Hi I have found a working 20 inch iMac G5 isight (the last iMac G5) for only £70 should I buy it, my main computer is a late 2012 high end 27 inch iMac so I will only be buying this to mess around with occasionally. So is it worth it and what is it any good for.
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Should I buy a 20 inch iMac G5 isight
- Thread starter dizzy960
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While £70 isn't a bad price, if you don't have a use for it the what's the point? My main mac is my Mbp but I got an imac G4 because its beautiful and I use it as my bedroom mac for Internet, office 2008, and a rare bit of cs3 photoshop so a G5 will be a little better at everything I do. Also watch out for those capacitors on the iMac G5 there a pain to replace if they go.
With the old Macintosh computers (like the PowerPC) I think you should really have a purpose for it if you're going to buy it, hence the reason I bought my PowerMac G4. I bought that to use some Mac exclusive software such as GarageBand and iMovie. I actually did get OS X 10.6 running on my HP in Vmware but the emulation sucks since I have an AMD processor rather than an Intel processor.
I bought my iMac merely for nostalgic reasons. And it was cheap. So, yes, you should buy that iMac G5. Just watch out for those capacitors - unless it's an iSight model it's from the range of iMacs that had capacitors that would die very quickly and require a Logic Board replacement.
I bought my iMac merely for nostalgic reasons. And it was cheap. So, yes, you should buy that iMac G5. Just watch out for those capacitors - unless it's an iSight model it's from the range of iMacs that had capacitors that would die very quickly and require a Logic Board replacement.
Just for the record, I have an iMac G5 iSight that died because of blown capacitors as well! Those models experience the very same thing.
Not bad price, just checked and currently there are only two iMac G5 machines on the biggest auction site in my country and both of them are older than iSight models and the one that at the moment costs about that 70£ (one bid made) has scratch on screen and one capactitor has been replaced, no keyboard and mouse. The another one has only Buy It Now -option and price is 129 + shipping, comes with keyboard and mouse.
But still I would only buy one if I had a need for one. Slow CPU with diminishing software support is not good no matter how you look at it.
But still I would only buy one if I had a need for one. Slow CPU with diminishing software support is not good no matter how you look at it.
I think they are groovy machines. I still use my Powerbook last gen., with maxed ram.
Though it will be tedious, the first thing I would do on an iSight G5 is put in a 2 TB hard drive and max out the ram.
My Powerbook runs Youtube decently and is perfect for light use.
Your G5 with 2.5 gigs of ram and a 2TB hard drive should be even better.
Good luck.
Yikes, I didn't think the capacitor plague affected the iSight models. I heard that it was fixed in the iSight models, but maybe I'm wrong?
I honestly thought the Core 2 Duo models (which looked like the G5's) had no problems like that.
They didn't have capacitor problems, they did have video card problems though. The mid-2007 aluminum iMacs are much more hardy than the white iMacs.
And I believe only the X1600 models & 24" 7xxxGT models were affected (thanks Intell). Apple decided to put GMA950 chip in the entry-level 17" 1.83GHz variation.
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And they have screen-dust issues up to the current 2012 one. I just got a lamp G4 yesterday. Marvellous design.
While the mid-2007 iMacs do have some dust issues, they aren't as bad or widespread as the late-2009-2011 iMacs.
An iMac G5 can be a wonderful computer - I still have one around on my desk today, alongside a 2011 i5 iMac. I use it mostly for web browsing or looking things up when my main iMac is occupied by various tasks, like gaming or intensive rendering. My old G5 is an original revision, and has yet to have any problems 
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Nice array of Macs.
You might look into installing Synergy on them so you can use one mouse and keyboard seamlessly across the 3 machines.
Synergy supports Screen Saver synchronize (so they all start at the same time).
And you can copy and paste text between the machines as if it was just one machine with 3 displays.
Here is one variation that uses a prefpane and a menu item extra rather than having a dock application running all the time.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/synergykm/
WAY better than using a KVM and having multiple sets of mouse and keyboards.
You might look into installing Synergy on them so you can use one mouse and keyboard seamlessly across the 3 machines.
Synergy supports Screen Saver synchronize (so they all start at the same time).
And you can copy and paste text between the machines as if it was just one machine with 3 displays.
Here is one variation that uses a prefpane and a menu item extra rather than having a dock application running all the time.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/synergykm/
WAY better than using a KVM and having multiple sets of mouse and keyboards.
Nice array of Macs.
You might look into installing Synergy on them so you can use one mouse and keyboard seamlessly across the 3 machines.
Synergy supports Screen Saver synchronize (so they all start at the same time).
And you can copy and paste text between the machines as if it was just one machine with 3 displays.
Here is one variation that uses a prefpane and a menu item extra rather than having a dock application running all the time.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/synergykm/
WAY better than using a KVM and having multiple sets of mouse and keyboards.
Thanks for the tip! I've thought about Synergy from time to time, but haven't really bothered with it; it's becoming difficult to find software that will perform that function between PowerPC and Intel Macs these days :\
The two screens on the left are one machine, the iMac in the middle. The one on the right is an aging but still astoundingly useful iMac G5. Overall, I only wind up with two keyboards and mice on my desk, which isn't too bad. I can tuck them both under their respective iMacs when I'm not using them - the G5 can take one on its stand, and the table the i5 is on has space underneath for the keyboard and mouse.
Ah, I figured that the left screen was a Mac Mini then iMac (Intel) then iMac (G5).
EDIT:
Wait I think that is the 1st gen Apple TV ... Was that PPC or Intel based version of 10.4?
The thing on the left with the green light is an Airport Extreme. The first generation Apple TV was Intell based.
Aye, that's an APXBS down there on the left, although I do have a first-gen Apple TV around here that I still use and enjoy
