
Power Mac G5 – Technical Specifications (2003) - bwasti
https://support.apple.com/kb/sp96?locale=en_US
======
jrnichols
I love how many of those machines are still around and still in use today. Low
End Mac, for example, has a thriving user base, and there are still other
groups about maintaining vintage Macs. Unfortunately, the price on a lot of
the older machines has gone way up, as people try to capitalize on the vintage
trend. I have a G4/800 iMac (the lamp one) that I still use, with Mac OS 9.2
on it.

~~~
52-6F-62
My girlfriend got so mad at me when I mentioned the idea of picking one up.
She understands why I like what I do, but she couldn't understand my interest
in maintaining and toying with an older machine.

To be fair— we do live in an apartment that's a little small for us right
now...

~~~
MisterTea
Think about all the extra room room you'd have for old computers if you didn't
have said girlfriend.

That's why I'm single and have a lot of old computers. Not sure if they're
related though.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
I'm happily married and have a lot of old computers, games console and even an
arcade machine. If you're spending the rest of your life with someone it helps
to find someone with common interests. :)

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walrus01
It's not cheap, but for those who like the aesthetics of the Powermac G5
tower, there is a conversion kit to put a normal ATX motherboard in it, and a
standard PC power supply:

[https://www.thelaserhive.com/product/g5-atx-kit-psu-
holder/](https://www.thelaserhive.com/product/g5-atx-kit-psu-holder/)

Makes it pretty easy to choose a new motherboard such as for a Ryzen 2700,
with fast M.2 NVME SSD, etc.

~~~
jdhn
I'd love to get this kit and convert the G5 tower into a Hackintosh.

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em3rgent0rdr
Debian can be installed on G5 (although the latest stable Debian 9 "Stretch"
isn't supported, what you can do is install Debian 8 "Jessie" or the unstable
branch "Sid") [1].

Also note the PPC 750 and PPC 7400, used in the Mac G3 and G4 computers, are
NOT affected by meltdown & spectre, so if you want a secure desktop, try
Debian on G4 [2].

[1]
[https://wiki.powerprogress.org/Debian_PPC_Starters_Manual](https://wiki.powerprogress.org/Debian_PPC_Starters_Manual)
[2] [https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/computers-unaffected-
meltdown-...](https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/computers-unaffected-meltdown-
spectre/)

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dasmoth
I don’t have any PowerPC machines going any more. But for those who do, it
seems that a modern web browser might still be an option:
[http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/](http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/)

~~~
frandroid
We were still running tenfourfox a few years ago, but modern (i.e. complex)
web pages became just too hungry for this CPU. Facebook was getting fairly
painful to use on there.

~~~
sp332
Try loading the mobile versions of web pages. Facebook for example has a
super-low-end non-JS version of the site at
[https://m.facebook.com/](https://m.facebook.com/)

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jeromegn
I just happened to buy a Dual 1.8Ghz model for $10 CAD at a garage sale
yesterday. Beautiful machine. Also had a keyboard, but unfortunately isn't a
mechanical one (rubber domes over membrane.)

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velmu
This was an awesome machine with a great architecture, but unfortunately it
didn't have legs [1] for the long run. The G5 processor architecture was in
the end too power hungry, especially for the laptop space - with the fabled
"PowerBook G5" never arriving.

[1] [https://janit.iki.fi/shit/3Ghz.m4a](https://janit.iki.fi/shit/3Ghz.m4a)

~~~
giobox
We're still waiting for the 3GHz G5 Steve promised at that keynote "in 12
months"...

Much of the failure to get it into PowerBooks is probably attributable to the
same issue as the mythical 3GHz models - IBM's struggle to die-shrink the
things.

>
> [https://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/09/apple_g5_promise/](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/09/apple_g5_promise/)

~~~
classichasclass
I'm not sure the G5 would have ever made it in a laptop even if they did get
the die size down. POWER4 is just big and hungry. It was big and hungry in the
server space, and it was big and hungry in the workstation space. It just
wasn't designed for the constraints of a mobile implementation.

The rumour I heard at the time, which I believe, is that PA Semi was actually
in the running for the "next" PowerBook line based on some evolution of the
PWRficient PA6T. Then Apple went Intel and bought them out later, so we'll
probably never know.

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mig39
I sold Apple stock to my my Power Mac G5 in 2003. Now it sits on the floor
under my desk to remind me of how much it cost in 2003 Apple stock :-)

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latchkey
G5, the first 64bit desktop mac. [1]

Another fun fact, I named the Apache Velocity project after the 'velocity
engine' in that chip.

[1]
[https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g5/faq/powermac-...](https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g5/faq/powermac-g5-first-64-bit-
pc-velocity-engine-quad-core.html)

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mmphosis
Power Mac G5 (Late 2004)

[https://support.apple.com/kb/SP67](https://support.apple.com/kb/SP67)

Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) "Quad Core" (2.5)

[https://support.apple.com/kb/SP37](https://support.apple.com/kb/SP37)

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carbolite103
I have a single-core model from 2003 that I pulled from a trash heap. I still
use it for scanning film and anything else that Adobe CS2 can handle. I also
have a OS X tiger partition to run classic applications on. Great
computer/space-heater ;)

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dschuetz
I have the dual G5 2GHz standard model and it's still kickin'! Sure, the clock
battery is way beyond its lifetime. But with a modern Linux distro and ntp
it's a minor setback.

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King-Aaron
I only just retired my '03 dual-2GHz G5 at the end of last year, and only
because of space constraints in my current house. It was and still is a great
piece of equipment.

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unixhero
Ubuntu Mate 1604 Powerpc, works perfectly on the G5.

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iddan
I once worked for three months to get a used Power Mac G5 from a company.
Totally glad I've done so

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solipsistnation
And it runs Jagwire!

...man, I miss Steve Jobs keynotes.

~~~
c1yd3i
So what's next? This.

[https://youtu.be/24jKGoA9IVw?t=703](https://youtu.be/24jKGoA9IVw?t=703)

Had to find it :-)

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tambourine_man
Is there a particular reason for the specs to be submitted today that I might
be missing?

~~~
dschuetz
Most of the pre-Intel era systems are still functional. In contrast, since
2007 I burned through 4! MacBooks, 3 of them were Pro with failing Nvidia
graphics. The G5 systems were the last very good engineered Apple computers at
the time, although I do recall problems with them either. The liquid cooled
quad G5 with corrosion disease... ah, what a time!

