Lets Hear your PPC stories

[mryingster]

I feel like the PPC threads have been a little sparse lately. I want to hear some fun stories about what antics were had in the hay-day of PPC!

The first computer that I owned (personally, not a family computer) was a Blue and White G3 (Still have it) back in 2001. It was a 350 MHz that I got from a company that was going out of business for 50 dollars. I bought a Sonnet ZIF processor upgrade that made it a 400 MHz G4. That was a really fun time because small upgrades like that made a very visible difference. I also upgraded the graphics card (I can't remember from what-to what) but it gave me the ability to playback DVDs and added additional graphical eye-candy in the finder.

A little later I decided I wanted a faster computer. I bought a motherboard from a Digital Audio G4 on ebay, then bought another sonnet processor upgrade for it . It was a 1.25 GHz G4. I went down to my local fry's and bought all the rest of the components, which were just standard PC components. I had to modify the PSU connector so the pinouts were correct for the Mac. I used that computer for years, and it was great and snappy. It now is my classic machine I keep around for nostalgia.

After I got married, my wife wanted a Mac laptop, but we were poor college students. I bought a Powerbook G4 15" off of ebay that was broken. The computer functioned, but the case was a wreck. I bought a new top case and bottom case, and hod-podged it all together (because I didn't know any better, and got them for different models). We had the computer for quite a while, and it was great. It's still my wife's favorite computer she ever owned.

I feel like the PPC era was the golden age of having fun with computers. The mix of small upgrade making big differences, and the PPC hardware being not as ubiquitous as the x86 hardware. It was a lot of fun.

So what are you favorite stories/memories/machines?

 

[rawweb]

I feel like the PPC threads have been a little sparse lately. I want to hear some fun stories about what antics were had in the hay-day of PPC!

The first computer that I owned (personally, not a family computer) was a Blue and White G3 (Still have it) back in 2001. It was a 350 MHz that I got from a company that was going out of business for 50 dollars. I bought a Sonnet ZIF processor upgrade that made it a 400 MHz G4. That was a really fun time because small upgrades like that made a very visible difference. I also upgraded the graphics card (I can't remember from what-to what) but it gave me the ability to playback DVDs and added additional graphical eye-candy in the finder.

A little later I decided I wanted a faster computer. I bought a motherboard from a Digital Audio G4 on ebay, then bought another sonnet processor upgrade for it . It was a 1.25 GHz G4. I went down to my local fry's and bought all the rest of the components, which were just standard PC components. I had to modify the PSU connector so the pinouts were correct for the Mac. I used that computer for years, and it was great and snappy. It now is my classic machine I keep around for nostalgia.

After I got married, my wife wanted a Mac laptop, but we were poor college students. I bought a Powerbook G4 15" off of ebay that was broken. The computer functioned, but the case was a wreck. I bought a new top case and bottom case, and hod-podged it all together (because I didn't know any better, and got them for different models). We had the computer for quite a while, and it was great. It's still my wife's favorite computer she ever owned.

I feel like the PPC era was the golden age of having fun with computers. The mix of small upgrade making big differences, and the PPC hardware being not as ubiquitous as the x86 hardware. It was a lot of fun.

So what are you favorite stories/memories/machines?

I posted this in another thread but it makes way more sense here...

My new iBook G4 burned itself up and my DP QuickSilver while transferring files to the new laptop via target disk mode. Never understood the root cause. One of the engineers suggested it was a bad cable. But then some others thought it was the new iBook design...

Just for fun...my PowerPC trip through the years...

• *My first Mac ever* PowerMac G4 500 AGP - I remember thinking I couldn't believe up to that point I lived in a Windows world...FCP was the fruit that made me bite the Apple. I was so elated. Bought new...sold for QuickSilver a few years later.
• Titanium Powerbook G4 - Bought new as a grad gift – Logic Board died and I never replaced...$$$
• Quicksilver G4 DP 800 - Destroyed by iBook G4, Apple store replaced with shiny new PowerMac G5
• iBook G4 - I bought (with the help of student loans) in store the day it was first released, took it home and started dumping files via target disk mode and walked away to the kitchen. Came back to the magnificent smell of burning technology and had a smoking iBook glowing orange. Threw it in the bathtub and let it cool down. QS no longer booted. Put it back in the box along with my Quicksilver and warped back to the Apple store. Was given another iBook and credited a replacement tower which ended up being a DP 2GHz sparkling new G5 to shut me up. A bizarre tale that left me happy about Apple customer service but always very afraid of "FIRE" Wire...heh.
• That G5 served me all the way until I retired it in 2009 when I first laid my eyes on a 27" iMac...that screen was really breathtaking.

Always lusted after the 30" ACD, never could afford her though.

 

[mryingster]

...but always very afraid of "FIRE" Wire...heh.

Holy cow! I've never heard of Target Disk mode causing a problem like that. I swear I would use target disk mode weekly when in college to help people fix their computers!

 

[rawweb]

Holy cow! I've never heard of Target Disk mode causing a problem like that. I swear I would use target disk mode weekly when in college to help people fix their computers!

