I miss my PowerMac G5

[crazyrog17]

I had an awesome PowerMac G5, dual core 2GHz processor which was blazing fast. It was the first 'good' Mac that I owned.

Anything I tried was flawlessly executed, whereas on my eMac, flash video could beachball it for minutes at a time.

I got the PowerMac through a craigslist deal for $200. Sounds like a steal, right? Well I didn't know if it would even boot because it only had the case, logic board and power supply. I didn't even have a power cable for it, so it took me a while to track down a C-19 cord.

After I spent $200 on hard drives, memory and an optical drive, I held my breath and went for the power button. No smoke erupted and it whirred up to the flashing question mark.

After a simple installation of Leopard, I was in heaven. Every day, that thing served me well. I installed an airport and bluetooth card in it, along with a better internal speaker from an iMac G3. (just wanted to make the boot sound better)

I later sold the machine for $300 profit after I got my MacBook Pro for college. I love my MacBook Pro, don't get me wrong... but there's nothing like the raw power of a huge PowerMac sitting there next to you. I like how robust it was on the UI and with it's looks.

Do you have any Macs you miss?

 

[NoManIsland]

I have to admit I miss my G4 Cube. It was sleek and sexy and a very unusual design. Sure it was underpowered, overpriced, and the special touch power button was activated if a mouse farted, but goddamn it was cool I ended up selling it to a collector who was planning on investing heavily in it to upgrade it to capacity, and I only let it go because I knew it was going to someone who would appreciate it. Still, it is missed

 

[leekohler]

I had an awesome PowerMac G5, dual core 2GHz processor which was blazing fast. It was the first 'good' Mac that I owned.

Anything I tried was flawlessly executed, whereas on my eMac, flash video could beachball it for minutes at a time.

I got the PowerMac through a craigslist deal for $200. Sounds like a steal, right? Well I didn't know if it would even boot because it only had the case, logic board and power supply. I didn't even have a power cable for it, so it took me a while to track down a C-19 cord.

After I spent $200 on hard drives, memory and an optical drive, I held my breath and went for the power button. No smoke erupted and it whirred up to the flashing question mark.

After a simple installation of Leopard, I was in heaven. Every day, that thing served me well. I installed an airport and bluetooth card in it, along with a better internal speaker from an iMac G3. (just wanted to make the boot sound better)

I later sold the machine for $300 profit after I got my MacBook Pro for college. I love my MacBook Pro, don't get me wrong... but there's nothing like the raw power of a huge PowerMac sitting there next to you. I like how robust it was on the UI and with it's looks.

Do you have any Macs you miss?

I have that exact PM G5. It's not leaving me anytime soon.

 

[Appleboy1717]

I have to admit I miss my G4 Cube. It was sleek and sexy and a very unusual design. Sure it was underpowered, overpriced, and the special touch power button was activated if a mouse farted, but goddamn it was cool I ended up selling it to a collector who was planning on investing heavily in it to upgrade it to capacity, and I only let it go because I knew it was going to someone who would appreciate it. Still, it is missed

I too have a macbook pro for collage, but I got a G5 from a buddy who owed me money, and I have a dual screen setup 19 and 15 inch, and I use the G5 more than the macbook. Its just fun, and I overclocked the video card, and I just really like it.

 

[CCK]

Getting a MP on this next update, but the G5 will replace an emac and will be happy to keep it in the family.

 

[Thirteenva]

I still have the Dual 2ghz G5 machine you're reminiscing about. It's my work machine and i'll likely have it until the imac issues get sorted out or the MacPro's get released (and hopefully drop $500 in price).

It's still going strong with leopard and CS3, and if it wasn't for the fact that PPC support is slowly being phased out I'd keep it longer.

 

[Toronto Mike]

I bought my dual 2.0 G5 almost 2 years ago and it does everything that I need it to do. I loaded up on the last of the ppc versions of the software that I'll need, and am digging in for an indefinite future.

At this point it would take severe incompatibility issues with professional printers, and using the internet for me to upgrade. It's a great machine.

Mike

 

[Shademaster]

I recently got a powerbook g4 from a friend that let it drop from the stairs. After 2 days of 'operating' it works perfectly! I totally digg above excpectations running old hardware.

Only machine I miss is my old AMD 2200+ with 512GBRAM and windows2000. That machine gave me a lot of satisfaction when I was making my first entry into the 3D market. W2K was really stable and my machine ran very quiet and fast.

After that one I made my step up to a MacPro 08.

 

[92jlee]

Im writing this on a 2.3 g5! Love the G5 machines, there is something about them that makes them so much better than the Pro's which look almost identical.

 

[crazyrog17]

Im writing this on a 2.3 g5! Love the G5 machines, there is something about them that makes them so much better than the Pro's which look almost identical.

