Mac G5 20 inch ~ help getting it going q's from a non mac guy

I am very interested in but have never touched a mac - on the side I fix pcs and was given a mac G5 20 inch all in one unit that the person said was dead and too expensive to fix, they thought I might want it for parts or something, they said diagnosis was the psu went out (common prob from google searching) so I took it in and just sitting there its been CALLING me to fix it!!!!!!

I found a rebuild service online and for $60 they will send me a replacement for my core send-in so that is in process of being done.

I figured ok wow I will have a mac to mess with and learn a bit about in the process pretty inexpensively so I was psyched!

The psu was already out of the unit when I got it, so I had not been inside it, I opened it to clean it out and noticed the hard drive was gone too (ugh) but I can replace that no prob (any sata drive will work right?), biggest bummer is they didn't have the OS the discs ugh!!!!!!

Now I am sorta wondering what else I am missing, I have the G5 20 inch with a built in screen and such and nice white wireless keyboard and mouse so besides replacing the power supply and putting in a new hard drive then all i will need is the os correct?

Forgive my ignorance but do the keyboard and mouse send the signal direct to the G5 main unit or is there some hub part I am missing?

OS wise, i have zero experience with apple os, what should I buy for it, are there specs limits as to what I can put on it? No idea what a G5 all in one comes with as a base OS even...

Thanks for any help or advice here on getting this all going, what I thought would be a fast fix (replace psu) has kinda turned into more and being a mac novice is a bit frustrating.

But I can't wait to try it all out and hopefully get my feet wet and dabble in using a mac, my 10 yr old will love me for it too if i get it going she's been eying it on my bench for months hehe...

These machines are nice, but if you are streaming audio or watching videos, they will peg the CPU and run hot. Working correctly, they eBay for maybe $200-250.

Google and you'll find the power supply is like $125, so you have to consider if this is "worth it." If the owner stripped out the psu and hdd, I wonder if the unit really operates or if it was already stripped for parts.

G5 was non-Intel, so OS 10.5.8 "Leopard" is the last OS you can install. Apple doesn't sell old versions, so you'll have to eBay someones disc or try to download a bootleg disc image.

I stuffed this
Amazon.com: Western Digital Caviar Green 1 TB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 3.5 Inch, 16 MB Cache, 5400 RPM SATA II WD10EACS: Electronics
into a G5. Maybe any SATA...later iMacs that's not true, but this is pretty standard on a G5.

Good luck!

Thanks for the reply here, the psu rebuild will cost me $59 with my core swap and shipping to him (return shipping covered), I know they took out the HD for their data, I have plenty of 5400 and 7200 rpm 100-500gb sata drives around from other pc teardowns.... Sounds like the biggest thing will be the OS, I wish this had the original discs omg that would be sweet! I will have to see if i can find one on ebay or craigslist or something.

I know specs wise this is nothing fancy first gen 1.8 processor, 1 gb ram, etc but still figured it would be neat as an intro to macs sorta...

I wouldn't bother with it. It is a very old Mac, even older than my 1st gen Intel. Once you get the PSU are you even sure the rest will work? There isn't much support or software that will run on it.

Find an older intel iMac that's working or just needs a disk drive, and of course make sure you get a boot disk.