hsotnicam-_-

Q: Best PowerMac G5 spec for me..? (CPU, GPU, PSU, RAM, HDD, etc)

Hi

 

I want to buy a PowerMac G5 but am stuck on which model to try and buy off eBay. I want to buy a PowerMac in the short term whilst i save for a Mac Pro - so that all i need to do is swap the tower (..ish)

 

I am a 16 yr old student and use the following porgrams;

 

Adobe Photoshop CS3/4

Adobe Illustrator "

Adobe After Effects "

Aobe InDesign

Final Cut Pro

Microsoft Office / iWork

 

Minecraft

 

I dont want to buy the Quad-core becuase as i said i am trying not to spend too much and they are going for quite a lot. I want to upgrade and I dont mind buying faulty

 

So what I'd like to know is suggestions for;

 

-CPU

-Graphics card - nVidia Quadro FX 4500 ..?? (must be able to run dual cinema diplays)

-PSU

And the best upgrades for suggested model eg. max ram etc.

 

I am not new to macs but have recently been using a PC due to financial restraints and want to revert back

 

Many Thanks ahead,

 

I live in the UK and would rather not import things from the US as i have been stung by UK customs before

Posted on Sep 10, 2011 4:26 AM

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Q: Best PowerMac G5 spec for me..? (CPU, GPU, PSU, RAM, HDD, etc)

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  • by Texas Mac Man,Helpful

    Texas Mac Man Texas Mac Man Sep 10, 2011 8:59 AM in response to hsotnicam-_-
    Level 8 (46,611 points)
    Sep 10, 2011 8:59 AM in response to hsotnicam-_-

    Here's the specs for all G5s. You can compare the specs of the G5s as built. Many prior owners may have added RAM, added hard drives or changed the video card.

    http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g5/index-powermac-g5.html

     

     Cheers, Tom

  • by hsotnicam-_-,

    hsotnicam-_- hsotnicam-_- Sep 11, 2011 1:45 AM in response to Texas Mac Man
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 11, 2011 1:45 AM in response to Texas Mac Man

    Thanks for the info-

     

    Would the Dual 2.3Ghz with max ram and a decent GPU be good enough to run some of the programs mentioned at fast speeds.

     

    Also do you have any thoughts on the nVidia Quadro FX4500 against other GPU's

  • by japamac,Helpful

    japamac japamac Sep 11, 2011 5:22 AM in response to hsotnicam-_-
    Level 7 (24,390 points)
    Sep 11, 2011 5:22 AM in response to hsotnicam-_-
    Would the Dual 2.3Ghz with max ram and a decent GPU be good enough to run some of the programs mentioned at fast speeds.

    A Late 2005 Dual Core 2.3 would be a very nice machine and run all mentioned software very well.

    Also do you have any thoughts on the nVidia Quadro FX4500 against other GPU's

    For what you intend, you will get better performance from a flashed Geforce 7800 GTX (512 MB VRAM version only) than you will from a FX 4500 and you will get that performance for a fraction of the cost of a 4500.

    http://www.barefeats.com/mutant4.html

    Graphics card - nVidia Quadro FX 4500 ..?? (must be able to run dual cinema diplays)

     

    Dual displays is no problem with the 7800 GTX or the FX 4500.

    Actually, any PCIe graphics card for the dual core G5 will run two Cinema displays (DVI).

     

    All PCIe graphics options:

    71BBF3EF-9713-4C53-8B80-26771F8A4087.html

     

    For all G5's except for the Late 2005 models, all AGP options:

    4B4B7BA2-7ABB-47F1-87AC-B03D37942BEE.html

  • by hsotnicam-_-,

    hsotnicam-_- hsotnicam-_- Sep 11, 2011 7:41 AM in response to japamac
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 11, 2011 7:41 AM in response to japamac

    Thanks for the response - i saw on another thread that the FX4500 cant support a 30" or new 27" CD at full resolution anyway...

     

    1. Ive looked on ebay and there are none for sale ( in the UK (that i can find) that are for Mac or flashed. I have found this one (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mac-nVidia-GeForce-7800-GTX-512MB-G5-PCI-E-Video-Card- /260597101834?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item3caccc350a#ht_3549wt_905) from Hong Kong but £190 + import VAT etc it seems a lot as PC ones seem to be around £50 or £60. Is there another site that sells them?

     

    2. Is it hard to flash these cards as i have two PC's at home so could give it a go...??

     

    3. Sorry to be a graphics card noob but a PowerMac G5 on eBay that i may bid on says its a 2005 model but has PCI-X slots - I thought that they came with PCIe cards??

     

    Many thanks

  • by Ramón G Castañeda,

    Ramón G Castañeda Ramón G Castañeda Sep 11, 2011 12:46 PM in response to hsotnicam-_-
    Level 4 (1,468 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 11, 2011 12:46 PM in response to hsotnicam-_-

    PCI-X is very different from PCI-e.  Different, non-compatible standards/formats.