In my time, firewire was always kind of something you had to pet and be really nice to. I can remember all sorts of bizarre things happening while connecting camera's and other equipment. Memories...lol.

I have fond memories of actually coming up with theories that the PPC had emotions and it's mood changed with the day!

 

[ziggy29]

My *first* PPC story came with the first Mac we purchased for the home, probably in early 1996 -- a Power Mac 7200/90, part of the first generation of the PCI based Power Macs. Now I had worked with Macs for a couple years previous to it -- I had a Centris 650 on the desk in my office -- but this was my first journey into Macs at home. Unfortunately it came with one of the buggiest, crash-prone Mac OS systems ever developed -- System 7.5.2. (In retrospect I think the buggy Open Transport was a major culprit in all the crashes and "Type 11" errors.)

System 7.5.3 (downloaded over the course of many hours onto something like 14 floppies over a 14.4k modem connection) made it much more stable, and 7.5.5 more stable still. But I still remember how much I preferred it over my previous Windows 3.1 experiences. (In fact, by the time I started using a Mac at home, I had already ditched Windows for OS/2, first version 3 then Warp 4. I liked OS/2 but it was the Betamax of its time compared to Windows' VHS, better technology that failed to get the market.)

Next thing I know my wife is also getting a 7200/90. From there I got a Digital Audio when my 7200 was long in the tooth, I think in 2002. My better half went mobile after that, first using a 5300 (yeah, I know) then using Apple's trade in program to get 5300s off the market to trade in the 5300 for a Pismo (still, I think, Apple's best laptop engineering ever). She then went to a PBG4 12" 1.33 Al 'Book, then a Late 2008 Unibody MacBook, and now she's pretty much all iPad. Me, I still prefer traditional laptops and desktops. My main machine is now an Intel Mac but the PPCs will always have a special place in the geeky chambers of my heart. And probably the Pismo above all else is my favorite Mac ever; that was (and in many ways still is) a remarkable and versatile machine. I think the only thing the Pismo lacked was upgradeable video, which is almost unheard of for a laptop. But then again, so is being able to use a laptop drive bay for a CD-ROM drive or a Zip drive or a second battery, and Pismo pulled those off.

 

[Slix]

My PowerPC story begins when I was about 5... We'd had some type of Power Mac (6100? I don't recall, I was like 5. ) before that, so I'd grown up playing early Mac games like Bub and Bob on it with my parents since I was born practically.

I think it was the Christmas of 1999, Santa brought us a Grape iMac G3 slot load. I played Bugdom on that thing like crazy for the next couple years, and a few years later we got another iMac G3, a Ruby, for my mom to use as her machine for a while. Around 2004 we got an eMac, and around 2008 we got a mid 2007 iMac Core 2 Duo as our main machine for the family. I used each of them like crazy, playing games, and later on, using things like iChat and the internet. I have great memories of my dad video iChatting us at an Apple Store to our Mac at home with a video camera attached, plugging in my first iPod shuffle for the first time, and buying my first songs on iTunes...

During that timeline though, I got an old Performa 550 running System 7 something for my 7th(?) birthday, and sometime later also a black and white screen PowerBook with a trackball, both of which I used to play games and listen to CDs on the Performa. Around 2007 my dad gave my sister and I a PowerBook G3 Pismo to share, but I ended up taking control of it, since she hardly used it anyway. I used that computer as my first real computer with my data on it. I had my first own iTunes library (which is still going today!), used it for the internet, email, iChat with friends, and to watch DVDs occasionally. Sadly, we sold it about a year or two later.

Since my dad worked in the Apple tech field, he'd occasionally bring home other old Macs for the family to have, and my collection that I have now basically started around 2008 when he brought home an Indigo and Snow iMac G3 for us, which turned into mine, naturally. I was the only other person in the family super into computers. I was the kid at school that people would ask me for help with the Macs in the classrooms, because I knew more than the teachers most of the time.

Now that I have a job with a little extra money, and know more about Macs than I did growing up, I can put time and effort into obtaining and learning more about the PowerPC Macs that interested me so much growing up. They have that special nostalgia feel when I use them and find out someone is ready to thrown own out and I can "save" it.

My main Mac now is a MacBook Air 13" 2012 model, and I love it.

 

[Adamscomputerrepair]

