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Ok, how bad would a used dual ~2.5GHz Power Mac G5 suck?

S

Stattlich

Member
My wife's and my wedding photographers, who are rated among the top 10 in the country, are uber-Mac Pro top of the line everything-Apple folks who have built studios in their home to house their machines, say to not make my first foray into Macs with a used G5 off eBay because "they suck and they're slow... omg don't do that".

You can see my current specs below. The most juice I need out of my workstation (and I love a proper workstation tower- no iMac crap for me) would be to run basic Photoshop CS3 process and do some really light video editing off my new miniDV camcorder through Firewire. Most of my energies are spent as a news junkie online with little to no gaming and enjoying music. I'm an information/imaging/sharing kinda guy, not a gamer.

Opportunity: So my wife suddenly went from MS Paint-novice to Photoshop CS2 pro whilst I was at work today after getting a couple crash-course books at Half Price Books this morning... so now she wants the said workstation listed in my sig below, written in full, after I came home and found it hijacked. Now's my time to jump to a Mac and get a new setup- please give me some spec recommendations on how I can make it possible! Can't afford a new Mac Pro, budget is around $800 for the tower. Can I do this?
 
Well, I the macbook in my sig basically beats the benchmark scores off every G5 upto the one you mention, the dual 2.5 GHz, now is this a Quad Core G5 (2 Dual Cores) or just a dual core G5?

For what you are doing, it should be fine. Photoshop needs RAM, and editing movies, depending on the app, should be fine as well. However, you may want to consider a Hackintosh since you seem reticent to get an iMac even though it will run circles around the G5 and even give your current workstation a run for its money.
 
Thanks for the response- I'm looking at a dual CPU, likely not dual-core, 2.5. An iMac 'Hackintosh' is attractive, but I really want my classic setup- a tower with dual 20-something LCDs. I can always duck into my wife's office next door in our home to go back to 'my' Windows workstation if I never need a WinTel platform for something. Otherwise, I'm ready to give it all up and go all-Mac.
 
Originally posted by: secretanchitman
forget the G5...hackintosh or a used intel mac pro will do you good.
Click to expand...

Yeah, definitely checked the used Mac Pros out, but none of them are coming in anywhere near a grand yet. That will be the one to get when they depreciate a bit more though.

Ok, I was thinking 'Hackintosh' was simply running Boot Camp on an Intel Mac to get Windows on there as well, but now I think that's probably not it and I'm missing the point- what is this exactly?

edit: op, just saw the thread on this and got educated... actually sounds like fun, but I don't have that kind of time and patience any longer like I did in college.
 
Halp, I'm slipping! Already looking at a 'newer' xw6200 model with dual 3.6 Xeons, 4GB, and perhaps even giving Vista a go... sleeping on all of this, will check back in tomorrow.
 
Originally posted by: Stattlich
Halp, I'm slipping! Already looking at a 'newer' xw6200 model with dual 3.6 Xeons, 4GB, and perhaps even giving Vista a go... sleeping on all of this, will check back in tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that with a mac you can do both...easily.

Vmware Fusion and Parallels Desktop re both great pieces of software
 
Originally posted by: Goosemaster
Originally posted by: Stattlich
Halp, I'm slipping! Already looking at a 'newer' xw6200 model with dual 3.6 Xeons, 4GB, and perhaps even giving Vista a go... sleeping on all of this, will check back in tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that with a mac you can do both...easily.

Vmware Fusion and Parallels Desktop re both great pieces of software
Click to expand...

Indeed, but would any Power Mac G5 tower, upgraded to Leopard, serve my needs or are they too old and not worth touching? My $800 tower budget is the crux of the matter here.
 
Originally posted by: Stattlich
Originally posted by: Goosemaster
Originally posted by: Stattlich
Halp, I'm slipping! Already looking at a 'newer' xw6200 model with dual 3.6 Xeons, 4GB, and perhaps even giving Vista a go... sleeping on all of this, will check back in tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that with a mac you can do both...easily.

Vmware Fusion and Parallels Desktop re both great pieces of software
Click to expand...

Indeed, but would any Power Mac G5 tower, upgraded to Leopard, serve my needs or are they too old and not worth touching? My $800 tower budget is the crux of the matter here.
Click to expand...

You might face challenges with virtualization performance, but for the basics it should be okay.
(Finalcut, photoshop, etc too)
 
I have very little spare time, but I'd probably try a $800 hackintosh before spending $800 on a G5.
If one component dies on that (and they do, regularly), you are screwed. Replacement G5 parts are a small fortune.

I know, I'm an Apple certified tech.
 
Originally posted by: Goosemaster
Originally posted by: Stattlich
Originally posted by: Goosemaster
Originally posted by: Stattlich
Halp, I'm slipping! Already looking at a 'newer' xw6200 model with dual 3.6 Xeons, 4GB, and perhaps even giving Vista a go... sleeping on all of this, will check back in tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind that with a mac you can do both...easily.

Vmware Fusion and Parallels Desktop re both great pieces of software
Click to expand...

Indeed, but would any Power Mac G5 tower, upgraded to Leopard, serve my needs or are they too old and not worth touching? My $800 tower budget is the crux of the matter here.
Click to expand...

You might face challenges with virtualization performance, but for the basics it should be okay.
(Finalcut, photoshop, etc too)
Click to expand...

Ok thanks- that's essentially what I wanted to make sure of. That it was going to be liveable for the relatively small-demand stuff I do.
 
Originally posted by: umrigar
I have very little spare time, but I'd probably try a $800 hackintosh before spending $800 on a G5.
If one component dies on that (and they do, regularly), you are screwed. Replacement G5 parts are a small fortune.

