any uses for an old G4?

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Soldato
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just wondering if anyone can suggest some possible uses for an old G4 powerpc mac?

had a bit of drunken ebay bidding the other night and i'm now the proud owner of 5 (yes 5) G4 macs


one i'm planning on putting a mini itx mobo and some cracking pc gubbins into but i'm at a loss as to what i can use the other 4 to. their all working and sporting at least 1/2 gig of ram.


happy days though i do have a shiny p57 MDD vaiant amongst them which i'm planning on building a hackingtosh into :)


so is there anything that they can do other than basic browsing functions (ie be used like an apple tv or something or am as well trying get rid?
 
I don't think I could justify having 5 on the space they must be taking up alone. I would maybe keep one for the project you have in mind (can't really discuss hackintosh on here) but the rest I would move on. Trying to turn one into a serious media centre box would be a bit of a dead end as well because the power and connectivity isn't there and the form factor is all wrong. A file and/or webserver would be a marginally better use but do you really need one of these? Maybe give one to Grandma to browse the web with?

There's nothing about them that make them worthwhile keeping in my opinion. They are what they are - old, obsolete computers.
 
I have an old PowerMac G4 too which I bought on eBay so I could get into Macs. Actually used it as my main machine for about 7 months.

Anyway I've been thinking of what I can use mine for. I tried to get Leopard onto it earlier this year but I got too tired and couldn't be bothered messing around. I've thought about a media centre.

I also bought an iMac G4 last year too which is currently the house computer but won't be needed for much longer so I'm also going to have that to play with soon. :)
 
File server is about all a old G4 could be good for, basic file serving, it won't cope with HD video at all

Failing that, you could gut the case and get handy with a dremel and some drill bits to make a nice overclocked G4 2011 stylee :)
 
I've also got an old G4 lying around. Been asked for well over a year now to just get rid of it on eBay, but I really want to get creative and get some use from it.
 
I've thought of a file server for a while. May have to set it up and see if I use it. It'd come in handy if I got a MacBook Air. I suppose it would be handy for a couple of other things too. I'll let you know how it goes. :) I may try Leopard on it again even though it's only a 400Mhz model!

:)
 
macfb said:
I've thought of a file server for a while. May have to set it up and see if I use it. It'd come in handy if I got a MacBook Air. I suppose it would be handy for a couple of other things too. I'll let you know how it goes. :) I may try Leopard on it again even though it's only a 400Mhz model!

:)
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i really wouldn't bother tbh, i tried loading leopard on my old Yikes model G4 with dual 450Mhz chips and 2Gb of ram and it wouldn't have any of it :)
 
Seraph said:
i really wouldn't bother tbh, i tried loading leopard on my old Yikes model G4 with dual 450Mhz chips and 2Gb of ram and it wouldn't have any of it :)
Click to expand...

Yeah I tried it a while back but got tired with trying to get it working. Thinking about it again it's not my best idea. :)

I think I'll still get it out and see what I can do with it. I might just use it as a browsing/ downloads/ file server-ish machine.
 
Well I have been runing a G4 450 for the past two years as a media server and it runs fine. I dropped in a sata card with 2 1Tb Hds, installed Twonky and plugged it into my network. It stores all of my music on itunes, streams HD movies to my XBox or my Sony BD Player, streams audio to my airport express, which I control with my iphone, my Onkyo TX-NR807 is DLNA compliant so I can stream music to it. It also stores 500gb of my photos and all my wife's and my my work. It lives in my loft and works flawlessly. I am about to install some speakers in my bathroom and connect them, via a small amp directly to my G4. The vga out I will connect to the flatscreen in the bedroom, and using a wireless keyboard and mouse, I will have music in the bathroom.

So in summary, it is my media server, file server and music player in my bathroom and whole house music server.

Mine is a G4 450 AGP running Lion with 2Gb of ram, a 4 port USB card and 2 port SATA card.

I little bit of work and careful consideration you can still get useful work out of these babies, just dont expect them to transcode HD video.
 
SimonR said:
Well I have been runing a G4 450 for the past two years as a media server and it runs fine. I dropped in a sata card with 2 1Tb Hds, installed Twonky and plugged it into my network. It stores all of my music on itunes, streams HD movies to my XBox or my Sony BD Player, streams audio to my airport express, which I control with my iphone, my Onkyo TX-NR807 is DLNA compliant so I can stream music to it. It also stores 500gb of my photos and all my wife's and my my work. It lives in my loft and works flawlessly. I am about to install some speakers in my bathroom and connect them, via a small amp directly to my G4. The vga out I will connect to the flatscreen in the bedroom, and using a wireless keyboard and mouse, I will have music in the bathroom.

So in summary, it is my media server, file server and music player in my bathroom and whole house music server.

Mine is a G4 450 AGP running Lion with 2Gb of ram, a 4 port USB card and 2 port SATA card.

I little bit of work and careful consideration you can still get useful work out of these babies, just dont expect them to transcode HD video.
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Running Lion? O.o

That's impressive is that can handle all that! I'm seriously considering setting it up this weekend (or even tonight if I get bored). It'd make everything so much easier for people in my house to grab music and movies.
 
If you look at the idle power consumption of the old macs, you'll faint. A G5 I aquired from work sucks more power idle, just shy of my 3 machines at home. So I'm waiting for me to be bothered to hack it all out of the case and put something new in there. Which is unlikely to happen. :)
 
MasterPlan1 said:
If you look at the idle power consumption of the old macs, you'll faint. A G5 I aquired from work sucks more power idle, just shy of my 3 machines at home. So I'm waiting for me to be bothered to hack it all out of the case and put something new in there. Which is unlikely to happen. :)
Click to expand...

That's a shame on the power consumption. I'm currently in the process of updating my desk (just got a new chair) and I've been looking at getting a G5 just for browsing the web and such while at my desk rather than use my MacBook. Would love to get a Mac Pro, even an old one, but just haven't got that about of money to spend.

Want to get rid of your G5? :)
 
Lads or Ladies, keep all sales banter to MM if you have access.

Not allowed to do this unless its inside a MM thread.
...............

And as for the G4/G5's, keep them around the house for intercom systems ;) that'd be cool, or stick them into a wall and have their keyboard fold out allowing you to type and search for something :).
 
DefiantAsh said:
Lads or Ladies, keep all sales banter to MM if you have access.

Not allowed to do this unless its inside a MM thread.
...............

And as for the G4/G5's, keep them around the house for intercom systems ;) that'd be cool, or stick them into a wall and have their keyboard fold out allowing you to type and search for something :).
Click to expand...

Sorry about that.

Also nice ideas!
 
beefing up my mdd :) going to upgrade it to 10.5 and 2 gig ram and see if i can get a couple of decent hdd's to go in it too
 
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