Kind of forgot I had this lying around

"gmctavish needs more space" (gmctavish)
04/22/2018 at 01:58 • Filed to: Late night macposting with gmctavish

My old PowerMac G4, 2002 I think. I used it from 2007ish till 2011, when the power supply became too unreliable, and replaced it with a new Mac Mini, which I’m still using. I’d previously toyed with the idea of building a hackintosh with it, but I’m extremely computer illiterate, so it’s unlikely to happen. What I have learned, is it’s a very difficult case to work with, more difficult than the already trick previous PowerMacs. Excellent. So I don’t think it would really be feasible, but it would be cool to gut it, and fill it with the basic workings of an early Mac Pro, the one that looks like a PowerMac G5. Those things could have dual quad core processors, 24gb of ram, put a newer video card in it. But that’s all probably impossible in this case, and I’d be better off just getting something like this:

https://vancouver.craigslist.ca/rds/sys/d/mac-pro-51-2x-quad-core-8core/6560700044.html

All the guts I want, but already working, and in a case.

Anyways, here’s more pics of mine.

DISCUSSION (13)

Nibby > gmctavish needs more space
04/22/2018 at 08:48

I doubt a Mac Pro’s internals could stuff in there. The Mac Pro’s mobo is bigger and then there is the issue of the water cooling equipment... and the drive bay would get in the way

Ash78, voting early and often > gmctavish needs more space
04/22/2018 at 09:05

I worked at an ad agency in 2002 and these things were everywhere. They paid us peanuts but the printers, computers, plotters, etc were all state of the art.

gmctavish needs more space > Nibby
04/22/2018 at 09:19

Oh wow, they’re water cooled? Yeah I imagine it would not fit, or some serious modification would have to happen that I don’t have the skill for

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > Ash78, voting early and often
04/22/2018 at 10:21

How often did they replace them, though? We found at my workplace it’s actually been cheaper long-term to buy high-end Dell workstations in the $3-5k range that last longer. Also, we lease our high-end printers.

Nibby > gmctavish needs more space
04/22/2018 at 10:30

wait no i lied sorry

the powermac G5s were watercooled. mac pros were air cooled but had ginormous heatsinks so it would still be an unlikely fit

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > gmctavish needs more space
04/22/2018 at 10:32

In Mac circles these are called the “MDD” for “mirror drive door” to distinguish them from the earlier “Quicksilver” design that had a less flashy front plate. These actually all had dual CPU’s, can go up to 2 GB of RAM, and run MacOS 10.5. So they run old PowerPC apps very well and can even get on the modern web without too many issues. I have an iBook G4 that still seems decently peppy running the software from its era - these things could fly in their day. You are right the case would need extensive modification to handle either a standard PC board or any other modern Mac board. Since Kt is working it might be best to sell it to a Mac collector. Probably not worth more than $50-100 though.

gmctavish needs more space > FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com
04/22/2018 at 11:23

I actually had mine running on Leopard or whatever the last pre-Intel OS 10 was. I’ve read a couple things saying people like them because they can run OS 9 perfectly, which I guess some people still want. If I were to let go of it, it would probably be worth even less than that, I don’t know when I last turned it on. The power supply is really pretty done for. Most likely I’ll keep it for no good reason....

FTTOHG Has Moved to https://opposite-lock.com > gmctavish needs more space
04/22/2018 at 17:03

I still have several old Macs that I’ve kept for no good reason.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > gmctavish needs more space
04/23/2018 at 14:52

I have a 15 year old PowerMac G5 tower that I really need to offload...

gmctavish needs more space > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
04/23/2018 at 18:08

Sadly the PowerMac guts aren’t what I’m after. I think I’ve got my sights set on dual Xeons in a Mac Pro

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > gmctavish needs more space
04/24/2018 at 09:07

Yeah, a much better plan. I was just saying I’ve got one of these old towers like you do (that I paid way too much for in 2003).

If I’d bought Apple stock instead of that computer, it’d be worth $385,000 now...

gmctavish needs more space > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
04/24/2018 at 09:39

Damn....yeah my dad doesn’t like to think about how he almost bought Apple stock in the 80s

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > gmctavish needs more space
04/24/2018 at 09:41

I can imagine not - ha!