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Is this a good deal for a Quad G5?

SuperKerem

SuperKerem

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 29, 2012
863
261
I have been offered a Quad 2.5Ghz Power Mac G5 for £55 ($82)
Should I buy it? I currently have a dual 2Ghz.

Will there be any noticeable speed differences when web browsing, and will YouTube run smoothly? (it doesn't on my dual 2Ghz)

Thanks!
 
As long as everything works fine, I'd buy it for that price.

As for Youtube, we've had some debates about this here recently. A good graphics card will help your situation at least a little bit. Using a 3rd party viewer like Mactubes will help immensely. If your dual 2.0 has an FX5200, it's probably some of your bottleneck. Even the base model card for the late '05 G5s is a decent step up from the FX5200.
 
Is this price average for the Quad G5s?
My current dual 2Ghz G5 is the late 2005 model, and has the stock graphics card. Is this graphics card the same as the one that was sold in the Quad G5?
 
It's worth checking to see if it's been upgraded....I don't have any data to back this up, but I'd venture to guess that probably more quads were sold with better graphics cards than were the base 2.0DC models.

Even so, I'd say that's well below the going rate for a Quad, provided that everything works and there's no sign of leaky coolant.
 
I would say going rate is probably twice that price...LCS need to be inspected very closely for any leaks or high running temps
 
keremtezcan said:
I have been offered a Quad 2.5Ghz Power Mac G5 for £55 ($82)
Should I buy it? I currently have a dual 2Ghz.

Will there be any noticeable speed differences when web browsing, and will YouTube run smoothly? (it doesn't on my dual 2Ghz)

Thanks!
Click to expand...

It's cheap. Ebay prices are usually double that. Even an early DP can make £65-70.

(I've been looking for a cheap G5 DP for the PSU...)
 
.

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desantii said:
I would say going rate is probably twice that price...LCS need to be inspected very closely for any leaks or high running temps
Click to expand...

I thought the quads were fitted with a more reliable LCS, right? But also how would I be able to inspect it, is there anything I need to take apart etc?

----------

I also have a slightly random question - if I want to connect to wifi on the G5 should I use the Apple airport express card or a third party adaptor? (For overall speed and reliability)
 
keremtezcan said:
I also have a slightly random question - if I want to connect to wifi on the G5 should I use the Apple airport express card or a third party adaptor? (For overall speed and reliability)
Click to expand...

I would use the internal. Drivers for the adapters are obnoxious.
 
keremtezcan said:
I also have a slightly random question - if I want to connect to wifi on the G5 should I use the Apple airport express card or a third party adaptor? (For overall speed and reliability)
Click to expand...

The factory installation used a combo 802.11g/Bluetooth card. These are easy to find and inexpensive. The problem, however, is that installing one of these in a G5 requires a special "runway" card that will run you $100 or so.

I settled on using an Apple Airport Extreme mini PCI-e card in a mini PCI-e to PCI-e adapter. For easiest installtion, I'd suggest looking for one with a Broadcom chipset(part number starting with B) rather than Atheros(p/n starting with A).

I think that the card I have is technically 802.11n, but there's some software restriction on it getting full n speeds. I don't remember what the full story on this is-I'm sure others can fill in with accurate details.
 
bunnspecial said:
The factory installation used a combo 802.11g/Bluetooth card. These are easy to find and inexpensive. The problem, however, is that installing one of these in a G5 requires a special "runway" card that will run you $100 or so.

I settled on using an Apple Airport Extreme mini PCI-e card in a mini PCI-e to PCI-e adapter. For easiest installtion, I'd suggest looking for one with a Broadcom chipset(part number starting with B) rather than Atheros(p/n starting with A).

I think that the card I have is technically 802.11n, but there's some software restriction on it getting full n speeds. I don't remember what the full story on this is-I'm sure others can fill in with accurate details.
Click to expand...

Will the PCI-e cards fit in the Late 2005 G5s? I thought they had PCI-X?
I guess I'll search through eBay to find one then!

