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How can I best upgrade my Power Mac G5 Quad?

I've got a Power Mac G5 Quad and I haven't made any hardware upgrades since I bought it 4 years ago. I want to make this computer last as long as possible so I was hoping someone on this forum could help me figure out the best way to upgrade my PC. Also, please provide me with links to where I can get the hardware that you recommend. The biggest issue I'm having is with my internal hard drive - It's only 250GB. So I've had to depend on my 1TB external hard drive a little more than I'd like. I've gone ahead and added all my computer specs for you to look at. Thank you so much in advance!

Model Name: Power Mac G5 Quad
Model Identifier: PowerMac11,2
Processor Name: PowerPC G5 (1.1)
Processor Speed: 2.5 GHz
Number Of CPUs: 4
L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.25 GHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.2.7f1

Graphics - NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500
Chipset Model: Quadro FX 4500
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
Slot: SLOT-1
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x009d
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 2149
Displays:
Cinema HD Display:
Resolution: 2560 x 1600
Depth: 32-Bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Rotation: Supported
Display Connector:
Status: No Display Connected

Memory - 4 GB in use - 4 Empty Slots
Size: 1 GB
Type: DDR2 SDRAM ECC
Speed: PC2-4200E-444

Let me know if you need to know anything else about my PC & Thanks again!

Power Mac G5 Quad, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on May 26, 2010 12:00 PM

Reply
6 replies

May 26, 2010 12:07 PM in response to App House

Welcome to Apple Discussions!

Maxing the RAM, and filling both hard drive bays with 2 TB SATA hard drives will offer you the max capability on your machine. That said you can't upgrade past 10.5.8. You can't use Boot Camp. You can't use Classic with more than 10.4.11 installed. A separate partition, internal hard drive, or Firewire hard drive will allow you to have 10.4.11 on a Classic compatible region of your drives. Watch your G5's liquid cooling to make sure it doesn't leak, especially if you are going to max its abilities internally. Externally Firewire offers many options, and your SPDIF ports supports 5.1 DTS sound. Your PCI & AGP slots may be uniquely compatible with certain upgrade cards. Check http://www.xlr8yourmac.com for past user experience.

- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

May 26, 2010 3:08 PM in response to App House

HI-

Installing new hard drives isn't hard.
http://manuals.info.apple.com/enUS/PMG5_HDDIY.pdf

You can have two installed internally.
Western Digital Black series drives are an excellent choice.
Put a WD1001FALS 1TB drive in for plenty of space:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=n82e16822136284

Then use SuperDuper! to clone your system drive to the new drive, and you will be up and running as before, but with lots more space and little hassle:
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

How can I best upgrade my Power Mac G5 Quad?

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