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

G4 is dead, buying a G5, what can I salvage?

R

RDM

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 17, 2008
33
0
My PowerMac G4 Quicksilver, dual 1GHz processor has died, the logic board is blown and most repair places say it's not worth it to fix, especially when the boards are no longer available new. I agree with them, I got seven years out of it, it's time to upgrade.

So I'm looking at used G5s, but to save money I want to salvage as much from my G4 as I can, like my 160Gb hard drive, the three 512 sticks of RAM, plus a USB 2.0 card I put in some time back. Are these pieces all compatible with the G5 units, specifically the dual 2Ghz model M9455LL/A? I'm not finding a lot of info, I can order the G5 stocked with this stuff but it's nearly twice the price, and I'd hate to toss the good parts I already have.

Anyone?
 
Nothing is salvageable except for the PCI cards.

I would honestly try to get a used Intel Mac. Even the lowest of the low end of the Intel Macs would be way faster than a dual 2.0 G5. You could probably get a used Intel Mac Mini of some sort pretty cheap.
 
Dang. The hard drive can't swap over? It's a WD 160GB unit, I replaced the original 80GB a year ago.
 
RDM said:
Dang. The hard drive can't swap over? It's a WD 160GB unit, I replaced the original 80GB a year ago.
Click to expand...

Nope. G5's are SATA. SATA HD's are cheap though. 500 gigabyte SATA drive for almost nothing.

But again, I wouldn't buy a G5 at this point. Go Intel.
 
goMac said:
Nope. G5's are SATA. SATA HD's are cheap though. 500 gigabyte SATA drive for almost nothing.

But again, I wouldn't buy a G5 at this point. Go Intel.
Click to expand...

I could swear this one is SATA too. I'll have to open it and look. I should add that I don't do anything besides go online, check email, basic stuff on my computer. I don't run any big apps or do anything heavy like watch movies, it's just a source to connect to the internet and store music. I just hate PCs and all the stupid nonsense they offer.
 
RDM said:
I could swear this one is SATA too. I'll have to open it and look.
Click to expand...

I don't believe any G4's have SATA, unless you added it as a card.

RDM said:
I should add that I don't do anything besides go online, check email, basic stuff on my computer. I don't run any big apps or do anything heavy like watch movies, it's just a source to connect to the internet and store music. I just hate PCs and all the stupid nonsense they offer.
Click to expand...

All the more reason to buy a cheap Intel Mac instead of a tower. A Mac Mini would suit you just fine.
 
Intel Mini's are still pretty expensive guys. Even the early Core Duo models still sell over $300 in a lot of cases. Dual G5's can be found MUCH cheaper and I would say the performance difference between a dual 2.0GHz G5 and a Core Duo running at 1.86 or 2.0GHz is not much at all. Cheap performance is pretty easy to achieve with the dual G5. Also keep in mind a lot of those early Mini's max out at a measly 2GB of RAM and had crappy little 80GB drives.
 
I'd definitely go with a cheap Intel Mac... either the cheapest you can get from Apple (new or refurbished) or a used one from eBay or Craigslist. Switching to Intel Mac will definitely be worth it.. you were using a dying technology, why buy into another dying technology? At least you can run new software on even the oldest Intel Macs (2006 onwards).
 
goMac said:
Nope. G5's are SATA. SATA HD's are cheap though. 500 gigabyte SATA drive for almost nothing.

But again, I wouldn't buy a G5 at this point. Go Intel.
Click to expand...

RDM could put the drive in an external enclosure, also the optical bus on a g5 is PATA so theoretically one could pull the optical drive and drop the old HD there instead (and of course if RDM went for a used mac pro, on a pre-2009 mac pro it's even easier since you have an extra bay to drop the HD and PATA cabling already provided).
 
Hrududu said:
Intel Mini's are still pretty expensive guys. Even the early Core Duo models still sell over $300 in a lot of cases. Dual G5's can be found MUCH cheaper and I would say the performance difference between a dual 2.0GHz G5 and a Core Duo running at 1.86 or 2.0GHz is not much at all. Cheap performance is pretty easy to achieve with the dual G5. Also keep in mind a lot of those early Mini's max out at a measly 2GB of RAM and had crappy little 80GB drives.
Click to expand...