My PowerPC story starts off a little weird. I had grown up with PC's my entire life. Didn't see Mac as anything but Artsy Fartsy (keep in mind, I was so poor, I used a Pentium 3 Windows 2000 machine until 2008). When I was younger, I would do computer repairs and upgrades in exchange for money, parts, etc. In 2006, I helped my band teacher upgrade a hard drive in his blue iMac G3. He knew it was out of date, but he still to this day (10 years later) uses OS 9 to write and print music. Either way, I helped do the hard drive replacement in exchange for his XP tower that had a fried hard drive and needed repaired. That would be my main desktop until 2011. In 2014, still not knowing anything about Apple, my friend Matt and I decided to buy cheap PowerPC Mac's to learn. He bought an iMac G4 700mhz luxo, and I bought an eMac. Little did I know he had a collectors item. I made fun of him because I had paid $50 for the eMac, and he paid like $150 for the iMac, plus another $75 for and Apple keyboard and mouse. My eMac was faster, louder, and ran Leopard. His iMac was a joke. 256 megs of RAM, downgraded to a 30 gig hard drive, and Tiger was locked because of the fact that it belonged to a school before him. So he had no way of customizing anything. Here's the best part. I did a Carbon clone of my eMac using a profile I made for him specifically, Downloaded disk 1 of Tiger and burned it to a CD, and used Tiger's Disk Utility to restore my Leopard partition to his iMac. We were in love with Apple computers from then on. 3 months later, I bought an 08 MacBook and started doing Unsupported Mac videos, then, I upgraded it to an 09 using a logic board replacement. I've since purchased a Mid 2009 iMac, and a PowerBook G4 that I'm typing this on right now. This fall, I'm getting a 2015 iMac 5K for video editing, and (Hopefully) a 2015 MacBook or a 2015 MacBook Pro depending for web browsing. The G4 is going to the school that I teach at to keep track of grades and do some web browsing on. I'll be damned if I put any personal info on a Windows 10 machine.
[doublepost=1466804775][/doublepost]

My PowerPC story starts off a little weird. I had grown up with PC's my entire life. Didn't see Mac as anything but Artsy Fartsy (keep in mind, I was so poor, I used a Pentium 3 Windows 2000 machine until 2008). When I was younger, I would do computer repairs and upgrades in exchange for money, parts, etc. In 2006, I helped my band teacher upgrade a hard drive in his blue iMac G3. He knew it was out of date, but he still to this day (10 years later) uses OS 9 to write and print music. Either way, I helped do the hard drive replacement in exchange for his XP tower that had a fried hard drive and needed repaired. That would be my main desktop until 2011. In 2014, still not knowing anything about Apple, my friend Matt and I decided to buy cheap PowerPC Mac's to learn. He bought an iMac G4 700mhz luxo, and I bought an eMac. Little did I know he had a collectors item. I made fun of him because I had paid $50 for the eMac, and he paid like $150 for the iMac, plus another $75 for and Apple keyboard and mouse. My eMac was faster, louder, and ran Leopard. His iMac was a joke. 256 megs of RAM, downgraded to a 30 gig hard drive, and Tiger was locked because of the fact that it belonged to a school before him. So he had no way of customizing anything. Here's the best part. I did a Carbon clone of my eMac using a profile I made for him specifically, Downloaded disk 1 of Tiger and burned it to a CD, and used Tiger's Disk Utility to restore my Leopard partition to his iMac. We were in love with Apple computers from then on. 3 months later, I bought an 08 MacBook and started doing Unsupported Mac videos, then, I upgraded it to an 09 using a logic board replacement. I've since purchased a Mid 2009 iMac, and a PowerBook G4 that I'm typing this on right now. This fall, I'm getting a 2015 iMac 5K for video editing, and (Hopefully) a 2015 MacBook or a 2015 MacBook Pro depending for web browsing. The G4 is going to the school that I teach at to keep track of grades and do some web browsing on. I'll be damned if I put any personal info on a Windows 10 machine.

I should also note that we upgraded the luxo to an 80 Gig hard drive and 1.5 gigs of RAM before installing Leopard. Leopard will not run well on 256. DON'T TRY IT

 

[jbarley]

My PowerPC story starts off a little weird. I had grown up with PC's my entire life. Didn't see Mac as anything but Artsy Fartsy (keep in mind, I was so poor, I used a Pentium 3 Windows 2000 machine until 2008). When I was younger, I would do computer repairs and upgrades in exchange for money, parts, etc. In 2006, I helped my band teacher upgrade a hard drive in his blue iMac G3. He knew it was out of date, but he still to this day (10 years later) uses OS 9 to write and print music. Either way, I helped do the hard drive replacement in exchange for his XP tower that had a fried hard drive and needed repaired. That would be my main desktop until 2011. In 2014, still not knowing anything about Apple, my friend Matt and I decided to buy cheap PowerPC Mac's to learn. He bought an iMac G4 700mhz luxo, and I bought an eMac. Little did I know he had a collectors item. I made fun of him because I had paid $50 for the eMac, and he paid like $150 for the iMac, plus another $75 for and Apple keyboard and mouse. My eMac was faster, louder, and ran Leopard. His iMac was a joke. 256 megs of RAM, downgraded to a 30 gig hard drive, and Tiger was locked because of the fact that it belonged to a school before him. So he had no way of customizing anything. Here's the best part. I did a Carbon clone of my eMac using a profile I made for him specifically, Downloaded disk 1 of Tiger and burned it to a CD, and used Tiger's Disk Utility to restore my Leopard partition to his iMac. We were in love with Apple computers from then on. 3 months later, I bought an 08 MacBook and started doing Unsupported Mac videos, then, I upgraded it to an 09 using a logic board replacement. I've since purchased a Mid 2009 iMac, and a PowerBook G4 that I'm typing this on right now. This fall, I'm getting a 2015 iMac 5K for video editing, and (Hopefully) a 2015 MacBook or a 2015 MacBook Pro depending for web browsing. The G4 is going to the school that I teach at to keep track of grades and do some web browsing on. I'll be damned if I put any personal info on a Windows 10 machine.
[doublepost=1466804775][/doublepost]

I should also note that we upgraded the luxo to an 80 Gig hard drive and 1.5 gigs of RAM before installing Leopard. Leopard will not run well on 256. DON'T TRY IT

Your story was very interesting, but still I didn't need to read it twice.

