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Power Mac G5 1.8 DP

Z

Zorka

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 19, 2021
18
5
I have been offered an G5 1.8 DP with a 20" cinema display. Don't have anymore info yet.
Is it worth spending some money on it? I'm just recently starting to play with PPC Mac's. I own a iMac G4 17". I do know my way around intel Mac's. Owning 2 Mac Pro's 4.1 (one single and one dual processor), a few iMac's (from 20,5" to 27", core2 duo to i7), some Mac mini's and MacBook Air's.

So would this thing be usable with sorbet leopard, and if yes, what's the maximum I should offer...
 
It is usable with Tiger, Leopard, PPC Linux and Morphos - of course, depends what you mean by usable?

Would be capable of being a graphics workstation or DAW as much as it was when it was launched (more so in fact.)

It can also go online adequately but not with 100% compatibility to the modern web and it will be slower than your Mac Pros obviously.

Price will depend on what storage, RAM and GPU it comes with.
 
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I don't mind about the storage, as I plan to replace the HDD('s) with an SSD.
The guy send me a picture of the serial etc : G5 1.8/DP/512MB400/160/SD/FX5200/PCI-X/56K

So what I make from it is 512MB (minimum) 160GB HDD and an FX5200 with 64MB (?). I was thinking about 85eur, including screen (20" cinema display), keyboard and mouse.

Is that too much?
 
Zorka said:
I don't mind about the storage, as I plan to replace the HDD('s) with an SSD.
The guy send me a picture of the serial etc : G5 1.8/DP/512MB400/160/SD/FX5200/PCI-X/56K

So what I make from it is 512MB (minimum) 160GB HDD and an FX5200 with 64MB (?). I was thinking about 85eur, including screen (20" cinema display), keyboard and mouse.

Is that too much?
Click to expand...
If it works all ok that price isn't outlandish - I've seen people pay more - personally my limit on this stock setup would be €60
 
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Quad is faster - I agree ! How 2.5 GHz G5 can’t do much as the ones who say it can’t is beyond me, the DC 2.3 is nice too.
 
Agreed, I wish people wouldn't outright dismiss G5's that aren't the DC or quad. For starters the DC's and quads are an order of magnitude harder to find compared the 1.8ghz dp models. I have a dc 2ghz as well as 2 1.8ghz dp's, and while the 2ghz dc is noticeably faster than my 1.8ghz, it is still quite a capable machine that would certainly be a step up from their imac g4.

I managed to stumble across 2 1.8ghz dp g5's for practically nothing, whereas it took me a long time of constantly scouring classifieds before I found my 2ghz DC. @Zorka i do think 85 is way too much though, I'd offer 50 for it if the condition is good. That G5 should be able to run sorbet leopard fine, it may chug a bit browsing the web, and some games may be bit laggy but swapping the video card out with something like a radeon 9600 will help out in the gaming department
 
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Thank you all for the comments. I didn't buy it (yet), as I was offered 2 G5's (without keyboard, screen ) for free. One of them should be in working condition, the other for parts. The guy wasn't sure about the config, because he had them in his basement for some years now. Norally, I'll have some time this afternoon too look at them in detail. The outside looks in pretty good condition, but we will see....
 
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I have opened the cases. (they have been all night in the cold, so I don't want to boot it yet....)
The one that should work now has the following inside :

6 * 512MB DDR 400MHz (3GB), ATI Radeon 9600 (not sure if it's 128 or 256 MB ? could even be 64MB), 2 * HDD (haven't removed them yet. Superdrive.

Labeled : 2,0GHZ DP/PCI-X/512MB 400/250GB/SD/G5200/KEYBD BEL. (2003)

The other one is stripped. Only has the superdrive and the CPU's.

Labeled : 2,0GHZ/DP/512MB 400/160GB/SD/RV351LE. (2005)

They both need some serious cleaning on the inside. So my question is. Which one has the best motherboard (assuming they both work....), and would be the best (fastest or whatever) to restore?
 
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Zorka said:
Which one has the best motherboard (assuming they both work....), and would be the best (fastest or whatever) to restore?
Click to expand...
I'd go for the 2005 one. Install the Radeon 9600 in it. It’s much better than the abysmal GeForce FX 5200, for both gaming and general use in Mac OS X due to fully supporting Core Image.
 
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What about the PCI slots

(from everymac)

This model has "three open full-length PCI-X slots: one 133MHz, 64-bit slot and two 100MHz, 64-bit slots", an 8X AGP Pro slot that "supports up to 2-GBps data throughput" and is occupied by the graphics card, as well as expansion slots for AirPort Extreme (802.11g) and Bluetooth 1.1.

versus

This model has "three open full-length 33 MHz, 64-bit PCI slots", an 8X AGP Pro slot that "supports up to 2-GBps data throughput" and is occupied by the graphics card, as well as expansion slots for AirPort Extreme (802.11g) and Bluetooth 1.1.


I'm leaning towards restoring the oldest one.

@Amethyst1 why do you think the 2005 is better?
@Dronecatcher is it only the memory limit that's better?

It seems like the previous owner, did use the oldest one, using parts from the new one. he didn't use more then 4GB, so I don't think memory was is main concern.....
 
Zorka said:
why do you think the 2005 is better?
Click to expand...
Newer and more power-efficient CPUs mainly. However being limited to 4 GB RAM is a bit of a downside.
FWIW, the older model can run the G5 builds of Mac OS X v10.2 “Jaguar” (v10.2.7 and v10.2.8).
 
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The mac’s have made the decision easy…. The power supply on the oldest died as soon as I powered it on. (I saw a little spark near the powerbutton. )
Putting all components in the other one gave me a working system. So there is a new question. Do both systems use the same power supply?
 
Dronecatcher said:
Having had a dual 1.8, 2.0, 2.3 and a couple of Quads, this isn't the case - incrementally better but only the Quad is significantly faster.
Click to expand...

Hello, did you encounter also a "silent" Quad? How would you compare the Quad to the other Models you had?
I bought a single Quad but it was too loud for my needs so i sold i.t.
Currently i have still a DualCore, and a Dual CPU and Single CPU, and the older ones are definitely quieter, somehow smoother, but less powerful, struggling sometimes with simple tasks.

If there would exist a single lighthearted browser like Camino for PPC Mac, would still be a great computer for (my) needs.
 
mrkapqa said:
Hello, did you encounter also a "silent" Quad? How would you compare the Quad to the other Models you had?
Click to expand...
I've had 2 Quads - one was moderately noisy under stress but the 2nd was very quiet at all times.
My DP 2.3 was intolerably loud unless run in Reduced mode but that was because it had defective thermal sensors - that will always be a factor in an ageing Powermac.

There hasn't been a one size fits all PPC browser for many years - simply because the internet has moved on whilst PPC software development ceased - using multiple browsers isn't really a problem though and using TenFourFoxBoxes is an efficient way to manage sites.

It's been a few years since I had my last Quad though, so can't comment on current performance. I'd love another but the prices have long wandered over the threshold of what I'd call reasonable.
 
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