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Who still uses PowerMac G5?

OceanView said:
I recently got a G4 Mini which I use as a basic internet/e-mail system.
Still works great.
Click to expand...

I use a 1.42GHz G4 Mini as a time machine backup server and for media streaming. I added 2x 1TB hard drives (external USB) and it works fantastically, so these old machines really do have lots of life left in them. I really like the Mini's as severs because of the low power draw, easier on the wallet.
 
WOW! Thanks guys. Everything helped me out. I LOVE this mean sucker! Yeah, I'm planning to upgrade the harddrive, since I have tons of music.
 
I just ordered my 6th Mac! It's a Powermac G4 Quiksilver from 2002, 867 mhz w/1 gig of ram to become my home server. I had been using my 2008 8 Core Mac Pro for this but I figured this would cut down on the power usage a bit and it would free all my system resources on the Mac Pro as well.

Also, I bought a sonnet 4 port internal sata card, a dual drive caddy for one of the bottom bays, and a usb 2.0 card

I can't believe nobody seems to have mentioned it (although maybe I missed it) but try OWC for upgrades.

www.macsales.com

I always just hit the "memory upgrade" in the top menu bar, and then choose the G5 in your case and it will show you all the products they offer for updating/upgrading it.

Enjoy your new toy!
 
My G5 is still my main machine. There are really only three reliable upgrade places for my money (there are, of course, hundreds in existence):

OWC/Macsales: If you're lazy and don't want to do research, OWC is the place to buy anything for older/legacy macs. All their stuff is guaranteed to be compatible, but the price tag will be higher than elsewhere. I sometimes use them as a resource for compatibility, but the last thing I bought from them was a buggy dual G4 upgrade that they tested and said was fine, even though it wasn't (though the people were very nice and as helpful as they could have been). Oh, and the price dropped $40 about two days after I bought it, but that was just bad luck. www.macsales.com

Ramseeker--for ram there's no better site I've found; they have drop down menus to choose your model/RAM type, then they list about 10 or so sellers and their size/prices. Be careful when rushing through, though, as sometimes the seller's price will have changed; a friend of mine overpaid for RAM because he didn't double check until after he'd already purchased. www.ramseeker.com

NewEgg--everyone should know NE by now. I've been buying from them for god knows how long, probably about a decade. Best costumer service EVER, great deals, etc. but you really need to do research for Mac compatibility, especially with older machines. www.newegg.com

As for a mailing list or newsgroup, posting here is always good, and there is a G5 mailing list at lowendmac.com, but I'm not on it so I can't attest to how good it is...
 
InfoSecmgr said:
I use a 1.42GHz G4 Mini as a time machine backup server and for media streaming. I added 2x 1TB hard drives (external USB) and it works fantastically, so these old machines really do have lots of life left in them. I really like the Mini's as severs because of the low power draw, easier on the wallet.
Click to expand...

Seconded, though the earlier G4s had PSUs in the 130-165W range, so they're really not all that bad (not like my G5 with it's 650W psu!)...
 
DavieBoy said:
Nevermind, I just wiki'd it. I really want a usb PCI-X card so I can plug all my external drives into my G5 leaving the back of my i7 iMac looking pretty.
Click to expand...

Have to run so can't read the rest of the thread, apologies if this has already been answered--with PPC macs, the PCI USB2.0 cards are all about chipset, so some will work and some won't. You may also want to search the manufacturer site and the interwebs for an OSX (or opensource multiplatform) driver, as that might be the only problem. I bought a new PCI USB2.0 card a few years ago from a bargain bin for $6, it said Windows only, but worked immediately when installed in my G4...

Also note that there's only really one slot that uses PCI-X to it's fullest, the others are more like slightly better PCI (the top slot will be 133mHz, I believe the other two are 66mHz or possibly even 33).
 
