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G5 PowerMac


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Assuming that it has SATA connections and PCI-E slots then I see no reason to trash it. If it does not have SATA then there will be no SSD for you (I have never run across any PATA SSD drives). Otherwise adding a larger hard drive is of no issue whether it is SATA or PATA there are several larger drives available. It may also be possible to add additional RAM, and if using PCI-E a newer graphics card couldn't hurt. You should be able to run 10.6.8 with no issues. Lion however will always be an OS that you cannot use as it contains no PPC code.

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Maximum OS on any G5 is 10.5.8, and if memory serves me right your mono-processor 1.8 will have PCI-X slots and AGP graphics. Your PCI-X slots are backward compatible with PCI cards BUT you will need 3.3v cards. These cards have 2 notches on the connector strip as opposed to a single notch on the more common 5v cards. SSD drives are no problem and a worthwhile upgrade on any G5. The maximum memory you can fit is 8gb. This must be fitted in pairs of 2gb modules. The G5s are notoriously memory fussy, go for Kingston or Crucial memory unless you enjoy kernel panics.

 

Your graphics choices are fairly limited, and a mac edition card is going to be unbelievably expensive. This is the major sticking point as unless you have been very lucky you're going to have a 64mb card in there. Consider a 128mb card as an absolute minimum for serious work. It is possible to flash a PC card if you have access to a PC with an AGP slot.

 

Reality check: No matter how much money you throw at your 1.8 SP it will still struggle if you intend to do anything serious with it. Even Office 2008 will be sluggish on there. We have a 2.0 DP here that is used professionally for graphic design work. It has its memory maxed out, a 256mb graphics card and it runs Adobe CS4 (at least, the apps that can run on PPC) acceptably well. In all honesty I would consider it to be the absolute minimum you need to run fairly modern software. UT2004 is blisteringly fast on it too. Having said that, the G5 is a beautifully built machine and I can understand anybody being reluctant to gut one. They are also quiet enough to use as a media centre computer. albeit a very large one. Ultimately, wether or not you leave it as it is depends on what you want to do with it.

 

About a year ago I parted a 1.8 SP out. The 64mb graphics card went for £30, the power supply for £70, the airport card fetched £25, the bluetooth module sold for £25 and I think i got £30 or so for the memory. That's very nearly enough to put together an mATX Sandybridge G-620 based hack that can run Lion. Not the last word in performance but respectable all the same.

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Hey there, I have an old Power Mac G5 as well and I'm lookin gfor some patched or custom kext to enable a Radeon HD 4650 500mb DDR 2 AGP.

I already posted about this, but in the wrong forum, sorry my bad, I was told that it might be possible to make it work, but that I would need kext which would have to be compiled for PPC aswell. does anybody know of a package that someone might have made, that I could use

 

this is my other post http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...t=#entry1773133

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Kexts are going to be the least of your worries with a Radeon HD on a PPC Mac. For the machine to boot, the card needs to be re-flashed with a Mac ROM. You're only going to find a Mac ROM for cards that were officially supported by Apple on PPC, basically nVidia 6000 series and Radeon 9000 series cards. Any Radeon HD ROM is going to be compiled for Intel Macs and isn't going to work on a PPC Mac.

 

Assuming all goes well with flashing the card, you shouldn't need any extra kexts for an "official" card. You can probably pick up a PC version of the nVidia 6800 Ultra on eBay relatively cheaply. These are generally reckoned to be the ultimate G5 graphics card. Have a dig around the Mac Elite website for lots of information on flashing PC cards to work in a Mac.

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