10-13-2011, 09:51 AM

Hello I have a Dual 2Ghz, 2.5gb, 160gb HDD, GeForce 6600LE 128MB.

I was just wanting to know what all could be upgraded in this machine to make it a boss.

thanks

10-13-2011, 10:00 AM

Originally Posted by r3apingcha0s

I was just wanting to know what all could be upgraded in this machine to make it a boss.

To make it a "boss"...nothing!

To improve it:

- maybe a video card (gonna cost you)
- ram
- hard drive

That's it.

- Nick

p.s. FYI...the 6600LE is one of the better video cards available for the Powermac G5's.

10-13-2011, 10:11 AM

can i have more then one video card in it? and which ones are able to go in the G5 and how much would that be possibly?
also where is a good place to get a hard drive and some memory?
also is it possible to move everything on my current hard drive (OS and files) to my new hard drive without re installing the OS?


thanks

10-13-2011, 10:25 AM

Originally Posted by r3apingcha0s

can i have more then one video card in it?

Do you need to run more than two monitors? If not...the video card already in it will run two.

Originally Posted by r3apingcha0s

...which ones are able to go in the G5 and how much would that be possibly?

The better (256meg) 6600 would be an option. Here's one on e-Bay for $59 (Buy It Now). This is a SUPER price...if you want it...you better buy it ASAP!!!

Originally Posted by r3apingcha0s

also where is a good place to get a hard drive and some memory?

Hard drive:

OWC

Ram:

OWC
Crucial

Originally Posted by r3apingcha0s

also is it possible to move everything on my current hard drive (OS and files) to my new hard drive without re installing the OS?

I think that that you would need to install the OS on the new drive...but you could use "migration Assistant" to move everything else.

Mac OS X 10.3, 10.4: Transferring data with Setup Assistant / Migration Assistant FAQ

- Nick

10-13-2011, 11:13 AM

Originally Posted by pigoo3

The better (256meg) 6600 would be an option. Here's one on e-Bay for $59 (Buy It Now). This is a SUPER price...if you want it...you better buy it ASAP!!!

i couldn't seem to find it. but i think I'm gonna use those sites that u gave me.

10-13-2011, 11:42 AM

I just want to reinforce what pigoo3 said about "To make it a "boss"...nothing!"

You do know that powerPC is not supported by Apple anymore, right?

You do know that the computer is worth about $150-200 now, and even after you upgrade components it will be the same, just $150-200, because it is a PowerPC?

10-13-2011, 11:51 AM

Originally Posted by r3apingcha0s

i couldn't seem to find it. but i think I'm gonna use those sites that u gave me.

Sorry...I forgot to include the link (in the above post) for the 256meg 6600 video card:

Apple Mac Edition NVIDIA GeForce 6600 256MB Dual DVI PCI-e | eBay

- Nick

10-14-2011, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by gsahli

You do know that the computer is worth about $150-200 now, and even after you upgrade components it will be the same, just $150-200, because it is a PowerPC?

Actually, this is not quite right. The machine is worth about $400-$500 on eBay these days! I have been hunting around for a Powermac G5 Quad and they are all going for $600-$800. The 2.0's and 2.3's are going for a little less.

IMHO (and I am refurbing'ing my older PowerMac G5 2.3 Dual for my wife to use, so I think I know a little of what I am saying) the best thing you can do for your PowerMac is a faster hard drive. You would be amazed the difference it makes. I have just installed a Seagate Momentus XT 500 GB drive into my older Powermac G5 2.3, and it has made it significantly snappier.

There are two key things about this particular drive: (1) it has a 32 MB cache on the drive, vs. the 8 MB cache that is likely on the drive in your 2.0 (this is what Apple was shipping at the time) and (2) it is a "hybrid drive" - it has a small section of Solid State Disk on it, which it uses as a sort of "high speed disk area" for your most commonly used software, including your boot software. The drive watches what sectors you load most often, and moves them into the SSD portion of the drive. They claim that the overall result is about 80% of having an actual SSD.

My experience with it so far is that the machine definitely feels faster. Applications launch in about a third to a half of their previous launch time, and boot up is a bit quicker. Seagate says the drive continually adjusts the sectors that are in the SSD section, so in essence, the drive "learns" what you access the most and stores it there. Hence, for your particular usage pattern, it should get faster and faster, to a point.

If you want to go "whole hog", put an actual SSD in. I have put one in my current Mac Pro and the results were nothing short of astonishing. The machine boots up in 15s (running Snow Leopard), applications just snap into place (no more bounces at the dock at all, except for heavy hitters like Photoshop) and the machine feels just lightning fast.

