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Downgrading from Powermac G5

6

6163621

Cancelled
Original poster
Jan 13, 2004
208
96
Hi...I would appreciate and welcome some words of counsel here.

I have a (May 2005 bought) dual 2.7GHz PowerMac with 8Gb RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL, 250Gb drive machine but its noise is slowly driving me nuts (after getting a Dual MacIntel G5 Imac which is planned for my recording room. The original purpose of the PowerMac G5 has gone (it was stacked up for some FCP work that won't happen).

Now, I appreciate that you cannot compare apples and oranges but I am seriously thinking of trying to sell it and buy another dual 2 for my office room (to replace this) being quieter. I have (on order) a MacMini that I would put the eyeTV digital receiver into and maybe Azureus so my main machine would be for web, mail, document creation and admin type thingys.

I know I'd be taking a bit of a hit on the PowerMac G5's resale price, especially now the G5 is "soon history" but...

As noise quality is important to me, just how mad am I. It meets the target objective but if I can find a buyer who will pay a good price...?
Any pro or anti advise welcomed ! Thanks
 
i think it's hard to get fair value on such a heavily upgraded machine. Most people who need that much power would rather configure it themselves, I think. Maybe if you sold the RAM separately you'd get a decent return.
 
It is also am I doing the right thing :)

I had thought of something in excess of EUR3,000 (as I paid, without the RAM upgrade, c EUR3,600) and the nearest comparable 2,3GHz with Apple RAM would be overE EUR4,500 but I honestly don't know what is best. I know it is a shame to not use the beast as it is though !
 
6163621 said:
It is also am I doing the right thing :)

I had thought of something in excess of EUR3,000 (as I paid, without the RAM upgrade, c EUR3,600) and the nearest comparable 2,3GHz with Apple RAM would be overE EUR4,500 but I honestly don't know what is best. I know it is a shame to not use the beast as it is though !
Click to expand...

3,000EUR = 3,528USD....Pretty expensive. Apple Computers are more expensive overseas which is crazy when you consider a Refurb Dual 2.7 is 2,149USD here in the US.
 
It sounds nuts but... Try to run your G5 with processor settings to the highest. The machine will make a bit more noise overall, even when it's idle, but you don't have the increase in fans when you push it. I noticed with my dual G5 when I put it on automatic, the fans would speed up considerably sometimes when doing something. When on highest setting, the noise is much more bareable, but you don't have that the fans speed up. Your G5 will run a bit hotter.
 
Sell

I feel the same way with my Powermac G5. It is upgraded well beyond the standard Powermac. My Macbook Pro is faster, doesn't make my room hot, and I can hardly hear it. I am keeping my Powermac because of the local disk space for DV importing. If I had the iMac, I would have no reason to keep it.

I am curious how much faster the Mac Pro will be compared to the Powermac and current iMac.
 
BornAgainMac said:
I feel the same way with my Powermac G5. It is upgraded well beyond the standard Powermac. My Macbook Pro is faster, doesn't make my room hot, and I can hardly hear it. I am keeping my Powermac because of the local disk space for DV importing. If I had the iMac, I would have no reason to keep it.

I am curious how much faster the Mac Pro will be compared to the Powermac and current iMac.
Click to expand...


Depends what PM model you have and what apps you are using. Tests have shown that the iLife Apps and Safari run faster on the Intels than the PM 2.0, however other apps seem to run faster on the higher model PM's which include 2.3, 2.5, 2.7 and Quad. Of course they all must have over 1GB of RAM and an up to date video card as the iMac has a more newer card than the non DC modeld and better card than the DC model. If you upgrade your PM DC with a 7800GT than it will give it quite a boost. It all depends what you do with the expandability of the PM.
 
Thanks. I guess I will see :) Maybe it is the whirring up and down of the fans that really gets to me after a while (and it is near my desk next to the monitor.. and then seeing how the Imac 20" (Intel) is nice and quiet (but the screen is too damn bright for me, even on the lowest setting !).

I will see what interest there is in Finland (not the biggest Mac market but growing) but I do acknowledge that not everyone would have the resources, or the wish, for such a configured system.

Otherwise maybe I can upgrade an old G4 Xserve's use application to this Powermac and let it take over some server tasks. The lack of rack mounting shouldn't be a problem

Thanks !
 
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