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weckart

macrumors 603
Nov 7, 2004
5,977
3,715
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.

The received wisdom is that Tiger is optimised for PPC and Leopard for Intel but either will run on both platforms. Your G5 is one of the more powerful PPC machines so should deal with Leopard with aplomb. Tiger will be faster for any application that doesn't explicitly require or benefit from Leopard. As the G5s support SATA, finding a large cheap drive will be a cinch, so you could dual boot both Tiger and Leopard.
 

Zeke D

macrumors 65816
Nov 18, 2011
1,024
168
Arizona
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.
Sure, I'm up for some links... All the ones I've seen so far were too complicated for my skill set.
 

TheStork

macrumors 6502
Dec 28, 2008
296
190
Sure, I'm up for some links... All the ones I've seen so far were too complicated for my skill set.
Here's a link to the tonymacx86.com forum category for all the Apple Case Mods including G4 and G5 > https://www.tonymacx86.com/categories/case-mods.111/

Here's link to the Mod Tools forum section > https://www.tonymacx86.com/categories/modders-tools.143/

The Laser Hive is a good place to get kits for the conversions.

BTW, my Mac Pro case mod was simple to do but you need a good Dremel Tool like cutter to make your life easier...and lots of spare grinding disks, too! Some of the above case mod threads went all out. I just re-positioned the motherboard screw receptacles by removing them from the case with a pliers and screwing them onto the motherboard to get the correct position (using a graphics card to align up with the back panel slots. I used JBWeld to "glue" the motherboard screw receptacles to the case and let it dry. Meanwhile, after outlining the cut area for the Back Panel with blue Scotch painters tape, I marked the back of the case for the Rear Panel cut out, as you'll see in some of the above referenced threads. After the JBWeld has dried, I removed the motherboard and cut out the Rear Panel using the Dremel tool. That's the hard part. I bought some edge rubber for the Rear Panel cut out on eBay. The rest is positioning the PC fans and PSU.

Have Fun!:)
 
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MBAir2010

macrumors 604
May 30, 2018
6,975
6,354
there
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.
if they work, craigslist is a good source, someone is offering a iMac G3 red for $200, i should check to see if that was sold yet. hope and now $150
i did see this:
The Mac Pro "Quad Core" 3.46Ghz is powered by one 3.46 GHz Quad Core 45-nm Xeon processor with a dedicated 256k of level 2 cache for each core and 12MB of "fully shared" level 3 cache.
A1289 Macpro 3.46Ghz Quad Core, 16GB Ram, 1TB MacOS 10.13 Mac Pro - $590
 
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DPUser

macrumors 6502a
Jan 17, 2012
991
304
Rancho Bohemia, California
Still have my functioning G5 Quad. It comes into occasional use when old docs need to be revisited. Saved the day on an audio restoration project last year; the Optical Drive read a deteriorated CD successfully, almost perfectly. My 5,1's optical drive didn't fare nearly as well.

Hoping I don't ever find a pool of liquid coolant underneath it.
 

jbarley

macrumors 601
Jul 1, 2006
4,023
1,895
Vancouver Island
I've got a perfectly good G5 quad sitting on the floor under my desk, keep hoping somebody local will show up and relieve me of it.
It's way past me at my age to box it up for safe shipping.
 
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YaBe

Cancelled
Oct 5, 2017
867
1,533
My only computer is a PowerMac G5 running Leopard, I have an iPad Pro, mainly for internet and some retouching with Affinity, everything “computer” related is done on a G5 :D
 

namethisfile

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 17, 2008
1,190
176
I've got a perfectly good G5 quad sitting on the floor under my desk, keep hoping somebody local will show up and relieve me of it.
It's way past me at my age to box it up for safe shipping.

Maybe, they know how heavy it is! Just kidding! Do you have the infamous G5 Quad or the less famous one?

My only computer is a PowerMac G5 running Leopard, I have an iPad Pro, mainly for internet and some retouching with Affinity, everything “computer” related is done on a G5 :D

I have the opposite problem, now. During that trip to the recycling center, I managed to get two other computers besides the G5, a small mini-ITX intel atom based PC and an AMD Athlon 3-core mATX PC that were in good shape. Both PC's work. So, now, I am testing out Linux builds on them.... Hooray?...

