What to do with a few old Power Macs

I have in my possession, a
Power Mac G3
350 MHz processor
384 MB RAM
12 GB Hard Drive

Power Mac G4
400 MHz processor
384 MB RAM
20 GB Hard Drive

Power Mac G4
500 MHz processor
320 MB RAM
25 GB Hard Drive

Power Mac G4
Dual 450 MHz processor
640 MB RAM
80 GB Hard Drive

I am not sure what i want to do with these machines. The last one has the best specs, but the case is broken. I am thinking of swapping its hardware into one of the other G4 cases. And i will take the RAM out of the other machines (each have at least 1x256 MB RAM sticks) and put them in the dual processor machine.

Out of these machines, I want a computer to go in the garage to store the spreadsheets and tech manuals for working on our cars. Along with one machine to act as a print server.

Any other ideas/suggestions/concerns?

You are correct in that the Dual 450 Mhz G4 is probably the best of the lot. It's probably a Gigabit model with Gigabit Ethernet. I once owned the 500 Mhz G4 and used it with early versions of OSX for basic everyday computing.

Either of those should do for just storing Spreadsheets or Shop Manuals.

Edit: Like Nick said below, the 500 Mhz could be quicker with some applications that do not use or benefit from the 2nd G4 CPU. Those two machines though will be your best bet and use PC100 RAM, so you should be able to put in RAM from the other G4's in the machine you choose.

My first idea (you already mentioned) would be to assemble the best Mac you can with all the components (put the most ram & biggest HD into the fastest computer).

FYI...at the most...any single one of those computers is only worth $20-$25 bucks. So if you decide to upgrade them any further, take that into consideration.

- Nick

acfalconhawk said:

Out of these machines, I want a computer to go in the garage to store the spreadsheets and tech manuals for working on our cars. Along with one machine to act as a print server.

Any other ideas/suggestions/concerns?

Click to expand...

Or take them to the local thrift store for bottom feeders like me.;D

Mac SK said:

Or take them to the local thrift store for bottom feeders like me.;D

Click to expand...

You're not a bottom feeder anymore...you have a Powermac G5!

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

You're not a bottom feeder anymore...you have a Powermac G5!

- Nick

Click to expand...

This is true.