Miss Valeska Posted April 21, 2013 Posted April 21, 2013 I was talking to my friend, Who has a Power Mac G5, He really needs a better computer. So, We were talking about getting him a new one, Building a decent one for like, 500, 600 dollars. I found some parts and everything, And it all looks nice. Though, He isn't really able to drop 500 dollars on his computer right now. So, I was thinking, Maybe, We could take out his mother board, And put in another one. Then, We could put in newer and better RAM, And a better CPU, And Graphics card. Now, I am wondering, Is there any special shape of the Power Mac G5 mother board? Is the case compatible with something like a Gigabyte GA-970A-D3, Like I have? If it is, Then we could just slowly upgrade his parts. We could get him a better mother board, Then better RAM, A Better CPU, graphics card, Hard drive, Etc. And eventually, Just buy a whole new case and put what ever parts we wanna keep in there, Maybe buy better ones. If this is at all possible, I want to try it, This would be amazing. I am dying to play games like Minecraft with him, Even minecraft won't run because he is stuck with an old version of java. And Linux keeps failing when we try to install it, The screen is just blank, And it's too hard to explain what to do over the phone, Especially when I don't even know how to install from the Command Line. And the computer keeps crashing in mac OSX when ever we try to partition the drive. So, This would be greatly appreciated help, Thank you for reading.
MrCapitalism Posted April 21, 2013 Posted April 21, 2013 I found this, the pictures give pretty much the whole story.: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/26865-powermac-g5-case-atx-retrofit-kit/ Also, I'm sure nothing inside that case will be compatable with your chosen motherboard. That means either he's going to have to deal with having no desktop computer until he finishes buying the parts, or he's going to need to buy everything at the same time. Hope this helps.
Guest darkskyabove Posted April 21, 2013 Posted April 21, 2013 Trying to convert the PowerMac case is going to cause more difficulty than it's probably worth. I checked the link provided by MrCapitalism, and it can be done, but, unless he has some aesthetic attachment to the case (it does look cool), I would suggest building from the ground up. Another issue is that changing the motherboard requires a new CPU; the PowerPC chip in the G5 in not compatible with Intel or AMD boards. Then there's the memory problem. DDR2 RAM is not forward-compatible to use on a DDR3 motherboard. If the Hard Drive is not SATA you have to get a motherboard that still supports IDE or get a new drive (G5's HD might be SCSI, which introduces another possible complication). The video card and optical drive will probably work on a new board. Sorry for all the doom and gloom, I just think it's better to know. The first thing to try and figure is how much computer is he likely to need; your Gigabyte motherboard is pretty sweet but is much more than an upgrade from the G5. And it's $80.00 @newegg.com. Now, some potentially good news. I actually had a wish list set up @newegg for a super-cheap sytem: LOGISYS Computer CS368RB Red &Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 480W Power Supply, Item #: N82E16811148062, $34.99 ECS A960M-M3 AM3+ AMD 760G Micro ATXAMD Motherboard, Item #: N82E16813135318, $41.99 AMD Sempron 145 Sargas 2.8GHz SocketAM3 45W Single-Core Desktop Processor (64-bit), Item #: N82E16819103888, $38.99 G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3SDRAM DDR3 1333, Item #: N82E16820231253, $34.99 Western Digital WD Blue WD5000AAKX500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5, Item #: N82E16822136769, $59.99 MSI N210-MD1G/D3 GeForce 210 1GB 64-bitDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16, Item #: N82E16814127515, $34.99 Total: $245.94 (not including tax and shipping, though some of the items ship free) If the video card and HD are not needed the price drops by $95.00. This system should be adequate for most users, and would play all but the most advanced games with ease. By comparison, I'm running a 2.0GHz Sempron with 2GB of DDR 400 RAM, 100GB IDE HD, with the exact same video card. Prehistoric, to say the least. The saving grace is that I have my video card connected to a 24" LCD TV ($140.00) through an HDMI cable and get 1920x1080 resolution plus Hi-Def sound. And I run full 64-bit Linux with the KDE desktop, which is supposed to be a memory hog (though I have stripped my system of a ton of non-essential crap). Hope this helps.
