Not familiar with iMacs (g5), could you help me out?

C

candychunk

macrumors member
Okay, so our family PC of 2 yrs is now acting up (typical for all our previous PCs)... so now I decided to get a used iMac g5 on ebay since i cant afford the newest one right now and i think macs should still be in a pretty good shape after some years compare to PCs. I just paid for it today and here are the specs:

Apple iMac 1.9GHz
1.5Gb
160Gb
SuperDrive
iSight
DVD DL Superdrive
Radeon X600 Pro Video Card
Leopard

and then some info here im not familiar with:

"The Apple iMac G5/1.9 17-Inch (iSight) comes equipped with a 1.9 GHz PowerPC 970fx (G5) processor with an optimized AltiVec "Velocity Engine" vector processing unit and a 512k on chip level 2 cache, 633 MHz frontside bus, 1.5 GB of 533 MHz PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM, a 160.0 GB (7200 RPM) Serial ATA hard drive, a vertically-mounted slot-loading 8X "SuperDrive", ATI Radeon X600 Pro graphics with 128 MB of DDR SDRAM (PCI-Express), and a 17" TFT Active Matrix LCD (1440x900 native) display. Connectivity includes USB 2.0, Firewire "400", built-in AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, and Gigabit Ethernet."

basically, it will only come with the imac itself and a power cord.... i paid $400.... is this a good deal? ive looked around and i think most sell them for about $500, but then i dont know if the specs im paying for is worth it compare to the $500s one...
i emailed the seller about the condition and they said the condition is fairly good, no cracks nor dents, but may be a few scratches

also, since im only getting the imac itself and the power cord, what else would i need? keyboard and mouse, what else?

and one more thing, do u think this imac would perform as great/fast just like it was first bought from the store (being that it was restored and having leopard in it?) just being hopeful :D

id really appreciate it if you could answer my questions, i have a macbook that i totally love that's why i have convinced my family to get an iMac
 
I'd go for a refurb Mini, too. Granted, the only Refurb Mac mini in the US store is a model that's $700, you're getting a whole lot more machine for the dollar that way.

Besides, I can't really recommend the G5 iMacs for a couple of reasons, primary among them being reliability and Leopard performance. It will seriously drag under Leopard. Benchmarks won't tell the whole story, but it won't be particularly snappy. Even my PowerMac G5 has problems with Leopard under heavy multi-tasking scenarios (if it weren't for Time Machine, I'd be heading back to Tiger on that machine), so you might end up looking for Tiger disks on eBay at some point in the future

However, you could have done a whole lot worse for the money. You've gotten the last gen one that has all the nifty bells and whistles on it. You'll definitely want a keyboard and a mouse and you'll almost certainly want an external hard drive to use for Time Machine.
 
I wouldn't buy any Mac that doesn't have an intel processor at this point. Snow Leopard (10.6) will not support non-intel processors. Ilife 2009 doesn't totally support non-intel processors. I believe that imovie isn't non-intel compatible and doesn't install. There is no upgrade strategy for these computers, so not worth it. Save your money and buy a newer machine.
 
No, the iMac isn't that bad. The Mini just beats it, by a good amount too.


http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/2009/01/mac-performance-january-2009/


iMac G5 (iSight)
PowerPC G5 (970FX) 1.9 GHz (1 core) 1103


Mac Mini (2007..the one they are selling now is even faster)

Intel Core2 T7200 @ 2.00 GHz (2 cores)-2609

Admittedly Geekbench tends to show the CPU difference most, but thats a general difference between the iMac you're looking at vs Mac Mini
 
IMHO, that's not a terrible machine by any means. Yes, an Intel mini coul have worked out better for the price, but that means he'd have to buy the monitor then. If the 'family computer' really is just what he says it is, I'm sure it'll see basic tasks like light browsing, MS office, and iTunes. I did that kind of stuff on my 8 year old G3 iMac. I say it's a good way to get the family into a mac.
 
I owned that exact model and would still be using it as my primary computer if it wasn't for my 'portable tendencies' which meant i got a macbook.
I gave it to my parents who are using it along with my younger brothers that are still at home. Its a very capable machine for what they need and replaced a graveyard of slow and virus ridden windows boxes that were to much for my dad to keep repairing and far too easy for my brothers to download some c**p and screw up.

I never experienced any slowdown over the 4 years I had it with no maintenance or reinstalls and ran the most recent 3D modelling applications for my architecture degree, ArchiCad 12. I can't vouch for Leopard on the machine but tiger purred along without breaking sweat. Like a couple of the guys above said, there is not much of an upgrade path software wise past leopard and a fully functioning iLife 08, but to be honest that software will not stop working just because a new version comes out and I don't know about your parents, but mine wouldn't have a clue about any new software coming out so I can't see them demanding the latest and greatest.

