01-24-2009, 11:03 AM

Hey everyone,

I own a small business with 3 employees. I'm really interested in Leopard Server as I've been pulling my hair out with Windows Server. I have been looking around and come across a few PowerMac G5 dual core 2Ghz towers for $500cad on Craigslist which seems totally reasonable. I'm thinking of putting Leopard Server on this and using it as my server. I just have 2 questions though.

1) I sort of feel like this is a powerful machine to just use as a server, but I know it's not really a good idea for users to actually use this system as a desktop once in awhile. I'm just wondering, since I've never used leopard server, is it possible to allow users to log into their accounts on the server but see a normal os x desktop with no server functionality? No one would use this as their actual desktop, I'm just thinking more once in awhile, like say for example someone wanted to do some work in iWork.

2) Is it worth spending the money on a G5 processor still? Normally I never would but $500-600 is pretty inexpensive, and it's dual core so I assume it's still very fast especially for a server. A new intel PowerMac is way overkill for a server for me but is this a waste or will it still be fast?

Thanks so much!

01-24-2009, 11:28 AM

The G5 will make an excellent server , fast enough and expandable

I would not really use a server as a desktop, but the OS will basically the same. If another user logs in (using fast User switching) you will have to test that the server account is OK running in the background