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Nice score of retired macs

Surrat

Surrat

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 20, 2014
479
172
United States
Working tech support does have its perks. :)

A local company was going to dump some 'old macs' they were no longer using, so I asked if I could have them instead. They said fine as long as I also took some very heavy backup power supply rack units to dispose of. Seemed like a good deal to me.

I ended up receiving:

two MacBook Pro 3,1 15"
one Macbook Pro 4,1 15"
one Macbook white (not sure yet which one, havent gotten to it)
one ibook G4 1.2ghz 12"
one ibook G4 1.33ghz 12"
one Powermac G5 single 1.8ghz 8 ram slots with fx5200 vid
one Powermac G5 dual 1.8ghz 4 ram slots with fx5200 vid
one Powermac G5 dual 2.0ghz 4 ram slots with fx5200 vid
one Powermac G5 dual 2.0ghz 8 ram slots with 9600 vid
one Powermac G5 dual core 2.3ghz with 6600 vid
one Mac Pro 1,1 with 7300 vid
one Mac Pro 3,1 with hd2600 vid
one ADC Cinema LCD 15"
four Cinema aluminum 20"
one Wacom tablet ETC-640
two USB scanner HP
two very heavy APC rack mount power backups
bag of assorted manuals for G5, displays, and adc/dvi converter

All the mac towers work, except one has a bad headphone jack, thinks there is headphones plugged in all the time, and one mac pro had a dead hard disk. Both mac pro's had 1TB second disks added. The 3,1 had some 667 ram installed, so I put that in the 1,1.

After switching parts around, trading ram around, and just trying to clean up the mess, I ended up with:

Macbook pro 4,1 2.4ghz, 6gig ram, 200gig drive, fresh ElCapitan
G5 dual 1.8 2gb ram, 160gb drive, fx5200, fresh leopard with ilife09, iwork09, tenfourfox
G5 dual 2.0 2gb ram, 160gb drive, fx5200, fresh leopard with ilife09, iwork09, tenfourfox
MacPro 1,1 2.66ghz 4core, 11gig ram, 1TB drive, HD2600 vid, fresh ElCapitan
MacPro 3,1 2.8ghz 8core 4gig ram, 1TB drive HD5770 vid, fresh ElCapitan

Scattered in the G5 towers, was a set of eight matching 1gig dimms, I took them all and put them in my best G5 7,3 tower, the one with the x850xt, now it has 8gig ram.

Not sure what to do with the G5 single 1.8 with 8 ram slots, lightbulbfreak says its a rare one, but its a 7,2 and I'm guessing probably not reliable, tho right now, it does seem to work fine.

The G5 DC 2.3 I'm in the middle of working on, if it works and is 100%, then I'm going to replace my G5 Quad with it. I love the quad, but mine has a bent foot, and I HATE the water cooling system in it. The DC 2.3 isnt as fast, but its reliable and will never have idiot water leaks. I'll transfer over the vid card, ram, disks, wifi/bluetooth, and just let it replace the quad.

The other laptops, I havent put time into, the ibook 1.33 12" is in amazing condition, but its power socket is damaged, I cant plug in the charger.

Only tested one of the aluminum 20" monitor so far, it works 100%, really happy about those monitors.

Anyway, just wanted to share.

Thanks to LightBulbFun for helping me out as I work on these with friendly advice and comments via skype.

Update:

I finished rebuilding the Powermac G5 2.3DC, it came out great and works perfectly.
Specs now are:
2.3ghz dual core G5, 16gig ecc ram, wifi/bluetooth, nvidia quadro fx4500, two 500gig HD

I also finished fixing up the single 1.8ghz G5.
Specs now are:
1.8ghz single G5 8-slot, 4gig ram, wifi, radeon 9600, 160gig HD.

Both running Leopard with ilife09, iwork09, and some of my other apps.
 
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Reactions: Phil A., WalnutSpice, Gamer9430 and 5 others
Any of you live within driving distance of Oklahoma? I need to reduce how many G5 towers i have and some other macs. I dont want to mail anything.
 
very nice Find surrat (it was fun to discuss this over skype heh) I think the white macbook based on what you told me is a 2Ghz mid 2007 Core 2 duo MacBook 2,1 one guess we will find out once you load an OS onto it also "LightBulbFreak" :rolleyes: EDIT: just checked the serial number on that macbook turns out its a Macbook 1,1 mid 2006 the Core duo 1st gen macbook
 
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Great find and great haul!

