Using an Apple Power Mac G5 in 2022 – Is It Still Usable?

26 Comments

1. Thanks to NordVPN for sponsoring my channel, Get NordVPN’s 2 year plan + 4 extra months for free here: https://nordvpn.com/danwood – It’s risk free with NordVPN’s 30 day money back guarantee!

2. why is it that windows PCs can go for well over 15 years of OS updates but macs only get a few years before they're completely obsolete?

3. I've got a maxed out 2012 g5 . I use it everyday for making beats. I use it for all my scoring demos. It never fails me.

4. My g5 has 5 gb of ram

5. Up until this year, I was using a dual 2.0-GHz PowerMac G5 as my main audio workstation and produced multiple gold records with it. i bought it from a computer recycling center for $80 in 2016 to replace my aging G4

6. Been using mine for retro gaming.

7. Those aren't PCI-Express slots, they're PCI-X. PCI-X was just PCI with more pins to get up to 64 bit, and some clock shenanigans. Not a ton of platforms had PCI-X

8. Thank you for your hint regarding "Sorbet Leopard". I will give it a try when I have time. A friend of mine gave me a Power Mac G5 4 x 2,5 GHz with 12 GB RAM as a gift, that looks brandnew. 😄

9. When I was a kid and me and my family used exclusively Macs, I encouraged my dad to buy the Apple AirPort w/ Time Machine and it was a really great and convenient way to have universal network attached storage for backups for all of the computers on the network. It was also a pretty good N router.

10. macs are for french cig users

11. How do i know which version of G5 I have? Serial Number YM6QEUF. Mine is set up much differently inside. Mine has been running High Sierra for awhile – it recently broke down and i am trying to troubleshoot it.

12. Just got my G5 back after a 10 years. I don't have a DVI-D converter on hand so hoping it works well – the fans are running and the light is on so that's positive! I hope it still has FCP installed along all the goodies that are too numerous to mention! Thanks for your video. Long Live the PowerMac G5! (FWIW: I purchased mine in 2004)

13. Regret selling mine but needed both the space and cash back when kids came along.

14. Thanks for the video, very interesting. I own the same G5 at 2Ghz but equipped with the second version AGP 8x and PCI with PowerPC 970Fx CPU produced at 90nm, therefore less voracious of energy than the first G5 series produced at 130nm. The 90nm production made it possible to create CPUs clocked up to 2.7Ghz, the first to be cooled with a liquid system, which in reality was not necessary but made the G5s seem much more powerful than they were. For those trying to understand how powerful the G5s are, I can say, based on tests carried out on real applications, that this machine is as fast as a 20" iMac equipped with a 2.1Ghz Core2Duo cpu; in some cases it is faster in others slower, especially in the graphics subsystem, which was basically equipped with an nVidia Fx5200 Ultra or an Ati 9600, clearly better than nVidia.For a certain period I was able to use an nVidia 7800GS 256Mb which unfortunately only lasted a few months and then failed. for this machine the best choice falls on the ATI, like a 9800Pro, which has better features, both at video level and at OpenGL level, despite being an older product than the 7800GS.The problem is that these cards being very pushed in top performance , durability over time is always an unknown factor.
    The 970Fx cpu have the advantage of consuming less (measured 160watts at 220v 50Hz) at full capacity and with Apple ADC 22" 1600×1024 monitor under the same power supply and heat up very little, less than a first generation MacPro 1.1; after 3 hours of rendering 3D with the cpu at 100%, the temperature detected was around 68° celsius degrees – 154.4°F – while in idle, the temperatures oscillate between 43° and 49° celsius degrees – 120°F -. a fresh thermal paste that has been stored for at least 3 months and a deep cleaning of the PowerMac before performing these tests.
    Unfortunately I have been able to ascertain that on many G5 machines the basic problem of fast spinning fans and high temperature cpu are due to the failure of the HeatPipe system which is still used today in modern heatsinks, from laptops to desktops. If the heatpipe doesn't work, the heat generated by the CPU will remain confined in the thick layer of copper and aluminum present at the base of the heat sink, raising temperatures even beyond 80°. To check if a heatsink works well, you need to heat its base with a gas flame (without cpus 😉 ) and check "by hand" that the heat is distributed quickly to the upper parts of the heatsink.
    It's a pity that Apple has abandoned PPC technology, still supported by IBM today with its Power10, but abandoning Intel in favor of Silicon was my way, a return to the past where Risc technology has always been considered better of the CISC counterpart adopted by Intel and AMD.

15. Is it possible to run Linux on the G5

16. What a brilliant video. Love the Sorbet update

17. I'm a real hater when it comes to Apple products and behaviors, but I remember back in the day I really loved the G3 (highly colored TV with a computer inside) and this exact G5. Like it or not, the design on those machines was awesome. (But damn, the proprietary shit in all Apple products makes me furious everytime I hear about it).

18. i still use mine on the regular, mainly as a media machine/backup archive. i maxed out the RAM to 8 gigs and have a 3 fb drive and it’s fast considering it’s age! I don’t connect it to the web but it’s I can DJ with it, as the early version of Serato Scratch Live works fine with the hardware despite its age. I have the Adobe suite cs2 which still works, as does the VLC player. and yes it’s a great space heater in the winter!

19. Still got my Dual Processor G5 too, though it's currently configured as an Xbox 360 Alpha 2 devkit.

    What do you usually do with yours when it's not in use? Does it stay in storage?

20. Is this working with any monitors?

21. It's a shame Apple doesn't use standards. It would be awesome to use this case to accommodate a modern system, maybe make a Hackintosh.

22. This computer is way ahead of its time 😊

23. I use the same mighty mouse to this day. The 360 scrolling is something I've gotten so used to that it's infuriating to use a mouse without it.

24. When i was in college, we used to bring our macbook pro remotes into our lecture hall (300+ seats) and point the remote up and press PLAY. It caused all the macs to start playing the first song in iTunes. I was a horrible person lol.

25. Please drop the VPN BS.

26. the INFERNAL scroll ball trapped a TON of dust, hair, bits of paper and other crap in general. Too Damn FRUSTRATING