Using a PowerMac as a server

gazfocus

gazfocus

gazfocus

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I'm looking to buy a 2nd hand Power Mac (either G4 or G5) to use as a server to use as a central storage for my files and printers (on both a mac and a pc).

Do I need to purchase OSX Server or will I be able to just use the normal version of Mac OSX?

Thanks
 
theheyes said:
How much are PowerMacs going for? All I'm thinking is if you're dropping a few hundred quid you might want to look at the more modern Macs.
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G4's are selling for between £70 and £200 obviously depending on the cost. I've also seen a G5 power mac for £440+Vat but I think that'd be too high a spec for what I want to use it for.
 
The G4s have lots of room inside for hard disks. You won't get that out of a newer Mac except for the Mac Pro which is approximately eleventy billion times too much computer for this job. ;)

I got a dual 1 Ghz G4 PM with 1.5 GiB RAM for a bit less than $175 a few months back. Sold it for the same.
 
£70-£200 region you should be alright. If you were paying a lot more I was going to suggest a Mac Mini + external hard drive. Reason being they would be a lot more economical to be left on 24/7, more than powerful enough for a personal fileserver, and will have a better re-sale value and chance.

For less than £200 though, no chance. :D
 
BillytheImpaler said:
The G4s have lots of room inside for hard disks. You won't get that out of a newer Mac except for the Mac Pro which is approximately eleventy billion times too much computer for this job. ;)

I got a dual 1 Ghz G4 PM with 1.5 GiB RAM for a bit less than $175 a few months back. Sold it for the same.
Click to expand...

Wow, wish they were that cheap in the UK :)
 
theheyes said:
£70-£200 region you should be alright. If you were paying a lot more I was going to suggest a Mac Mini + external hard drive. Reason being they would be a lot more economical to be left on 24/7, more than powerful enough for a personal fileserver, and will have a better re-sale value and chance.

For less than £200 though, no chance. :D
Click to expand...

I had looked at the G4 Mac Mini's (i used to own one when they first came out), but the Power Macs have more expandability and the option to get a SATA card and use SATA Hard drives. Also looked into using a Windows File Server but the Mac is more appealing :)
 
^^

Just letting you know before the mods eat you, your sig is 25 pixels too tall and has 3 lines of text too many.

Rules

You don't want to be Zefenated! ;)
 
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Yeah I got Zefan'd for being like 3 bits over.

gazfocus said:
I had looked at the G4 Mac Mini's (i used to own one when they first came out), but the Power Macs have more expandability and the option to get a SATA card and use SATA Hard drives. Also looked into using a Windows File Server but the Mac is more appealing :)
Click to expand...

Yeah if you want an all in one solution with lots of disk space then the PowerMac is a good choice, especially for that price. The electricity bill will be a bit higher but this is offset by a cheap starting price.
 
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