Gee Five!

[LCGuy]

I picked this one up on Monday night, but didn't get around to taking pics of it until just today.

Anyway I picked up a Dual 2 Ghz G5 from another member on MacTalk on Monday. $50 got me a Dual 2 Ghz G5 with 8GB of RAM, Radeon 9600 Pro and SuperDrive. It had no HDD (which I quickly fixed), but is otherwise in very, very good condition. Its got a 160GB drive in it at the moment, I also have a 750 that I'm going to put in the lower bay.





I also had another conquest recently...a free silver 1st gen iPod mini. Sadly I somehow managed to kill the logic board while attempting a CompactFlash upgrade. But I have a new one on the way - it will be back, bigger and better than ever with a 16GB SanDisk Extreme, and a NewerTech battery. I shall name thee.....SuperMini. Or iPod Mini Maxi.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Nice! I always hated the styling of the G-5 case, but I've never seen the innards. That baby is just begging for a clear plexi side panel hack. Are those cooling fans for the CPU centered in the case? Is there a symmetrical backside to form a De Laval nozzle?

If so, that is one elegant cooling design! Doesn't look like it, but even in that case, it's still pretty cool! :approve:

G5s do OS9/X revs? :?:

 

[mcdermd]

The plastic side is needed for proper cooling. When removed, a red LED comes on and the fans ramp up to maximum. You can run it all day long without the aluminum side cover, though.

 

[CC_333]

G5s do OS9/X revs? :?:

No, to my knowledge, all G5s known to exist do not run any version of the classic Mac OS natively (only through Classic mode in OS X 10.2.x through 10.4.11).
There was some kind of firmware thing a few years ago that promised to allow the G5s to run OS 9, but that was a hoax I discovered.

c

 

[mac2geezer]

Very nice conquest, especially at that price.

 

[TheMacGuy]

Nice! G5s look so cool. I should pick one up to make everyone think I bought a Mac Pro. I doubt the will notice that it is a G5. Most of my family knows what the difference is between Windows and Mac and nothing else. I have to explain why their 5+ year old Mac can't run the latest OS.

So, what are you planning to use it for?

 

[commodorejohn]

I always hated the styling of the G-5 case

You know, I don't mind the cheese-grater look - what I hate about the G5's case is the sharp freaking edges on the aluminum. Trying to carry one any significant distance is agony.

 

[LCGuy]

CC_333 is correct - all G5's are OS X only. They'll run 10.2.7, the "For G5" version of 10.2.8, and anything else from 10.3 to 10.5.

As for what I'm going to use it for...at this point, Photoshop. I have an older version of Photoshop that'll do well on here, and I've never had a PowerPC thats really been as well suited for it as this baby.

As for the case - it looks great...until you try to carry it. Even just carrying it to the car, and then from the car to my apartment, was slow going. Those handles, combined with the weight of the G5 are like knives cutting through your skin.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Sorry about the confusion, Classic Mode capability was what I meant by OS9/X revs, so I'm glad to hear it''ll do Classic. Thanks for the info guys. I need another main machine to be on the lookout for after I get the MDD FW400 for Native9 maxification.

@ mcd: very interesting about the LED/FanRampUp feature. Putting an impeller into the low pressure choke point of a De Laval nozzle is the most thing I've seen in a case design. I'm surprised it will run at all without that ducting in place. I was thinking a clear plexi panel with a G5 logo would keep dust from collecting on the clear panel and make a good counterpoint to the razor handle homage to the B&W G3 Design.

The cheese grater-look isn't so bad, but the form over function limited I/O bay access is something I found inexcusable. It's been growing on me over time despite that limitation.

I wonder if my red FW Zip250 would nestle inside that front handle? }

 

[Gorgonops]

Putting an impeller into the low pressure choke point of a De Laval nozzle is the most thing I've seen in a case design.

