[DeusExMachina]

there is some stort or story behind this, I have to ask the guy for the complete story, but here is what I know. somehow this guy is friends with a girl who got divorced or somthing. now I guess like it used to be her husbands and somhow she got it but she gave it to to the guy that I am talking with. now I know that the story isnt too clear, and it doesnt sound right, but I am missing alot of information. so I will clear up the story later. now here is the hardware situation with the G5:

The G5 is a single 1.6GHZ, 256MB, 80GB HD, GF5200 now I am not sure which model of a 5200 it is, so was there ever any 5200 for the G5 powermac other then the ultra? well it also had a superdrive but from what I have heard it is broken. now the G5 has to be re-formated because it is password protected and no one knows the password but the husband, but he doesnt want to give it out. but anyways its original system disk's are gone I guess, so I will have to buy another copy of panther which will run the another $70 on top of the computers cost. now what i am wondering is were can I get a superdrive? I found one on ebay for $80, but who knows how high it will be when it ends. anyways I guess liek that is it for the problems. it comes with the mouse, and keyboard and all of the wires, and thats it I guess.

now the price that we are working out is $500, but I am trying to get it down to $400. now my plans for it if I buy it is to get it all running good. so my purchaces planned for this are: superdrive (or combo drive but a superdrive would be best) OSX panther, and a stick of 512MB for it. after that it should be all good right? anyways how does this sound?

now I allready have a ibook G4 the specs are: 12" model, 1GHZ, 768MB, 60GB hard drive, combo drive, airport, and the other usual stuff.

anyways my mom might actualy be buying this since she wanted a computer to use. now I was originaly thinking about her buying a mac mini but a G5 seems better though since I could use it for some of the DVD and editing programs that I have been wanting to use but couldnt because of my hardware. so anyways how does this sound? should I go with this or jsut forget about it because it is too risky or somthing. other computers I was interested in are the mac mini and emac, but the emac seems liek it will be gone very soon, or re-done. so basicly I am asking for some advice here.

[discotronic]

If you can pick it up for $500 I would say, without a doubt, go for it. You can use the OSX disks from your iBook to get the password changed until you get a set of Panther disks. Just boot the system and click on the Apple or File (can't remember which) and choose the option to change password.

Check places like TigerDirect or NewEgg for a superdrive. Sometimes you can get a good deal but you want to make sure the drive is recognized so you can burn using the finder or the iApps.

If you don't want to pay $500 let me know. I will take it

[DeusExMachina]

will this drive work?

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...161&depa=1

[discotronic]

Originally posted by DeusExMachina:
will this drive work?

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...161&depa=1

I'm not sure about that one. Here is one that I have heard of people getting to work:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...157&depa=1

You might have to do a firmware update on the drive and maybe use a program called Patchburn. Here are some links with more info:

Firmware:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/dec04/120804.html

Patchburn:
http://www.patchburn.de/download.html

Sorry I can't be of more help with this one. Hopefully someone else can answer your questions better than me.

[MacGallant]

You should check out Other World Computing. They are a shopping site especially tailored to the Mac and Mac owners.

Here's the link to their SuperDrive page, Just click on your Mac Model for a selection of SuperDrives for your Mac:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/optic...s/superdrives/

A SuperDrive can be had for as low as $75!

[discotronic]

Originally posted by MacGallant:
You should check out Other World Computing. They are a shopping site especially tailored to the Mac and Mac owners.

Here's the link to their SuperDrive page, Just click on your Mac Model for a selection of SuperDrives for your Mac:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/optic...s/superdrives/

A SuperDrive can be had for as low as $75!

Native support is definitely better than doing firmware hacks.