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My G5 QUAD story. (A Tale of Two Cases)

Mnowell69

Mnowell69

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 4, 2013
246
36
Bedford, UK
Having paid £80 for a supposedly working quad i didn't really expect much. It arrived in a very thin walled box wrapped in bubble wrap. So once opened i saw the first of my problems, the top case and handles were destroyed. I managed to bend it all back into some kind of shape, finally allowing me to open the case and inspect the innards. The second of my problems appeared (or rather didn't appear) because the air deflector was missing. The inside was fantastically clean, free from dirt, dust, and more importantly any form of liquid. The CPU cover still has its original plastic rivet but i managed a peak under and it was BEAUTIFUL. At this point i decided to see if it would at least power up, which led to my third problem, no power cable. F.C.U.K this for a game of soldiers i thought and sent an email to the seller asking what he was playing at. So now i am waiting for the power cable and the shield and if everything works ok, i might splash out on a wireless dongle because it had obviously never seen an aeroplane inside, having had no 'runway' card or 'airport' extreme to land at.

Happy days
 
i have now got it running after the power lead arrived today, and it sounds fantastic. the fans spool up but aren't loud like my mac pro was, then immediately before the desktop appears the fans cut back to idle. BRILLIANT. If it wasn't for the case i would be in heaven. Luckily from the front it looks like new. :)
 
BTW-here's a trick that I was let onto a while back if you're missing the plastic air deflector.

Fold a piece of paper and stick it down in the rear-most "slot" where the tabs on the bottom of the air deflector engage. This will make the computer think that the deflector is installed, and should restore the fans to normal operation. You may still find the fans running harder than usual under heavy loads, but it will at least "tame" the computer until you can get an air deflector in it.

My Quad didn't come with an air deflector, so I'm "borrowing" the one from my dual core 2.0 until I can get a spare(I'm working on it). I'm using the paper trick in my dual core-I worry less about heat in it than I do in the Quad.
 
LOL, i do have the deflector now, but i ran it without and it didn't make any difference, it was quiet as a mouse, so maybe somebody has already done this. Now i can have a look. Although the deflector engages quite freely. like i said, the thing is as quiet as a mouse (although i haven't used it properly yet!!)
 
Reading this thread makes me kind of wish I didn't get rid of the 2 working (and 1 not working) Quads I've owned. Traded 2 for a Mac Pro 1,1 and was given cash to sweeten the deal. I had one with 12gb of ram and it had an ssd in it and was amazingly quick for a machine of that vintage.
 
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Now that my Quad is finally(again) running, I too am thrilled with how well it works and how quick it is. Mine is still on the factory 4gb(4x1gb)-I have RAM to upgrade it, but haven't felt any real push to do so yet. My Dual Core 2.0 that it's(eventually) replacing once I actually get an office at work has 10gb, and I'm probably going to scavenge some RAM out of it(2x2gb) plus some other DDR-2 to bring the Quad up to 10gb(the dual core will go down to 8gb) It's quick and "snappy" in Leopard even with platter drives and the standard GPU.

I have a Mac Pro 1,1 sitting next to my Quad now. The MP has a lot of advantages, including a better GPU, the ability to run a more modern OS(although it's "stuck" at 10.7 until I get 10.9 hacked onto it) as well as a lot more current, still maintained programs for it. For a lot of things, though, the Quad is perfectly fine.
 
@bunnspecial I find that the G5s with TenFourFox power through nearly anything I can throw at them even today with the exception of some HD video editing and Flash based sites. Is the Quad staying as a personal machine or will you use it at the office?
 
I bought a MBP 17 2011 and i find that the QUAD can 'keep up' with it when doing general everyday stuff. Watching HD MKV files, using the internet, playing loud music. Gaming isn't an issue because i haven't played games since the 3rd Tomb Raider.. The temperatures never go above 54º c (although the air behind the QUAD seems to ;)) whereas the MBP occasionally does when using IPHOTOS (PHOTOS)
I am so happy with my macs right now, that i bought a 17" non-booting DLSD powerbook for £30. That just needed the top case ribbon cable re-seating and all is well now. I may even get a new case for the QUAD, but would hate to upset it's delicate balance.
 
i just bought a 'new' unused case for my damaged QUAD for 99p on eBay, so here's hoping that this doesn't arrive damaged. Soon i can spend a day moving the insides from one case to the other, should be fun.
 
