What to do with a PowerMac G4?

[owensky]

Hello everyone,

I know this is in the wrong "section" if you will but I figured no one would see it if I posted it elsewhere. Does anyone have any ideas of what to do with an old PowerMac G4 whether it be transformed, upgraded etc. I have been looking around but haven't really seen anything and was hoping someone has done something awesome with theirs that would like to share.

Thanks in advance.

 

[TyPod]

I'm assuming it's not the Cube? Maybe use it to store some external storage if you have any?

 

[Ledgem]

Back when I worked in video a few years ago we had a few G3s and G4s that were just sitting around. I networked them and then farmed out encoding tasks. It was all through Apple's Qmaster framework (a huge pain to set up) which limits what programs you can use. The total combined processing power came out to close to 8 GHz, according to the network monitoring program.

Alternately, you can use it as a server-type system. Hook up a bunch of storage drives to it, let it handle large downloads, and so on.

 

[johnnnw]

I was hoping it would be this computer because I really wanted to post this image.

Screw it I'm posting it anyway. Trade yours for this.

 

[Asuriyan]

The G5s and their aluminum casing are far more popular for modding. Liquid cooling is also fun to play with. I'd thought about getting one and making a Hackintosh with it but I don't have the space for a box that size.

You could use it to run CS2 apps. It would also make a decent NAS or FTP server.

 

[TyPod]

I was hoping it would be this computer because I really wanted to post this image.

Screw it I'm posting it anyway. Trade yours for this.

Image

That's unreal. Great idea, would love to do this for my future cat!

 

[happyfrappy]

If you don't have a PowerPC Restore Disc set or Tiger(10.4)/Leopard(10.5), you could settle with Ubuntu PowerPC and get by with 512mb of RAM.
Reusage: File server or batch image resize/conversion is the best possible solution for a PowerMac G4, you can still find PCI cards to gain SATA drive support so you could install two 1TB SATA HDDs if you're running OS X(10.3, 10.4 or 10.5).

Keep in mind if the PMG4 is a pre-Quicksilver rev2, you won't have large PATA HDD support which means being limited to a 120GB HDD. If you have a newer G4 Tower using a PATA to SATA adapter will allow using up to a 640/750GB HDD.

 

[Wildy]

1. Media server
2. Music streamer
3. File server
4. Web server
5. Electric heater
6. Seedbox (help seed your favorite distro!)
7. Folding machine (older clients are still available. Won't perform very well, but if everyone held that mentality then we'd get nowhere - every little helps, right? Can be used in conjunction with point 5.)
8. Game server (limited to Java servers or dedicated servers compiled for PPC OSX.)

These are all the usual suspects really - nothing new here. Most (some) of these are really useful and very easy to set up in OSX's 'Sharing' section.

 

[owensky]

Wow some great ideas. Thanks for all your input.

 

[Goftrey]

I was hoping it would be this computer because I really wanted to post this image.

Screw it I'm posting it anyway. Trade yours for this.

Image

That's awesome. I may have to get a cat purely for the ability to say that he sleeps in an 15 year old iMac G3!

 

[MisterKeeks]

If you don't have a PowerPC Restore Disc set or Tiger(10.4)/Leopard(10.5), you could settle with Ubuntu PowerPC and get by with 512mb of RAM.
Reusage: File server or batch image resize/conversion is the best possible solution for a PowerMac G4, you can still find PCI cards to gain SATA drive support so you could install two 1TB SATA HDDs if you're running OS X(10.3, 10.4 or 10.5).

Keep in mind if the PMG4 is a pre-Quicksilver rev2, you won't have large PATA HDD support which means being limited to a 120GB HDD. If you have a newer G4 Tower using a PATA to SATA adapter will allow using up to a 640/750GB HDD.

You can circumvent the large HDD limit using drivers or an open firmware set of commands.