Worth a gander? G5 tower 1.8Ghz

[adcx64]

It's sad how many people have computers that go far beyond the power they need. They somehow think they need a MacBook Pro or air or whatever other new Intel Mac for web/youtube etc.

Exactly!
I would be happier spending ~250 for a PPC machine if all I was doing was web browsing and email than breaking a thousand for a machine that does the same thing.

 

[Cox Orange]

I disagree with anyone saying that PPC machines are useless by today's standards. I use my iBook G4 daily for many tasks, and my eMac is an awesome little machine. Sure, they are slow at times, but IMO, they are still worth using.

It's sad how many people have computers that go far beyond the power they need. They somehow think they need a MacBook Pro or air or whatever other new Intel Mac for web/youtube etc.

He could do these tasks with the 24" iMac he allready has, by the way... and no need for a second Mac (he would have constant 24/7 jobs to do, like zen.state, to profit of a second Mac, which could free capacities of his existing Mac).
My point was not to buy a 1,8GHz G5 at this price. If he wants to go for the 400USD price range for whatever reason, he should pic something more comparable to the amount of money.

I am still fine with my ibook G4 1,33GHz by the way (being the first owner of it and having bought it, because I did not want to carry my iMac as a "laptop" with me, though it was still sufficient at the time of purchase of the ibook).

 

[-hh]

I guess after reading the comments I won't be picking up the set after all. My reservations mainly stem from comments against the longevity of the G5, even as a box to tinker with. The price advertised didn't help either.

In general, I believe that most of the reliability complaints of the G5 stem from the later generation ones which had a liquid cooling system (that eventually leaked).

For example, my "daily driver" home machine is a 2003 PPC G5 PowerMac (single CPU 1.8GHz)...all air-based, so I'll never have to worry about a water leak frying it. The only hardware that I've had to replace has been the DVD burner.

I have found that it does hang occasionally on a script that I've set up to run automatically (automatically downloads my website's log files), but I believe that this probably stems from the fact that I've never done a true "Clean" install of the OS since 2003...and its now running Leopard (10.5) and had Tiger, Panther and Jaguar all previously installed. I've been meaning to get around to backing up all of my settings in keychain & cookies & [etc] so as to facilitate a true clean install to see if I can eliminate this inconvenience...FWIW, this little bug didn't show up until Leopard.

Today I found this>

Dual 2 Ghz PowerMac G5
4.5GB DDR SDRAM
GeForce FX 6600 128MB
500GB Hard disk
DVD RW Drive
Apple 22" LCD display
Apple keyboard

all for USD$520.

Seems like the powermac g5's are really coming for me!

IMO, not bad, considering that it includes the 22" LCD display and a good amount of RAM. However, what's missing is how much the seller is going to charge for shipping - - that's a hidden ... and not trivial .. expense.

In any event, the real strength IMO of the Mac Tower is for internal HDDs for convenient storage ... with a Sonnet Jive and a second SATA card, one can install up to five (5) 3.5" HDDs in a G5...although from a thermal management standpoint, I'd recommend running "only" four (the A/C in my office gets overwhelmed in the summer, which makes the G5's fans spool up).

My current hardware plan is to hope that Apple's next bump of the Mac Pro is a good one, and then probably repurpose my G5 around as a file server for keeping data backups on, and the like...with the likelihood that I'll probably reinstall Tiger (10.4) on it to have the OS 9 "Classic" mode around in case I find some stuff in my archives that still needs ancient software capabilities.

An alternative would be a Mac mini, but from a data storage perspective, it is pretty easy to nickle-and-dime one's self with external HDDs .. particularly if one goes with the better I/O of Firewire instead of USB. A lot of the question still comes down to what one expects to be using the machine for...if it is anything that's likely to be CPU-intensive, most people are probably better off with a more modern Intel machine.


-hh

 

[sysiphus]

Be wary about the 22" LCD if it's the Apple Cinema Display--that's the original Cinema Display, and is a minimum of 10 years old. Could be fine, but is likely somewhat yellowed by now. Those things don't last forever. Mine is a bit dim/yellow and still works fine, but I wouldn't have spent much on it in its current condition. Don't be seduced into assuming an OLD Apple display will be better than a newer non-Apple one...displays have gotten much brighter/faster (response rates) in the recent years.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

The PPC isn't "useless", but it does not have the same level of capability as an Intel-equipped machine. With that being said, there is still plenty of life left in the G4 and G5 for many users.

But in terms of value, the PPC is a dicey proposition, especially if upgrades are to be purchased. If you are willing to run older software, a PPC machine might be perfect. But don't spend the same or more money on a PPC than what a roughly equivalent Intel Mac costs, unless you have specific needs that can't be answered by an affordable Intel Mac, like internal hard drive expansion or add-on cards.

 

[ljonesj]

there is a person in my area that has a g5 powermac for 400 orginaly 600 but he has dropped the price its a 1.8ghz g5 dont know if its a dual or not and it has 512 of ram running 10.5.8 supposdly i am just waiting to see if he will drop the price even more to get it and it ahs a 20 in apple cinema display