Great deal!, I have a dual core 2.3 Ghz G5 i bought for video editing and some audio work. I love the thing
 
disconap said:
My G5 is still my main machine. There are really only three reliable upgrade places for my money (there are, of course, hundreds in existence):

OWC/Macsales: If you're lazy and don't want to do research, OWC is the place to buy anything for older/legacy macs. All their stuff is guaranteed to be compatible, but the price tag will be higher than elsewhere. I sometimes use them as a resource for compatibility, but the last thing I bought from them was a buggy dual G4 upgrade that they tested and said was fine, even though it wasn't (though the people were very nice and as helpful as they could have been). Oh, and the price dropped $40 about two days after I bought it, but that was just bad luck. www.macsales.com

Ramseeker--for ram there's no better site I've found; they have drop down menus to choose your model/RAM type, then they list about 10 or so sellers and their size/prices. Be careful when rushing through, though, as sometimes the seller's price will have changed; a friend of mine overpaid for RAM because he didn't double check until after he'd already purchased. www.ramseeker.com

NewEgg--everyone should know NE by now. I've been buying from them for god knows how long, probably about a decade. Best costumer service EVER, great deals, etc. but you really need to do research for Mac compatibility, especially with older machines. www.newegg.com

As for a mailing list or newsgroup, posting here is always good, and there is a G5 mailing list at lowendmac.com, but I'm not on it so I can't attest to how good it is...
Click to expand...


This is great. I have been using Newegg for years and of course they are great. I really love to use Magic Mouse, so I hope it works when I get the USB bluetooth. Also, like to get some USB PCI Slot.
 
I still use a Single 1.8Ghz PowerMac G5 as my main computer, which I plan to turn to a file server one I get a new MacBook Pro.

The file server option seems to be the most popular on here, maybe you could get a RAID PCIx card for it and modify it to hold like 4 drives and put it in RAID10?
 
I've also got a single 1.8 PowerMac G5. It's been running 24/7 since January of 2004 (except for the occasional power failure). Upgraded the RAM the from 1GB to 3GB a couple years ago, made a huge difference. I'm thinking I might just max out the RAM to 8GB and see what it does.

It's my main computer when I'm upstairs in my office, my new MBP is downstairs. I try not to use the MBP too much because it makes the G5 look slow by comparison. Still the G5 is a very acceptable 6 year old machine, rarely is there anything I do on it that makes it slow down to the point of frustration.

I have the D-Link Bluetooth nub and it has worked with everything I've tried to connect it to, and it's dirt cheap.
 
disconap said:
Have to run so can't read the rest of the thread, apologies if this has already been answered--with PPC macs, the PCI USB2.0 cards are all about chipset, so some will work and some won't. You may also want to search the manufacturer site and the interwebs for an OSX (or opensource multiplatform) driver, as that might be the only problem. I bought a new PCI USB2.0 card a few years ago from a bargain bin for $6, it said Windows only, but worked immediately when installed in my G4...

Also note that there's only really one slot that uses PCI-X to it's fullest, the others are more like slightly better PCI (the top slot will be 133mHz, I believe the other two are 66mHz or possibly even 33).
Click to expand...

Im sorry I am confused again. My G5 only has PCI-X cards (or so I think). I need to find a PCI-X card to put in it. PCI-X is different from both PCI & PCI-Express. Someone please tell me if I am right about this.

Also, it is very hard to find a PCI-X usb card and if I can find one it will be expensive, right?

Thanks
 
PCI-X is a sped up version of PCI. It is backwards compatible with PCI. PCIexpress is a whole separate thing. PCI cards will work in PCI-X slots (which, in the G5, there was only one full one anyway, usually the top slot/slot 4, running at 133mHz; the other two ran at 100mHz or less).

It's confusing and stupid the way they named them, but here's a quick explanation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI-X
 
disconap said:
PCI-X is a sped up version of PCI. It is backwards compatible with PCI. PCIexpress is a whole separate thing. PCI cards will work in PCI-X slots (which, in the G5, there was only one full one anyway, usually the top slot/slot 4).

It's confusing and stupid the way they named them, but here's a quick explanation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI-X
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for getting back to me so quick, how did you do that.

I bought a PCI card and it did not seem to fit into my DP 2.0. Do you know of any reason why. I haven't returned it yet I am going to run to my car and try to pop it into the DP 2.0 in my office.
 