Really? I haven't seen a single G5 under $200, and no duals under $300... And a mini benchmarks way faster than a dual 2.0 ghz G5.

2.5" hard drives are cheap. He could very easily upgrade himself to a 250 gig drive for not much money. Or he could use his old drive as an external.
 
Beyond just the issue of price is operating cost. I dare say a Mac Mini Core Duo or Core 2 Duo would draw less power than a G5 over time.
 
I can easily understand the poster as the PM G5 have for me a far superior "love factor" than the intel minis... And they perform pretty well for its usage.
 
Thanks to all the replies thus far. I really don't need a big hard drive, I only put the 160Gb in my old one because it was $1 more than the 80Gb, seemed stupid not to get it. I have an external drive that I store everything important in, it's 500Gb and only 100Gb full, so I don't think I need anything more in the tower than 160Gb anyway. Even 80Gb would be fine really.

I've been looking around online and the Intel macs are still a little pricey, plus, and I know this may be surprising, I hate Intel software. I cringe when having to use a PC anywhere, I've always had Macs and have learned everything on them, anything else makes me steer away.

There's a place called gainsaver.com that can custom build a G5 with virtually any option I want and they have warranties (though pricey) to insure I'm good for a while. I also found a used G5 tower for $200 from theocf.net, but they don't offer any sort of warranty and don't include any extra parts, and the way I read it they almost suggest the unit may be DOA when I get it, so that's pointless.

I figure a good G5 loaded the way I want it, then sell my old stuff off, and I'll come out about $300 or so out of pocket, that's not a bad deal for me. My G4 was $600 in 2003 and it didn't include anything besides a power cord, at least this will come with a keyboard and mouse I can sell for $20 or whatever.
 
RDM said:
I've been looking around online and the Intel macs are still a little pricey, plus, and I know this may be surprising, I hate Intel software. I cringe when having to use a PC anywhere, I've always had Macs and have learned everything on them, anything else makes me steer away.
Click to expand...

Intel Macs are exactly the same as any other Mac, and an Intel Mac mini could probably be found for around $300.

G5's are risky. They ran hot and as such are a little more prone to failure. And as someone else pointed out, they are expensive to run because they take so much electricity.

Not sure what the "Intel software" thing is. It's a Mac, same Mac software as before.

If your G4 is dead, I wouldn't count on getting any money for it. The logic board is the most expensive component, and that's around $20 from what I've seen on Craigslist.
 
goMac said:
Really? I haven't seen a single G5 under $200, and no duals under $300... And a mini benchmarks way faster than a dual 2.0 ghz G5.

2.5" hard drives are cheap. He could very easily upgrade himself to a 250 gig drive for not much money. Or he could use his old drive as an external.
Click to expand...
I got two dual 2.0ghz Powermacs off eBay for $123 each shipped. If you look, you'll find.
 
300D said:
That is false information.
Click to expand...

I spent many years as a Mac IT tech. The failure rates on the G5's were much higher than other machines.

That's not to say they all fail, but they were certainly more risky machines.
 
Sigh

300D said:
That is false information.
Click to expand...

No it's not.

It ran hot (180 degrees f under load).
It consumed massive amounts of electrical power (250 watts at idle)
It had a liquid coolant leak 24 months into ownership.
It just failed again 24 months later, I believe the power supply died.
My sister-in-laws G5 went thru 2 logic boards.

Yes it was dusted, maintained and babied. The thing still looks brand new on the outside.

Anecdotally: the G5 machines are fun to use when they're running and not fun at all when they are not because they seem inordinately predisposed to failure. I don't trust them any more.

The new Mac mini outclasses the G5s in every way:

-faster by a good margin
-faster memory
-faster bus
-runs cooler
-uses less electricity
-modern architecture runs snow leopard
-less likely to stop working at the drop of a hat.
-plenty of i/o connectivity

The biggest problem with the G5 is you're STUCK at Leopard and some apps are Snow Leopard and Intel only.

Don't stick a bunch of money into a Mac that's only going to leave you unhappy - right now I have a 60 pound tower that's totally inoperative.
 
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