 

[crammedberry]

The oldest PPC Mac I owned when I was a kid was a PowerMac G3 Beige. My mom's workplace at the time was clearing out really old computers they had in storage. The PowerMac came surprisingly loaded with 768mb of ram and a whopping 6GB hard drive! I know, right? What would I do with all that space?

Anyway, it came without any disks so for a while I was trying to hunt down PowerMac specific OS 8 disks. At the time I didn't really know much about macs or comeputers in general so I thought that's all it would run. I never ended up finding the disks but one day I decided to open it up and clean it. It was layered in dusts, the inside was completely white. I just blew all the dust away and started taking chips out to "clean" them. When I finished I put it all back and gave the computer to my grandpa to mess with since he didn't know how to use anything.

He kept telling me that a bomb kept popping up on the screen and the computer would freeze. I went to look one day and he was right, it would boot up and work for a few minutes and then freeze. I didn't know what was wrong so I let it be. One day the computer started smoking and smelling like burnt electronics. I opened it up and the G3 chip was completely fried. It turns out somehow, I had managed to place the processor back the wrong way, some of the pins even bent because it didn't fit correctly so I had just forced it in. I am still surprised to this day that it even worked at all. Either way, that's probably one of the more interesting stories of how I blew up a PowerMac G3.

 

[Adamscomputerrepair]

Your story was very interesting, but still I didn't need to read it twice.

Sorry my post was boring.

 

[bunnspecial]

We had various Apple IIs in elementary school(mostly IIes and IIcs) that would boot directly to educational software. Aside from that, my only exposure was(I think) either an LC or color classic in my 4th grade classroom. I remember playing Oregon Trail on it .

I was into computers, but in the late 90s and early 2000s I was scrounging what I could get for free and that was mostly 286s-486s running Dos or at best MAYBE Windows 95. My dad bought a new computer every year or two and I got his hand-me-downs so I always had something reasonably current to use for school and the like, but my 486s were for play and experimenting.

My next exposure to Macs was when I was in high school. We had a "Mac Lab" with iMac G3s which-at the time-were only a couple of years old. This was in the early 2000s and they were mostly "five flavor" tray loaders from memory and maybe a few early slot loaders thrown in. In any case, I pretty much hated everything about them. They were running some form of the classic OS-the 5 flavor Macs I think shipped with 8.5.5, and I doubt that they had ever been upgraded past their shipping OS. The things were(to my Windows brain) backwards to work and given their environment were notorious for turning off as well as the random freezes of death that came with non-protected memory. I detested the tiny keyboards and hockey puck mice. Overall, my recollection of the experience was miserable. There was a G3 AIO in the library that held the card catalog program, but I don't recall anyone ever using it. My elementary education included real card catalogs and my high school still maintained a(not always current) one, so I used it instead.

The only other Mac in the school was a B&W G3 that I later used some for the school newspaper-I was favorably impressed with it, and that model is one I can't seem to get enough of in my collection.

Going on to college, I saw plenty of Macs. Right in the midst of the Intel transition, I had a room mate who was an Apple nut and had a DLSD Powerbook that he'd gotten specifically because of the uncertainty over the Intel transition. Of the folks in my first year college class, Macs were in the minority but I'd guess were about a 50:50 split between Macbooks and iBooks with the odd Powerbook or MBP thrown in for the well-off students. The only time I ever really used Macs in college was some limited experience with a couple of graphite G4s that were in the back of one of the computer labs. They were running some early version of OS X(Tiger and then Leopard were current, and I'd guess they were running Panther or Jaguar). The real attraction, though, was that they could print to the printer in the lab for free .

Going forward, I didn't actually seriously consider Macs until I was getting ready for my literature seminar in graduate school(a major milestone in my graduate program) and my year old Toshiba laptop decided it wanted to stop working in the middle of making a slide in Powerpoint. My then room mate loaned me his recently replaced '08 Aluminum Macbook, a friend helped me dig my work off the hard drive in my Toshiba, and I finished up(and passed) the seminar using the borrowed Macbook. I returned it, then went out and bought a brand new late '11 MBP the day after passing. I was hooked.

My PPC obsession came from a desire to explore some earlier aspects of Apple. I started by buying both an eMac at a flea market and a G5 tower within a few days of each other. Those two computers quickly turned into...well..a whole lot more.

 

[mryingster]

Sorry my post was boring.

I think he was joking because you quoted yourself in your post, so it showed up twice

 

[Adamscomputerrepair]

I think he was joking because you quoted yourself in your post, so it showed up twice

Oh. Whoops.

 

[jbarley]

Oh. Whoops.

Apology accepted...