Exactly! I don't know how to explain it, but they just seem like raw horsepower compared to the Intel MacPros.

I guess I can compare them to cars, where the G5s seem like classics with their bigblocks and heavy chassis. The Intel MacPros seem like the new, more 'fake' muscle cars. The Dodge Challenger comes to mind.

 

[velocityg4]

I miss my IIvx since it was my first Mac and introduced me to the Mac OS (System 7.1).

I also miss my 6400/180. It seemed really fast upgraded with 192MB RAM, 20GB HD, 250Mhz G3 upgrade and 8MB ATI Rage video card. The 17" Apple 1710 was huge at the time and my Stylewriter 4500 had great prints. It also had a unique quark since it had an IR receiver built in whenever I used my Sony TV remote to turn on/off my TV the Mac would boot or shutdown so I had to be careful where I aimed it.

 

[polotska]

Pismo PowerBook G3.

 

[CXsjr]

I think this thread my have just saved me a fortune! I have a G5 2.5 Quad with a 30" cinema display ....

I have been in a quandary for several days now having recently purchased an iMac i7 to replace my G5 and subsequently sent it back as because it suffered from the well publicised screen issues. Since then, I've been wondering about buying a Mac Pro 2.93 Quad but in the spec I want it, it's going to rush me £2,800! Basically, I'm only upgrading because more and more applications seem to be dropping support for non-Intel Mac's. I'm guessing the new version of Photoshop, CS5, when it comes out may not support non-Intel.

Would I be right in thinking that you guys would tell me spend my money on a nice holiday instead and keep the G5?

 

[rickvanr]

B&W G3

My first power mac. Thing kicked serious but at the time. Ran strong until I sold it 4-5 years ago. Missed it greatly, until I got my second and last PM, dual 2.7. Thing was a tank until it sprung a leak 3-4 months ago and I'm still getting used to my MP replacement.

 

[goMac]

Would I be right in thinking that you guys would tell me spend my money on a nice holiday instead and keep the G5?

I think they're talking about nostalgia. A Mac Pro is way faster than a G5.

 

[promoose]

Mac IIsi. Awesome powerhouse with a math coprocessor installed.

 

[Toronto Mike]

I think this thread my have just saved me a fortune! I have a G5 2.5 Quad with a 30" cinema display ....

I have been in a quandary for several days now having recently purchased an iMac i7 to replace my G5 and subsequently sent it back as because it suffered from the well publicized screen issues. Since then, I've been wondering about buying a Mac Pro 2.93 Quad but in the spec I want it, it's going to rush me £2,800! Basically, I'm only upgrading because more and more applications seem to be dropping support for non-Intel Mac's. I'm guessing the new version of Photoshop, CS5, when it comes out may not support non-Intel.

Would I be right in thinking that you guys would tell me spend my money on a nice holiday instead and keep the G5?

I think you need to be honest with yourself and what you will use your machine for.

Your G5 will run CS4 really well within a certain level of performance. For me, being an occasional user, not putting tremendous volumes of information through, it is well up to the task. I find CS4 to be a tad faster than CS2 for me on my dual 2.0 G5 with 6Gb of ram. Set up a Photoshop scratch disk on the second hard drive and you'll squeeze out even more performance. The question is: what are your expectations for what you need a computer to do?

I find the features of CS4 to be vast and powerful. You'd spend years mastering it effectively. Download the 30 day trial version and find out. If you like it on your G5, why upgrade to a new machine and spend all that cash if you are not the kind of user that can use that power effectively. I know my G5 usually waits for me - not the other way around most of the time. In a worst case scenario if you did buy CS4, and then wanted a new Intel, if the operating OS version would allow it, you could install it in the new machine. What have you really lost? But you could be saving yourself a huge amount of money by using what you have already.

I know for myself that I can live without the newest Intel only upgrades that are coming, including Snow Leopard. I'm still on Tiger. The question is - how important for real world tasks will be the latest Intel only releases.

Time is of the essence to decide this issue. CS4 will run on your G5. Very soon CS5 will come out and you will be left with fewer choices of where you can pick up a copy of CS4. Adobe will not sell you one - and the stores might have cleared out their old stock.

I think for those that can live with the idea that you will soon be left behind with Intel only software, the G5 is still great for those that do not need cutting edge performance. Load it up with ram and use some of these ideas to enhance your performance:

http://macperformanceguide.com/index.html

http://macperformanceguide.com/OptimizingPhotoshop-Intro.html

The G5 can still make sense to the user that obtains all the PPC software versions that they need, and is happy with the performance. It does for me - and maybe for you as well.


Mike

 

[CXsjr]

I think you need to be honest with yourself and what you will use your machine for.

Your G5 will run CS4 really well within a certain level of performance.