BTW, the single 1.8 with 8 ram slots was my first G5, and second PPC Mac(after an eMac bought a few days previous to it).
 
Spent the day between tech support calls working on the G5 2.3 dual core.

Tore it all apart, including motherboard and PSU. The PSU was filthy inside, again why I recommend to anybody fixing up ANY G5 to clean out the PSU no matter how clean the computer might seem.

Very nice to see, was that under the dust, the PSU was shiny new looking and so was the whole rest of the computer. Soft bristled paint brush, some canned air, and elbow grease, and the inside of this G5 looks brand shiny new. I thought about transplanting the 1000w PSU from the Quad into the 2.3, but, then the Quad would be dead, and I want to find another home for it. Also, the Quad PSU has more cables coming out of it, and in the 2.3 they have no place to go.

Since I want it to replace my Quad as best G5, its getting the Ram, Wifi/Bluetooth, Quadro, and hard disks from the Quad.

Got it all cleaned, put back together, and gritted my teeth for the 'smoke test'. It chimed, and after a long black screen due to 16gig ecc ram, it booted up and purred along nicely. Been playing on it for a little while now and no problems I can see.
 
Keep the Mac Pros. Very nice machines with intel CPUs. Ask bunn, he just did a CPU upgrade on his (my old) 1,1
 
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Quite a haul, lots of good stuff.

I managed to pick up a huge haul of old Macs in OK, just a couple of months ago, funnily enough. :)
 
Holy crap that's a good deal! The Mac Pro 3,1 is the best thing you've got hands down. It's still compatible with El Capitan even and can probably be a great machine, albit old, will probably still run quite well. Congrats for getting this! I wish I got this lucky in my life one day. :(
 
WalnutSpice said:
Hate to be that guy, but would you be willing to part with the MacBook Pro 3,1? For a cheap price?
Click to expand...

I havent really got to the other macbooks yet, I'm concentrating on the towers. When they are done I'll look at the laptops and see whats worth keeping and what is just parts junk.
 
Surrat said:
The other laptops, I havent put time into, the ibook 1.33 12" is in amazing condition, but its power socket is damaged, I cant plug in the charger.
Click to expand...

You can't plug it in at all or does it only not make contact?
Tightening the outer ring on the plug often does the trick. Although it should load the battery and laptop even without doing this, it just won't lit the LED indicating it is working.
 
I finished working over the macbook pro's. Swapping parts around from them, and 3 other dead 3,1's I had from another salvage lot, I got all 3 of them working.

The 4,1 is 2.4ghz, 6gig ram, 500gig HD, I installed El Capitan, runs great. I'm keeping this one.
Both of the 3,1 are 2.2ghz, 4gig ram, 120gig HD, El Capitan, and run very well.
 
Altemose said:
@Surrat Care to sell any of the laptops?
Click to expand...

Ok, one 3,1 is available, its working fine. If I sell one, or trade it, It will have a bare El Capitan install on it. The HD in it is the original 120gig, but seems ok, no errors. I do not have enough batteries to go around, so it will not have a battery, and it will not have a AC charger. I will also not warranty the 3,1 at all. It is strictly as-is due to the problems that are common with the 3,1 laptops, mainly the GPU cracking its solder joints and dying. It might work for years, or it could die the next time its powered on.

If your still interested, PM me.
 
Surrat said:
Ok, one 3,1 is available, its working fine. If I sell one, or trade it, It will have a bare El Capitan install on it. The HD in it is the original 120gig, but seems ok, no errors. I do not have enough batteries to go around, so it will not have a battery, and it will not have a AC charger. I will also not warranty the 3,1 at all. It is strictly as-is due to the problems that are common with the 3,1 laptops, mainly the GPU cracking its solder joints and dying. It might work for years, or it could die the next time its powered on.

If your still interested, PM me.
Click to expand...

Someone is actually looking for one in the Marketplace.
 
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