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Long-time no-see! I think I see many new faces here. I left the PPC forums about a year ago, but I have been known to pop in sometimes and say 'hi.' I decided to add in my PowerPC story.

So, in terms of family computers, my dad would go with whatever was current and used in the office; therefore, it was Macs in the earlier 1990s, and then he switched to Windows. After we were burnt out on Windows, my dad went out and ordered four new iMacs - our first Macs in years.

This was in late 2004 or so, so the OG iMac G5 (horribly unreliable machine) had come out. My parents got 20" models, and my brother and I each got our own 17" models. I have fond memories making videos in iMovie and songs in Garageband, with my bro. These things came with Panther, and I think I only took mine up to Tiger. (I actually first learned basic computing with Mac OSX, though, because my school was an all-Mac elementary school that had slot and tray-loading iMac G3s.) Anyway, I kept the machine until 2010, when I then received a 20" 2005 model that my mom had previously upgraded to. So, it was a hand-me-down.

My darn OG iMac failed just from sitting in the box, so we sold the thing for parts. My brother's machine is all that's left, but the caps on it blew. My 2005 iMac G5 iSight, though, still runs. I used it from 2010-2012. 2012 is when I got my first Intel machine ever. I quickly replaced the PPC Mac and simply used it on the side, for light tasks. However, I grew tired of using a laptop as a desktop, so I then began to use the iMac G5 some more again.

By 2014 or so (I believe), I was already a good 3-4 years into Mac-collecting and got fully back into PowerPC Macs. I barely used the 2009 MacBook Pro that waws my first Intel Mac, and I was simply using the iMac G5, etc. At one point, in 2011, I even used an iMac G3 from my collection. Sometime later, I got a PowerMac G5 and used it because it was faster. At this point, I was pissed off at Apple and was pretty much using PowerPC Macs full-time again, as well as strolling the forums here a lot.

However, I sort of had to drift away from it all, as I am going to college and can't focus on collecting machines anymore. Therefore, I also had to distance myself from the forums and put a halt to my activities regarding PPC Macs. Around the same time, I found a 2006 Mac Pro for $50 and decided to get it. At that point, I was back to Intel. HOWEVER, I still used iBooks and PowerBooks on the side.

Now, though, there has been a dead period. I did take my PowerBook to school a bit this year, since I didn't want to take my nice MacBook Pro, but that's pretty much it. I cast the iMac G5 aside because I was active within iMessage and all my friends and family stopped using AIM (within iChat). Also, I was getting lots more homework and got impatient browsing the Web at slower speeds and listening to my iMac's horrid fans. Now, my iMac G5 sits on the ground. I received a 2009 Mac Pro for free and that completely transitioned me back over. Now, I use a 2009 Mac Pro and 2009 MacBook Pro - both of which are great machines. At this point, I cannot take some PowerPC Mac to college, so I guess this is it. I wouldn't call myself a quitter - I just simply HAD to do it. Had I been in a different situation, I would likely have remained with PowerPC machines. Although, it was kind of a waste to use a power-sucking PMG5 in place of a faster and more efficient MacBook Pro, so IDK...

Either way, I sadly cannot go back (especially because I can't bring extra things like that to college, nor should I worry about that stuff anymore). At this point, I couldn't go back later and use some of my old machines again, because, by that time, the newest PPC Mac will be, like, 15 years old, and they will be pretty unusable on the stupid, bloated Web.

It was great while it lasted, though. It's a shame, as I still like using an iBook or PowerBook. Anyway, it was more than just the machines' old nature that had me drift away from them. Needed to set to priorities. Oh well. TBH, if I were some grown adult or something and already had things figured out, I'd still dwell in the PPC Mac realm. However, it's healthy to drop hobbies when going and finding out what one wants to do in life. No way I could survive continuing a hobby into college and careers.

 

[128keaton]

Well, my mother got a MacBook in 2008 (early, Santa-rosa) since she kept struggling with our Windows XP machine (P4 512MB) just for basic email and web.

Long-time no-see! I think I see many new faces here. I left the PPC forums about a year ago, but I have been known to pop in sometimes and say 'hi.' I decided to add in my PowerPC story.

So, in terms of family computers, my dad would go with whatever was current and used in the office; therefore, it was Macs in the earlier 1990s, and then he switched to Windows. After we were burnt out on Windows, my dad went out and ordered four new iMacs - our first Macs in years.

This was in late 2004 or so, so the OG iMac G5 (horribly unreliable machine) had come out. My parents got 20" models, and my brother and I each got our own 17" models. I have fond memories making videos in iMovie and songs in Garageband, with my bro. These things came with Panther, and I think I only took mine up to Tiger. (I actually first learned basic computing with Mac OSX, though, because my school was an all-Mac elementary school that had slot and tray-loading iMac G3s.) Anyway, I kept the machine until 2010, when I then received a 20" 2005 model that my mom had previously upgraded to. So, it was a hand-me-down.

