Calling pre-intel Mac users

Locke

Locke

Locke

Soldato
Joined
8 Oct 2006
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Location
Clifton, Bristol
Hey Apple lovers, I'm just mirroring a post for my flat mate Georgie, could you help her out please? ;)

Hi guys,
I'm using a Macbook Pro 13 inch as my computer and I don't like it having so much stuff on it. So do you have any splendid opinions on buying a G5 Power Mac around the 2GHz Dual core mark to run my CS4 suite and similar, to free up space on the laptop???

What are the ins and outs of the G5 Power Mac in and with it being 5 years old, will that make much difference? As in, does it still have power to run CS4 well?? Would it run those programs as well as the MBP? Will it warm my room better than the Mac ;)?
Would it be worth while?

Thanks guys :))
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The PowerPCs are obsolete and the performance pales against the Intel chips. Unless you get something dirt cheap it's a high price to pay to just free up space on the laptop.

I'd just buy a bigger hard drive.
 
Don't pay actual money for a pre-intel Mac, unless it's less than £100. It's a dead platform, nothing more will ever happen to it.

If it's very cheap, go for it, otherwise avoid. It's finished. Let it go!
 
Wow, didn't expect a reply so fast, thanks!


So I guess, I'll tell her not to buy one then, I think she was mentioning that she saw a few on the bay for around £200... she seemed pretty excited by them. Oh well.
 
At £200 it's borderline worth a punt. Just barely. With modern apps though it won't be any quicker than her MBP, the comment earlier about buying a bigger drive is bang on. Move some non-essential stuff to an external drive and you'll see a bigger benefit.
 
Locke said:
Wow, didn't expect a reply so fast, thanks!


So I guess, I'll tell her not to buy one then, I think she was mentioning that she saw a few on the bay for around £200... she seemed pretty excited by them. Oh well.
Click to expand...

£200 seems cheap compared to the thousands that it cost new, but it's still a 5/6 year old machine with the associated risks of failing components which could write the machine off. Upgrades and spares are unlikely to be cost effective.

Couple that with it being limited to OS X 10.5, the latest software being Intel only and the dual G5s sucking huge amounts of power and it doesn't look good. I'd wager that a 2GHz Mac mini with similar RAM and a decent HDD would spank the G5 on performance whilst using a lot less power.

OS X responds better to large amounts of software being installed than Windows too. I'd chuck a bigger HDD in the existing MacBook or buy a Mac mini.

The Power Mac G5 - Fantastic piece of sculpture, but not the best long term computer purchase...
 
No-one's answered the most important question yet, so I shall:

Yes, it will warm her room better then the MBP :D
 
Purely to run Photoshop, with a good amount of RAM in it, it will do fine.

It certainly won't run crap, as one user has tried to make out.
Infact, I've got a 6 year old PowerBook G4 with only 1GB of RAM and that can comfortably still do work in Photoshop just fine.

Trouble is as others have pointed out, it's not really worth buying one, especially as a G5 PowerMac will still fetch a pretty penny no doubt. You could put that money towards a second hand Intel based Mac Pro or something.
 
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