     

    Also, I'm extraordinarily happy with my G5-Quad I bought last month.  Check eBay prices, the're going for as low as $315 + shipping these days.

     

    My main use is Photoshop CS4, but I also use Illustrator and InDesign.  For Photoshop, max your machine out with RAM and get a second internal hard drive for use as a dedicated, physically separate Photoshop scratch disk drive of at least 160 GB.

     

    2.5 GHz Power Mac (PPC) G5-Quad; 16GB RAM; mutant, flashed 550MHz nVidia GeForce 7800GTX, 1,700MHz 512MB VRAM; Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11 and Leopard 10.5.8 boot drives; Spotblight and Dashboard permanently disabled; dual 22" CRT monitors; USB wireless 'n' available but connected to the Internet via wired Ethernet; FW flatbed scanner; 2 SCSI scanners (one tabloid-size transparency scanner and a film scanner); various internal & external HDs; FW Epson 2200 and Ethernet Samsung ML-2850ND printers.

  • by Mothra,

    Mothra Mothra Sep 11, 2011 1:33 PM in response to hsotnicam-_-
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Sep 11, 2011 1:33 PM in response to hsotnicam-_-

    Like Ramon said, sit and watch ebay for a week or two.. I waited and was patient (for once in my lifetime when making a purchase) and managed to get one of the late 2005 dual core 2Ghz machines for around $180 including shipping (and that thing was HEAVY).

    Just make sure to sift through ALL of the bids for em. Youll more than likely find a few reasonable deals on the later more powerful models hidden in there. Over here in the US theres tons of them on ebay now since alot of universities and schools are getting rid of theirs and upgrading to Mac Pros..

     

    I wish I still had my old job up at UCSB.. When the departments there got rid of stuff, the computer guys had an internal mailing list that they would usually offer the old machines to us first, before they went to the storage warehouse where the rest of campus and the public could go buy them, I probably couldve gotten a couple of them for free by now. Got 2 G4's and way too many 21" CRT's for free that way.. Man now that I think about how much Apple has advanced in the last 5-6 years, I bet some of the departments are letting go of their older Intel macs now.. I gotta hit up my old boss about that one..

     

     

    The PCI-X models were the next to last run of G5's.. The last ones in late 2005 (the dual and quad core NOT the regular old 2 and 4 processor machines) have PCIe slots. There shouldnt be much of a difference in price at all so Id stick it out until you get one of the multi-core ones. Youve got faster bus speeds, faster PCIe architecture, you can hold more RAM, etc.. I dont know how different the multi processor models are compared to the multi-core ones but mine is also just about silent. I cant even hear it unless I put in a dvd or something and the drive spins up..

  • by hsotnicam-_-,

    hsotnicam-_- hsotnicam-_- Sep 12, 2011 8:30 AM in response to Mothra
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 12, 2011 8:30 AM in response to Mothra

    Is your Dual 2GHz model fast enough to run some of the programmes mentioned at the top??

     

    -My school has 20 eMacs @ 1.25Ghz w/ 1GB ram and they can run all of CS3 so i figured a g5 would do me fine. - I used to have a Black MacBook (for a short time) but couldnt afford to replace it so had to move to PC - cant wait to be back to mac!

     

    Some of the features on Windows 7 which are marketed as revolutionary always remind me of how good leopard was for its time. (I dont rate S Leopard or Lion)

     

    -Ive been watching eBay but i dont want to spend too much (around £150 or $235) as i'd like to buy a new graphics card, upgrade ram, buy a new keyboard and mouse and get two 20" or 23" LCD cinema displays...

     

    Thanks for your answer

  • by hsotnicam-_-,

    hsotnicam-_- hsotnicam-_- Sep 12, 2011 8:33 AM in response to Ramón G Castañeda
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 12, 2011 8:33 AM in response to Ramón G Castañeda

    Hi - i noticed on your bio youve got the 7800 GTX which Japamac recommended to me. What do think of it for CS4 and where did you buy oit or did you flash it yourself? also do you have 8 or 16GB of ram?

     

    - i was planning on having an SSD as boot drive and a 1 or 2tb utility disk

     

    Thanks

  • by Mothra,

    Mothra Mothra Sep 12, 2011 12:59 PM in response to hsotnicam-_-
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Sep 12, 2011 12:59 PM in response to hsotnicam-_-

    I dont do any video stuff but Photoshop CS3 runs like butter here. I have the Web bundle so I only really use Photoshop and Dreamweaver for my band website and whatnot.. But yes it runs verrrrry nice.

    Photoshop takes seconds to load up now where I could open it and run and get something to drink and wait for it on my old machine. Im only at 6GB of RAM at the moment as well.

    I went from a G4 Quicksiler 2002 that was originally 800Mhz but I had upgraded it to a dual 1.6Ghz.

    The performance difference between the G4 dual 1.6 and the dual core 2Ghz G5 is phenomenal.

    This thing will eat those 1.25Ghz G4 eMacs alive and come back for more.

