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What To Do With an Old G5 Tower?

Posted by timothy on from the such-a-beautiful-exterior dept.

lunatic1969 writes "I've got an old G5 PowerPC tower that's sitting in a spare room not seeing much in the way of use. I'd like to stick a Linux distribution on it and maybe breathe some life back into it. I've got a few vague ideas — it might be a handy file server, streaming video for a security system, or simply just to have a spare box around. My question is therefore in two parts: First, are there any particularly creative projects or ideas anyone has for an old G5, and second and most important, which distribution currently offers the best support for this box?"

28 of 417 comments (clear)

  1. PPC Linux by worx101 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yellow Dog probably has the best support, but you could always look at the PPC version of Ubuntu.

    1. Re:PPC Linux by cynyr · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'd run gentoo on it but I run gentoo on everything, including my dead badger ( http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040405/badger.shtml ) http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-ppc.xml

      --
      All of the above was encrypted with a Quad ROT-13 method. Unauthorized decryption is in violation of the DMCA.
  2. yellow dog linux still around? by alen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    personally i'd send it to China for "recycling" or just junk it or donate it. you'll get better performance buying a new iMac and virtualizing the G5. File servers are so last decade. just get an external hard drive and connect it to a TV all of which come with USB ports these days and play a long list of media files

    1. Re:yellow dog linux still around? by beelsebob · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I couldn't agree more with this sentiment. The Powermac G5s all idle at around 150W, and most used about 600-700W under load. Left idle all year serving files it'll cost $150 a year just in electricity to run... All this for a slower machine than a MacMini, which doing the equivalent thing would use 10W.

  3. Genius by binarylarry · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think I speak for all of us here on Slashdot when I say, porn file server running Linux.

    --
    Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
  4. retire it by joe_bruin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A G5 tower is a monstrous waste of electricity with trivial performance in return compared to a modern machine. Its primary use these days is as a space heater.

    1. Re:retire it by jtownatpunk.net · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm glad somebody said it. The money you'd save on electricity in a year would probably pay for a little NAS appliance that barely takes up more space than the drive(s).

    2. Re:retire it by je+ne+sais+quoi · · Score: 4, Informative

      Say what?! One of my older machines is a G5 dual proc, 2.7 Ghz. That's still a VERY respectable clock speed, it's 64 bit and the dual procs means it's still pretty fast. The submitter didn't mention what speed his was (I'm guessing slower) but depending on that, a G5 could very well be a useful machine. It's not like it's an Athlon or something that is both slow, 32 bit and single core.

      Since the G5 was designed for performance, it's not exactly a great file server chip though. But it's far from being a "space heater" as you say -- mine gets used every work day. As others have pointed out, either put linux on it, or put an older version of OS X on it. I still have 10.4 on mine because it was the last OS Apple produced that was streamlined for the PPC. However, now that Apple has stopped supporting it, I'll have to break down and put 10.5 on it. On other older machines though I have installed both pbbuttons and gtkpbbuttons which support a lot of of the media keys on the keyboard pretty well.

      --
      Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
    3. Re:retire it by Swampash · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Agreed 100%. Have it recycled.

    4. Re:retire it by Rinikusu · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What utter nonsense.

      I'm typing this now via my Dual G5 2.3ghz powermac that is perfectly servicable. Running OS X 10.5, as well. For web browsing, hulu, ableton live + reason + native instruments, even gaming (world of warcraft, soon to be intel only, though). Everything I want to do, I can do on this machine. Would a new machine be more efficient and even do tasks faster? Yes and probably not because I'm user constrained when it comes to music production (for the most part). however, I'd still have to part with my hard earned cash I'd rather spend on drugs and alcohol than buy another machine where I wouldn't see any 'dividends' for many years down the road.

      --
      If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
    5. Re:retire it by Kenja · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sad, but true.

      I'd use it for a practical joke, will it with cement and put it outside with a "free" sign on the side. Sit back and watch the hijinks.

      --

      "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    6. Re:retire it by je+ne+sais+quoi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Another thing I'll point out is that debian includes binaries compiled for the ppc. I've never had any problems putting debian on ppc hardware. I would think Ubuntu would work as well, and as others have mentioned, yellow dog is still around. The days of needing a specialist distro for a ppc are long gone though.

      --
      Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
    7. Re:retire it by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yup, I was going to post the same thing. I was using one as a file server until recently, when it occurred to me to check how much power it was consuming. Christ! For the cost of running that beast a few months, I could have just bought a cheap NAS.

      Basically, yah. It's useless, sell it to some sucker, buy a cheap NAS, and move on with your life.

      --
      Comment of the year
    8. Re:retire it by SpazmodeusG · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There are so many reasons why that can happen though. One of the first things i think of is that your program works well with the cache line size of the G4 (32bytes, i think) whereas the Core 2 is loading up more than it needs when it loads each new cache line (256bytes, i think).
      You'll probably find if you make even the slightest changes to the data structure size or alignment in the program the benchmarks will switch around.

      In the end CPUs have to be general and there is no doubt that in general the current x86s are faster. If you find the G4 is faster for you well then i say keep using it. It's an exceptional circumstance that you happen to have where your code closely matches the design of the G4.