Of course you can't get that kind of result on a Powermac G5, since it is limited by its SATA disk interface - there just isn't that much disk I/O bandwidth, but your machine should still get faster. After much research, I have settled on the following drive:

OCZ Technology 120 GB Vertex 2 Series SATA II 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) OCZSSD2-2VTXE12​0G

You can get this at lots of places, but Amazon has it for about $170. Use this as your boot and applications volume (its only 120 GB) and you should get plenty of oomph out of it. It can run faster than your Powermac's disk interface, so you should get maximum advantage out of it. BTW, it is an OCZ drive that I have in my current Mac Pro, so I am inclined towards this vendor. I like their work!

Good luck!

10-14-2011, 04:16 PM

If a G5 of any description brings about $500.00, more the reason to give it a miss and go direct to a Mac Pro as Mac Pro 1.1 series sell for about $700-800 and will run Lion and the Intel processor is streets faster than a PowerPC model.

10-14-2011, 05:34 PM

Sorry but 2.0ghz "dual-core" Powermac G5's are not worth anywhere near $400-$500 bucks. Current e-Bay auctions:

- Buy It Now...$265:
Apple Powermac G5 Aluminum Tower Dual Core CPU 2.0ghz OS 10.5 DDR2 PCI-Express | eBay

- Buy It Now...$295:
APPLE POWERMAC G5 DUAL CORE 2GHZ/4GB/250GB/GEFORCE 6600/SUPER DRIVE/LEOPARD | eBay

- Buy It Now...$250:
APPLE POWERMAC (X1) G5 DUAL-CORE M9590LL/A | eBay

Sure there are other sellers asking higher prices...they're just over-priced.

- Nick

p.s. Two "FYI's" as well:

1. All these auctions are "Buy It Now" or "Best Offer". So the sellers are more than likely willing to accept a little bit less $$$.

2. Keep in mind that the auctions I have listed above are for 2.0ghz Powermac G5 "Dual-Core" models (not dual processor). Some sellers get this confused...and misrepresent their auctions. Two key details to look for are...the 6600 video card (only came in the dual-core models)...and the "Powermac 11,2" model designation (Dual-Core & Quad-Core models only).

10-14-2011, 06:09 PM

My bad! I stand corrected. I guess I have only seen a few of them in my quest for a PowerMac G5 Quad, and got the wrong impression.

10-14-2011, 06:17 PM

Re the above, I would offer the following though. For about $170.00 (the price of the SSD I mentioned), you can put a lot of gas in the tank of that 2.0 GHz PowerMac G5. My 2.3 is more than up to just about anything I can throw at it, and now it is doing it all quite a bit faster. It seems to me that except for a small subset of users, a PowerMac G5 2.0/2.3 has all the oomph that is needed. It is well within its horsepower to cruise the web, do email, edit photos in the always heavy handed Photoshop, rip CDs, etc. There is very little that the average user needs to do that you can't do very ably with a PowerMac G5. Spending a small sum to freshen it up a bit is probably a much wiser investment than spending quite a bit more to get something else.

Just my two cents ... well, actually, my $170!

One other thing. It is an increasingly unique thing to drive a PowerPC based computer. You shouldn't discard that really quickly. It reminds you that there is a whole universe of computing out there that does not involve Intel. I am not an Intel basher (my Mac Pro is an Intel machine after all), but like the famous vintage Steve Jobs advertising campaign, I like to "think different" and be different. The heck with Intel and Microsoft - I chose Apple and Apple!

10-14-2011, 06:46 PM

Well i have a 6600 so looks like I'm sitting well per say

10-14-2011, 11:27 PM

Originally Posted by mac57

My bad! I stand corrected. I guess I have only seen a few of them in my quest for a PowerMac G5 Quad, and got the wrong impression.

Ooh believe me...I agree...there are sellers out there that are probably trying to get $400-$500 for a 2.0ghz dual-core Powermac G5. These computers are way over-priced...and may never sell for that asking price. But hopefully "savvy" shoppers will do their homework...and not over-pay.

Like "harryb" mentioned above. I have also seen 1st generation "quad-core" Mac Pro's selling (Buy It Now) on e-Bay for $600-$700 bucks...making them a much better deal than any Powermac G5 (if they were selling for close to $500).

Of course if someone had a lot of older PPC-based software (that cost them BIG bucks)...this older PPC software may run better on a Powermac G5...making older Powermac G5's still a good computer for some folks using older software versions (such as expensive Adobe programs).

- Nick