Mnowell69 said:
i just bought a 'new' unused case for my damaged QUAD for 99p on eBay, so here's hoping that this doesn't arrive damaged. Soon i can spend a day moving the insides from one case to the other, should be fun.
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My quad arrived damaged and I can't find a good case anywhere..
 
the seller I found had 2 cases, the one I was bidding on still has most of the cellophane attached with just a few marks. The auction mysteriously ended in the morning (instead of the evening) and I was the only bidder at 99p. As I said earlier, I just hope it arrives undamaged. I sent the seller a message about packaging but I have no idea if he read it or not, and the item was marked as dispatched today. There's nothing worse than looking at a MAC and seeing the handles all busted with the rivets popped. YUK

In total I have spent £100 on my whole QUAD love affair, and that includes a 160gb Velociraptor and postage. Just need an FX4500 now, but will only get that once I am happy with the state of my QUAD. I may end up destroying it when I swap cases.
 
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good luck on your project, and BTW, you'll really enjoy the FX4500, I know I sure do.

Picture 1.JPG
 
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flyrod said:
Good luck with the swap! It would be neat to see pictures of the progress... :)
Click to expand...

i might try that but let's just say photography is not my strong point.

A.Goldberg said:
The last few items I've purchased on eBay have been inadequately packaged. I drives me nuts.
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So far only my QUAD was badly packaged. My MBP17 was sent in a bigger box than the QUAD and was full of polystyrene and bubble wrap.
 
So my 'new' case arrived yesterday in perfect condition. There was however one small snag, the access panel wasn't the correct one, coming from the previous model with DDR. This means i have to use my old panel which isn't perfect but it is correct.

I stripped the old one down to the shell and took a few photos of the best bits..


Then i took photos of the system being rebuilt, literally from the ground up, but because there are so many photos i have had to upload them to PHOTOBUCKET so that if anyone is interested they can go there and have a look.
I didn't take photos of the disassemble because it's just the same as the rebuild only dirtier...

http://s1099.photobucket.com/user/mnowell69/library/My QUAD G5 Story

Thankfully everything went well and the QUAD is working perfectly. Now i can think about getting a proper graphics card (i was waiting to see if the QUAD still worked after disassemble and reassemble) just to finish it off nicely. Will probably get a 7800GT because i hardly ever use it for anything other than films 'n' games but in the end it just depends on the price of the cards available when i take the plunge.
So far the QUAD has cost me £105 in total (inc postage) so i am very happy with the result (and very relieved that it is working)
 
A.Goldberg said:
The last few items I've purchased on eBay have been inadequately packaged. I drives me nuts.
Click to expand...

I bought a button cell battery recently. It was sent by free delivery with a 3-5 day lead time before despatch by second class post, except...

...it shipped immediately, sent by UPS requiring a signature and I received it the next day thusly:

image.jpg


Even Amazon wouldn't o_O
 
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weckart said:
I bought a button cell battery recently. It was sent by free delivery with a 3-5 day lead time before despatch by second class post, except...

...it shipped immediately, sent by UPS requiring a signature and I received it the next day thusly:

View attachment 574802

Even Amazon wouldn't o_O
Click to expand...

Oh god. What a waste.

Typically my inadequate comment refers to those items that lack a proper amount of padding, etc. This is quite an interesting specimen... even by Amazon standards!
 
A.Goldberg said:
The last few items I've purchased on eBay have been inadequately packaged. I drives me nuts.
Click to expand...

The wholesale lot of fans I got a while ago were just tossed into a box with no packaging at all. Luckily nothing got damaged or anything.
 
weckart said:
I bought a button cell battery recently. It was sent by free delivery with a 3-5 day lead time before despatch by second class post, except...

...it shipped immediately, sent by UPS requiring a signature and I received it the next day thusly:

View attachment 574802

Even Amazon wouldn't o_O
Click to expand...

What is that? The image is too small.
 
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