Mike,

To be honest, there is one main thing that I use my 'big' machine for, Photoshop. I am a keen amatuer photogrpaher and, having seen some of the reviews for Photoshop CS5 (particularly this one - http://www.photoshopcs5.co.uk/blog/latest-cs5-release-update/ ) you'll see that CS5 will be Intel compatible only. Speculation is that if people haven't updated their hardware in 4 years, nor will they update their software

Having seen some of the other exceptional features coming in CS5, in particular the fact that it is designed to take advantage of multi-Core, multi-thread processors, as well as the PatchMatch tool, I was kind of keen to make this my next step in PS, as I'm currently running CS3.

I guess I'll just have to sit tight and see what unfolds, however, it looks like my G5 is doomed to be replaced this year after all so if anyone's missing theirs that much, make me an offer!

 

[Toronto Mike]

Mike,

To be honest, there is one main thing that I use my 'big' machine for, Photoshop. I am a keen amatuer photogrpaher and, having seen some of the reviews for Photoshop CS5 (particularly this one - http://www.photoshopcs5.co.uk/blog/latest-cs5-release-update/ ) you'll see that CS5 will be Intel compatible only. Speculation is that if people haven't updated their hardware in 4 years, nor will they update their software

Having seen some of the other exceptional features coming in CS5, in particular the fact that it is designed to take advantage of multi-Core, multi-thread processors, as well as the PatchMatch tool, I was kind of keen to make this my next step in PS, as I'm currently running CS3.

I guess I'll just have to sit tight and see what unfolds, however, it looks like my G5 is doomed to be replaced this year after all so if anyone's missing theirs that much, make me an offer!

You are absolutely right about this since only you can judge for yourself what your needs are.

I was in a spot, knowing that CS2 was fine for me, since I had the panoramic stitching software covered by Autopano Pro. I was more than pleased with what I could do with the software that I had and wanted to stay with the G5 until I had serious compatibility issues with others - especially professional printers and the internet. My upgrade eligibility is good up to CS5, but CS5 will not work on the G5.

CS4 offered many features that I wanted so I could not resist for the on sale upgrade price that Adobe was offering at the time. So far I am more than happy with what CS4 can deliver on the G5 and I still have one last upgrade I could make to get even more performance out of it; SSD drives.

With what I am able to do on the G5 at this present time to meet my requirements, the G5 will be with me for many years - probably until CS7 forces me to make a decision to qualify for the upgrade price.

EVeryone is different in what they need for what they can afford. Sounds like you know all the issues involved.

Mike

 

[reebzor]

I miss my iBook G3. It was the first mac I ever owned. I just remember the amount of joy I felt the first times using a mac (with OS X). It was so cool. I've been using macs ever since, but none have made me as excited as that iBook did.

 

[Rt&Dzine]

I've had several older Macs and I don't miss any of them. Love my 2008 Mac Pro. Best computer I've ever owned.

 

[CaptainChunk]

Going back nostalgically, I miss my TiBook G4 DVI 1GHz. It wasn't my first Mac, but it was my first OS X machine and the first one I truly loved.

Sadly, it got stolen out of trunk of my car near my college campus about a year after I bought it. That was a lesson learned the hard way.

 

[crazyrog17]

I miss my iBook G3. It was the first mac I ever owned. I just remember the amount of joy I felt the first times using a mac (with OS X). It was so cool. I've been using macs ever since, but none have made me as excited as that iBook did.

I just spent an hour on my iBook G3 modifying the keyboard. I did the color mod to the underside-edges of the keys and they now 'glow' blue along with the stock indigo shell.

Oh, that iBook is worthy of it's own thread after all the work I've done to it. 1024x768 screen, SSD, Combo Drive (soon to be slot loading) and blue sleep LEDs.

 

[vailance]

i did own a several g5 range from 1.8ghz dual till 2.3ghz(last gen).. all sold due to funding some cash for other stuff. i admit it was kinda sad to let it go until today im still miss them even i got myself a 09 MP.
theres something in it (g5) that makes me wanted to use them more than my MP. i know it sounds ridiculous. well.. not sure about how others feel.

 

[Quad 2.5 G5 =)]

Exactly! I don't know how to explain it, but they just seem like raw horsepower compared to the Intel MacPros.

I guess I can compare them to cars, where the G5s seem like classics with their bigblocks and heavy chassis. The Intel MacPros seem like the new, more 'fake' muscle cars. The Dodge Challenger comes to mind.

Yes, I think the shiny "G5", and those massive wonderful heatsinks just make it look all the better. Unlike the odd tray Mac Pro heatsinks.
I own 2 PM G5s, one, a Quad 2.5, and the other, a Dual 2.7..and I don't think I could let either of them go, even if they're "old and obsolete".