Powermac G5 returns home...

[MattA]

Hello all!

My favorite computer I ever owned was my PowerMac G5. It's a 1.6Ghz model with 2GB of memory and 2x250GB HDDs. I bought it in 2004 for $1299 from the refurb store at apple.com. I used it for 5 years, and loved every minute of it!

Eventually, it started getting really slow, and I upgraded to a 2009 Mac Mini. The mini ran circles around the G5, but the Powermac could still do small tasks like email/web browsing/writing papers/etc, so I gave it to my parents to use.

Fast forward 6 more years, and my parents finally upgraded to a 5K iMac, and no longer needed the G5. So... I took it home.

It's really really dirty, and the keyboard was disgusting now. Also, the original box went missing. I started cleaning the keyboard with a damp cloth and a drop of detergent, but I must have gotten some down inside (I swear nothing went down there, but who can be sure?). Now the keyboard doesn't work at all. I'll have to disassemble it and see if any of the traces were damaged.

The machine itself just needs to be cleaned (heavily), and re-imaged. Who knows what's on this thing, and frankly, who cares?

Plans are to upgrade to 4GB of memory and put in a SSD for a boot drive. I'd like to turn it into a music player and put it out near my workbench in my garage.

I'm glad I got it back!

Here's the mac during it's hayday around 2005-2006 or so:

and here it is today:

And it's guts:

Unfortunately, I sold my old cinema displays, so that won't be happening unless I locate another one. I'll be using my Samsung 22" monitor on it until I find a proper Apple monitor for it.

 

[eyoungren]

I have the 1.8Ghz single G5 at work. Eventually when my boss replaces it, it will come home.

My boss bought it brand new in Feb 2005 and it was used continuously until June 2013 when either the logicboard or CPU failed (I just replaced the entire thing so I'm not sure). It's been back at work doing the same thing (production) for the last two years after that.

My coworker uses it. Still going.

Nice that you got your Mac returned to you.

 

[Greene]

Beautiful machine! It and the 3rd generation iPod really take me back to 2004.

 

[MattA]

Thanks guys! and Greene, I have a 3rd gen iPod as well. I bought it right before I bought the PowerMac. It also still works fine!

 

[ibrahimmuktedir7]

Nekadar

 

[jbarley]

I've had a similar experience, trip down memory lane sorta thing.
Several years ago I sold my 15" PowerBook when at the time I was moving on into the"Intel" era.
Now years later when I've got into PPC as a hobby I was sorely missing the ole PB.
So who would of thought I'd get it back in a trade, for the very same intel Mac Mini I gave it up for.
So happy to have it back.

 

[MattA]

One thing I've noticed with PowerPC's is lots of people talk about how slow they are and say that they are useless. I find that looking for things an older machine CAN do is much more interesting. These PowerMac's are pretty bad at surfing the web these days, but they can do so much more that they've always done well... it's silly to just toss them. Find a task that they're good at and use them!

jbarley, glad you got your Powerbook back. I wanted a 15" powerbook bad back in the day. I wound up with an iBook, which served me well, but wasn't the same.

 

[eyoungren]

One thing I've noticed with PowerPC's is lots of people talk about how slow they are and say that they are useless. I find that looking for things an older machine CAN do is much more interesting. These PowerMac's are pretty bad at surfing the web these days, but they can do so much more that they've always done well... it's silly to just toss them. Find a task that they're good at and use them!

jbarley, glad you got your Powerbook back. I wanted a 15" powerbook bad back in the day. I wound up with an iBook, which served me well, but wasn't the same.

It depends on what purpose you put them to and the optimizations you do.

I use all my Macs to browse the web and they all do very well. I use a few of my Macs for graphic design and they handle Adobe CS4 very well too.

Leopard can be optimized. And if you use Firefox, you don't have to be stuck on version 3.x. There is TenFourFox and they are on version 38, the equivalent of Firefox 38 right now. If you click on the link in my signature you'll also get a range of options to optimize T4Fx.

So, yes, people claim PowerPC is slow. But their tune tends to change when you optimize things and when you know how to work the Mac. And that's why we are all here. To share that knowledge so our PowerPC Macs stay relevant.

 

[abundantmussel]

As a programmer / it manager / sysadmin I'm able to do a whole days work on my iMac G5. Use textwrangler for coding, mamp, iterm for SSH, tenfourfox for browsing and cyberduck for ftp / sftp and adobe cs4 for photoshop. It's all a matter of what you do with the machine and what it's used for.

 

[Altemose]

I could easily do all that I need on a PowerPC Mac. In fact, after installing a basic model SSD (PATA KingSpec 32 GB), 1.25 GB of RAM, and a fresh copy of Leopard my PowerBook flies!

 

[Greene]

I can, and often do, work entirely off my G5. My MP is nice and can do things I like my G5 can't, but CS4 and Logic 8 are still powerful, productive applications.

 

[CYB3RBYTE]

I remember my first PPC, it was a iBook clamshell graphite, the 366MHZ version. I got it as a birthday present in 2011 from my dad. It was slow as hell because of the original 10GB HD, and a week later the logic board went. I've been trying to find a new clamshell, but alas, they're now a collectible item, and are VERY expensive. My clamshell was also my first Macintosh too! I later moved on to my two 1.2 GHZ iBook G4's, and a different broken 466MHZ iBook clamshell with another bad logic board, but I will always remember my graphite.

 

[Altemose]

I've been trying to find a new clamshell, but alas, they're now a collectible item, and are VERY expensive. My clamshell was also my first Macintosh too! I later moved on to my two 1.2 GHZ iBook G4's, and a different broken 466MHZ iBook clamshell with another bad logic board, but I will always remember my graphite.

What did you do with that original graphite?

 

[MattA]

I completed cleaning the A1048 keyboard that was original to the Powermac. It hadn't been cleaned at all for the 6 years and was pretty gross. it doesn't work at all, though. As soon as I can locate a .050 allen wrench, I'll open it up and see if some of the contacts have been compromised. I'd like to get it working again, but if I can't, I'll just have to find another one.