I have to wait longer to find out if the G5 works because of the holiday. But, if it does work, miraculously, I can take a trip down memory lane with it since I was on my Powerbook G4 for quite a while and this Dual-core G5 would make that trip significantly more snappier?
 

YaBe

Cancelled
Oct 5, 2017
867
1,533
Maybe, they know how heavy it is! Just kidding! Do you have the infamous G5 Quad or the less famous one?



I have the opposite problem, now. During that trip to the recycling center, I managed to get two other computers besides the G5, a small mini-ITX intel atom based PC and an AMD Athlon 3-core mATX PC that were in good shape. Both PC's work. So, now, I am testing out Linux builds on them.... Hooray?...

I have to wait longer to find out if the G5 works because of the holiday. But, if it does work, miraculously, I can take a trip down memory lane with it since I was on my Powerbook G4 for quite a while and this Dual-core G5 would make that trip significantly more snappier?
Yes the G5 will be definetly FASTER, depending on what you need to do, you'll be fine with a G5, probably browsing and youtube are the only 2 things i struggle abit, but as I use it as a workstation I can manage not to use the internet much, just productivity :)
 

kasuja00

macrumors regular
Jun 3, 2018
101
64
Italy
Hi, i have my Powermac G5 since 2003. Now it has 8GB ram and Radeon X800xt video card and running Leopard.

I always use it for TV and Videocassette recorder with Eyetv and Turbo.264 from Elgato and also for Coreldraw 11 and Photoshop Cs4 elaborations.
 

namethisfile

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 17, 2008
1,190
176
Hey, guys...

So, the Powermac G5 works!

My only issue now is trying to get a Tenda W311M wifi USB dongle to work with it. I have been able to update it to the latest Leopard it could go up to and everything else through ethernet cable connected to my iMac and using internet sharing. But, obviously, tethering two machines like this for internet isn't convenient or efficient.

Any ideas? Because I'm out of it. Been doing it all day now. And, I have hit a brick wall as to why the drivers Tenda provides on their website for each iteration of OS X from 10.3 to present it seems and the one, I specifically needed and used for 10.5 Leopard doesn't work.

Thanks in advance!

Here's a screenshot of the "About this Mac:"

Picture 1.png
 
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1madman1

macrumors 6502
Oct 23, 2013
481
346
Richmond, BC, Canada
I wish I still had a G5, every once in a while I run into a situation where I'd like to fire up an old piece of software or hardware.

Used to have a late '05, but it let out the magic smoke about a year ago. It's Firewire ports had died a while back and the case was damaged up in my last move so I didn't put any effort into it.

I can't justify the ~$200 it would cost to have another one shipped to me, but if I find a nice one locally for under $100 I'd probably pick it up.

My old beige G3 tower is another I miss and would potentially pick up if I found one, but it probably would never get used.
 

VanneDC

macrumors 6502a
Jun 5, 2010
860
92
Dubai, UAE
I have the airblown 2.7 g5. Great little box. Agp only though, so has a x800 in it.
Great for return to castle Wolfenstein and a few others. I also still have the wind tunnel g4 dual. Great boxes, love the design. The last of the dual core wind cooled ones are the best. Too many issues with the quad.
 
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YaBe

Cancelled
Oct 5, 2017
867
1,533
Hey, guys...

So, the Powermac G5 works!

My only issue now is trying to get a Tenda W311M wifi USB dongle to work with it. I have been able to update it to the latest Leopard it could go up to and everything else through ethernet cable connected to my iMac and using internet sharing. But, obviously, tethering two machines like this for internet isn't convenient or efficient.

Any ideas? Because I'm out of it. Been doing it all day now. And, I have hit a brick wall as to why the drivers Tenda provides on their website for each iteration of OS X from 10.3 to present it seems and the one, I specifically needed and used for 10.5 Leopard doesn't work.

Thanks in advance!

Here's a screenshot of the "About this Mac:"

View attachment 769256
I have a similar issue with a wifi dongle, i bought this from Amazon wich specifically says it works with older macs, and while it works flawlessly on an old PC on my mac the app opens and closes, so I cannot use it..... good uck finding support since They won't help with legacy stuff.

