvent version checking on various websites.
 
gavinstubbs09 said:
If you need software I've been working on the PowerPC Archive (in my sig). Take a look!
Click to expand...

OT.

My G5 is OS 10.4.11. 2.1gHz, 1 gig DDR2. SDRam. Had little use really....
and due to lack of software...is used as a DVD player,
Did not see anything on your website...
 
Mainly use my G5 for school. I did try out the old Lightroom and Photoshop on it, it handled them pretty well, although my Quad i7 Obviously does the job better. Its a very nice backup/school/web browsing machine.
 
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