I saw a Mac G5 for $45, should I have bought it?

[uberman]

I'm a PC guy, builder, laptop collector (Thinkpads), Thinkpad docking station collector and a buyer of preowned gear. Buying used is not so bad, I've got Samsung monitors that I paid $400 for and now I'm buying for $5. I've lots of software that I've amassed over the years. Preowned gear is working for me, in the past I bought high and sold for pennies on the dollar.

I saw a Mac G5 the other day. It was certainly pretty, very clean aluminum case and such, someone had donated it and me and another guy were looking at it for $45, it was on the chopping block for $70, but my price would have been $45. He offerred it to me if I wanted it. I said I've got too much PC gear to fool around with it. He took it.

I surf, read the news, do photo touch ups in Photoshop, watch movies, listen to music and word processing. It's just a matter of time before I see another one. I'm unaware what processor was in this G5, probably 2 GHZ or better.

Shoulds I have snagged this G5? Since I'm buying used monitors, usually Samsung or Viewsonic. Are Macintosh monitors hot rods or "meh" and are they compatable with PC?

 

[Bubblehappy]

I would have bought it for the case alone. Still a lot of life left in a G5 for everyday tasks.

 

[uberman]

I would have bought it for the case alone. Still a lot of life left in a G5 for everyday tasks.

You are right about a nice looking case though, simple clean metal with a few rolled edges. It might have been fun to play with. I will know better in the future.

 

[Eug]

Mac G5 for $45? I would have bought it just for fun, but it's not very useful.

To be of any use, a Mac should really be running 10.6 or later, and much preferably 10.9 or later. G5 Macs max out at 10.5.8.

 

[Zodiark1593]

A good quality aluminum case for $45 is a steal.

 

[Rakehellion]

I would have bought it for the case alone. Still a lot of life left in a G5 for everyday tasks.

This. Though the hardware isn't really worth anything.

 

[DigDog]

1. the case is really nice. reeeeally nice. it might take a bit of work to repurpose it, which you might not want to do, so, ok.
2. it could easily function as a media box or just to surf. i mean, our ProTools studio used to run on a G5, so yeah, it doesn't suck that bad.
3. you could flip it and make at least $150 over the $50.

 

[sbpromania]

It's a bargain, just for the case, it does look good. Otherwise I can't find any use for it, it's not x86, it's very hot and a huge power hog.

 

[rugby]

iMac G5's were white plastic and I'm 90% sure the machine had bad capacitors that leaked. Not worth $45.

 

[TheStu]

iMac G5's were white plastic and I'm 90% sure the machine had bad capacitors that leaked. Not worth $45.

Yea, but PowerMac G5s were aluminum. If it was an iMac, NOT worth $45. If it was a PowerMac, the case alone with worth more than that on the resale market. The internals... eh?

 

[uberman]

1. the case is really nice. reeeeally nice. it might take a bit of work to repurpose it, which you might not want to do, so, ok.
2. it could easily function as a media box or just to surf. i mean, our ProTools studio used to run on a G5, so yeah, it doesn't suck that bad.
3. you could flip it and make at least $150 over the $50.

To repurpose it does sound interesting. I really appreciate a good piece of aluminum or stainless steel. My father used to have a $500K shop and I'd do a lot of fabrication.
Because he knew that I'd snag a beautiful piece of metal to make something with, he used leave thoughtful little notes written on the metal. One of my favs is, "If you take this, I will cave your skull in."
Apple did spend some effort to give this case clean lines and a gleaming metal. I can appreciate that. The case could even be turned into a desktop cabinet for cables, disks, memory cards and small parts.
The IMACS had colors, but plastic is cheap, metal can be timeless.

 

[DigDog]

you don't have to go at it alone; the conversion of the G5 case has already been done by many, i'm sure you will find their buildlogs on google.

 

[Kolvir]

It would have been useful for running older software that needed PowerPCs or Rosetta. However as a PC guy, I'd take a stab in the dark and guess that you don't have much of that lying around.

It would have had some great components and the case as mentioned, and value for a Mac guy wanting a machine for the reason above. I never got a look at one, I took a big leap from a 500Mhz G4 to a 2009 Mac Pro, but the liquid cooling in it seemed intriguing. I have no idea if you'd have been able to reuse it with the case or not.

 

[SKORPI0]

I would have used the case for a Hackintosh built.

http://build-its.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-to-fit-your-pc-in-power-mac-g5-case.html
http://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/a-simple-g5-case-mod.81930/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFkASvU1azw