I know, I'm an Apple certified tech.
Click to expand...

Good point- thanks for noting that. Any components in particular? I'm plenty savvy enough to replace anything when necessary, but a high frequency thereof could be a turn-off. I honestly just need a G5 to last me about a year so I can get introduced and used to OS-X, before picking up a proper used Mac Pro when they (hopefully) become more affordable.
 
Stattlich, a Hackintosh would be a perfect fit for your needs.

I was in much the same boat earlier- I needed a new Mac tower, but was not willing to shell out for a MacPro which is overkill for my needs, but I don't want a Mini or iMac either. The Hackintosh was the only way to go for me, and it's worked out beautifully. Currently, it's pretty much the best way to get a mid-range Mac.

Kaido has several builds and guides on the subject on this forum.

Check out his 10.5.4 Hackintosh thread.

On page 4 of that thread I added a complete recipe for a $500 build that I did recently, from hardware to install method- even that machine will absolutely destroy any G5 or lower end intel Mac.

Spend a little bit more on a faster processor, full sized ATX board with more RAM, etc, and you'll have a machine that rivals a MacPro for a fraction of the cost. Of course, following the basic guidelines from others using the same hardware is a must. Set up properly, a Hack is all but indistinguishable from the real deal.
 
Ehh... PowerPC is dead. Complete waste of time, seriously. Forget the G5.

$800? Build a Hackintosh. Seriously, it's very easy. If you just pick your parts carefully, you should have no problems at all 🙂
 
Alright, you last two guys have me thinking in that direction now. I'm willing to follow directions if they work, and it sounds like quite the userbase is getting established here... alright I'm stoked. I'll look at this more when I get home shortly and start pricing out the wares. Thanks!
 
I have a Quad G5, and it is really, really quick. That being said, you are going to be kind of left out in the dark after leopard. I use it because I have it, I wouldn't consider purchasing one now.
 
We use g5's at work. Infact we buy them used off the bay and drop in 15k worth of dsp cards hehehe. The cpu gets very little work but it seems fine for browsing and the little bit we need the cpu to do. We have 9 of them from early 2ghz to quad 2.5ghz all running tiger and one new 2.8ghz octo for the composer/owner. But he actually needs the cpu power. If you are gonna do it possibly think about running older apps and staying with tiger.
 
Thanks for the last two comments again. I stayed up well past my bedtime investigating the OSx86 links, and while actually surprised at how much PC hardware components will run Leopard, it was still too much of a pricey hodge-podge for this old AMD nut who would still have trouble building an Intel rig voluntarily (my HP workstation was really cheap, so I sprung). That said, regardless, I'm still looking at probably $700 for a 95% guaranteed solution. That same amount will get me the bedrock G5 that I want in a prettier and quieter case, perhaps even more reliable. Yeah, maybe I don't have the Hackintosh nads necessary.

So guess where I'm back to eyeing on eBay now... 🙁 Not necessarily sad, but I think at this point, a dual 2.3GHz setup with at least 4GB of RAM would be bangin'. And again, that's fine if it's worthless after Leopard- this is just to introduce me to the realm for the next year. Summer 2009 I should be able to swing a nice pre-owned Mac Pro. Short term solution!

I dunno, still thinking on it this wknd. Probably won't do anything for another couple weeks anyway.
 
Get the hackitosh, if your time is worth nothing.

Mind you, the easiest would just be to buy a Mac mini.
 
About an hour and a half?

Sometimes you just have to put away the coolaid and step outside the reality distortion field.
 
Originally posted by: Zaap
About an hour and a half?

Sometimes you just have to put away the coolaid and step outside the reality distortion field.
Click to expand...

What is that in response to? Listen if a person isn't sure that they want to spend the time to address any possible hiccups that might occur and would rather buy an OEM, are you really going to begrudge them that and claim it is the Reality Distortion Field?
 
I think its pretty obvious I was responding to the post before mine, not the OP. Let the guy make up his mind what to get without posting FUD about the possible solutions, and the old conformist "just get __!" which doesn't even suit his stated needs. The G5 solution will probably suit him just fine. So would a Hackintosh. Let the person get all the facts and decide for themselves, without interjecting "if your time has no value!" FUD into it.

It was just this type of thing that I found really annoying myself when trying to make the same decisions not long ago, and is unhelpful for any newbs that find and read threads like this. A lot of really helpful people who actually knew what they were talking about helped me get the Mac solution I needed, while reality distortion types who didn't tried to sew FUD with "It'll never work, just conform and buy a Mini!" snarkyness, which wasn't helpful.
 
TheStu and Zaap- you're both correct, no worries and thanks for the support. I'm still trying to decide which path to take. Current dual 2.3GHz G5s with at least 4GB of RAM are going for about $900 shipped on eBay, which is the max I'm willing to spend (since the wife will also be stealing my dual 22" LCDs, there's another ~$500 to replace them as well).

Eug- the Mac Mini, which I briefly considered and might barely have enough juice for all I really need, still does not have dual DVI outputs, a requirement for me.

Still leaning G5 by a hair...
 
Originally posted by: JSt0rm01
the worst thing that can happen is that it isn't powerful enough and you have to sell it down the road.
Click to expand...

Bingo- and as long as that's a year from now, or whenever pre-owned Mac Pros become more affordable, that's all that my expectations are set for. Surely a G5 with dual procs and at least a few gigs of memory can run Leopard, CS3, iTunes, and Firefox... if not, how did they even sell in the first place? Y'know?

Something like this is about what I'm gunning for.
 
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