Replace WaterCooling by Air Cooling ?

[Antares23]

Hello,
I'm thinking about buying a PowerMac G5 to replace my iMac G5 (no, I don't want something higher, I don't want to wait longer to have money to buy a Mac Pro, or take a IntelMini, no, it would be a PowerMac G5 or nothing, anyway, I will take it on a french site like craiglist, G5 are like 100€, and Mac Pro start at 250€ (for a Mac Pro 1,1 2006) I can't afford it now, and I need a computer quickly, I can't wait more, and G5 is powerful enough for my need)
And, I want to take the high end model, so the PowerMac G5 Quad, but I know last model of PMG5 had bad watercooling, so I want to know if I can take a PowerMac G5 and replace the water cooling by a classic Air Cooling ? (I don't care if the fan would speed faster and make more noise, I always play music when i'm on my computer)
Or does the motherboard of the Quad doesn't have the connector for the fan or something, or it is possible to replace it ?
It would be my main machine, I need it to be reliable. It will run mostly 10 hours per day
Anyway, so can I replace the watercooling by aircooling on a PowerMac G5 2005 ?
If not, why ? (Don't just reply "No", i want to know why)
Thanks ^o^

 

[eyoungren]

Hello,
I'm thinking about buying a PowerMac G5 to replace my iMac G5 (no, and I don't want something higher, I don't want to wait longer to have for money to buy a Mac Pro, or take a Mac Mini Intel, no, it would be a PowerMac G5 or nothing, anyway, I will take it on a french site like craiglist, G5 are like 100€, and Mac Pro start at 250€ (for a Mac Pro 1,1 2006) I can't afford it now, and I need a computer quickly, I can't wait more, and G5 is powerful enough for my need)

I cannot answer your main question as I've never had a water cooled G5. There have been conversion before though and someone here may be able to help on that.

But I will speak to your rationale on getting a G5.

You don't have to justify your choice to us. Your thread is in the PowerPC forum here on MacRumors. Almost everyone here has, or used to have a PowerPC Mac (such as a G5). Some of us have collections approaching a hundred or more Macs. So no one here is going to tell you to get a MacPro. We are ALL PowerPC enthusiasts!

I myself own only ONE Intel Mac, a MBP and it is not my main computer. Both my PowerBook G4 and my PowerMac G4 are my main computers. I use them for everything.

So, no worries. You are in good company.

 

[Antares23]

Yeah, I know I don't have to justify, but I've met lot of annoying people who yell at people because they want to buy PowerPC rather than Intel Mac, so want to shut up these people directly.
And I had a iMac 2006 24", it was great, but the video card died (already baked it, it killed it, but it was already dying so it's okay), so I took my iMac G5 as main until I can afford a new Mac, and after using my iMac G5 for 2 months as main, I mostly never had to use Intel software (i still have my hackintosh for that ^^)
And I think that PowerPC Mac are gorgeous work of art :3
Anyway, thanks for your reply even if you don't replied to my question ^^

 

[Gav2k]

Yeah, I know I don't have to justify, but I've met lot of annoying people who yell at people because they want to buy PowerPC rather than Intel Mac, so want to shut up these people directly.
And I had a iMac 2006 24", it was great, but the video card died (already baked it, it killed it, but it was already dying so it's okay), so I took my iMac G5 as main until I can afford a new Mac, and after using my iMac G5 for 2 months as main, I mostly never had to use Intel software (i still have my hackintosh for that ^^)
Anyway, thanks for your reply even if you don't replied to my question ^^

Yes you can replace it but to be honest if it's not leaking then replacing the fluid will do. There are a few guides on google that will guide you through the process.

 

[Antares23]

Well..
I can't find G5 Quad on Paris, and the only in France is at 574Km, and cost 500€, and I don't have car.
Do you think that a Dualcore 2,3GHz at 100€ is okay ? I'm not sure if this model have watercooling or not, i will check on Everymac. ^^
EDIT: I just checked on everymac, look like this model doesn't have watercooling, so no problem, and this model have 4 PCIe, I think I will buy it, and put a better video card alongside the original card. (Original for OSX, New for Ubuntu MATE 16.04) ^^

 

[MacCubed]

You can convert the 2.5GHz and 2.7GHz WaterCooled PMG5s to air cooling, but the Quad is a no go, as it produces too much heat. As for the 2.3GHz Dual Core, they are great machines, the perfect mix of power and features!

