Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Are there still any Powermac G5 owners out there?

namethisfile

namethisfile

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 17, 2008
1,190
176
I found a silver tower computer shimmering in the sunlight at my local recycling center. I approached the object casually as to not bring any attention to what I was going to do. I bent down and looked at it. There was no mistaking at what I was looking at--a bonafide mac tower discarded like any old PC.... A sticker on the top handle read, "Ok." Is it "Ok?" I quickly checked its guts, which is easily done by flipping up the latch on the rear. Everything seemed to be in place... a GPU, there were even RAM sticks, and then a giant embossed sign reading, “G5” behind an acrylic shroud. I remembering feeling slightly disappointed because of the infamy of the G5 Powermacs and that if it is, indeed, garbage and non-working, I wouldn't be able to part the parts for my own working Mac Pro 5,1 at home. At the same time, I was thrilled because as infamous as the G5 was, it was also famous for being infamous, if you know what I mean. In fact, the last time I saw a Powermac G5 was when I was a lot younger than I man now, 18 years younger, in fact, in 2005 when I worked for a reality-TV production company as a production assistant. And, as everyone knows, the bread and butter of reality-TV shows is to make fame mundane. Or, make the mundane seem famous. Anyway, a Powermac G5 showed up in the office one day and a couple IT guys were working on the machine. I remember it because there was only one at the time. They must have been testing it on whether they can use it for Avid since that was the company's NLE of choice at the time. Months later, and as the company moved to a bigger office, every editing suite had one of these silver cheesegrater-looking towers.

But, here it was... 18 years later and that same Powermac G5 is now being thrown out for any brave soul to take. But, should I even bother? It's 2018... and I already have a Mac Pro 5,1. And, I know--having a Powerbook G4 that I would be limited to an antiquated version of OS X (OSX Leopard, to be precise). But, the nostalgia... the nostalgia got to me and the spirit of something "great" and "different" got to me. And, it did get me... the different part thing got me because I couldn't power the thing on when I got home with the spare power cord parts I had laying around.

It turns out that what I salvaged was a late 2005 Powermac DC 2ghz G5 with an Nvidia 6600 LE GPU and it uses a C19 power cord. A cord that is different than any power cords I had laying around. It's so different that finding it is a bish! The only place I could find one was 2 hours away at my not so local Micro Center for $34!!!!

So, I went online to find a cord that was at a more reasonable price. It is on its way. And, the price was still unreasonably pricey. But, it is what it is. I don't even know if the computer works.... But, if it does work, what do you guys do with your Powermac G5?

There isn’t even a forum for Powermac G5 on this forum. So, will this post be deleted for even talking about the Powermac G5 in a Mac Pro section?
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: MrVitalic, z970, SELLERTHINK and 2 others
There could be a Rolls Royce gleaming in the sun, growing ivy in junk yard..........
I stare at my power iMac g4 wondering the same thing.
Is the effort worth the fruits of labor?
These are projects similar to that our grandfathers did, for instance they stuffed a bottle with a cutty sark sailboat or stuff a zebra’s head on a mantle.
Have fun, spend some, not a lot!
tiger is a stable OS X!
 
Expobill said:
There could be a Rolls Royce gleaming in the sun, growing ivy in junk yard..........
I stare at my power iMac g4 wondering the same thing.
Is the effort worth the fruits of labor?
These are projects similar to that our grandfathers did, for instance they stuffed a bottle with a cutty sark sailboat or stuff a zebra’s head on a mantle.
Have fun, spend some, not a lot!
tiger is a stable OS X!
Click to expand...

I suppose that every junk yard in the world aspires to have a rolls royce underneath all the growing ivy...
And, recycling centers have apple computers, the rolls royce of computers, just sit there, all confident and self-assured like that its fate is less guaranteed than its windows cousins..

But...

Is OSX Tiger better than OSX Leopard for the Powermac G5?

I have a Leopard disc. But, not sure if I have a Tiger disc.
 
namethisfile said:
Is OSX Tiger better than OSX Leopard for the Powermac G5?
Click to expand...

I guess it depends on what you mean by better.

Leopard added a bunch of features, but was not very stable. Tiger was very stable and fast, but did not have the new features that Leopard had.

I think Tiger was probably the second most stable OSX version. It was second to Snow Leopard, which has the features of leopard and better stability than Tiger, but didn't have PPC support.
 
  • Like
Reactions: barmann
I have an old PM G5, I think it was the dual 2.3. It still boots on occasion, but doesn't want to boot.

