G5 Quad 2.5 upgrade

[Mark.g4]

Finally,
after much searching online I managed to find a G5 quad 2.5 in excellent condition.
2.5 Ghz
8GB Ram
6600 256MB
Cinema display
Keyboard and mouse

I'm happy, all in very good condition.
No leak from water cooling, and and excellent working temperatures.

I'm looking for upgrades:
I saw that the BT-Wifi card is not present, what do you recommend me to do, buy the original wifi card?
Which video card do you recommend?

I have already bought a first series wireless keyboard and the first wireless mouse to complete the series.

I would also like to get a 30" cinema display.
Sooner or later I'll be able to find a display at a good price.

 

[evanboonie]

The original BT-WiFi cards are quite hard to find and pretty expensive these days. It is possible to install an old AirPort Extreme card in the same slot to get just WiFi as long as you are willing to re-wire the antenna or install an external one. The connector on the stock antenna cable won't fit an airport card. If you want to use the stock antenna, it will require removing the logic board to remove the stock cable and soldering the new cable on to the original antenna PCB. I used this cable I found on Amazon; it required cutting away some of the metal on the AirPort card, but it works perfectly.

A somewhat easy upgrade would be a SSD. The SATA bus on these machines is picky and only some drives work. I remember seeing a post around here somewhere that lists known working ones, but I know that the OWC Mercury Electra 3G works.

You could also upgrade the video card. The best ones you will be able to fit in this machine under OSX are a Quadro FX 4500 (really difficult to find), GeForce 7800 GT, or Radeon 1900 GT (flashed PC cards are usually cheaper than stock Mac cards). If you use Linux, you can use any ATI/AMD GPU up to TerraScale 3. I have an AMD FirePro V7900 (essentially an underclocked Radeon HD 6930) which is really nice as it only takes up a single slot and the PCIe power connector is on the back of the card (fits nicely with the plastic thermal panel). I have never managed to get the TerraScale GPUs to work in Linux on the x16 slot, but they can be placed in any of the x8 slots and work fine.

 

[Mark.g4]

Hi there,
thank you so much for your post!
I love this glorious G5 and yes, we are on the same page, FX 4500 is the way, it's on my wish list, together with ACD 30".

I need to understand if the original WI-fi cad is right for me:
Can this card handle new WPA2 network passwords?

Another question: where can I find a leopard ISO for ppc?
Today I installed tiger, but having two HDDs I would like to try to see how leopard runs, thanks.

 

[evanboonie]

The AirPort Extreme cards do work just fine with WPA2. I'm not sure about the stock WiFi cards, but I believe that they are basically the same as an AirPort Extreme with Bluetooth added. The reception on them isn't amazing, but it does work well enough to stream a video in 720p from the other side of my house (will be super choppy in OSX, but works decent with a newer video card under Linux).

I get all of my OSX installers from Macintosh Garden: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/mac-osx-mac-os-10-ppc

 

[Mark.g4]

I just found this old airport, which I have here at home, could it be useful?
Should I make the right change to the connection cable?

Thank you Sir.

 

[evanboonie]

Yeah, that is the exact type of card I am talking about. It will work with the cable from my Amazon link as long as you trim back some of the plastic and metal around the connector on the card itself. You would then need to cut off the other end of the cable and solder it on to the stock antenna. It can be quite tricky to get the antenna out and also a little tricky to solder a thin coax cable like this, but I managed to do it so I know it is possible. I have a bunch of photos of the process and have been meaning to make a post on it, so maybe I'll be able to get that done soon.

I also know that some people have had success using the stock antenna from the AirPort Extreme router. I tried that, and it is a solder-free solution, but the reception from it was absolutely terrible (only worked in the same room as my router).

 

[evanboonie]

Made a new post with the details of my mod here: https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...k-antenna-in-late-model-power-mac-g5.2405138/

 

[Mark.g4]

I appreciate this, thank you Sir.

 

[Dronecatcher]

FX 4500 is the way, it's on my wish list,

Unless you intend to be gaming, a GPU upgrade is a waste of money.
I did the same 6600/4500 swap on my Quad:

Do I Need A Better Graphics Card....

That's the question I've asked myself again and again when I've suspected I could just get that little bit more performance out of my machine..... So, spying a NVIDIA Quadro FX4500 on ebay for a reasonable(ish) price, I decided to find out. My existing card was a NVIDIA Geforce 6600 which is...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Dronecatcher]

stream a video in 720p from the other side of my house (will be super choppy in OSX, but works decent with a newer video card under Linux).

G5s can easily play 1080P - any 'chop' is either low bandwidth or wrong software (never use QuickTime.)

