Buying a PowerMac G5

[macfanuk]

I'm buying a PowerMac G5 off someone on another forum. The specs are pretty good (Dual 2.3GHz, 2GB Ram, 1.75TB Hard Drives, etc).

What limitations will I find software wise? I know Snow Leopard won't run but anything else?

Also, what do you think the performance will be like compared to say a 2GHz Core 2 Duo PC?

 

[Nexus]

The main problem you will find with PowerPC Macs is that a lot of the newer Pro-Apps won't run. For example, I can't run the latest version of Final Cut Pro on my PowerBook as it's now intel only.

Off the top of my head, other programs that no longer support Power PC are the new Adobe Creative Suite 5 products & Aperture 2.0.

 

[artaxerxes]

Looking for a direct comparison... here's an old one.

http://www.macintouch.com/specialreports/perfpack02/

Unless it is a Quad it will be lacking compared to any Dual Core intel. You can trick it out with more, and possibly faster internal drives than a mini or a MacBook... but unless you have a specific purpose that requires the expansion possibilities of the G5 PowerMac it is now just a beautiful looking obsolete Mac.

 

[SeraphX]

most recent software wont be supported, adobe, yada yada, it's still a usable machine depending on what your using it for, plus the 2.3 is aircooled, so ya wont have the water leaking issues that the faster ones suffered with.

OS comparisions, i'd say the performance would be similar, my last computer was the dual 2Ghz G5 loaded with 5Gb ddr ram and it flew, it should handle HD media serving quite happily and pretty much anything you can throw at it, flash will always be a problem so no 1080P youtube or hulu lol

load it up with 4Gb more ram and away ya go

 

[macfanuk]

Thanks for all the replies so far. I am buying the G5 mainly because of the price (I'm getting it for £150) and I currently use a hackintosh (although it's a core 2 duo 2.5GHz) and I just think a 'real Mac' would be better even if it is older/slower which is why I asked about the speed difference between the G5 and Core 2 Duo PC's.

I have looked at the specs here which suggests standard PC2-4200 DDR2 Ram works but I was just wondering if faster PC2-6400 will work as I have plenty of that sitting around.

 

[SeraphX]

not sure about the ram, you can certainly try it, if it's not compatible it wont show up in system profiler

just remember dont take the old ram out first, and also, powermac G5's require matched pairs from the inner two slots outwards it wont take mix and matched sticks

 

[PeterNem]

£150 is a bargain - okay, so it won't run all the latest and greatest software, but as a machine to mess and play with it's great.

I had an old PowerMac G4 that I ran OS X Server on for a year or so and for file/print sharing, DNS duties and acting as a cache for apple software updates etc it worked great.

Would happily use a G5 for something similar.