Totaled G5 - Idea Thread

[iMac600]

Before you ask, it fell down a flight of stairs. Front bezel is cracked, as you can see. The rear housing also has some non-structural hairline cracks in it. I think the clutch is shot as well, possibly some broken welds as the machine also tilts clockwise and counter-clockwise a few degrees along with the standard up and down. Apart from that, it holds its adjusted height as it should.

To the good points, its logic board, power supply and system memory works. Optical drive as well, probably. Hard drive has customer data on it and therefore needs to be destroyed, but it was some miniature thing anyway (and even 160GB drives can be had for SFA these days, as a matter of fact, I think I have a spare here already).

It's a G5 though. PowerPC 970FX running at 1.9GHz. Not sure of the RAM amount. I don't think the trash is a fitting end for it, so i'm wondering what to do with it. If I could restore it (needs a front bezel and LCD, I could probably spot weld the clutch assembly) for the right price, then I would. Failing that, the best idea i've had so far is to assemble it in a flat-pack configuration and run it as a headless unit.

What do you think?

 

[MacJunky]

Digital picture frame.

 

[iMac600]

It's all the hardware that would comprise a digital picture frame that's destroyed... rules that out almost instantly. Heh.

 

[MacJunky]

I was actually joking. Though not because of the damage, because of the fact that it is a hot power sucking G5 that would be doing the simple task of displaying a picture 24/7.

 

[iMac600]

I had a suspicion you were. Has to be said, that sounds like an awesome waste of electricity, now if only I had a picture worth displaying. I could probably recover some of the power losses by using the G5 to heat water and drive a steam turbine. Crazy, aint I?

 

[Bunsen]

Stick it in a 1U rack case or 6100

 

[bizzle]

Ugh, those G5s where such garbage. Have fun with the caps (yes, they explode on that model G5 too) and GPU. I'd just drop it right in the dumpster.

 

[iMac600]

I'm more than capable of handling capacitor issues should they arise. As it stands, this machine has none. On a sidenote, I never understood the idea that a machine should be trashed, surprisingly the highest volume of such suggestions comes right here on the 68kMLA forums of all places. Entire reason I still post these here is because i'd always assumed new projects would be met with some enthusiasm.

Also, since the machine is completely free, so there's no loss in keeping it. I can actually see a plus in having a G5 around, especially as we head into the winter months...

Currently trying to chase up a donor G5 to swap a few of the parts over. I have a couple of leads on 2 potential systems here in Adelaide, whether they turn out to be the required 17" iSights is yet to be seen (but I wouldn't complain if they were ALS models either since we have a few of those in the store room pending some kind of restoration).

As for the clutch assembly, after a review of the disassembly shots, it doesn't appear to be permanently welded to the frame at all, which will make the job easier.

 

[bizzle]

I am almost always down for a project as well. iMac G5's are the one machine I won't even take for free.

 

[techknight]

I have the exact same isight G5. LCD is shot though. "lines of death that seem to grow"

I had to repair the logic board on it, as it was doing random shutdowns. and it would shut down as soon as you pushed on the logic board. Good reflow did the trick.

 

[coius]

Sell the motherboard. I am sure you could make a quick buck on ebay if you offer Intl shipping. They seem to be overpriced, but if you do a reasonable price on it, you could make a few bucks. As for the RAM, throw it in another machine. It's no good in that G5 anymore. Just make sure you test it though.

 

[John Hokanson Jr.]

Did the G5 iMacs have VGA or DVI video out? Because if they did, there's no reason you couldn't put it in a custom case and use it something like a really piss poor excuse for a PowerMac G5 (piss poor in the sense that expansion opportunities are limited).

I have seen this done with a G3 iMac logic board after the CRT and/or PAV took a dump. It looked kinda silly, but *did* work.

 

[Cory5412]

I'd do something that involves using the LCD if that still works. On the other hand, I along with MacJunky and bizzle would probably just dumpster it or toss it up on the Bay for parts.

The enclosure sounds like it's far enough gone that you wont' want to bother repairing it, and who knows what other problems the machine might develop, or what the performance is even like compared to its direct successor in the core1 imac or a powermac g5 with a more-proper bus.

Although apparently the bus in the G5 was incredibly compromised. The fastest G5s had buses that moved data slower than the slowest Pentium 4s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPC_970#Design

 

[beachycove]

My G5 iSight iMac (20", 2.1GHz) has worked flawlessly since new, has been driven hard by youngsters playing games and with multimedia more or less 365 days a year, and has overall been a fine machine. It does not overheat, and it is virtually silent. It also looks fabulous.

Although I recently replaced it with an Intel iMac for much home use (e.g., to get NetFlix, which requires an Intel processor), we still keep the old gal alongside the new, and it frequently gets used by preference by all of us for many of the more usual things.

I'd hazard that the machine pictured is worth fixing if it has lasted this long. They were not all duds. So stick it on a shelf and wait for some replacement parts to walk through the door. With any luck you can find a whole dead unit and then do the required surgery.

 

[CJ_Miller]

I second Bunsen's suggestion: I would install it in a slim rack chassis or a small desktop case.

 

[iMac600]

I've finally picked up the machine in question. Damage is fairly extensive, but completely isolated to the display and casing. Internals of the machine have been protected fairly well. I have been considering the low-profile case modification, but it ultimately comes down a couple of things:

- It would have to be a fairly nice low-profile case. I don't see much appeal in sticking this into a 6100 case, for example.

- With the board mounted horizontally, the ports would technically be coming out the bottom of the case (or the top, but I don't exactly feel like mounting the board on the lid).

I'll have to have a think about this one.

 

[Theretrogamingroom]

It would be perfect to catch a persons attention at a computer repair shop (E.g. At the front window).

 

[Unknown_K]

Stick it in a corner and wait for a machine with a good case and LCD but with a bad logic board and swap it out. There is no need to have this project finished now, so wait it out.

 

[techknight]

I have noticed the LCD A4 (earlier G5s) and TT (isight 17" model) wont swap out, apparently.

Soo, im thinking about swapping the cable with it.

I had a similar issue with an ibook G3 and ibook G4. I took the G3 screen and put it in the G4, wouldnt work. no video. So i swapped the cables as well, bingo....