It has been many years since I messed around with it, but I think it may of had a logic board issue.

I have not, and will not throw it away though. My plan is to gut it, and use the case for a Hackintosh build.

Not sure when that will happen though, as I am always so busy. Maybe I will wait and see what the new Mac Pro will look like, and if it is an expensive turd, then I will go Hackintosh for my main computer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AphoticD
My G4 reanimated last October, just for fun. I had to change the battery and start from external CD drive to make it work and install the system.
PM_G4.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: trifid
Pandanl said:
Also have a G5, for my main mac I also use a 5,1 but for reliving old OSX versions it is awesome.

Mine had leaked, which was a common problem and the power supply was beneath it :eek:, so I fixed that

The following thread is in dutch, but the pictures will tell the story of the mess a leaking G5 makes.

https://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/1711619
Click to expand...

I just dusted off my 12" Powerbook G4 1Ghz running OSX 10.4.11... I am visiting the ppc mac sub forum linked above that I didn't know existed... and it is painfully slow. It's so slow that it isn't serviceable to browse the web with. Are the Powermac G5's a little faster?

I am talking about really, really slow... for example, I was using my PB G4 to write and post and just typing was excruciatingly slow... like not serviceable or sane to use...

Are the Powermac G5, especially if they're dual cores more... I don't know... sane?
 
namethisfile said:
I just dusted off my 12" Powerbook G4 1Ghz running OSX 10.4.11... I am visiting the ppc mac sub forum linked above that I didn't know existed... and it is painfully slow. It's so slow that it isn't serviceable to browse the web with. Are the Powermac G5's a little faster?

I am talking about really, really slow... for example, I was using my PB G4 to write and post and just typing was excruciatingly slow... like not serviceable or sane to use...

Are the Powermac G5, especially if they're dual cores more... I don't know... sane?
Click to expand...
The PPC forum has a lot of information on improving the PPC browsing experience. The one thing that really helps is to disable JavaScript. Unfortunately it's become so widely used that it may not be feasible for the sites you visit.
 
namethisfile said:
I just dusted off my 12" Powerbook G4 1Ghz running OSX 10.4.11... I am visiting the ppc mac sub forum linked above that I didn't know existed... and it is painfully slow. It's so slow that it isn't serviceable to browse the web with. Are the Powermac G5's a little faster?

I am talking about really, really slow... for example, I was using my PB G4 to write and post and just typing was excruciatingly slow... like not serviceable or sane to use...

Are the Powermac G5, especially if they're dual cores more... I don't know... sane?
Click to expand...
The dual G5s are slightly more usable, but browsing the modern web is something that no PowerPC Mac is adept at. Your two options for a current browser on PowerPC Mac OS X 10.5.8 are Leopard Webkit and TenFourFox, with the former being faster (essentially Safari but with a modern version of WebKit to render pages), but the latter providing more of the modern features / security as well as a library of add-ons and compatibility with Mac OS X 10.4.11 Tiger.

For TenFourFox, disabling JavaScript with an add-on like NoScript does help quite a bit. This thread is a good resource for improving the speed of TenFourFox.
 
  • Like
Reactions: eyoungren
apolkowski said:
My G4 reanimated last October, just for fun. I had to change the battery and start from external CD drive to make it work and install the system.
View attachment 768899
Click to expand...

This is the Mac Pro tower that some of my classmates bought to edit their senior films with using Final Cut Pro 1. The computer I had in college could only do papers since it only had Wordperfect 5.1 and DOS 5.5 and the cpu was an x286... LOL!
[doublepost=1530653653][/doublepost]
redheeler said:
The dual G5s are slightly more usable, but browsing the modern web is something that no PowerPC Mac is adept at. Your two options for a current browser on PowerPC Mac OS X 10.5.8 are Leopard Webkit and TenFourFox, with the former being faster (essentially Safari but with a modern version of WebKit to render pages), but the latter providing more of the modern features / security as well as a library of add-ons and compatibility with Mac OS X 10.4.11 Tiger.

For TenFourFox, disabling JavaScript with an add-on like NoScript does help quite a bit. This thread is a good resource for improving the speed of TenFourFox.
Click to expand...

Yeh, I have TenFourFox 8, I think, on my PB G4. It's not any better than Safari 4.1.3 except it can load Youtube and other modern websites. But, it doesn't matter because of how slow it is... I have also tried to disable some things in tenfourfox as outlined in lowerendmac, if I remember correctly, to see if it works. And, doesn't seem to. I haven't tried disabling Javascript, though. Does it make a difference?