 

[Antares23]

Perfect
I mean, I abandoned the idea of buying a Quad, since they are really expensive (Even on ebay, and considering the credit card of my parents isn't accepted by PayPal so I can't buy my PowerMac on eBay UoU), un-reliable because of the faulty water cooling, and I struggle just a little bit on the single 2,0 of the iMac (because it lag, not always, it still work well, but lag sometimes, but still thousand time faster than my Windows 7 laptop, and because of the sound of the fan, it's worse than my old Pentium 4 tower wich hasn't been cleaned since 2007 (Because-as the iMac G5 fan produces a very sharp and unpleasant noise, while the P4 is just loud.)
So I think that a Dual G5 (Core/CPU, depends if the dualcore will still be available) would be perfect ^o^
Anyway, now I can't wait until early May ToT
Thank you all for your help ^^ (I think I'll be more on this forum now )

 

[reddrag0n]

Here is a guide
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1020076/g5_mod/index.html

*edit*
this was where it all started. on the ifixit thread i started.
https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/44549/Information+about+LCU-heatsink+cooling

 

[PapaGino]

I would say that 2.3ghz would be your best bet unless you convert a 2.5ghz to air. I own a few Quads still and I'm always worried when they will spring a leak even though they don't see much use as they used too. Anyway its not worth the headache for sure for getting a used liquid cooled unit, now that they are well over 10 years old now.

 

[gavinstubbs09]

2.3GHz early or late 05 is your best bang for the buck. Do not buy any sort of 2.5/2.7GHz DP G5. Yes you can swap on air cooled heatsinks but this is more of a pain in the ass and machines still run hot. If you do end up with a 2.7, you can safely swap in 2.3 processors with the air cooled heatsinks.

Quads can be great if the liquid cooling system works, but they are not cheap to find machines.

- coming from a guy who has owned several 2.0/2.3 G5s, 2x 2.7 LCS G5s, and a Quad

 

[Antares23]

Okay so, I called the guy for the Dual Core 2.3, if everything is going ok, I will take it thursday, and I will put 10Gb of RAM, a Kingston 240Gb SSD and 1Tb Seagate, I will install Leopard on the SSD, Tiger & Ubuntu MATE 16.04 on the HDD
For now, it has got a GeForce 6600 (I think, the guy written "Radeon 6600") and 2.5Gb of RAM, I think I will put a HD 5450 or GT 730 for Ubuntu x)
Oh, and I have a last question, in the DDR2 model, I could put a standard DDR2 stick (Non ecc, unbuffered/non-registered) or do I need to put a ECC RAM ? (Because if I need the ECC, i only have 4Gb...)
Thanks

 

[Dronecatcher]

Okay so, I called the guy for the Dual Core 2.3, if everything is going ok, I will take it thursday, and I will put 10Gb of RAM, a Kingston 240Gb SSD and 1Tb Seagate, I will install Leopard on the SSD, Tiger & Ubuntu MATE 16.04 on the HDD
For now, it has got a GeForce 6600 (I think, the guy written "Radeon 6600") and 2.5Gb of RAM, I think I will put a HD 5450 or GT 730 for Ubuntu x)
Oh, and I have a last question, in the DDR2 model, I could put a standard DDR2 stick (Non ecc, unbuffered/non-registered) or do I need to put a ECC RAM ? (Because if I need the ECC, i only have 4Gb...)
Thanks

That's a great setup! I have a 2.3 DP and it's not far behind my Quad in most things.
ECC RAM is not a requirement and regarding the GPU, I swapped the GeForce 6600 in my Quad to a FX Quadro 4500 - as I don't do 3D work or gaming, there was no difference - I'd stick with the original card unless money is no object.
I'd love to hear how you get on with Ubuntu and how it compares in performance.

