Optimizing an iMac G5
Hi,
I do all my current work in a late-2010 Macbook Air, and I'm very satisfied with it, but I also have an old 20-inch iMac G5 (with 1.5GB RAM) which I bought brand-new on 2005.
I noticed it has become more noisy over the years, but I opened it and I saw that the motherboard is in great condition (no blown capacitors, so it seems I got a good-quality unit). The air intakes were full of dirt, so I cleaned it and it's noticeably less noisy now (but still more noisy than when brand-new, because I believe the fan has degraded a bit over the years... anyway the noise level is acceptable now after cleaning the air intakes).
It still has Tiger (I could upgrade to 10.5 if I had it, but I don't believe it's necessary, I think I'm OK with Tiger on this G5).
The fact is that I've noticed that it has become much (I mean MUCH) slower over the years. I remember Tiger booted in seconds when this iMac was brand-new. Now it takes more than a minute. Also, Safari is really slow (specially at gmail for example). And Mail takes several minutes to start up (although it takes seconds after the first initialization).
I'm considering reformatting the disk and installing Tiger from scratch. Is this a good idea? Will I recover the shiny-performance it had when it was brand-new?
Also, are there browsers faster than Safari for the G5? When I use gmail, there's even a noticeable delay after I type words.
As I said, I do all my work with my Macbook Air, which is blazingly fast for the tasks I do. So, optimizing this iMac is just a matter of trying to get the most from a system whose hardware looks in great condition (and it has been used a lot since it was bought-- I'm really impressed).
Thanks!!
I do all my current work in a late-2010 Macbook Air, and I'm very satisfied with it, but I also have an old 20-inch iMac G5 (with 1.5GB RAM) which I bought brand-new on 2005.
I noticed it has become more noisy over the years, but I opened it and I saw that the motherboard is in great condition (no blown capacitors, so it seems I got a good-quality unit). The air intakes were full of dirt, so I cleaned it and it's noticeably less noisy now (but still more noisy than when brand-new, because I believe the fan has degraded a bit over the years... anyway the noise level is acceptable now after cleaning the air intakes).
It still has Tiger (I could upgrade to 10.5 if I had it, but I don't believe it's necessary, I think I'm OK with Tiger on this G5).
The fact is that I've noticed that it has become much (I mean MUCH) slower over the years. I remember Tiger booted in seconds when this iMac was brand-new. Now it takes more than a minute. Also, Safari is really slow (specially at gmail for example). And Mail takes several minutes to start up (although it takes seconds after the first initialization).
I'm considering reformatting the disk and installing Tiger from scratch. Is this a good idea? Will I recover the shiny-performance it had when it was brand-new?
Also, are there browsers faster than Safari for the G5? When I use gmail, there's even a noticeable delay after I type words.
As I said, I do all my work with my Macbook Air, which is blazingly fast for the tasks I do. So, optimizing this iMac is just a matter of trying to get the most from a system whose hardware looks in great condition (and it has been used a lot since it was bought-- I'm really impressed).
Thanks!!
Comments
Hi,
I do all my current work in a late-2010 Macbook Air, and I'm very satisfied with it, but I also have an old 20-inch iMac G5 (with 1.5GB RAM) which I bought brand-new on 2005.
I noticed it has become more noisy over the years, but I opened it and I saw that the motherboard is in great condition (no blown capacitors, so it seems I got a good-quality unit). The air intakes were full of dirt, so I cleaned it and it's noticeably less noisy now (but still more noisy than when brand-new, because I believe the fan has degraded a bit over the years... anyway the noise level is acceptable now after cleaning the air intakes).
It still has Tiger (I could upgrade to 10.5 if I had it, but I don't believe it's necessary, I think I'm OK with Tiger on this G5).
The fact is that I've noticed that it has become much (I mean MUCH) slower over the years. I remember Tiger booted in seconds when this iMac was brand-new. Now it takes more than a minute. Also, Safari is really slow (specially at gmail for example). And Mail takes several minutes to start up (although it takes seconds after the first initialization).
I'm considering reformatting the disk and installing Tiger from scratch. Is this a good idea? Will I recover the shiny-performance it had when it was brand-new?
Also, are there browsers faster than Safari for the G5? When I use gmail, there's even a noticeable delay after I type words.
As I said, I do all my work with my Macbook Air, which is blazingly fast for the tasks I do. So, optimizing this iMac is just a matter of trying to get the most from a system whose hardware looks in great condition (and it has been used a lot since it was bought-- I'm really impressed).
Thanks!!
Hopefull you have got any important information, keychains, photos, documents etc all backed up. Go for a clean install and you will end up with a pretty fast and capable machine again.
Hopefull you have got any important information, keychains, photos, documents etc all backed up. Go for a clean install and you will end up with a pretty fast and capable machine again.
Thanks a lot for your advice. The motherboard is in great condition, and I'm sad to see it so much slower than when it was new. This Summer I'll try a fresh reinstall in order to get its brand-new performance. Thanks for the advice!