PowerMac G5 2.7 GHz should i buy it?

[CountMaxMore]

Someone told me they would sell their g5 for 100$ to me its a dual core watercooled 2.7 Ghz 1 gb of ram and a 80 gb drive with no os note i have 4 gb of ram and a 500 gb hard drive and a copy of leopard i can put in it should i take this is it a good deal?

 

[MysticCow]

Liquid cooled? That's always a NO in my book.

 

[CountMaxMore]

Liquid cooled? That's always a NO in my book.

Why is the liquid cool bad?

 

[Orizence]

Why is the liquid cool bad?

They were pretty bad for leaking, and mostly require a full rebuild. This makes them not worth it for some.

 

[0248294]

The watercooling system in these G5s are very prone to failure.

 

[LCPepper]

I once bought a PowerBook G4 to play around with, it had a failing graphics card though, which the ebay seller forgot to mention.

But it worked fine, and was a interesting little distraction. It's an iTunes Media server right now... not that I really use it much.

 

[bunnspecial]

The 2.7s as a whole are more reliable than the 2.5s. These are also the fastest PowerPC computers made in terms of single-thread performance.

I love my dual 2.7. It's not as fast as my Quad, but for a lot of the stuff I do it's faster.

I'd go for it. If you do buy it, check carefully for signs of leaking. The stock LCS uses a dyed liquid with noticeable UV fluroescence(fluorescene).

Under daylight, it's pale yellow-green. If you can, try to examine the case bottom under UV/black light and look. If the seller will let you, pull the "G5" cover off the processors and examine the LCS carefully. Pay particular attention to the black mat material(pig mat) under the LCS. Also look for corrosion on the bottom plate.

Many folks will call these a ticking time bomb, but I'm of the opinion that the problematic ones have likely already been filtered out and any left in working condition will likely work for a while longer.

If all checks out with the LCS, I'd buy it. In particular, if you are trying to run legacy peripherals(which I am) these computers are in many ways king. The expansion slots are PCI-X, and thus can be fitted with standard PCI cards. Running 10.4(Tiger) it is possible to run EVERY piece of Macintosh software written from 1984 to 2006 or so(and of course universal binaries made after that).

 

[stewart1981]

Liquid cooled is a no for me as well. No denying that model is a fast machine but after two liquid models dying on me in the past I prefer the more reliable if slower air cooled ones.

On the flip side if you are comfy with the repair work that is still a decent price for a powerful machine.

 

[Dronecatcher]

I think that's a fair price - I often see them fetching higher prices than Quads on ebay.
Regarding the LCS - most vintage computers are on borrowed time, they simply weren't envisaged to be in use for so long - apart from any visible warning signs it comes down to luck.
A fault I've found with G5 Powermacs is flaky memory slots - solder joints break and memory modules fail to recognise.

 

[Cox Orange]

I'd say, if the LCS has not leaked in all those years until now, it probably will last. Those that failed, are probably long out of the market or had been treated/repaired.
On the other hand, still good too have a look into those LCS equipped Macs from time to time to prevent bad things coming.

 

[Altemose]

I'd say, if the LCS has not leaked in all those years until now, it probably will last. Those that failed, are probably long out of the market or had been treated/repaired.
On the other hand, still good too have a look into those LCS equipped Macs from time to time to prevent bad things coming.

While normally I would agree with such a statement, rubber degrades and the O-rings are constantly heating and being cooled. It is like a car's cooling system, it not if something will go wrong but when, and when it does it could be anything (fan clutch, thermostat, hoses, water pump, etc.).

 

[Greene]

That's a very fair price ... I sold mine for quite a bit more less than a year ago!