 

[Antares23]

Cool
So I'll make a comparison of Leopard 10.5.8, Ubuntu 12.04.5 (last official PPC release by Canonical so I think it could be revelant to include it, even if it lose support in April 2017) and Ubuntu MATE 16.04
And, money is a important factor (If it wouldn't be, I would take a Mac Pro, even if I love PowerPC, how could you say no to power and software support ?), I'm 14 years old, I, of course, still live with my parents, I can't work, so I can't really buy that much, and I'm really curious about Ubuntu on PowerPC too, mostly with software compatibilities, because Linux PowerPC is not much popular than OS X PowerPC, so I think there is more suport for OS X powerPC, but I really don't know, I can't try now because my iMac G5's Superdrive is dead (or, just maybe it doesn't support my TDK DVD-RW, because it has no problem reading buyed music CD, that's why I think i will recycle this iMac to a jukebox, connected to the living room home theater, with Spotify, it would be awesome even if a iMac G4 would be even cooler 8D), and, of course, you can't boot from USB on PowerPC.
So I'll post the comparison, in a reply in this thread, if you are mostly interested in something particular, just ask and I will do.
And in slot, how many it does have ? I mean, Does it have one or two PCIe 16x ? (because for dual graphics, i need 2 16x x)
Eidt: I think I finded myself, it have 4 16x slot, but one is wired in 16x, one in 8x, and 2 in 4x x)

 

[MacCubed]

Few things on the RAM, PC2-3200 won't work, or at least in my quad it didn't work. Another thing is that you can mix ECC and non-ECC RAM

 

[0248294]

and, of course, you can't boot from USB on PowerPC.

That's not true. A few commands in Open Firmware allow you to do so on a lot of PPC Macs.

 

[Antares23]

That's not true. A few commands in Open Firmware allow you to do so on a lot of PPC Macs.

Really ? Then I will search more next time, because last time I tried, I couldn't get my iMac G5 boot from USB, OS X or Linux.

Few things on the RAM, PC2-3200 won't work, or at least in my quad it didn't work. Another thing is that you can mix ECC and non-ECC RAM

Awesome !
But, the ECC RAM I have is FB-DIMM one with the heatsink (they are PC2-5300F), and last time I tired to put on DDR2 "classic" PC (OptiPlex 755 and 745), it wouldn't even fit, because keyed isn't in the same place than classic DDR2 ram. And, the "lowest" DDR2 RAM I have is PC2-5800U (and highest is "XMS2-8500" (It's Corsair Dominator 1066MHz stick), so I think I'll doesn't have problem, I hope, but, does the fan is just next to the ram, or does there's enough room for tall stick ? Because classic stick is 3cm and my Dominator are 5cm, and i don't really want (or could) cut the heatsink
Anyway, I think even if they won't fit, I could at least have 8Gb with the classic stick wich would be the really maximum I would need (I never go higher than 5Gb used, even in Windows with 2 VM, Firefox with loooooooot of tabs, VLC, Transmission and some other app)
Anyway, I'll have it tomorrow afternoon, I can't wait

 

[Antares23]

So, I have my G5 now, I had some issue with ram, I couldn't get the 10Gb of ram to work, at least, I got 8Gb of RAM, It's totally okay.
I finally put 2 1Tb HDD instead of SSD+1Tb HDD, because I use the first for Leopard, soft and stuff, and use the second for video, music, pic and everything.
I tried quickly a Ubuntu MATE 16.04 Live DVD, it worked, just some stuff wasn'working, like AirPort or Sound, anyway, I wouldn't use Ubuntu finally, Leopard is perfectly okay for me;
It SOOOOO silent compared to my iMac G5 and I could use both Facebook and YouTube without lagging or Airplane reactor sound, it's sooo cool. And it's like thousand times faster than my iMac G5. I already LOOOOOOOOVE my PowerMac
And my hard drive finally don't burn anymore (in the iMac, 70°C, in the PM: 29°C) and the PowerMac is SOOO beautiful.
Anyway, I simply love my G5 :3

EDIT: Finally, I got my 10Gb of RAM working