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Doc HM · Apr 24, 2010, 02:11 AM

Not a fan of G5's but a customer has offered me a Quad G5. Its brand new, still boxed. The 2.5 dual that I use as a server is still going strong but I like the idea of having the most powerful G5 ever made.

Anyone had one of these. I see they are meant to be on a par with the gen 1 MacPros for speed but I can easily imagine it cooking it's guts and waving bye bye fairly promptly.

Any tales of quad usage here?

reader50 · Apr 24, 2010, 02:37 AM

I have one, with the optional 7800GT card. I've had zero hardware failures in two years. The original owner had the processor core replaced under AppleCare, no other issues.

What graphics card is inside? And does it have the factory bluetooth/airport module?

Lateralus · Apr 24, 2010, 02:46 AM

Just to stir my jealously - Define 'offered'?

Doc HM · Apr 24, 2010, 04:51 AM

Originally Posted by lateralus

just to stir my jealously - define 'offered'?

£200

hh.blitz · Apr 24, 2010, 06:32 AM

For £200 I say get it.

A used dual can easily cost twice as much. This looks like a bargain deal really. Especially if you have practical use for it. I'd get it, even just for collectionism and brag-rights; its the best G5 ever.

seanc · Apr 24, 2010, 06:59 AM

That is a bargain! Even if you realised you didn't actually want it... eBay.

imitchellg5 · Apr 24, 2010, 11:02 AM

Considering a man here tried to get someone to buy his unopened quad G5 for $5,000 or something, I'd consider that an amazing deal

OreoCookie · Apr 25, 2010, 03:56 AM

That's really cheap

I'd definitely get it even if to just sell it later. The only obvious drawback I can think of is that it doesn't run 10.6. Other than that, it'll be a capable machine, both as a desktop and as a server.

hh.blitz · Apr 25, 2010, 05:25 AM

Just gave the Primate Labs blog a look, and the Quad scores about 3300 on geekbench. Thats as much as the late-2007 and early-2008 MacBook Pros @ 2.6GHz, just saying. No Snow Leopard (and future OS X's), but still a very, very capable machine.

To repeat my previous post and many others, bargain deal. Get it!

l008com · Apr 25, 2010, 05:11 PM

I too would get it to sell.

QuadG5Man · Apr 25, 2010, 07:32 PM

Wish I still had mine, *sniff*

Doc HM · Apr 28, 2010, 05:23 PM

Well got my Quad. It's lovely. Box fresh, all new and shiny. 3.5GB RAM 1x1tb 1x750GB HDD's 7800GT graphics.

I did fail to spot that it uses a non standard C19 style power cable so I'm now waiting for the one I've just bought of Amazon to turn up. Until then it's a nice sculpture.

It will probably end up on ebay in a while though as realistically it won't be a whole load faster than my current 2.5 dual server since I won't be using apps that make the most of the extra cores. Probably better to let some video or audio guy make better use of it.

I just want to run it for a while to see how it goes though.

Doc HM · Apr 30, 2010, 01:26 PM

hey ho. Bargains eh? Got my new C19 heavy duty power cord today. Plugged the G5 in and wandered off to sort something else out. Then BANG! a huge crack, like someone whacked the desk hard with a long metal ruler.

I don't know if it's the fuse in the cable plug that's gone, although from the size of the bang I suspect it's capacitors in the power supply. Other items plugged into the wall outlet work fine so the fuse in the wall outlet survived.

What's weird is that the Mac wasn't even powered up so shouldn't have even been drawing any current.

Luckily the Mac did come with a 3 month warranty from the supplier so I shan't loose out. Shame. It was brand new too. How unlucky is that?

l008com · Apr 30, 2010, 01:29 PM

Told you so. It might not have been out of its box, but it was still 5 years old. And in my experience fixing Macs, once a powersupply dies, the ghost of that powersupply haunts the mac, and kills all replacement power supplies you install. I'm not kidding. Almost every mac I've replaced a power supply in, I've replaced more than one power supply. It's crazy.

seanc · Apr 30, 2010, 01:43 PM

The G5s have issues with their power supplies failing.
Sometimes a cap in line with the Topswitch fails and the topswitch blows its face off. On the other hand, the input caps could have dried out, which reminds me I should perform some checks & preventative maintenance to my MDDs.

