I can afford a G5 1.6. How will it perform?

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I am in need of a second computer and am going to switch to Mac.
Since I will need to purchase a monitor, keyboard and mouse I can only afford a Power Mac G5 1.6 Ghz, 512mb ram. Since I’m not familiar with the relative performance of Mac hardware with a particular OS installed I need some help.
I would like the machine to have some usefulness for around 2 years. It will be used for word processing, email and internet in that order.
Will the machine in question already be slow or is there going to be some life left in it? When I open a document or PDF file is it going to take 10 seconds?
Thanks.
 

pigoo3

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2017 15" MBP, 16gig ram, 1TB SSD, OS 10.15
It will be used for word processing, email and internet in that order.
Will the machine in question already be slow or is there going to be some life left in it? When I open a document or PDF file is it going to take 10 seconds?
Thanks.

In my humble opinion...a 1.6ghz G5 will do just great for the tasks you listed...and I think that it should be fine for at least another 2 years...if not more for those particular tasks.

Especially for the tasks in the order that you listed. To be honest...you could do word processing & e-mail on a MUCH older & MUCH slower Mac...and still be just fine!!! Internet will be just fine as well on a 1.6ghz G5.

As far as taking 10 seconds to open a PDF file...well that really depends on the size & complexity of any individual PDF file.

I say go for it...and be confident that you made the right decision.:)

Hope this helps,

- Nick
 

dtravis7


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MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
Like Pigoo3 said, it should be just fine for what you want to do on it.

Depending on the version of OSX and even in spite of it, I would later upgrade that RAM to at least 1GB. If I remember correctly the 1.6Ghz G5 tower will take 4GB of RAM in two matched pairs. The RAM in the G5 towers has to be in matched pairs like say for 2GB put in 2x 1GB PC2700 DDR's (2 Sticks) or 4x 512Meg PC2700 DDR (4 sticks). My friend had a Dual 2.0 G5 and it flew with Tiger and 2GB ram at the time.

The whole PDF issue, if the PDF is on the hard drive unless it quite large it should just pop up. That depends on hard drive speed also as well as file size. If the PDF is off the Internet though, it will depend on your Internet Connection Speed. That is the only time I see a PDF take 10 seconds to load.
 
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Thanks for the help thus far.

What would be the least amount of hardware that I could get yet still satisfy my requirements? Right now the less I could spend without having a machine that is to slow would be great.

One of the things I would be very concerned about is getting a machine with an OS that isn’t supported any longer. How long does Apple typically support an OS with updates?

Thanks again.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Well Tiger OS X.4 is still supported, and Leopard will be supported for many years to come with so many PowerPC machines like yours and mine that will not run Snow Leopard.

Depending where you buy to 1.6, a keyboard, mouse and original operating system should all come with the machine as they were all included in the original purchase. Some sellers on auction sites bust them up to grab that extra buck.

IMHO better spending say $50 more for the keyboard, mouse and system install discs. Also you may see a 1.8GHz machine for about the same money. They are a little faster.

When you have it let us know the specs for advice on memory upgrades, operating system etc.
 

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