My darn OG iMac failed just from sitting in the box, so we sold the thing for parts. My brother's machine is all that's left, but the caps on it blew. My 2005 iMac G5 iSight, though, still runs. I used it from 2010-2012. 2012 is when I got my first Intel machine ever. I quickly replaced the PPC Mac and simply used it on the side, for light tasks. However, I grew tired of using a laptop as a desktop, so I then began to use the iMac G5 some more again.

By 2014 or so (I believe), I was already a good 3-4 years into Mac-collecting and got fully back into PowerPC Macs. I barely used the 2009 MacBook Pro that waws my first Intel Mac, and I was simply using the iMac G5, etc. At one point, in 2011, I even used an iMac G3 from my collection. Sometime later, I got a PowerMac G5 and used it because it was faster. At this point, I was pissed off at Apple and was pretty much using PowerPC Macs full-time again, as well as strolling the forums here a lot.

However, I sort of had to drift away from it all, as I am going to college and can't focus on collecting machines anymore. Therefore, I also had to distance myself from the forums and put a halt to my activities regarding PPC Macs. Around the same time, I found a 2006 Mac Pro for $50 and decided to get it. At that point, I was back to Intel. HOWEVER, I still used iBooks and PowerBooks on the side.

Now, though, there has been a dead period. I did take my PowerBook to school a bit this year, since I didn't want to take my nice MacBook Pro, but that's pretty much it. I cast the iMac G5 aside because I was active within iMessage and all my friends and family stopped using AIM (within iChat). Also, I was getting lots more homework and got impatient browsing the Web at slower speeds and listening to my iMac's horrid fans. Now, my iMac G5 sits on the ground. I received a 2009 Mac Pro for free and that completely transitioned me back over. Now, I use a 2009 Mac Pro and 2009 MacBook Pro - both of which are great machines. At this point, I cannot take some PowerPC Mac to college, so I guess this is it. I wouldn't call myself a quitter - I just simply HAD to do it. Had I been in a different situation, I would likely have remained with PowerPC machines. Although, it was kind of a waste to use a power-sucking PMG5 in place of a faster and more efficient MacBook Pro, so IDK...

Either way, I sadly cannot go back (especially because I can't bring extra things like that to college, nor should I worry about that stuff anymore). At this point, I couldn't go back later and use some of my old machines again, because, by that time, the newest PPC Mac will be, like, 15 years old, and they will be pretty unusable on the stupid, bloated Web.

It was great while it lasted, though. It's a shame, as I still like using an iBook or PowerBook. Anyway, it was more than just the machines' old nature that had me drift away from them. Needed to set to priorities. Oh well. TBH, if I were some grown adult or something and already had things figured out, I'd still dwell in the PPC Mac realm. However, it's healthy to drop hobbies when going and finding out what one wants to do in life. No way I could survive continuing a hobby into college and careers.

Where are you going to college? (if you don't mind me asking, I've been wading in that too)

I should also note, you can balance hobbies and priorities, or at least I can. I do a collection, though, not trying to integrate PowerPC in my life. I might as well tell my story too.

My father purchased a white 2008 MacBook (Santa rosa, early) for my mother, since she was struggling to operate our eMachines desktop (we were not well off, eMachines junk, and our TV was from the late 80s. The buttons were pushed in and we had to use a toothpick to change channels.) running Windows XP. It was a nice little machine. 100GB, 2GB, running 10.5! That summer was a good summer! On the rare occasion my sister and I got to use it, it was like a Ferrari in our eyes! Tap to click! (I remember showing that to friends) iMovie! (I edited family videos with funny noises) Photo Booth! (Funny faces and filters with friends). I was sold! For a while, I ran with an IBM ThinkPad A30 which was a hand-me-down of a hand-me-down. P/// with 512MB of RAM running Windows XP. At one point, I had FlyAKite OS X running on it (which might exist somewhere on the web today).

After tasting the sweetness of the Apple, I knew my little A30 wouldn't be up to scratch for the programming I was itching to learn. For my birthday, my parents got an HP Pavilion DV2000 (yeah, I know) from TigerDirect, with one stipulation that I give them my $200 in cash I had saved for a new laptop (mowing lawns, relatives, selling old toys). That worked for about two years, then the GPU failed. If you remember, in ~2010 there was a class-action lawsuit against HP for this line, sadly, I didn't receive a single penny. A cousin's neighbor gave me a tibook with no hinges, which quickly broke the screen, and turned it into a desktop. It actually browsed the web fine, but then it broke for some unknown reason. I had saved around $150 since then, and I began looking on eBay. For christmas, my parents bought the family a 2010 Mac Mini (can't remember the specs) and I loved it, but since I was doing a lot of school, I needed a laptop.