Anyway, doesn't bode well from your response about Powermac G5's adeptness to browsing the world-wide-web...

I have looked into running Linux on it, as well. But, it looks like there are hurdles in that department, as well, regarding GPU compatibility and performance...

I guess, I'll see, once that c19 power cord arrives and I can see if the PM G5 even boots...
 
namethisfile said:
Yeh, I have TenFourFox 8, I think, on my PB G4. It's not any better than Safari 4.1.3 except it can load Youtube and other modern websites. But, it doesn't matter because of how slow it is... I have also tried to disable some things in tenfourfox as outlined in lowerendmac, if I remember correctly, to see if it works. And, doesn't seem to. I haven't tried disabling Javascript, though. Does it make a difference?
Click to expand...
Yes, it makes a significant difference in improving performance. Unfortunately so many web sites utilize JavaScript that doing so may make it impractical to do so.
 
namethisfile said:
Wow. Was it working? If so, why?
Click to expand...
one worked fine, the other had minor issues. I was storing them in my shed, but i just retired my mac pro 3,1 & 4,1 so I needed the space. I also need to dispose of a G4 MDD - it sucks, because these machines are so pretty.
 
Zeke D said:
one worked fine, the other had minor issues. I was storing them in my shed, but i just retired my mac pro 3,1 & 4,1 so I needed the space. I also need to dispose of a G4 MDD - it sucks, because these machines are so pretty.
Click to expand...
They make great cases for hackintosh case mods. I have a Mac Pro case mod'ed with a Z87 mATX motherboard and a Gigabyte GTX 760 graphics cards. I have a G4 Sawtooth and a PowerMacG5 that will get the same treatment. Apple G4/G4/Mac Pro cases are a great design to look at. Let me know if you want some links to case mod threads.
 
namethisfile said:
Yeh, I have TenFourFox 8, I think, on my PB G4.
Click to expand...
Do you actually mean T4Fx 8 or T4Fx Feature Parity 8? If you meant the former then you are EXTREMELY out of date.
namethisfile said:
I haven't tried disabling Javascript, though. Does it make a difference?
Click to expand...
Javascript, as well as analytics and trackers are the single biggest CPU resource hogs online. PowerPC Macs CPU pegs at 90% or more because the Mac is trying to process all that garbage and that CPU hit is what slows the Mac down. The more you optimize the browser, the better the CPU can handle the page and therefore render the page quicker. Taking JS out of the equation helps achieve that.

namethisfile said:
Anyway, doesn't bode well from your response about Powermac G5's adeptness to browsing the world-wide-web...
Click to expand...
The page linked to earlier, is my thread on optimizing TenFourFox. I do pretty well on my PowerPCs, including a 1.0Ghz 17" PowerBooks G4.

The single biggest problems are that more and more sites (like my bank) are cutting us off when they detect our older machines/browsers.
 
namethisfile said:
T4F Feature Parity Release 8! Is there a newer version?
Click to expand...
Nope. But I wanted to check. Sometimes people are using very old browsers.

If you have looked at the thread that was linked and don't wish to try making these mods yourself, at the very top are some easy options.

Included in those easy options is my own personal prefs file with the changes already made.

At a minimum, I'd suggest an install of uMatrix.
 
eyoungren said:
Nope. But I wanted to check. Sometimes people are using very old browsers.

If you have looked at the thread that was linked and don't wish to try making these mods yourself, at the very top are some easy options.

Included in those easy options is my own personal prefs file with the changes already made.

At a minimum, I'd suggest an install of uMatrix.
Click to expand...

Alright, thanks.

I'll dig further into this once the C19 cord arrives and the G5 boots...
 
Sold my trusty old G5 at a yard sale last year. I think I got $30. Happy that someone wanted it! It was central to earning my living from when I bought it (around 2005) until I got my first Mac Pro in 2010.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheStork
Used to have the ole G5 sitting right next to the ole MP 3,1. It's been waaaaaaaay to long ago to remember why but must have had to do with legacy software. Then things got strange! MP-"How do you like being on this stage with the great 3,1?" "Hear the crowd yelling?" "3,1! 3,1! 3,1!" "Stick with me and you'll go far." "3,1! 3,1! 3,1!" "Could there be a better number yelled than 3,1?" G5-Gee, 5?" "5,1 5,1 5,1!" And that's how the ole G5 got kicked off the stage! :p

P1200003.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: CapnDavey
I've ended up with four of these old beasts. Offered them to the local school, but they turned them down. All cranked up first time. Don't really want to get rid of them but the wife is starting to object to them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back