G5 Mac Pro

I'm a relative (~2 years) newcomer to the Mac world but have fully converted over that time. Having never used a PPC Mac, I have sort of idealized the notion of using a machine that is truly distinct from Windows machines from the hardware up. There are lots of cheap G5 Mac Pros available and I've been kicking around the idea of buying one sort of for the heck of it. I've been known to collect machines but was wondering what I could reasonably expect to do with it. I know it's limited to Leopard and won't get any new software for it, but what about a file server or just the ability to say I own the last generation PPC Macs? Am I just crazy?

We need to fix one thing. There is no such thing as a "G5 Mac Pro". There are "G5's"...and there are "Mac Pros"...but no "G5 Mac Pro's". Powermac G5's and Mac Pro's look VERY similar from the outside...but Powermac G5's are PPC based...and Mac Pro's are Intel-based.

This of course is pretty darn important stuff to know...if someone is thinking of buying.

It does sound like you are talking about buying a Powermac G5 (PPC based)...because these are the units that would be pretty "cheap" are are limited to OS 10.5 (Leopard).

As far as you purchasing one...they are pretty cheap of course...so the initial purchase is not so bad. But (to minimize costs after the purchase)...make sure the unit you get already has 10.5 (Leopard) already installed on it...otherwise you will be out another $75-$100 for a Leopard install disk. Also make sure it comes with a decent amount of ram. The Powermac G5's (depending on the model) either had a ram max. of 4gig or 8gig. If it were me...I would want to purchase a Powermac G5 that already had at least 4gig of ram.

Finally. Purchasing a Powermac G5 could be about curiosity or could be about purpose. If curiosity fine. I have a Powermac G5...and I use it occasionally for some internet surfing (and e-mail if I wanted to). I also have a LOT of older software that I can run on it if I wished to. But someone else who does not have all this older software may be at a loss of what to do with the computer after playing with it for 15-30 minutes on the internet.

So I would say what would your purposes be for this computer? If curiosity...no biggie...they're cheap. But if purpose is more your goal...investigate the software you will need before buying (it may or may not be available).

HTH,

- Nick

It seems to me that buying a G5 in 2013 makes for a very large and noisy version of an obsolete machine. If you've got the room and the wherewithall for it, that's fine ... but it will be devilishly difficult to get software for it, and will be increasingly limited in its usefulness (I personally would not put such a machine online anymore due to security concerns, primarily through Flash and Java). While not useless by any means, the limits on what it can be used for nowadays might put a damper on the "nifty-ness" of having a completely Intel-free computer ...

As chas m suggests do not buy a PowerPC G5. You will be much better served with a Mac Pro model 3.1 or later capable of running the latest operating system.