At the time, a 2007 MacBook cost around $300 (crazy, right, since they aren't really worth much now) and my dad, knowing I was bummed, made a deal with me. He would help me out with buying the MacBook Pro. For the next couple of summers, I saved and worked, and saved and worked. Around Thanksgiving, Apple had their Black Friday sale, and the 13" late 2011 MacBook Pro (they'd discontinued the MacBook line then, I remember waking up at a friend's house after a sleep over, and screaming "WHAT" when reading Engadget on Flipboard). I had enough cash to purchase, with my father's help. I strolled in, told the employee what I wanted, and handed over the cash. He remarked that was one of the only times he'd seen somebody buy a laptop in cash. I was over the moon. For about a year, I used it with the 4GB of RAM and 500GB OEM HDD. In 2012, I started helping out at the local church. There, I was offered a DC 2.0 G5. I took it, gladly. The FX5200 did what I needed. A friend offered me a G4 Cube since he didn't have a use. Those two are what kick-started the collection. I used the G5 with my MacBook Pro until around 2013 (which is crazy for me to think about) and got into PC gaming that wasn't Minecraft. I ended up getting a Dell Dimension (P4 running Windows 7 and 4GB of RAM with a GT210) and playing more games, like Portal 2 and Garry's mod. Using more saved money, I built a decent little system and kicked the Dimension back to the curb. I started collecting more and more macs. I visited my cousin again, and the SAME NEIGHBOR gave me a Mac Pro 1,1. I tricked it out and installed OS X Mavericks, and was one of the first people to run Yosemite (check on the forums). About a year ago, I revisited him and he gave me a Mac Pro 4,1 (which I later traded for my current 5,1 with 2x2.4GHz 6Core Xeons and 64GB of RAM and 5870). Now I sit with over 40 Macs and I use my Mac Pro 5,1 and my MacBook Pro 8,1.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Wow, what a great story! You are so lucky that you got a 12-core 5,1. If I ever decide to breathe new life into my 4,1, I'll flash it to 5,1 (which will be necessary anyway for Sierra+) and upgrade the CPUs. Also, cool that you were one of the first to get Yosemite on a 1,1. I hope that Sierra can finally get onto those machines whose CPUs have certain limitations. I followed Sierra quite a bit once it was released, hoping for patches to come out. So far, dosdude1 has already made a working patch for the unsupported '08/'09 models of Mac - with some limitations. However, some older models have more limitations, which is too bad.

As for college, I will be attending UC Davis this Fall; it's actually only about an hour from UC Berkeley. I'm going to sample classes, as I am not entirely sure about my major; but I know for a fact that it's not gonna be tech-related, so I can't even think about old Macs until probably by the time I'm a fully-grown adult and living on my own. And, even then, I will try not to.

Jeeez - I just saw your 64GB of RAM. You don't happen to be using Apple heatsinks, do you? I put 32GB of RAM into my 4,1, and I thought THAT was a lot. It's pretty unnecessary, actually. Makes the CPU heat sinks fans run a little faster (non-Apple heatsinks) and most sits unused. However, it will last, which is the point. And, luckily, buying used server RAM for a Mac Pro ain't that costly. Sure, I filled every RAM slot, but it was about $50 for it all.

Anyway, I'd still like to keep in touch every now and then, as I remember now the fun conversations we had. It's cool to come back and visit those who I had once interacted with regularly. Sadly, though, the PowerPC phase has to / had to end.

 

[128keaton]

Wow, what a great story! You are so lucky that you got a 12-core 5,1. If I ever decide to breathe new life into my 4,1, I'll flash it to 5,1 (which will be necessary anyway for Sierra+) and upgrade the CPUs. Also, cool that you were one of the first to get Yosemite on a 1,1. I hope that Sierra can finally get onto those machines whose CPUs have certain limitations. I followed Sierra quite a bit once it was released, hoping for patches to come out. So far, dosdude1 has already made a working patch for the unsupported '08/'09 models of Mac - with some limitations. However, some older models have more limitations, which is too bad.

As for college, I will be attending UC Davis this Fall; it's actually only about an hour from UC Berkeley. I'm going to sample classes, as I am not entirely sure about my major; but I know for a fact that it's not gonna be tech-related, so I can't even think about old Macs until probably by the time I'm a fully-grown adult and living on my own. And, even then, I will try not to.

Jeeez - I just saw your 64GB of RAM. You don't happen to be using Apple heatsinks, do you? I put 32GB of RAM into my 4,1, and I thought THAT was a lot. It's pretty unnecessary, actually. Makes the CPU heat sinks fans run a little faster and most sits unused. However, it will last, which is the point. (We actually have a server with 64GB of DDR4. That stuff was NOT cheap.) Luckily, buying used server RAM for a Mac Pro ain't that costly. Sure, I filled every RAM slot, but it was about $50 for it all.

Anyway, I'd still like to keep in touch every now and then, as I remember now the fun conversations we had. It's cool to come back and visit those who I had once interacted with regularly. Sadly, though, the PowerPC phase has to / had to end.

Yeah, I keep thinking I'm slowly moving out of collecting, but more will fall into my lap (Kanga). Nice on UC Davis bro! I'm doing CompSci at a local college, couldn't get any scholarships to anywhere good, but not for academic reasons, mind you. I toured Berkeley for fun when I was in California a bit ago. Quite nice!

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Yeah, I keep thinking I'm slowly moving out of collecting, but more will fall into my lap (Kanga). Nice on UC Davis bro! I'm doing CompSci at a local college, couldn't get any scholarships to anywhere good, but not for academic reasons, mind you. I toured Berkeley for fun when I was in California a bit ago. Quite nice!

