1.25 GHz PowerPC G4 Tower...
At work we have one of these that was never used. Think it would be worth looking at if one could get it cheap? It's got 256K on chip level 2 cache, 1MB DDR SRAM, 167 MHz system bus, 256 MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM, four DIMM Slots to expand up to 2GB, ATI Radeon 9000 graphics card, 80 GB 7200 rpm Ultra ATA/100 hard drive, Combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW, 2 FireWire 400, 4 USB ports.
What do you think? A dinasour in today's world, or maybe a well built machine that could last another 5 years as a usefull computer for browsing Internet, working on spreadsheets and word docs, and for email?
What do you think? A dinasour in today's world, or maybe a well built machine that could last another 5 years as a usefull computer for browsing Internet, working on spreadsheets and word docs, and for email?
Comments
It's not terribly useful, but there are people out there with old, PPC software, so it does have some residual value. I would toss it on eBay. Obviously it's just wasting space at your company, so you should ask if you can put it on eBay. It's better than throwing it away.
I agree. It sounds like pretty good hardware for running old PPC apps, though i doubt people would pay much for it. I would just use a PPC Mac Mini (if that's what they are called, little headless boxes i've seen) for those purposes.
Sooooo...I do think it would be a good idea to ask higher though, and in the first few words of the tell them that it's barely ever used. Because drives wear out, and so do fans, on the CPU and power supplies. Everything gets clogged with dust. Boards suffer heat damage...
Something that's been sitting around would probably have a longer lifespan and less breakdowns.... If it's squeaky clean and perfect it should definitely be sold as such
Dan
P.S. (& Off Topic) Spline, you are the Mazda guy here, right?
I was half thinking of buying it cheap for my own use at home. My only concerns are buying a cheap monitor, and now it looks like you can't buy the OSX Leopard for PPC computers! Other than that, sounds like it could be a solid computer!!
PC monitor + Mac adapter?
If that works, you can use an old CRT or whatever you may have lying around, and then I'd look what Costco has to offer. They have 22" widescreen ViewSonics on sale about once a year, and overall they sell decent stuff. I think i got mine for $200 three years ago. The discount applies online as well as in-store.
As for OS X, even if they don't sell it anymore, the last PPC version is probably somewhere out there if you are willing to look. Ebay or somewhere that resells old mac stuff. Maybe even on torrents (although i don't trust those)
Good luck in any case
Dan
I was half thinking of buying it cheap for my own use at home. My only concerns are buying a cheap monitor, and now it looks like you can't buy the OSX Leopard for PPC computers! Other than that, sounds like it could be a solid computer!!
Why buy it? If it was free that would be one thing but you might be able to get a mini for not much more and it will blow away a G4 tower.
By the time you buy it, add RAM, and upgrade to Leopard (yes LEOPARD will run on G4s as long as they are at least 1.25 ghz) you could probably get an Intel mini.
The mini will last you a lot longer and be a much better experience. Even just for browsing the internet the G4 will suck because flash will bring the G4 to its knees. I guess you could get flash blocker, but why not just get an Intel mini and be done with it? If you're going to lay done your own money, this is what you ought to get IMO.
Also, is there a downside to the mini vs getting an iMac?
Thanks!
backtomac: I had thought of that. One thing I'm curious about, why do you think the mini will last longer? Do you mean the hardware will be compatible longer, that the G4 tower will reach the point that I won't be able to upgrade OS versions?
Also, is there a downside to the mini vs getting an iMac?
Thanks!
PPC is a dead end.
There will be fewer updates for Leopard and Tiger which will become unsupported pretty fast. Most software developers are targeting SL for their apps and its likely that as those apps update they will not run on PPC machines.
You will get more useful life out of a mini vs. a PPC tower IMO, and the cost is probably pretty similar.
It WON'T work well for browsing the web... it does not play the modern video codecs smoothly, including any but the smallest flash crap.
What it WOULD work excellent for, (without needing to upgrade anything except maybe the HDD), is a home server. While it won't PLAY a lot of video very well, it could certainly serve up that, and music, and other files to the rest of your computers.
A Mini would last much longer simply because it is Intel hardware, and will still be supported by Apple with regards to OS updates, software updates, as well as 3rd party software updates for at least a couple years yet.