Alright, I didn't want to go out to my car because it is cold. I found a random PCI card and it does fit into the PCI-X slot but it does not reach the back of the unit. You can not screw in the plate if you know what I mean. I actually had to bend the faceplate to make it or it would have been blocked by the motherboard.

Thanks
 
Being able to fit something doesn't necessarily mean that it actually fits. You should figure out which machine you have first. Look up the specifics in System Profile and compare them to the profiles here:

www.lowendmac.com

That's the safest way to know for sure. Good luck!
 
I do a lot of Apple repairs and use a 1.8Ghz Dual Core G5 to "talk" to PowerPC laptops and desktops. It looks purty right next to my Intel Mac Pro. :)
 
Dual core 2.3 PPC G5. Works great though my primary system is a early 2008 Mac Pro 2x2.8.
 
I am using the machine in the signature with Final Cut Studio. While I intend to upgrade, it is certainly a worthwhile machine for what I do, since I am not making money with it. :D However, OpenFirmware is quite dead, so expansion cards can be a PITA sometimes. Sometimes the manufacturers don't even provide drivers, even if the card is OpenFirmware compliant (see also, Blackmagic) :(
 
I still use a late 2005 G5 Quad as my music machine at work. 4 years later with some new HDD's and maxed out RAM (which really seems to do nothing ;) ) and it's going fine for the most part.

Would love a new Mac Pro, though (just bought an 09 quad for home and loving it)
 
You need to read through this rather long thread then if you own an 2009 Mac Pro.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/795966/

Short version is any audio ran on a 2009 Mac Pro causes substantial CPU temp. increase. smcFanControl helps to reduce the heat build-up. Tested, found issue and used smcFanControl on my wife's 2009 1x2.93 Mac Pro.

ClivePwned said:
I still use a late 2005 G5 Quad as my music machine at work. 4 years later with some new HDD's and maxed out RAM (which really seems to do nothing ;) ) and it's going fine for the most part.

Would love a new Mac Pro, though (just bought an 09 quad for home and loving it)
Click to expand...
 
TonyK said:
You need to read through this rather long thread then if you own an 2009 Mac Pro.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/795966/

Short version is any audio ran on a 2009 Mac Pro causes substantial CPU temp. increase. smcFanControl helps to reduce the heat build-up. Tested, found issue and used smcFanControl on my wife's 2009 1x2.93 Mac Pro.
Click to expand...

Yeah following that. Even though I do music for my day job, I mainly use the mac at home for boot camp games and video editing.

Funnily enough the only time I hear the g5 Quad fans are after a restart after the occasional crash. Then they are deafening.

One thing about the g5- It never felt all that snappy compared to my old 20" 2GHz Intel iMac (which I got a month after the g5) in doing many tasks, despite the extra horsepower and ram. It also seems less stable for universal binaries than PPC only software. Soundtrack Pro 2 runs pretty poorly and lacking in stability on the G5.
 
Never had any problem with my G5. It was my wife's system that I purchased from her (she needed $$$ for add HD on the Mac Pro 2008 I now have). I ran PPC and UB without issues.

When my b'day came up last year she offered me a Mac Mini or a 24" iMac. Neither thrilled me and while I kept researching one over the other, Apple released Mac Pro 2009. Her visual issues require GREAT graphics so she got the 2009, I was given the 2008 and a slew of upgrades (2 drives and RAM) and we are both happy.

ClivePwned said:
Yeah following that. Even though I do music for my day job, I mainly use the mac at home for boot camp games and video editing.

Funnily enough the only time I hear the g5 Quad fans are after a restart after the occasional crash. Then they are deafening.

One thing about the g5- It never felt all that snappy compared to my old 20" 2GHz Intel iMac (which I got a month after the g5) in doing many tasks, despite the extra horsepower and ram. It also seems less stable for universal binaries than PPC only software. Soundtrack Pro 2 runs pretty poorly and lacking in stability on the G5.
Click to expand...
 
I know a place that has a Blue G3 tower running OS 8 or 9 and something calle d sorenson audio?

They use it for the audio analog in and the you can go to the website and listen to the audio.

They have been using it for ever since they bought the G3 for this purpose.
 
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