Yeah, I make certain exceptions and/or come across certain machines. For example, I couldn't pass up a 128k w/ extras that I found on CL for a great price, recently.

Thanks! Got into most of the ones I applied to, but Davis was the one. Oh, and I don't doubt what you said about academic reasons and scholarships. Oddly enough, while I did get into many, only one offered me scholarships: ASU - Barrett Honors College.

BTW, I thought you were a little bit younger. Don't you have another year or so before college? You could end up in Berkeley or something if you still have the chance for scholarships.

 

[Orizence]

Although I had a Dell Inspiron that was literally falling apart, so I started looking on eBay for a 2006-ish Macbook Pro, and ended up finding my PowerBook G4 listed as not-working only because there was something wring with the install of Tiger (I forgot what it was.) I ended up buying a battery and a charger and I had my very first Apple laptop (which also was a PPC). Since then it has had a logic board replacement to have both Ram slots working.

My PowerMac I found for like $60 only needed new ram which cost me $15 and it was listed as broken on eBay as well. I ended up buying two x1900xt GPUs for it and I have been using it as my main desktop for over a year now I believe.

My main laptop is now a 2015 Macbook Air now though as there are things like Visual Studio that I need for school.

 

[bunnspecial]

I started collecting more and more macs. I visited my cousin again, and the SAME NEIGHBOR gave me a Mac Pro 1,1. I tricked it out and installed OS X Mavericks, and was one of the first people to run Yosemite (check on the forums).

Hey, that 1,1 sounds familiar!

(it's now running Mavericks, though, along with Snow Leopard and Tiger).

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Hey, that 1,1 sounds familiar!

(it's now running Mavericks, though, along with Snow Leopard and Tiger).

Sup, bunnspecial?. When did you get a 1,1? Curious as to how it runs Tiger. I got mine with SL on it and took it all the way up to El Crapitan, before getting my current 4,1.

 

[128keaton]

Sup, bunnspecial . When did you get a 1,1? Curious as to how it runs Tiger. I got mine with SL on it and took it all the way up to El Crapitan, before getting my current 4,1.

Actually, he has had it for almost a year to the date. It was my old one. @LightBulbFun had Tiger on an SSD. Hoo boy.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Actually, he has had it for almost a year to the date. It was my old one. @LightBulbFun had Tiger on an SSD. Hoo boy.

Holy cow. I'd like to see a demonstration of that.

 

[Altemose]

My obsession with Macs began with PowerPCs and I have enjoyed them ever since. Back in 2010, I was beginning at a new middle school for 7th grade. One of the things that I dreaded was that the lab was full of Early 2009 iMacs, as I was a die hard PC user. Once I began to use the Macs though, I knew I preferred the operating system and even some of the hardware (like the Mighty Mouse). My father had a Dell Latitude D620, which many of you know is a perfect candidate for a Hackintosh. He had been wanting to upgrade to a newer laptop anyway at the time, so he got a free D630 and I got to have the D620. I promptly loaded on OS X Leopard and it was fantastic! Everything worked great and I actually began loading OS X on the school's extra PCs as a favor for the administrators. While I would never recommend a Hackintosh as a daily driver, especially in a school or business environment, they make great "floaters" in case a real Mac goes down. A couple of D610s and older HPs began life anew with OS X.

Needless to say, I began to want to get a real Mac, and at the time PowerPC was still common and easy to find affordably. A local high school had donated a few Macs: a Sawtooth 400 MHz, QuickSilver Dual 800 MHz, and an MDD 1.25 Single (2003 model), along with a couple of iMac G3s. Using Steve Jobs' logic, I asked to purchase the QuickSilver as it was a dual CPU model. Plus, I did not feel like carrying the much heavier MDD home. Our very kind principal offered it to me on a "permanent loan".

I quickly installed Leopard on it using OpenFirmware and upgrade the hard drives to a couple of 80 GB (one boot and one Time Machine) as well as the RAM. Once the MDD began to act up (logic board), I parted it out and took the larger 160 GB hard drive and video card for my QuickSilver. I used that machine up until the G5 bug got me, sorry @eyoungren. From that point, I purchased a Dual 1.8 GHz from Newegg which ended up dying a year or so later by overheating. My mother purchased their extended warranty and they paid it out, so I then bought another Dual 1.8, but this time it was a 4 RAM slot model. I still have that Mac, but a CPU is down currently. My good friend @gavinstubbs09 supplied me with some new CPUs a while ago, that I must get in soon as I want to use the Mac again!

Of course, along the way I began to dive into portables. I was actually issued a 1.67 GHz PowerBook G4 SLSD for a project I was involved in, and was told to keep it due to the age of the machine. I also have owned a 900 MHz iBook G3 courtesy of @RedCroissant, who worked with me while I struggled to afford even the postage to get it here at the time. That machine currently resides with @bunnspecial, who I can positively say, enjoys the machine as much as I have. There have been a few parts machines along the way like the MDD and the 17" 1.6 GHz iMac G5, but all in all I have nothing compared to some of the collections that forum members have. I am looking for a good 14" iBook to complete my dream machine!