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Got a G5 for free... What now?

J

jmeeter

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 18, 2011
5
0
So the computer lab at school was getting rid of a bunch of PowerPC G5's and I got one for free. My main computer is a '07 era Macbook Pro but is the G5 usable for anything? All I'm interested in is surfing the web, seeding torrents, and maybe typing school stuff. I'll save the resource intensive projects for my MBP.

Any ideas or thoughts?
 
It would certainly be up to browsing and other fairly basic tasks. Depending on which model you got, you may even be able to play flash on it.
 
Depending on the model it could be on par if not better than your MBP.

If it's got Tiger you can put every PPC and a fair amount of Classic games on there.
 
It has Leopard on it. I am trying to install Leopard over it from my external hdd and so far no dice... this is a nightmare!
 
alust2013 said:
It would certainly be up to browsing and other fairly basic tasks. Depending on which model you got, you may even be able to play flash on it.
Click to expand...

What are the specs?
Even a G4 can make a good web browsing// basic tasks machine, and you can watch flash videos using quicktime player, so I bet the G5 is good for alot of things! :)
 
What G5 is it? If its a Quad or a Late 2005 model, those are good for almost everything and anything EXCEPT for more modern software like CS5,CS5.5, etc and also modern gaming - all this moved to Intel ways back.

I too have a G5 Quad and am happy with its results. Very fast and wicked machine.
 
jmeeter said:
It has Leopard on it. I am trying to install Leopard over it from my external hdd and so far no dice... this is a nightmare!
Click to expand...

Try installing it using your laptop with your G5 on target mode via firewire cable. Its simple as installing it on your laptop, just don't forget to select the good hard drive (the one from the G5).

To start your computer in target mode, press "T" at startup. Press the power button when you're finished installing stuff, it won't damage your computer (because it acts like an external drive).
 
I realized that this was actually a clean install... I thought it was loaded full of student junk but I guess they wiped it before I got it. So I scratched the clean install idea and just created a new admin account, deleting the other one.

I was also able to get some extra RAM - it had four(4) 256MB sticks in it but was only showing 512MB in system info. I replaced the two 'bottom' (read: closest to the ground) sticks with two 512MB sticks and now it's reading as 1GB total. Why aren't the other sticks working properly?
 
still no spec info???

mate if its en edu model G5, its worth Jack, and has a crippled FSB, single cpu and wont be able to do much at all...

what spec is the one you have?
 
VanneDC said:
mate if its en edu model G5, its worth Jack, and has a crippled FSB, single cpu and wont be able to do much at all...
Click to expand...

Apple never made edu versions of the Power Mac G5, only the iMac.

I believe the eMac was still around at that time as well?
 
I have a 2.7 Dual G5 running os x server, works like a dream.

Also depending on the software (non Intel) they are still very capable machines, CS4 for instance.
 
VanneDC said:
Nah I was referring to this crap box

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g5/stats/powermac_g5_1.6.html
Click to expand...

While that G5 *is* a little bit crappy as G5s go, its certainly a long way from "useless" or a "crap box". (Heck, Im still using a 8100/100 for actual work). Single G5s make darn good servers, because lets face it, file serving etc doesn't need much CPU power, and neither does doing any non-flash based web browsing, or playing music in iTunes etc. (If I can still do most of my web browsing on a Dual 867 G4, Im pretty sure a Single 1.6 G5 could still do plenty). It can do a lot more than you seem to be implying. It can't hold a candle to a Intel Mac (bar the Core Solo Mini), but its still a potentially useful computer.
 
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