 

[Mark.g4]

Unless you intend to be gaming, a GPU upgrade is a waste of money.
I did the same 6600/4500 swap on my Quad:

Do I Need A Better Graphics Card....

That's the question I've asked myself again and again when I've suspected I could just get that little bit more performance out of my machine..... So, spying a NVIDIA Quadro FX4500 on ebay for a reasonable(ish) price, I decided to find out. My existing card was a NVIDIA Geforce 6600 which is...

forums.macrumors.com

Hi Dronecathcer,
of course we are on the same page, you're absolutely right.

I got this G5 quad, as a beautiful toy, to include in a collection, so not to use in real life.
The choice of video card is to be seen in a collector's context, also in order to increase the value of my G5.
Then maybe I would also do some mods or add some accessories for pure fun.
I hope I have explained myself.
Thanks for your contribution, I appreciated it.

 

[Dronecatcher]

@Mark.g4
Absolutely, I totally understand that perspective - I was just commenting in case you'd fallen for the much repeated misconception that a beefy GPU fixes everything
Enjoy your Quad - I've had two in the past - one a bit noisy and the last whisper quiet - no problems whatsover.

 

[Mark.g4]

I'll do an update:
I installed 10.5.8 via open firmware from USB and everything is fine.
I installed some programs and some games to try the G5 and it works wonderfully: call of duty, tomb raider, ford racing, 4x4 are perfect.
The HDDs are noisy, I'm thinking of replacing them with 2 SSDs in RAID 0 to increase the reading and writing speed.

I opened the G5 to clean it thoroughly and I can state with almost absolute certainty that it has never been opened or cleaned:
There was a carpet of dust on the radiator, vacuumed away, there are no signs of previous maintenance.
The plastic nail that fixes the aluminum bulkhead with the G5 writing was perfect.
The cooling system is practically intact and the plastic and paper carpet is still present at the base to absorb any leaks and there are no signs of leaks or any maintenance.
I would say that this Quad has been used very little, I'm happy as a child at Christmas night 🤣.

As utilities I installed , toast, unarchiver, istat menu 1.3 and VLC.
istat menu 3.0 gives me a temperature on the backplate of 1100 celisus degree, but istat menu 1.3 does not have this item... is it likely that the sensor is not present on the G5 or is there some problem?
The fans are almost always at minimum, they don't cause any noise.

Which utility or application do you recommend installing to make the most of this G5?

 

[Mark.g4]

Hi there,

I'm having an annoying problem with mac os 10.5.8:

by connecting the apple pro speakers (G4 cube, the ones with the black foam) I can use them easily, even if neither the powermac g5 nor the cinema display hd are able to deliver all the power needed for the amplifier, however the sound is good.

The problem arises when I connect the isub2000, which is not recognized or is recognized but the audio stutters or iTunes does not play audio.

I did a search on the web and the problem was also reported by other users.
Is there anyone here who had the same and solved it?
Thank you.

 

[evanboonie]

Hi there,

I'm having an annoying problem with mac os 10.5.8:

by connecting the apple pro speakers (G4 cube, the ones with the black foam) I can use them easily, even if neither the powermac g5 nor the cinema display hd are able to deliver all the power needed for the amplifier, however the sound is good.

The problem arises when I connect the isub2000, which is not recognized or is recognized but the audio stutters or iTunes does not play audio.

I did a search on the web and the problem was also reported by other users.
Is there anyone here who had the same and solved it?
Thank you.

Apple dropped support for the USB iSub in Leopard. It can still be made to work with a kext replacement, but I haven't done that in almost 15 years now. I actually still have my iSub 2000, but only use it on Tiger or older machines these days. A quick search on Macintosh Garden turned up a fix I think might work for you though https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/isub-leopard-fix. The power supplies on those old iSubs does go bad sometimes and causes them to hiss horribly. I had to replace mine but I can't remember where I found it. The connector is relatively standard, so finding a new PSU should be possible; just make sure it is the same voltage, pinout, and can supply the required current.

 

[Mark.g4]

thank you Sir,

Yes, I have already tried this fix, but it didn't solve the problem..isub is not always recognized and when it does, strangely the Apple Pro speakers are not recognized.
So I deleted the fix.
it means I will buy a new pair of harman kardon soundsticks...
This design is fabulous.

 

[evanboonie]

I only ever used my iSub with my iMac G4 and the stock speakers it came with (the white ones with the proprietary connector that doesn't work on other macs). It is entirely possible that running the iSub under Leopard with other USB speakers causes some kind of conflict in the USB audio kext. I agree on the sound sticks looking amazing. I actually have every iteration of them in my collection. The first generation USB sound sticks work perfectly out of the box on Leopard.