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iMac G5

MultiFinder

Well-known member
Just wanted to share with you all my most recent new-to-me Mac :)

My girlfriend has an aunt that is extremely obsessive about taking care of her things. Her house is frightening levels of immaculate. Anyway, we were out at dinner a week or so ago when she mentioned something about her MacBook. We got to talking about computers and Macs, and she told me that she had an "old Mac G-something" that she had been moving around from house to house (she apparently moves quite often) for several years and wanted to get rid of it. She said that she would give it to me after she had a chance to delete her data, as she apparently hadn't even plugged it in in years.

A few days later, she drops off an absolutely immaculate iMac G5. It's a 20" 1.8GHz original G5, and is stunningly beautiful. There is not a scratch to be found on this machine. I opened it up to install 2GB of RAM, and found that there is barely a speck of dust inside it. I checked all of the capacitors, and they are all perfect! She brought it in the original box with all of the original accessories and everything. I have it set up on my desk, taking the place of the iMac G4. This thing is quite the computer! And all for the low, low price of free!

Seeing as how it was sitting sadly in various closets for the past several years, I think this counts as a genuine liberation of an aging PowerPC Mac!

Plus, it completes the iFamily that you can see in the second picture :D

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Macdrone

Well-known member
Gratz, great find. Just be aware the power supply caps seem to be pretty weak. If you start having sleep issues and such it's time for some upkeep. It's been three years since I got mine and fixed the power supply and (knock on wood) still good to go.

 

MultiFinder

Well-known member
Yeah, I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye on it for any power-related issues going forward. If they do eventually go though, I'm happy to crack open the PSU and start recapping :)

 

TheMacGuy

Well-known member
Those iMac G5's can be a real PITA. The caps and everything, not something I would to deal with. I'll stick the iLamp. Probably my favorite Mac ever.

 

MultiFinder

Well-known member
I love tinkering with machines, so if this big guy ever needs some work, I'll be happy to do it; for now, the iMac is 100% functional with no signs of trouble. I am amazed at how much faster it is than my old G4. Both iMacs are the first run of their models; the G4 is a 15" 800MHz, while the G5 is a 20" 1.8GHz. The G5 has replaced the G4 on my desk as my third screen and main PowerPC machine; it is significantly faster, holds double the RAM, and has a massive screen compared to the G4. Plus, it's officially supported by Leopard, so it can happily run it without many of the graphical hiccups that the G4 had. I'll keep the G4 around; I agree, the thing is absolutely adorable. But for my needs, the G5 beats it hands down. Besides, it fits in a bit better with the overall look of the stuff on my desk; aside from the thin keyboards, it all looks very 2005tastic.

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