PowerMac G5 still useful?

I use mine for music; running Audacity and Logic Pro with my DAW, as well as running 10.4.11 and Classic for older games. I also stream movies to my 23" Cinema Display from my media server, while I'm putzing around my workshop or working with my Intel iMac.

 

My dual 2.3 has a 3TB HDD installed and serves as a backup main machine as well as a time machine server for all of my macs running Leopard or above (there are 9 of them, including the G5 itself)

 

Single 1.6 G5 isn't good for much anymore, but that also depends on how patient you care to be. CAN you get online, watch a move, play some games? Sure, but its not going to be a pleasant experience. At this point anyone who buys a Mac like that "should" know what they're getting into and understand this a 13 year old computer and performs like one.

 

The entry level Powermac G5 is still more powerful than the fastest Powerbooks Apple made - and plenty of people still use them! It can do most things a higher specced G5 can, just slower.
The last time I had a G5 iMac (similar horsepower to yours) I used it for making music (Garageband, Audacity & Reason), graphic design (Adobe CS3) - and I mean real published work not fixing holiday snaps Internet browsing was fine too using Safari/Webkit.
If you have faster machines it's probably best to use it has a backup/storage device - with screen sharing you can access it from other Macs too.

 

The original 1.6 GHz G5 is a bit of a dog, and actually performs a bit worse in day to day usage than a dual G4! That being said, it would make a decent light web browsing machine or basic office machine.

 

$50.00 for a single 1.6 GHz model.

 

i have one of these and sure it lags behind the later models but it is a great machine overall. If you want speed then ok you want a higher spec but they can do the work and are very reliable for day to use.

 

If the big fella is in good shape. If it's pretty beat up, you'll end up having a hard time finding a buyer.

 

Same, My G5 Quad running Leopard and Logic Pro 9 is an excellent secondary workstation when I'm at my parents house on weekends away from my main gear up on the city. Means if I want to start a project while there I can start composing right away and import it into Logic Pro X on my MBP later. Still a great DAW today, althought the improvements in X are just flabbergasting.

 

my dual 2.0 is still fine for basic tasks. internet browsing is much smoother if you use tenfourfox and an adblocker.

 

BluHell Firewall is by far the lightest and most effective ad blocker for our PPC machines.

 

I've got an 1.6 for free, upgraded it to 4GB.
Would like to keep it too - but not as a main computer, I have a MacPro and a Dual Core 2.0 G5 (which works perfect), but maybe as a TimeMachine Backup server too.
The only thing is, Leopard Server is hard to find and still expensive.
Any solutions? No Linux please ;-)

 

Use regular Leopard. Set up a separate partition or hard drive on the G5 for backups (not necessary, but I did it), share files and folders over network, and connect to the G5 on your other mac(s) through finder. The after they are connected, go to time machine preferences and select the G5. I do this with all my Leopard+ Macs to my dual 2.3GHz. I also set it to never sleep so that the macs can backup whenever.

 

Yeah, that's an idea to do it this way.
Thx.
Best option to use the 1.6.