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Myths about PowerPC Macs
- Thread starter eyoungren
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Here's one that I see all the time: that they need to be "revived" (even if they're not dead) or "given a second lease at life" (even if they do their job just fine) by being gutted, thrown away, and replaced with an M1 mini or μATX motherboard, and that the people doing so for the aESthEtIc aren't going to grow bored of it in about a year and throw it away (about the timeframe their hardware gets replaced and the ports on the back stop lining up) due to being just a bog-standard computer with nothing interesting about it.
Or just being used as a wall clock or a bench, I've seen that too.
Or just being used as a wall clock or a bench, I've seen that too.
Or a lamp.
That amounts to being called a “resto-mod” and is neither a revival nor restoration in any senses of the words.
Ugh I hate that one so much. Every time I see a poor g5 guttted for its case just saddens me. Old hardware is in limited supply that dwindles more every year. These old computers need to be preserved, not ruined.
Sure , it is a modification of the Gershwix 2.5 Shapeshifter theme indeed, I tweaked it to have the multicolor Apple logo.
It's not a .guikit, but a .dlta which gives less options, but works fine in Shapeshifter . find it attached.
And the icons are these : https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/replatinum
applied with CandyBar.
Why off topic ?... Myth II (so mythS) on a Ppc
... Ok was a stupid joke sorry
Sure , it is a modification of the Gershwix 2.5 Shapeshifter theme indeed, I tweaked it to have the multicolor Apple logo.
It's not a .guikit, but a .dlta which gives less options, but works fine in Shapeshifter . find it attached.
And the icons are these : https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/replatinum
applied with CandyBar.
Why off topic ?... Myth II (so mythS) on a Ppc
Oh, I get it now...
I saw it as a response to "OS X can't run games", didn't even notice the title...Myth II (so mythS) on a Ppc
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I agree 100%.
Every x86 machine I have (save for maybe my Mac Mini and my tiny ThinkCentre m83) produce way more heat than any of the G5s I’ve left on.
My server is an HP Z400 with a Xeon X5675 which is essentially a single socket Mac Pro 4,1/5,1. It stays decently cool but if I do any type of plex transcodes on it you’d bet it heats up that room faster than any G5.
I feel like a mythbuster thread like this could be useful in the early intel section too. The amount of people who seem to think a Core 2 Duo machine (or even newer like circa 2012 i-series) is a useless “dinosaur” is astounding to me. I’ve posted my 2008 MBP 17” running Monterey on some of the Apple subs on there and you’d think I’d have just shown them a 68k daily driver??
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Myth: PowerPC Macs cannot run "4K" monitors.
Fact:
Fact:
- 800 MHz PowerBook G4 Titanium running...
- 1.33 GHz Mac mini G4 running...
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If you want to laugh really hard, there you go: back when I was just getting started with computers and learnt that "Macs" were a thing, I assumed they ran... a "Mac version of Windows". Gimme a break, I was a clueless kid.
Gimme a break, I was a clueless kid.
There will be no judgements from me! I recall conversations with grown adults who were unaware that alternatives to PCs and Windows even existed.
When I purchased my first Mac, I had it delivered to my workplace in order to ensure that I'd be on hand to receive it and people in the office crowded round as it was unpacked and plugged in. They were curious and eager to see it working and numerous questions followed - which included whether it ran a version of Windows.*
*(There was one particularly knowledgeable member of the group who mentioned at the time that her son owned an iMac G4 and was badgering her to replace it with an Intel Mac so that he could run Windows alongside OS X.)
People knew their PC ran Windows, so they probably assumed that every computer out there would be the same. My assumption was from a time when I had absolutely no clue that there were other OSes besides Windows or other computers besides PCs…They were curious and eager to see it working and numerous questions followed - which included whether it ran a version of Windows.*
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I was the same way as a kid.
I remember my 3rd grade classroom had a number of Macs, and a couple PCs. The PCs were virtually identical to the other PCs in the school, some A-Open desktops running Windows XP and some with 2000.
