Server on iMac or G4

[wickerman1893]

Alright so i have an 2.66 Ghz with 4 gb ram Intel iMac and a powermac G4 733 MHz with 1.5 gb ram and i want to run mac os x server on one of them. Which one should i run it on? would the G4 be able to handle it because my iMac is more my home computer? any suggestions? the G4 runs tiger while the iMac runs snow leopard

 

[ayeying]

I say the G4... depending on what you're going to do with it though. It shouldn't be much of a problem running either Tiger Server or Leopard Server (not sure about leopard completely, i'll let someone else pitch in here).

 

[sarienbarry]

Mac Os will run fast on G4 but with snow leopard server.
There are many forums for this on net.
You can find it, How it works.
Try to get some idea from the tutorial which are available on the different sites.

 

[ayeying]

Mac Os will run fast on G4 but with snow leopard server.
There are many forums for this on net.
You can find it, How it works.
Try to get some idea from the tutorial which are available on the different sites.

Snow Leopard won't run with a G4, it requires Intel processors.

 

[mr1970]

Also depends what you're planning on "serving". My G4 500 runs Tiger and handles file & print sharing and iTunes to 2 laptops, a desktop and an Apple TV without requiring the server version. I can't remember what the user limit is (5? 10?) but you may well find plain old Tiger works fine.

The big issue I've had to deal with on my server is the lack of support for big disks. I finished up with an add on board to give me SATA compatibility but depends whether you want to spend the cash.

The other advantage of the G4 over the iMac is that it's a doddle to work on and takes more drives - the G4 500 takes 4; I'm assuming yours (which is newer) will too.

 

[wickerman1893]

Also depends what you're planning on "serving". My G4 500 runs Tiger and handles file & print sharing and iTunes to 2 laptops, a desktop and an Apple TV without requiring the server version. I can't remember what the user limit is (5? 10?) but you may well find plain old Tiger works fine.

The big issue I've had to deal with on my server is the lack of support for big disks. I finished up with an add on board to give me SATA compatibility but depends whether you want to spend the cash.

The other advantage of the G4 over the iMac is that it's a doddle to work on and takes more drives - the G4 500 takes 4; I'm assuming yours (which is newer) will too.

how would i run a sever on tiger without installing server? im new too the whole server thing at the momement

 

[MacsRgr8]

I say the G4... depending on what you're going to do with it though. It shouldn't be much of a problem running either Tiger Server or Leopard Server (not sure about leopard completely, i'll let someone else pitch in here).

Me pitch 'ere

For Leopard Server a G4 @ 867 MHz is required.
But, that doesn't mean you can't get it running on lower specs, if you don't mind fiddling around and using unsupported setups.

mr1970 has a good point: What are you going to "serve"?
- File & Print services?
- Networking Services? (DNS, DHCP, etc)
-> these two can be done on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) server easily.

- Collaboration services? (Wiki, Blog)
- Podcast Producer?
-> these two really need Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) server, preferably Snow Leopard....

- iTunes sharing?
- Simple FileSharing?
-> No server needed at all. Mac OS X "client", can serve simple services on your network easily too.

 

[chrismacguy]

Heh - My File, iTunes and Final Cut "Server" (Not using Final Cut Server) is a PowerMac G4/450 with 1GB RAM and Tiger Server and it runs fine (Even if it is spending more and more time as a Desktop and not as a Server).