Got a G5 for free... What now?

[VanneDC]

Sure it can still do useful work, but I wouldent waste my time with a box like that. Same as using a dual g4/single/dual g5 as a server, way to expensive in power usage. But that's just me, where I live the power bill is more than 300nz dollars a month, that's around 300 us a month.. Adds up for the year..g5 for server, on 24/7 ??? No thanks... Even if it's the crappy single 1.6.

 

[ecschwarz]

Sure it can still do useful work, but I wouldent waste my time with a box like that. Same as using a dual g4/single/dual g5 as a server, way to expensive in power usage. But that's just me, where I live the power bill is more than 300nz dollars a month, that's around 300 us a month.. Adds up for the year..g5 for server, on 24/7 ??? No thanks... Even if it's the crappy single 1.6.

I'd use it as a backup or just an extra machine if your main one is tied up. I'm using one and it's sleeping most of the time, but comes in real handy if I want to do things and keep my MacBook Pro free. It's a bit geeky, but these are still solid machines.

As for serving up things, you may want to grab a cheap G4 Mac mini - mine used to be my main computer and I've since retired it to serve videos for my Apple TV and other Apple products on my network. The power consumption on those is next to nothing.

 

[chrismacguy]

Sure it can still do useful work, but I wouldent waste my time with a box like that. Same as using a dual g4/single/dual g5 as a server, way to expensive in power usage. But that's just me, where I live the power bill is more than 300nz dollars a month, that's around 300 us a month.. Adds up for the year..g5 for server, on 24/7 ??? No thanks... Even if it's the crappy single 1.6.

See I live in the UK with a more acceptable electricity pricing, and I use 2 Dual G4 MDDs as file servers, and their perfect. They don't cost a fortune, and they sit nicely in a cupboard reliably serving up files and running as Logic Nodes. Id quite happily take a G5/1.6 as a replacement, especially for the Dual 867 G4 (Similar speed and SATA instead of IDE - so much more storage capacity).

Heck, I use a Dual 867 G4 as my "do everything I don't want to gum up my Mac Pro with" machine, including email, safari, twitter etc etc, and its perfectly capable, or as mentioned above, as a backup machine. (Id use a Single G5 while my Mac Pro was in the shop as long as it could connect up to my screens - sure things might take a while, but its a good backup machine/extra machine to chuck stuff at if your main one is under heavy load).

 

[VanneDC]

Has old mate told anyone the specs of his free g5 box yet??
I am really curious.. Getting 2nd hand PM is always great ESP if you don't know what your actually getting.. Have found so many surprises inside previously...

 

[rdp5008]

i was ofcourse referring to the 1.6ghz single cpu model.. which is next to useless..

I have this model and I'm trying to unload it. I upgraded the RAM to 4GB, put in a 7200 rpm HDD, and upgraded the video card. It just isn't quite fast enough to comfortably browse the web. I have Aperture 2 installed and it works nicely as a backup but any editing takes ages.

So it might be a crapbox but it looks pretty and still runs some things. AND it works great as a space heater in the winter!

 

[macintoshbg]

Dude you are so luck y to get a free PowerMac! I just bought one for 180 GBP! COngrats! Anyways, I'm thinking of setting up a file share between my Win 7 Dell lappy and the "big boy", and slowly migrating over to the PowerMac. I'm probably going to keep the Dell for some Windows/AMD/Intel only stuff, a few games, or when friends come over and they want to use a computer, stuff like that. But big boy is going to be the work computer. I guess I'll be using it with Leopard (will max out RAM and HDD(s) as needed ) and I'll probs be doing a LOT of net and Skype "work", word processing, PPT creating and stuff like that. iMovie is also something I'd be using sometimes. Before I snatched up mine I looked all over the internet and most people are saying the G5 is still capable enough for this stuff. Good luck with yours!