I had grown up using XP, 98, and 95, and I did not know there was anything else?
Now, remembering back.. My 3rd grade classroom had a G3 AIO which I actually used more than any other computer because for some reason I just liked it more. It also had virtualPC with Windows 95 which was how I thought it had to be used to work lol. Though I do remember using ClarisWorks on it a couple times.
There were also 3 other Macs in the room but those were Pre-G3s. If my memory serves I’d guess they ran some varient of system 7 because I remember the UI being flat and white vs the G3s obviously 3D/platinum OS 8 interface.
That class was a combination class and I also had it in 4th grade; I remember telling some kid that it was a Mac so at some point I figured out that there was a difference at least?
Here's a myth about a PowerPC Mac:
Everyone thinks that when you take the air deflector off of a Power Mac G5, its fans spin up.
This is in fact, incorrect. In actuality, only the machine's drive bay fan spins up, and not all nine. Moreover, people also tend to think that the "fans" then spin up to compensate for the lost air flow from the air deflector being removed.
More likely, Apple probably chose the drive bay fan in particular because they only wanted the system to effectively "yell" at the user to put the air deflector back on while the machine was running; almost akin in practice to subtly delivering an audible message without using the built-in speaker (which is another reason why I for one think these machines were among the best computers ever built - their tactility alone was virtually unmatched both then and now).
Lastly, this only even applied to the Mid 2003 to Early 2005 Power Mac G5s. The Late 2005 G5s removed this feature, after the front fan assembly was modified to more effectively move air over the processors by itself, thus more or less removing the need for the air deflector altogether (which the Mac Pro then removed entirely, reducing the manufacturing cost per unit).
Everyone thinks that when you take the air deflector off of a Power Mac G5, its fans spin up.
This is in fact, incorrect. In actuality, only the machine's drive bay fan spins up, and not all nine. Moreover, people also tend to think that the "fans" then spin up to compensate for the lost air flow from the air deflector being removed.
More likely, Apple probably chose the drive bay fan in particular because they only wanted the system to effectively "yell" at the user to put the air deflector back on while the machine was running; almost akin in practice to subtly delivering an audible message without using the built-in speaker (which is another reason why I for one think these machines were among the best computers ever built - their tactility alone was virtually unmatched both then and now).
Lastly, this only even applied to the Mid 2003 to Early 2005 Power Mac G5s. The Late 2005 G5s removed this feature, after the front fan assembly was modified to more effectively move air over the processors by itself, thus more or less removing the need for the air deflector altogether (which the Mac Pro then removed entirely, reducing the manufacturing cost per unit).
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Myth: TOS-link digital optical audio input/output for Mac laptops didn’t come about until the MacBook Pro
Fact: They also appear in the final PowerBook G4s (both 15- and 17-inch), including the 17-inch SLSD 2005 version.
The linked here is also another instance of @everymac posted info being incorrect. Hrm.
Fact: They also appear in the final PowerBook G4s (both 15- and 17-inch), including the 17-inch SLSD 2005 version.
The linked here is also another instance of @everymac posted info being incorrect. Hrm.
You're not alone, as I've repeatedly raved, the Power Mac G5 is a feat of engineering and the fact that it still holds up amazingly well in many areas is testament to its designers. Such a criminally underrated machine.
While I am currently using a single 1.33ghz ibookg4 w/ 1.25gb ram to respond to this thread, the heavy lifting for this years PowerPC Challenge has been done on an a1047 dual cpu 2ghz and an a1117 dual core 2ghz Powermac G5. They are also my favorite PowerPC macs & I echo the refined engineering sentiment. Personally, I love running them with just the air deflector in so I can look at the cool guts. If you are into LEDs, puting a few in one of these looks really cool through the deflector & is a really neat photo op. Of the various iterations of PowermacG5, the last 970MP revision is my favorite to use as they can accommodate up to 16gb ram which is awesome and so handy with modern web. This stands at odds to the common assumption that PPC machines are unusable feet heaters.
Now on to the search for a quad to complete my G5 collection.
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