Just to gently interject, a De Laval nozzle only works as stated if the input air velocity it sufficient to achieve sonic speeds when "pinched" through the choke point, thus resulting in a supersonic exhaust expansion on the far side. An "impeller in the low pressure choke point" doesn't make any sense; a De Laval nozzle doesn't "suck", it "blows". By the very definition your source of pressurized gas has to be upstream of the entire hourglass for your device to be considered a De Laval nozzle.

The G5 cooling system may possibly leverage the Venturi effect to "vacuum" heat away from the CPUs and other hot parts (something shaped like a De Laval nozzle acts like a Venturi tube at speeds lower than the critical intake velocity), but I seriously doubt that the compressibility of air at sonic velocities plays into the design much. I remember G5s being "loud" when the fans were turned up to 11, but even the most powerful vacuum cleaners don't pull more than a couple PSI of vacuum. (It's basically impossible for a single-stage fan to do so under normal atmospheric conditions.) For the G5 case to act like a De Laval nozzle you'd probably have to aim the ouput of a good-size truck supercharger* through the intake side and I have no doubt the 700+ MPH exhaust blowing out the back would have some... negative side effects. (Kinda think the first thing to go would be the blades of that "impeller sitting in the choke point". Followed simultaneously by the plaster on the wall behind your computer desk and the thin membranes inside your auricular canals which we call "eardrums".)

(Edit: Actually, without getting into math that's way over my head I can't make more than the loosest estimate about how much compression you'd need upstream, but thinking about it again and just eyeballing the size of the fans and degree of "pinch" there is in the G5 case I revise my estimate upwards to thinking you'd literally need to aim the blast of a turbojet engine like a J-47 through it to get supersonic exhaust on the far side. That or, of course, a combustion chamber using the rocket fuel/oxidizer mix of your choice. There just isn't that much "pinch" though, so it's really not going to make for a very good supersonic nozzle. In the case of the J-47 suggestion I'm cheating and including the funnel you'd have running from the back of the engine to the case in the intake throat.)

 

[Gorgonops]

Even just carrying it to the car, and then from the car to my apartment, was slow going. Those handles, combined with the weight of the G5 are like knives cutting through your skin.

You know what really sucks about the G5/Mac Pro case? When you manage to tap that heavy mofo against the metal inside your car door frame while trying to wrestle it into the back seat. Chip of paint, GONE.

 

[antony701]

Chip of paint, GONE.

Haven't we all learned to bring a large piece of cloth, or a large cardboard box to bring back Macs?

 

[Gorgonops]

Make that a hunk of foam rubber, a red carpet, and a forklift and you'll be ready to move a G5/Mac Pro.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

You're right about the nozzle, I was thinking Venturi effect, but that didn't seem to fit. I'll ask my middle little brother about it when I talk to him again . . . if I remember.

Lets just say it's a neat way to use smaller fans to good effect with cool lookin' clear plastics. :approve:

@LC: that metal case is painted to look like metal? :lol:

Reminds me of a certain series of notebooks making use of the metal, touting the name Titanium and painted to look like something other than Nikon F3/T PINK. :

 

[LCGuy]

I'm not sure...I don't think it is, it doesn't scratch in the way, say, Titanium does.

(for the record, you'll be pleased to know I have one of those too)

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I guess G meant the car door's paint was missing a chip.

Titanium is scratch resistant . . . iTanium is a pretty paint job that scratches off of a perfectly good, if somewhat pinkish, silver hued metal.

 

[antony701]

One of the G5s I bought 2nd hand was sort of badly scratched on one side.

 

[MultiFinder]

Nice, congrats mate! I'd love to get my hands on a nice G5 tower some day; no clue what I'd do with it at this point, but it'd be nice to have regardless

I'm still impressed at how much my one and only G5 Mac, the iMac, can do

 

[gobabushka]

Don't feel bad LCGuy, I managed to also kill an iPod Mini with a CF upgrade. Would love to get my hands on another one to play with.