IF anyone knows what i can do ;).....
 

ultrastudiosplit

macrumors newbie
Jul 5, 2018
10
6
Croatia
I loved my powermac G5...I used it as a media server in my home until last year. Upgrade it with SSD, 16Gb RAM, it flew!
But then last year it just died...no apparent reason. Just would not turn on. Tried replacing the ram, battery, reset PRAM, GPu with no results. Perhaps it was the power unit or the MBO who knows..now it just sits in my attic, and I still look at it from time to time with sorrow in my eye. I do have an Mac Pro 1,1 and G4 quicksilver in tip top shape...but they dont come close to the magic of a G5 tower.
 

rawweb

macrumors 65816
Aug 7, 2015
1,126
943
I loved my powermac G5...I used it as a media server in my home until last year. Upgrade it with SSD, 16Gb RAM, it flew!
But then last year it just died...no apparent reason. Just would not turn on. Tried replacing the ram, battery, reset PRAM, GPu with no results. Perhaps it was the power unit or the MBO who knows..now it just sits in my attic, and I still look at it from time to time with sorrow in my eye. I do have an Mac Pro 1,1 and G4 quicksilver in tip top shape...but they dont come close to the magic of a G5 tower.

I had a 2005 Quad from new until it started overheating and needed the LCS rebuilt sometime in 2012. I hung on to it for nostalgia, and even attempted a rebuild of the LCS system. Epic fail and ended up parting it out. It was a great machine in it's day. I still occasionally run into some audio houses with old G5's tucked in a corner for some random purpose.

I truly believe the 5,1 Mac Pro is the embodiment of all the design and engineering learned that culminated in one of the greatest computer tower designs in recent history. A shame Apple didn't evolve the product again rather than abandon it and risk it all on a tube "lemon". The 4,1/5,1 design is a beauty and a joy to work with and maintain. I hope some of the lessons learned brings back something as functional as the cMP/G5 cheese graters. But...this is one of the worlds largest companies that for some reason needs close to three years to produce a friken computer. From Mac to Z!
 

namethisfile

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 17, 2008
1,190
176
I had a 2005 Quad from new until it started overheating and needed the LCS rebuilt sometime in 2012. I hung on to it for nostalgia, and even attempted a rebuild of the LCS system. Epic fail and ended up parting it out. It was a great machine in it's day. I still occasionally run into some audio houses with old G5's tucked in a corner for some random purpose.

I truly believe the 5,1 Mac Pro is the embodiment of all the design and engineering learned that culminated in one of the greatest computer tower designs in recent history. A shame Apple didn't evolve the product again rather than abandon it and risk it all on a tube "lemon". The 4,1/5,1 design is a beauty and a joy to work with and maintain. I hope some of the lessons learned brings back something as functional as the cMP/G5 cheese graters. But...this is one of the worlds largest companies that for some reason needs close to three years to produce a friken computer. From Mac to Z!

Ugh, yeah, I've heard of how infamous the liquid cooled G5's are and were. I wonder if a liquid cooled G5, even if it isn't leaking today or ever leak will still need servicing because of the fact that it's liquid cooled. I've heard that in PC's with water-cooling, they have to clean it out after a few years...

But, I agree... The Powermac G5 tower design was amazing in its day and still hold on its own today. You can see that Apple sculpted and worked on that same chassis for almost decade, from 2003-2012... I think that's unheard of in the computer-space and shows how Apple was/is really dedicated to making computers not just look cool, for looking cool's sake. But, make it practical, useable, endurable... is that a even word?

I think one can see the same sort of sculpting and perfecting something in all of Apple's lineup, from iPhone, iPod to their laptop lineup.

For example, the Titanium powerbooks was the beginning and I see the aluminum powerbooks and the unibody's as evolutionary design changes...

Of course, people are moaning that the laptop progression has gone too thin and too unpractical by requiring dongles.

