PowerMac G5 vs Mac Pro

I have one PowerMac G5 tower and one Mac Pro tower. I am trying to decide whether to try and use various bits from one machine to boost the other and then ditch the shell of the redundant machine or to sell one machine and upgrade the other. The specifications are as follows:

Dual 2.7Ghz PowerPC G5 4.5MB RAM

MacPro 2.66QX Intel 1MB RAM

The DVD drive on the G5 is broken and the fan has had to be repaired at some point - it is very loud so not in perfect condition.

The MacPro Intel is an old server and is in mint condition.

Does anyone have a strong view as to which one is the better machine? Which one I should keep / upgrade and which one I should sell?

Any advice much appreciated!

Thanks
T

Power Mac G5, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Jul 25, 2010 10:32 AM

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Jul 25, 2010 10:57 AM in response to tentonatom

Mac Pro hands down. No LCS to worry about, quiet, but it came with 1GB RAM and needs 4 x 1GB (or more) which OWC can sell you.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory#667-memory

MP has 4 drives, (2 optical) and can be outfitted with better graphics.
Quiet.

G5 2.7DP PCI-X has the problems you list. It can heat up a room in the winter very easily. On its last leg. Came out 5 yrs ago?
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Jul 25, 2010 12:11 PM in response to The hatter

I meant and am sure you realized, that MP has 4 drives + 2 optical. And bought it Aug '06, so it, too, is 4 yrs old now.

I still use mine, which is 1,1 model and only has dual 2GHz and it is fine, has Nvidia 8800GT. Only 'downside' would be having to update software or something that will only run on PPCs.

One of the expensive but best performance upgrades: SSD boot drive. Makes a real difference in speed and quiet. And you can almost forget about worrying as to hard drives being supported or not, and probably add PCI Express cards if need be.

Can even boot from USB, which I never do, but it is available.

And have to say that I do notice it adds heat to a room after 3-4 hrs, mainly I think due to type of memory (FBDIMM) and those large slow moving quiet fans that keep the backend exhaust warm.

If you have the X1900 Radeon that some people bought, that needs to be pulled and clean. If it has the OEM 7300GT 256MB graphics, keep you eye on it too, low end 2D. I always thought and wished there were more options, well there were, in graphics, but most all have come and gone and seems choice is limited - "you can have anything you want as long as it is __" .
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PowerMac G5 vs Mac Pro

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