Miss Valeska Posted April 21, 2013 Author Posted April 21, 2013 *nods* Okay, Thank you! Hmm, I have 500 or so dollar build on newegg for him, But like I said, That'd be too much to spend all at once. 200 or so dollars would be much more doable, He could buy it in parts over a couple months. My only issue is, I want him to be able to upgrade it slowly over time as well. I want as little limitations as possible, Which is why I am concerned about the mother board. Can you tell me a bit about it's upgrading capabilities? Because now, Thinking about all of that, Buying something really cheap in parts over time, And slowly upgrading it sounds like the way to go.
Guest darkskyabove Posted April 21, 2013 Posted April 21, 2013 The problem is that you cannot simply exchange parts piecemeal into the G5. Realistically, you can't do much with the G5 at all. Even my cheapo list requires all the components to make a usable system. It is possible that nothing from the G5 will be transferable; maybe the hard drive and video card, but at the price it may be worth waiting to buy the newer ones. Kind of a dilemma. I don't see a way to upgrade the G5, without useless expense on old hardware. And buying the new components over time means waiting until all are purchased before building the system. As to my cheapo list: The motherboard is upgrade-able to a better AMD CPU (not the latest AM3+ types), but not very upwards on memory (I think it only has 2 DIMM slots so max RAM is 16GB, though that's more than enough for just about any typical user). The HD is SATA III, 6.0Gbps, whereas the motherboard is only SATA II, 3.0Gbps, so it could be used on a future motherboard upgrade (he might never know the difference as the speed increase rarely comes into play unless manipulating giant files). The nVidia 210 video card is adequate, but far from state of the art. At $35.00 though, it's a great deal; nVidia's top-of-the-line card is $1000.00! Based on what you've given me, my recommendation (disappointing as it may be) is to build a new system, even though it means waiting. For $250.00 he'd be getting a system at least twice as powerful as the G5, probably more, compared to the G5's initial retail price of $1999.00.
PatrickC Posted April 22, 2013 Posted April 22, 2013 The problem is that you cannot simply exchange parts piecemeal into the G5. Realistically, you can't do much with the G5 at all. Even my cheapo list requires all the components to make a usable system. It is possible that nothing from the G5 will be transferable; maybe the hard drive and video card, but at the price it may be worth waiting to buy the newer ones. Kind of a dilemma. I don't see a way to upgrade the G5, without useless expense on old hardware. And buying the new components over time means waiting until all are purchased before building the system. As to my cheapo list: The motherboard is upgrade-able to a better AMD CPU (not the latest AM3+ types), but not very upwards on memory (I think it only has 2 DIMM slots so max RAM is 16GB, though that's more than enough for just about any typical user). The HD is SATA III, 6.0Gbps, whereas the motherboard is only SATA II, 3.0Gbps, so it could be used on a future motherboard upgrade (he might never know the difference as the speed increase rarely comes into play unless manipulating giant files). The nVidia 210 video card is adequate, but far from state of the art. At $35.00 though, it's a great deal; nVidia's top-of-the-line card is $1000.00! Based on what you've given me, my recommendation (disappointing as it may be) is to build a new system, even though it means waiting. For $250.00 he'd be getting a system at least twice as powerful as the G5, probably more, compared to the G5's initial retail price of $1999.00. Great advice and I have to concur. You are dealing with old architecture that not even Apple supports anymore. Hence the problems he's having with his Java update. They simply aren't updating Java for power PC chips anymore. This is probably why he can't upgrade to Linux either, since Linux requires the intel architecture too. There are some messy virtual methods, but they were always notoriously slow to use of course. I'm sorry to be another bearer of bad news, but I think it's time to buy a cheap desktop from ebay perhaps, if money is tight at the moment.
nathanm Posted April 22, 2013 Posted April 22, 2013 I've had good luck with used Macs from mainstream vendors. It gives you a little more piece of mind than buying from someone on eBay. Try powermax.com macofalltrades.com Under $500 for an Intel mac is going to be tricky, though. Our department had three 6+ year old G5s fail up on us and the motherboard replacement would've cost more than a new model. It's time to move on. It sucks, because the case on those things is a work of art. The first time I saw one I'm like, "This thing must never be put in a landfill!"
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