     

    I can run many of my bigger 20+ track songs on my G5 with no problem in Logic Pro, where on the G4 I was constantly struggling to make it through a playback without it overloading. Most of the time I would have to bounce (or 'render' as you might know it) my software synthesizers, or any audio tracks that were loaded up with plugins just to get a song to play nice. Havent run into a showstopper with the G5 yet.

     

    Not to mention Leopard actually runs like it was meant to on the G5. My G4 was so sluggish and slow to respond it drove me nuts. For awhile I went back to Tiger and downgraded my whole recording setup, until I ran into some updates I needed that required Leopard. Thats when I just gave up and bought the G5.

     

    Still waiting on a new hard drive so I can load up some of my old games and finally finish Doom 3 at full speed!!

    No more crappy ATI Rage or hacked GeForce FX5500 graphics for me!!

  • by hsotnicam-_-,

    hsotnicam-_- hsotnicam-_- Sep 17, 2011 9:33 AM in response to Mothra
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 17, 2011 9:33 AM in response to Mothra

    If i wanted to upgrade the Ram to max -i know it has o be installed in pairs but can i use 2x8gb for 16gb max? or do i need to use 8x1gb?

  • by Mothra,

    Mothra Mothra Sep 17, 2011 12:47 PM in response to hsotnicam-_-
    Level 1 (45 points)
    Sep 17, 2011 12:47 PM in response to hsotnicam-_-

    For the late 2005 dual and quad core models, you need to use 8x2GB.

     

    The previous PCI-X models have 8 slots as well but only hold a max of 8GB (8x1GB) and the PCI ones can take a max of 4GB and only have 4 slots.

     

    I dont think you can use a stick bigger then 2GB in the dual/quad cores so the only way to do it is by filling it up with 8x2GB..

  • by Ramón G Castañeda,

    Ramón G Castañeda Ramón G Castañeda Sep 18, 2011 12:51 AM in response to Mothra
    Level 4 (1,468 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 18, 2011 12:51 AM in response to Mothra

    Mothra wrote:

     

    …I dont think you can use a stick bigger then 2GB in the dual/quad cores so the only way to do it is by filling it up with 8x2GB..

     

    It was recently suggested (perhaps earlier in this very thread?) [EDIT: Sorry, it was in a different thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3232389?start=0&tstart=0] that the G5 Quad can take the 4-GB RAM modules for a total of 32GB GB max.  I know for a fact you cannot use 8-GB sticks.

     

    I'm running my Power Mac G5-Quad with 16 GB of RAM, consisting of eight 2-GB modules.

     

     

    2.5 GHz Power Mac (PPC) G5-Quad; 16GB RAM; mutant, flashed 550MHz nVidia GeForce 7800GTX, 1,700MHz 512MB VRAM; ATTO ExpressPCI UL5D LP SCSI card; Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11 and Leopard 10.5.8 boot drives; Spotblight, Dashboard and Time Machine permanently disabled; dual 22" CRT monitors; USB wireless 'n' available but connected to the Internet via wired Ethernet; FW flatbed scanner; 2 SCSI scanners (one tabloid-size transparency scanner and a film scanner); various internal & external HDs; FW Epson 2200 and Ethernet Samsung ML-2850ND printers; 2 X Back-UPS RS 1500 XS units.

     

    Message was edited by: Ramón G Castañeda

  • by hsotnicam-_-,

    hsotnicam-_- hsotnicam-_- Sep 18, 2011 12:48 AM in response to Ramón G Castañeda
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 18, 2011 12:48 AM in response to Ramón G Castañeda

    Is there any point in having 32GB RAM?? Is your machine fast enough with 16gb

     

    Also where did you buy your flashed 7800GTX or did you flash it youself?

     

    Thanks again

  • by Ramón G Castañeda,

    Ramón G Castañeda Ramón G Castañeda Sep 18, 2011 1:09 AM in response to hsotnicam-_-
    Level 4 (1,468 points)
    Desktops
    Sep 18, 2011 1:09 AM in response to hsotnicam-_-

    Because I do a lot of Photoshop work with some files often exceeding 2 GB in size, I need as much RAM as I can possibly get.  Had I known that the machine takes the 4-GB modules, I would have brought it to 32 GB of RAM, but at the time I thought 16 GB was the max.  Perhaps next year I'll be able to swing it.

     

    While Photoshop 11.x—the last version to run on a non-Intel box—can only use a bit over 3 GB of RAM directly, the Photoshop engineers found a way in CS4 to take advantage of the OS to bring certain data from Photoshop to RAM that would have otherwise been written to Photoshop's scratch disk.  CS5 is 64 bit, thus can use loads of RAM directly, but it only runs on Mac-Intel boxes.

     

    I can tell you that the extra RAM (with 16 GB) already makes a spectacular difference on my machine.  I doubt if I'd see a difference with 32 GB, but I just don't know.

     

    I bought the graphics card from a well established eekBay vendor by the name of applemacanix: http://www.ebay.com/itm/270692584512 .  At the time, he assured me it was the last one, but he had sold them for years.  He had other interesting, alternative offerings last time I looked.

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