And, the same sentiment was seen with the trashcan mac pro. There, I think, Apple did something "revolutionary" as oppose to "evolutionary" as they have been doing since early 2000's. I think they did it not just because they could (make things look cool). But, probably because they saw a smaller mac pro as an advantage where mac pro's were used a lot... like in many production houses and professional offices and settings where mac pro's were being moved around the office/studio like some game of "musical-computer-chairs." The older tower Mac Pro's of course had handles for this. But, man, they're heavy and sort of big... size of a typical tower PC! I thought that the trashcan Mac Pro addressed that issue and improved power efficiency and performance at the same time. I didn't really see any compromise that the nMP trashcan had. I mean, thunderbolt is not a compromise to SATA ports. They're just pricier. And, the people who can afford the nMP can probably afford the more expensive way of expanding storage through thunderbolt...

As for not being able to upgrade the GPU... well, I think that was on AMD's court, quite literally, since AMD was the only one who could "upgrade" the nMP trashcan's GPU's!!! And, they didn't have any viable GPU's until recently... But, the longer wait for nMP successor is probably still due to some sort of lack of being able to literally produce actual GPU's at the price Apple needs and quantity? I don't know. Just guessing wildly, here. But, to continue on that same wild thread (pun intended), the iMac Pro is probably a test run of some sort to see if it's logistically possible to produce Macs with the new Vega GPU's? Who knows... I mean, the whole iMac Pro announcement was probably the most surprising thing that has occurred in Apple news since 2013...

Anyway, I'm ranting for way too long... fortunately, the Powermac G5 I salvaged isn't liquid cooled... I went back to Tiger because non of my apps worked in Leopard and now just got EyeTV to work on it for curiosity's sake. It runs it fine and pegs the CPU's usage at 27%-37% each.....

pc07082018_01.jpg

The power from the wall at desktop and idle hovers between 144 watts - 155 watts, which is also in the same ballpark as my Mac Pro 5,1 6-core w/ RX460 at idle....
 
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ultrastudiosplit

macrumors newbie
Jul 5, 2018
10
6
Croatia
I had a 2005 Quad from new until it started overheating and needed the LCS rebuilt sometime in 2012. I hung on to it for nostalgia, and even attempted a rebuild of the LCS system. Epic fail and ended up parting it out. It was a great machine in it's day. I still occasionally run into some audio houses with old G5's tucked in a corner for some random purpose.

I truly believe the 5,1 Mac Pro is the embodiment of all the design and engineering learned that culminated in one of the greatest computer tower designs in recent history. A shame Apple didn't evolve the product again rather than abandon it and risk it all on a tube "lemon". The 4,1/5,1 design is a beauty and a joy to work with and maintain. I hope some of the lessons learned brings back something as functional as the cMP/G5 cheese graters. But...this is one of the worlds largest companies that for some reason needs close to three years to produce a friken computer. From Mac to Z!

I could not agree with You more. I am looking to buy a 5,1 for some time now, but the prices are still extremly high. I know it is a workhorse worth the money and one the best Mac features is that it holds its value...unless You are trying to buy one cheap :cool:
 

rawweb

macrumors 65816
Aug 7, 2015
1,126
943
I could not agree with You more. I am looking to buy a 5,1 for some time now, but the prices are still extremly high. I know it is a workhorse worth the money and one the best Mac features is that it holds its value...unless You are trying to buy one cheap :cool:

Hang in there, they come around. This year I've been blessed to get my hands on authentic 2012 12 core machines for around $450-500 from an agency and local college auction. Both were shockingly in phenomenal shape and had little if any wear. They're out there. Often times you have to barter, if something has been listed for 60+ days, often times the buyer is getting desperate and is over estimating what the value is. In all honesty, the parts inside these things were really designed/manufactured back in 2009. That's usually a good bargaining chip ;)

The one I got from the college I was able to "clean up" (didn't need much) and offloaded it via CL for close to $1k with some minor upgrades with parts I had laying in my computer closet. It was a struggle though, I really wanted to keep it around for spare parts in case my main machine ever needs anything. I usually do things like this to fund my little side ventures and to appease the Mrs so she thinks I'm not always buying new Mac toys ;).
 