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bunnspecial said:
The factory installation used a combo 802.11g/Bluetooth card. These are easy to find and inexpensive. The problem, however, is that installing one of these in a G5 requires a special "runway" card that will run you $100 or so.

I settled on using an Apple Airport Extreme mini PCI-e card in a mini PCI-e to PCI-e adapter. For easiest installtion, I'd suggest looking for one with a Broadcom chipset(part number starting with B) rather than Atheros(p/n starting with A).

I think that the card I have is technically 802.11n, but there's some software restriction on it getting full n speeds. I don't remember what the full story on this is-I'm sure others can fill in with accurate details.
Click to expand...

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=251872812408

Will this card work? Also, will any Wifi card be able to match the speed of Ethernet?
 
keremtezcan said:
Will the PCI-e cards fit in the Late 2005 G5s? I thought they had PCI-X?
I guess I'll search through eBay to find one then!

----------



http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=251872812408

Will this card work? Also, will any Wifi card be able to match the speed of Ethernet?
Click to expand...

1. The late '05 PM G5s had many changes, and among them was a complete switch over to PCI-e. They have a single 16x slot for the graphics card, and four additional 8x slots. Previous G5s had an 8x AGP Pro slot for the graphics card, and depending on the specific model either 4 64-bit PCI or 4 PCI-X slots(other changes to the late '05 models included the use of DDR-2 PC2-4200 RAM, and a switch to the IBM 970FX processor).

2. The Airport Extreme card to which you linked was the correct one for all G5s before the late '05 model, as well as a whole bunch of other Apple computers made in the 2002-2005 time frame. It will physically fit and work in the Airport slot of your late '05 G5, but the antenna connectors in the late '05 G5 are very different that what this card requires so you would have to patch something together to get it to work. The aluminum G5 cases make a great Faraday cage, and you can pretty much forget any wireless signal without some sort of external antenna. On the late '05 models, it's the plastic panel on the left hand side of the back panel.

3. Gigabit ethernet will be faster than 802.11n, which maxes out at 600mbits/s under ideal conditions. The new 802.11ac standard supports up to gigabit speeds, but I don't know that there's any way to get that in a PM G5. Of course, actually maintaining a high data transfer rate on WiFi is a lot harder than it is on wired ethernet.
 
bunnspecial said:
1. The late '05 PM G5s had many changes, and among them was a complete switch over to PCI-e. They have a single 16x slot for the graphics card, and four additional 8x slots. Previous G5s had an 8x AGP Pro slot for the graphics card, and depending on the specific model either 4 64-bit PCI or 4 PCI-X slots(other changes to the late '05 models included the use of DDR-2 PC2-4200 RAM, and a switch to the IBM 970FX processor).
.
Click to expand...

They have one 16x, one 8x, and two 4x slots. Also, the pre-pcie models had one AGP slot and three PCI/PCI-X, not four.
 
MisterKeeks said:
They have one 16x, one 8x, and two 4x slots. Also, the pre-pcie models had one AGP slot and three PCI/PCI-X, not four.
Click to expand...

That's what I get for posting from memory and not getting up and actually looking at the darn things(admittedly my DC is a work, and I couldn't have checked it when posting last night).

Even so, I could have sworn that all the PCI-e slots-save for the graphics slot-were the same length on the Late '05 models. Here's a "file photo" I found of mine with the Wi-Fi card installed
 

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bunnspecial said:
That's what I get for posting from memory and not getting up and actually looking at the darn things(admittedly my DC is a work, and I couldn't have checked it when posting last night).

Even so, I could have sworn that all the PCI-e slots-save for the graphics slot-were the same length on the Late '05 models. Here's a "file photo" I found of mine with the Wi-Fi card installed
Click to expand...

Same length, by not speed. Horrible picture, but I think it's legible.
 

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desantii said:
I would say going rate is probably twice that price...LCS need to be inspected very closely for any leaks or high running temps
Click to expand...

How can I tell if the LCS is leaking? Is there any specific place I need to look to easily tell? Do high running temperatures mean leakage, and what is the definition of a 'high' temperature?

Also, what other checks can I do to ensure the G5 is in fully working order before I hand over any money?
 
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