You might consider getting an apple remote for them, my parents and brothers love front row for playing music and films, and the model you have has a magnetic area on the right hand side below the superdrive where the remote should "stick".
 
candychunk said:
Okay, so our family PC of 2 yrs is now acting up (typical for all our previous PCs)... so now I decided to get a used iMac g5 on ebay since i cant afford the newest one right now and i think macs should still be in a pretty good shape after some years compare to PCs. I just paid for it today and here are the specs:

Apple iMac 1.9GHz
1.5Gb
160Gb
SuperDrive
iSight
DVD DL Superdrive
Radeon X600 Pro Video Card
Leopard

and then some info here im not familiar with:

"The Apple iMac G5/1.9 17-Inch (iSight) comes equipped with a 1.9 GHz PowerPC 970fx (G5) processor with an optimized AltiVec "Velocity Engine" vector processing unit and a 512k on chip level 2 cache, 633 MHz frontside bus, 1.5 GB of 533 MHz PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM, a 160.0 GB (7200 RPM) Serial ATA hard drive, a vertically-mounted slot-loading 8X "SuperDrive", ATI Radeon X600 Pro graphics with 128 MB of DDR SDRAM (PCI-Express), and a 17" TFT Active Matrix LCD (1440x900 native) display. Connectivity includes USB 2.0, Firewire "400", built-in AirPort Extreme, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, and Gigabit Ethernet."

basically, it will only come with the imac itself and a power cord.... i paid $400.... is this a good deal? ive looked around and i think most sell them for about $500, but then i dont know if the specs im paying for is worth it compare to the $500s one...
i emailed the seller about the condition and they said the condition is fairly good, no cracks nor dents, but may be a few scratches

also, since im only getting the imac itself and the power cord, what else would i need? keyboard and mouse, what else?

and one more thing, do u think this imac would perform as great/fast just like it was first bought from the store (being that it was restored and having leopard in it?) just being hopeful :D

id really appreciate it if you could answer my questions, i have a macbook that i totally love that's why i have convinced my family to get an iMac
Click to expand...

Sounds like it has no OS. It is $400 because of that. The latest Mac OS X is $130.
 
I've had a couple of friends who have had their g5's die on them, usually right after applecare expired.

The g5's are mother-frakkin' hot chips, and the imac is a thin design with little room for cooling containing notebook components; not a good combination.
 
clyde2801 said:
The g5's are mother-frakkin' hot chips, and the imac is a thin design with little room for cooling containing notebook components; not a good combination.
Click to expand...

There is little evidence to support that..I had a G5 issue to, but it wasn't due to heat, it was faulty part of my machine.

My iMac G5 served me well!
 
My rev. A iMac G5 is still running beautifully. I have 2GB RAM (everything else stock) and it runs Leopard just fine, even after using an aluminum MacBook all day.
 
thanks for all your replies, i really appreciate it... and i think based on these i think ill be satisfied with this purchase...some of you recommended buying an intel based one for heavy duty work... but since it is a family computer, it will only be used for light work, mostly surfing the net, school work, and storing pictures and music... no editing will be done, if so.. very minimal... exactly what Jschultz thought :)

@ rdowns and liamwillib: exactly!!! thanks for the reassurance, very nice to hear your experience with the exact model... ill just take my chance with leopard, like i said, it should not be much of a problem since it will only be used with light work and as far as getting the latest os, my parents and sisters do not have a clue either, as long as they can use it and not slowing them down like PCs, they should be fine :)

thanks again everyone, this community never fails me :)
 
dacreativeguy said:
Snow Leopard (10.6) will not support non-intel processors
Click to expand...

Don't think thats true, its only rumor right now.

To the OP, apart from KB & mouse you don't really need anything. Your existing USB peripherals should work with it. You might like to get some speakers if you find the built in ones too tinny.
 
seb-opp said:
Don't think thats true, its only rumor right now.

To the OP, apart from KB & mouse you don't really need anything. Your existing USB peripherals should work with it. You might like to get some speakers if you find the built in ones too tinny.
Click to expand...

oh yeah, i forgot about the speakers... i really liked the one they had on display with this model... ill def. look into those, thanks!
 
zap2 said:
There is little evidence to support that..I had a G5 issue to, but it wasn't due to heat, it was faulty part of my machine.

My iMac G5 served me well!
Click to expand...

There's little evidence to support what? That G5's are hot chips? That the imacs are thin? That they contain notebook parts? That excessive heat is not good for a computer?

I'm glad people on the threads have gotten good, reliable use out of their G5 iMacs. But if I was looking at buying a used iMac today, the heat put out by the G5's would be a valid reason to consider a core duo, or core 2 duo iMac instead.
 
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