ultrastudiosplit

macrumors newbie
Jul 5, 2018
10
6
Croatia
Hang in there, they come around. This year I've been blessed to get my hands on authentic 2012 12 core machines for around $450-500 from an agency and local college auction. Both were shockingly in phenomenal shape and had little if any wear. They're out there. Often times you have to barter, if something has been listed for 60+ days, often times the buyer is getting desperate and is over estimating what the value is. In all honesty, the parts inside these things were really designed/manufactured back in 2009. That's usually a good bargaining chip ;)

The one I got from the college I was able to "clean up" (didn't need much) and offloaded it via CL for close to $1k with some minor upgrades with parts I had laying in my computer closet. It was a struggle though, I really wanted to keep it around for spare parts in case my main machine ever needs anything. I usually do things like this to fund my little side ventures and to appease the Mrs so she thinks I'm not always buying new Mac toys ;).

Ohh ohh... don't get me started on the Mrs issues...every single purchase I made is followed by a barage of nagging and disapproval...and then she falls in love with whatever I buy. For example, I got my hand on a perfect iMac G4 (Lamp) for just 30$! It was a centre piece of our living room until I got an offer to sell it for 400$ which I could not turn down. Then she was nagging why I sold it :rolleyes:

As for the Pro 5,1 they are still way to expensive here in Croatia...they can go up to 1,3-1,5k $. So...still looking still hoping. ;)
 

namethisfile

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 17, 2008
1,190
176
I was thinking of gutting my 12" Powerbook G4 1Ghz to get to the Airport Antenna, which is embedded inside and runs into the display. The Airport Extreme card installed in my Powerbook works in the Power Mac, but cannot get any signal since no antenna is installed and the one inside the 2005 Power Mac is not compatible with it. So, by using the antenna embedded inside the Powerbook, I would then be able to use that and run it inside the Power Mac and somehow make it poke out of the chasis via one of the PCI slots.

Do you guys think this is a worth while effort? And, will it work?

I am hesitant because I basically don't wanna destroy my Powerbook. I am thinking that once I get the airport antenna out that it would nearly impossible to put back. And, even though the value of this notebook is nearly zero, there is sentimental value attached to it. It was my first Mac and first computer I have ever bought myself. I have disassembled the Powerbook a few times before, including re-pasting thermal paste, etc... So, that part I am not worried about. I am worried about the effort not worthwhile since 1) It wont work anyway on the Powermac 2) The operation would make the Powerbook inoperable
 

startergo

macrumors 603
Sep 20, 2018
5,022
2,283
I really tried reviving my G5. At the end started using only debian, but man the compilation GCC or gimp would take a couple of hours... with 100 % usage of the CPU... Went to the trash RIP
 

TheStork

macrumors 6502
Dec 28, 2008
296
190
I really tried reviving my G5. At the end started using only debian, but man the compilation GCC or gimp would take a couple of hours... with 100 % usage of the CPU... Went to the trash RIP
Ouch! :eek: :( Case would make a great home for a hackintosh. Is it too late to get it out of the trash?!
 

startergo

macrumors 603
Sep 20, 2018
5,022
2,283
Ouch! :eek: :( Case would make a great home for a hackintosh. Is it too late to get it out of the trash?!
Sorry man long time gone... I had an empty case+ power switch and cables for the PC board + backplate for the new fans and power supply+ MB plate (from laser hive). Sold all to a lucky guy on eBay for 50 bucks :)
And I had fully working G5 with 8GB ram, which found a home in the trash
 

crjackson2134

macrumors 601
Mar 6, 2013
4,847
1,957
Charlotte, NC
Hey, guys...

So, the Powermac G5 works!

My only issue now is trying to get a Tenda W311M wifi USB dongle to work with it. I have been able to update it to the latest Leopard it could go up to and everything else through ethernet cable connected to my iMac and using internet sharing. But, obviously, tethering two machines like this for internet isn't convenient or efficient.

Any ideas? Because I'm out of it. Been doing it all day now. And, I have hit a brick wall as to why the drivers Tenda provides on their website for each iteration of OS X from 10.3 to present it seems and the one, I specifically needed and used for 10.5 Leopard doesn't work.

Thanks in advance!

Here's a screenshot of the "About this Mac:"

View attachment 769256

Beautiful screenshot. I miss the skeuomorphic interface.
 
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