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What to do with an old PowerMac?

EMKoper

EMKoper

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 18, 2002
170
0
Orlando, FL
Hello!

I have a MDD PowerMac (2x 1 GHz G4) that is ~7-8 years old. I just did a tech refresh and got a 13" MacBook Pro and 24" iMac (to replace the poor, aging, struggling PowerMac).

I just attached all my external drives, card readers, airport, etc to the new iMac (which looks great, btw) and set up my PowerMac on the other side of the room to determine just what to do with it!

It is so elegant and simple looking there by itself... only one plug into the wall, the old ADC to the 17" apple monitor ... and I attached the new iMac small keyboard to it with the mouse so the footprint is even smaller (it is pretty damn loud, though, compared to this imac... i did notice that when I plugged it back in!).

What I think I should/could do with it:

1. Set it up in the basement for a back-up server (just share the drives) ... it doesn't have an airport card, but I have a wireless card I hope would work with it)
2. Convert to a Linux machine... I have run Linux on x86 but never on ppc... but then I have a mess around platform if I'd like ... it would probably still end up in the basement, though...
3. Sell it? How much is fair? It runs perfectly fine for basic email/internet ... this would all be easier if it just completely broke or something! I think I did pay ~ $3K for it in ~ early 2002 ...
4. Give it away to a friend? ... any volunteers to take it in the Wash DC area?
5. Give it away to a charitable organization? ... not sure who wants an old Mac ... (again, any ideas for Wash DC area?)
6. Pack it away -- and it will be a collector item in 20 years....
7. Trade it for something ... on Craig's list? (a little scary!)
8. Any other ideas? I am all ears!

Anyway... I am off to change the systems listed under my sig...
 
post it to me in birmingham, england and pay for a power converter too! :)

or use it as an itunes server and get a remotote? and some gud speakers?
 
That's not old...

I have a PowerMac 7500/100 (TNT) here. During it's time it's been upgrade to about 320Mb of super fast 70ns RAM, still has it's original 500Mb Quantium HD, an upgraded processor card (300Mhz PowerPC 604, taken from a dead PowerMac 9500) and for the past thirteen years it's fully boxed up in it's original packaging, manuals, MacOS 7.0.1 system disk etc. There's even an original Apple ADB Extended Keyboard, AppleTalk Mic and Twisted Pair transceiver, 128K ISDN model card and various other bits.

IMG_0223-20090912-201750.jpg

...I have no idea what it could be used for, other than run QuarkXpress 3.34
 
I had a significantly newer Mac Mini (last of the G4 ones before Intel was announced).

I wanted to see if I could make the adjustment to a Mac. My previous experience was many years ago (late 80's), where I locked up a Mac in a store playing with it. I used to be good at that :)

I had 3 ideas.

Loan it to my step mother so she could see how she liked it, didn't know macs either, and better than the antique windows system she has in that one room for internet access.

Buy Leopard for it, and make it a file server in place of my existing Linux system.

Put PPC Linux on it, and replace my existing Linux system. All 3 would lower my electricity usage.

I ended up giving it to my step mother, then kind of wished I hadn't. :) I ended up deciding to make my Mac Pro my file server instead, on the thought that at least I have Time machine configured on that. So I am protected from accidential deletes.
 
Give it to local children's home or something? They're always ready to take something that works and is free. Kids will love it!
 
Mod a core i7-based PC to fit inside that case !

my PowerMac i7 tower (Form Broken Dual 2.5 G5 to i7 920 + 9800GX2)

img0019gh.jpg


meets my "Authentics" Mac Pro

img0035ag.jpg
 
I would take it but i am low on money for awhile damn college costs are gonna kill me enough as it is.

but yeah i actually am quite sad that my iBook G4 died just last night due to a logic board failure i would believe. i could need help in the future with any mac issues. I live in Falls Church, VA so not that far away. my only concern with my ibook is that idk if my HDD is the problem, if so then im ****ed, if not then i could put it in the ibook i just bought on ebay, but im worried of ****ing it up.

Do you have any experience with replacing Mac Notebook Hard Drives? if so i could use help.

email me or IM me if you would like to
 
Fox E. Wolf said:
I would take it but i am low on money for awhile damn college costs are gonna kill me enough as it is.

but yeah i actually am quite sad that my iBook G4 died just last night due to a logic board failure i would believe. i could need help in the future with any mac issues. I live in Falls Church, VA so not that far away. my only concern with my ibook is that idk if my HDD is the problem, if so then im ****ed, if not then i could put it in the ibook i just bought on ebay, but im worried of ****ing it up.

Do you have any experience with replacing Mac Notebook Hard Drives? if so i could use help.

email me or IM me if you would like to
Click to expand...

Trust me then i say, replacing notebook HD's is much much much more easier than replacing the logicboard, cause finding those f**ker's can be difficult, especially if your looking for one that works!!
 
Fox E. Wolf said:
I would take it but i am low on money for awhile damn college costs are gonna kill me enough as it is.

but yeah i actually am quite sad that my iBook G4 died just last night due to a logic board failure i would believe. i could need help in the future with any mac issues. I live in Falls Church, VA so not that far away. my only concern with my ibook is that idk if my HDD is the problem, if so then im ****ed, if not then i could put it in the ibook i just bought on ebay, but im worried of ****ing it up.

Do you have any experience with replacing Mac Notebook Hard Drives? if so i could use help.

email me or IM me if you would like to
Click to expand...

Try ifixit.com They will walk you through the repair. Here is the link to your computer "family" link
 
when i got my mac pro to replace my gigabit dual 500MHz G4, i gave the G4 to my dad. he still uses it for email and web browsing.
 
EMKoper said:
Hello!

I have a MDD PowerMac (2x 1 GHz G4) that is ~7-8 years old. I just did a tech refresh and got a 13" MacBook Pro and 24" iMac (to replace the poor, aging, struggling PowerMac).

I just attached all my external drives, card readers, airport, etc to the new iMac (which looks great, btw) and set up my PowerMac on the other side of the room to determine just what to do with it!

It is so elegant and simple looking there by itself... only one plug into the wall, the old ADC to the 17" apple monitor ... and I attached the new iMac small keyboard to it with the mouse so the footprint is even smaller (it is pretty damn loud, though, compared to this imac... i did notice that when I plugged it back in!).

What I think I should/could do with it:

1. Set it up in the basement for a back-up server (just share the drives) ... it doesn't have an airport card, but I have a wireless card I hope would work with it)
2. Convert to a Linux machine... I have run Linux on x86 but never on ppc... but then I have a mess around platform if I'd like ... it would probably still end up in the basement, though...
3. Sell it? How much is fair? It runs perfectly fine for basic email/internet ... this would all be easier if it just completely broke or something! I think I did pay ~ $3K for it in ~ early 2002 ...
4. Give it away to a friend? ... any volunteers to take it in the Wash DC area?
5. Give it away to a charitable organization? ... not sure who wants an old Mac ... (again, any ideas for Wash DC area?)
6. Pack it away -- and it will be a collector item in 20 years....
7. Trade it for something ... on Craig's list? (a little scary!)
8. Any other ideas? I am all ears!

Anyway... I am off to change the systems listed under my sig...
Click to expand...


Do something nice like give it away to a younger family member or family friend, maybe turn a new generation on to Apple, or give it away to a School or educational department to do small things like work with Office or Email/Internet...
 
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