If you end up with it lying around, I'll have a tinker with it, most likely salvageable.

l008com · Apr 30, 2010, 01:44 PM

Seems like every model starts to have PS problems once it gets to be 5+ years old.

seanc · Apr 30, 2010, 01:47 PM

Caps fail - because saving a penny here and using no-names will save £1 there. Caps will degrade even though they have sat on a shelf being unused, go figure.

l008com · Apr 30, 2010, 01:48 PM

Yeah my G5 xserve has but one power supply. One of the biggest reasons, really the only reason I would have preferred an intel Xserve is the dual power supplies. CPU power isn't really an issue at all, the G5s are more than powerfull enough. But if my PS goes one day, I'm screwed.

Doc HM · Apr 30, 2010, 01:49 PM

Can't quite wrap my head round how it might have blown when not even powered on. The Quad does use a honking great 1000W (zoinks) power supply but when of it must be drawing essentially zero power.

l008com · Apr 30, 2010, 01:50 PM

Actually they say they suck more power when plugged in and off, than they do while sleeping.

seanc · Apr 30, 2010, 01:50 PM

The only thing you can do in that scenario is to keep one on hand. If you did that, probably be worthwhile powering it up every so often even though it's not plugged into the machine - if it doesn't go pop it's probably OK.

Doc HM · Apr 30, 2010, 01:51 PM

Originally Posted by l008com

Actually they say they suck more power when plugged in and off, than they do while sleeping.

Any idea why this might be? Sounds weird to me.

seanc · Apr 30, 2010, 01:52 PM

Originally Posted by Doc HM

Can't quite wrap my head round how it might have blown when not even powered on. The Quad does use a honking great 1000W (zoinks) power supply but when of it must be drawing essentially zero power.

Doc HM, the 5vsb line is always active - so part of your PSU was turned on. If it was the mains caps that failed, applying the power may have been what killed those.

Doc HM · May 1, 2010, 02:37 AM

I see from my (prescient) OP my comments on me not being a fan of G5's and deeming it likely to cook it's guts and implode were not short of the mark. Just expected it to last more than one minute.

MacPro next time.

seanc · May 1, 2010, 05:11 AM

Bad PSU is a bad PSU - get it fixed or replaced and all should be well.

l008com · May 1, 2010, 05:13 AM

No two Mac PSUs are the same. You need a PSU for your specific model. Which is why they cost a fortune. Probably $300 or more for a brand new one.

Lateralus · May 1, 2010, 09:56 AM

Just bid on this.

Doc HM · May 1, 2010, 12:25 PM

Originally Posted by Lateralus

Just bid on this.

Useful, but swapping the power supply on one of these is a royal pain that involves taking the cpu's out. Sadly I'm just going straight for the refund on this. It looked like (and probably was) a bargain but I don't need it as I have a dual 2.5 server that is rock solid.

plus the import and shipping will make that too expensive.

Eriamjh · May 1, 2010, 08:19 PM

Aren't all quads liquid cooled? I'd stay away...

Although it's too late now.

l008com · May 1, 2010, 09:27 PM

Also, I wouldn't buy a used PS on ebay. Unless you like swapping them out and wish to do it again real soon.

Lateralus · May 1, 2010, 09:44 PM

Stop fear mongering.

l008com · May 1, 2010, 10:04 PM

Originally Posted by Lateralus

Stop fear mongering.

My warning was very accurate, formed by years of mac-part-buying experience.

Lateralus · May 1, 2010, 11:00 PM

Right...

Not only have I worked as a Mac technician, but I've have had more Macs strewn across my apartments in pieces than I care to admit - I have never had a problem with a used service part that was sold as working. If you have had so many problems that your first advice to a service query here is 'Don't!', I can't help but wonder about your skills as a tech.

macaddict0001 · May 1, 2010, 11:02 PM

I have personally never had a used part fail, but I haven't bought that many.

Doc HM · May 2, 2010, 03:48 AM

I've also never had an issue with a used part bought via ebay, although it's entirely possible that I could in the future. However balancing the need for this machine as opposed having it fall into my lap vs the effort to find a PSU, disassemble the machine (including the cpu's with their liquid cooling system and reassemble, I'm on the side of just sending it back where it came from and turning it into a SEP*

*Douglas adams fans

shonnies · May 19, 2010, 12:19 PM

it's a solid machine, get it!