Doubts about Powermac g5, which is the best model for me?

[Rikintosh]

Yes, I know everyone will say, 2.5 Quad is the best and the fastest. But it also seems to suffer from leaks.

I've never owned a G5, and I'm looking to get one in the next few months, I plan to compile things, I initially thought of getting a quad, but they're hard to find in my country.

So my doubts are:

- Is it possible to put a second processor in the dual core model?
- Is their energy consumption excessive? (For example, using them as a torrent box, or compiling stuff for days, will I have an abusive electricity bill? Would MP models be the most energy efficient?)
- Which model produces less fan noise?

 

[eyoungren]

Yes, I know everyone will say, 2.5 Quad is the best and the fastest. But it also seems to suffer from leaks.

I've never owned a G5, and I'm looking to get one in the next few months, I plan to compile things, I initially thought of getting a quad, but they're hard to find in my country.

So my doubts are:

- Is it possible to put a second processor in the dual core model?
- Is their energy consumption excessive? (For example, using them as a torrent box, or compiling stuff for days, will I have an abusive electricity bill? Would MP models be the most energy efficient?)
- Which model produces less fan noise?

I'd go for a 2.3 or 2.0 Dual Core. That's simply a Quad with one processor (of lesser mhz) and no LCS.

Any G5 will consume more power than your standard G4 and much more than modern PCs pull today. I took a hit of about $20 a month in my electric bill. Some people have ~$100 bills so this is a big deal. I average anywhere from $115 to $450, depending on time of year, so $20 isn't a big deal to me.

As far as efficiency and noise the dual cores are pretty good.

 

[lepidotós]

Regarding the power consumption thing, I've heard G5s also have an ATX power supply mod. The at-wall power draw can probably be brought down, and longevity of the computer brought up, with an 80+ bronze or gold PSU...​

 

[Heindijs]

If you just want to use a device as a torrent box, I'd recommend a Raspberry Pi. That little things barely draws any power and just does the job.

 

[Dronecatcher]

G5s can be put into Reduced power mode - this will save electricity and reduce fan noise - I had a DP 2.3 with defective thermal sensors, running in anything but Reduced mode would have the fans howling away.

 

[TheShortTimer]

Any G5 will consume more power than your standard G4 and much more than modern PCs pull today.

What do you think of the figures provided by PPC Luddite on this topic? Emphasis mine.

I think everybody knows that G5 Power Macs suck a lot of power. They give off enough heat, so much that they're sometimes referred to as space heaters. In fact, most G5s idle (on but no processor activity) at around 150 watts. As a comparison, most laptops and minis idle at around 20-30 watts and even iMac G5s can idle at less than half the Power Mac's wattage with the screen asleep. So G5s aren't ideal as servers, especially since they're limited to two drive bays.

So let's go back a generation. I assumed the MDD Power Macs would be much more efficient, at least in a processor idle state, since they're equipped with G4s rather that G5s. But this article at Apple's website was a real eye-popper, and not in a good way. The MDDs are practically just as power hungry as G5s. The single processor 1.25 GHz G4 which was the last Mac to boot OS 9 wasn't so bad. It idled at 80 watts, but the others, particularly the dualies, all idled at 130-150 watts. That's asking for a pretty big hit in the wallet when the power bill comes.

 

[B S Magnet]

What do you think of the figures provided by PPC Luddite on this topic? Emphasis mine.

These figures are not surprising at all.

 

[Rikintosh]

I had already read elsewhere that ppc cpus are actually (contrary to what everyone thinks) quite energy efficient, and that they should have low thermal dissipation. I don't know if it was a hoax or something like that, but if the G4 and G5 consume little energy, where does all the consumption come from? Their graphics card (geforce 6600) I believe consumes less than 50w at full load.

Has anyone plugged the G5 into a consumption meter? I believe that the PSU can be improved, these old sources were not as good as the modern ones in terms of consumption and heat dissipation

 

[lepidotós]

I had already read elsewhere that ppc cpus are actually (contrary to what everyone thinks) quite energy efficient, and that they should have low thermal dissipation. I don't know if it was a hoax or something like that, but if the G4 and G5 consume little energy, where does all the consumption come from? Their graphics card (geforce 6600) I believe consumes less than 50w at full load.

Has anyone plugged the G5 into a consumption meter? I believe that the PSU can be improved, these old sources were not as good as the modern ones in terms of consumption and heat dissipation

PowerPC can be quite efficient -- G3s only use about 6 watts idle, I'm pretty sure, but the G5 is essentially a server chip (POWER4) just kind of shoehorned into use as a desktop processor and the later 7440s and 7450s before 7448 reined it in are just plain inefficiently designed in order to get clock speed out the door to try to compete more with Intel. If only there was a 7458...​

 

[eyoungren]

What do you think of the figures provided by PPC Luddite on this topic? Emphasis mine.

I think that I probably generalized. I've never owned an MDD and the newest G4 I have is a QS. I also own a 500mhz G4 and a G3. So, I guess I lumped in the MDD with all of that.

I'm not surprised by how much it draws.

On the other hand…I have a 300W torchiere lamp in the garage and I've been known to be in the garage for several hours with that lamp on. It's drawing double what is stated that the G5s draw at idle. And idling is pretty much what my G5s were doing most of the day when I was using them.

 

[Alb_rn]

- Is it possible to put a second processor in the dual core model?
- Which model produces less fan noise?

If i remember correctly my dc 2.0 doesn't have the socket for a 2nd processor but can freely be upgraded if you can find one of the 2.3 dc or 2.5 cards from a quad. Fans on mine aren't bad, especially seeing that mine has never had a repaste since new. It is perhaps somewhat noisier than a new system but still manageable (in a silent room you can hear the fans spinning but nothing more). The noisiest part of it was the cricket hdd that was replaced as soon as I could.

 

[theMarble]

I personally have a 2.7 DP model, the fastest AGP & DDR1 G5 you can get however I would not recommend this as it has the older and much worse Delphi cooling system. I would try and find a 2.0 DC or 2.3DC as others have said as it has PCIe support and no water-cooling that could fail.

 

[barracuda156]

2.5 Quad is the first best, 2.3 DC is the second best. Perhaps don’t bother with other options.

Quad is pretty quiet. My MacBook Pro makes more fan noise. No idea about electricity consumption, as there is no meter.

 

[theMarble]

@barracuda156 I agree with you on getting a PCIe G5.

My 2.7 DP is near silent when it's idle but it comes to a low-pitch whirring sound when it's doing anything.