    9. Re:retire it by beelsebob · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Consider that a bottom of the line MacMini is faster than your G5, and consumes 140W less power when idle, and 600W less power when under load. If you're not using your G5 much, you'll pay for the MacMini in 4 years by trashing the G5 now, if you *are* using it (and it sounds like you are), you'll pay for the MacMini in only 1 year.

  5. G5s are power hogs by sith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unless you just like the look of the G5, I think you'd be better off trying to get a little money for it on craigslist, and then buying/building a cheap x86 machine if you need a server. G5 power consumption is pretty crazy for the performance you get - best case, at idle, you're looking at 140w, but in reality it's much higher.

    1. Re:G5s are power hogs by Albanach · · Score: 4, Informative

      That Is The Correct Answer.

      You can get a nettop for about $200 that will have as much storage. It will be fast enough and be x86 so give you a wide choice of distros and with the correct choice of GPU will do hardware accelerated 1080p. Finally it will be a fraction of the size and consume 20 watts.

      You're doing no-one other than your power company a favor by resurrecting the G5 tower.

  6. Old Games by painandgreed · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm keeping mine around to run games on, especially old classic games that have stopped working under newer versions of OS X or Intel chips. In addition to that, it might go to my photo studio as a browser and photo editing machine.

  7. Audio Workstation/Recording Studio by dangitman · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you have the model with the PCI-X, rather than the PCI Express bus, then probably the optimum usage is putting it in a recording studio. There are some great rack-mount multi-channel (like 10 in, 10 out) audio interfaces by the likes of M-Audio which use the PCI bus, and have never been updated for PCI Express compatibility, so they won't work in a Mac Pro.

    The G5 has plenty of performance for audio work, and plenty of space for internal hard drives or RAID. This would really be the optimum niche for such a machine. For other purposes (file server etc), it sucks too much power and takes up too much space for its usefulness. But for audio work with dedicated hardware, it's perfect.

    --
    ... and then they built the supercollider.
    1. Re:Audio Workstation/Recording Studio by jewishbaconzombies · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Bingo.

      I had the bottom of the line G5 for a time and had 2 other computers that had replaced it. Between Berkley and Emeryville, there were several studios and colleges for advanced audio. I think I got about 60-75% of what I paid for it. They didn't even haggle (and I priced a bit high for haggleability).

  8. Debian by dandart · · Score: 5, Informative

    Debian's PPC port works well, I used it on an iMac G3.

  9. Re:Like the look of the G5 ... by Darth+Sdlavrot · · Score: 5, Funny

    it may take a little more than a phillips screwdriver to accomplish this.

    Yup, you'll need a Torx driver instead.

  10. A file server? Linux? by Darth+Sdlavrot · · Score: 5, Informative

    Seriously? Okay. The OS that probably works best with this machine is --- drum roll -- OS X.

    Without hardly thinking about it it'll serve files via AFP and SMB.

    Google will tell you how to enable the NFS server on it. (That's right, you don't need OS X Server.)

    Streaming video? If there's open source software for Linux to do this, there's a pretty good chance it'll build on OS X too.

  11. Best Buy Trade In Program by mory · · Score: 4, Informative

    Trade it in! Best Buy has an online trade in program where you can get cash or a Best Buy gift card. I got a $200 for mine. You fill out some stuff online, print a pre-paid UPS label, wait about 3 weeks. Same money you'd get from craigslist, none of the emails for interesting trades. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Electronics+Promotions/Online-Trade-In/pcmcat133600050011.c?id=pcmcat133600050011

  12. Make it a modern Mac by Stormwatch · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Gut it and use the case to build a modern PC, on which you can install Mac OS X by using Prasys' EmpireEFI. Or just install whatever you want. The G5 may be outdated, but the case is still beautiful.

    --
    Circumcision is child abuse.
  13. I hate to say it... by MarcQuadra · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I hate to say it, but the nature of CPUs has changed so much since the Core architecture that you might want to eBay that box and buy something like an Atom Nettop.

    The G5 and P4 were both pretty much the 'end of the line' of the idea that faster=hotter and more power-hungry.

    I keep a G4 dualie around for Mac work, but it's basically a space heater. I advise clients to decommission their P4-based systems ASAP. My dual-core Core 2 idles at under 60W, the G4 uses almost 200W and shows a lot less for it.

    Seriously, somewhere out there is a young web designer who wants that G5. eBay it. Take the money and buy a modern machine that -is- supported by the latest distros and won't silently cost you $10/month.

    I really like the Atom 330/ION combination, you get low-power, dual-core, accelerated video and 2D, and 64-bits of goodness. Sure, it's slower than a G5, but it's enough to saturate a gigabit pipe, or play 1080p h.264 via HDMI, browse, type, serve files or multimedia, etc. You could probably buy three matching ION-based nettops if you tossed the G5.

    --
    "Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
  14. Quite simply by cyberzephyr · · Score: 4, Funny

    Fish tank

    --
    I'm here for the experience, not the Hyperbole.
  15. Re:Perfect use for a G5. by trapnest · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You're an idiot if you really believe an Atom will out preform a G5 processor.