Need some Mac assistance

[frostbyte5014]

Hi Guys,

I recently picked up a few Macs in with some other items I purchase to resell. I literally know nothing about getting around the Mac OS. I decided to keep one of the G5's for myself to get better educated on Macs. First off I would like to clean it up and maybe a performace tune up. Can anyone recommend some utilities I can use to clean it up? Any must haves? Any great tweaks? The better it runs the more I will enjoy using it.


Thanks in advance!

 

[Markverhyden]

If these are real G5's then they will be of limited use, relatively speaking. I say that because Apple had both Intel and PPC in those enclosures. A PPC box is a true G5 and an Intel one is a Mac Pro. The most recent OS that the PPC boxes can load is 10.5, Leopard, which was deprecated years ago. It will give you a basic idea of navigation, etc but all of the recent stuff, like app store, iTunes, will be useless. If they are Intel's then you can load some relatively newer versions of OS X.

You can take the serial off of the back and plug it into a place like http://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/ can give you an idea of the possibilities.

 

[altrenda]

Here's a tech description of an iMac G5. Not sure which one you have. http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac_g5_1.8_20.html

The downside of the G5 is that it's the last iMac using the Power PC processor before Apple went to Intel. The latest Mac OS that it runs is Leopard 10.5.8 and will take a max of 2 gb ram. For comparison, the latest version is 10.11 El Capitan. A lot of modern software is not supported, including things like Google Chrome, iTunes, or Office.

The upside is the basics of OS X haven't really changed so you can at least get a feel for how it runs. And there should be freeware and other apps still available on the web.

You will probably be disappointed with the speed, especially browsing the web, as this doesn't really have the horsepower for the modern web.

To be honest, I just eWasted 6 of these about a month ago, we continue to remove them from service for my biggest client. Their users complain about speed and compatibility, and we replace them with Mac Minis.

Edit: Mark and I were saying the same thing at the same time.

 

[FremontPC]

I'm going to keep an eye out for a 2011-12 Mac Mini. When I was jonesin' for a Mac, I picked up a G5 iMac too. Realized what it was after the fact, then picked up a C2D iMac with a broken screen. It turned out to be the rare, expensive broken screen, but allowed me to get a couple of Mac jobs done. Someone gave me a white macbook C2D ~2009 vintage, spilled something on the keyboard, which meant you had to replace the entire palmrest. Being more familiar now with how Apple sticks their systems together, next purchase will be one of the minis that you can take apart/upgrade, etc.

iMacs too big and heavy, laptops too proprietary even with the Intel pieces. A HackIntosh might be kinda fun though...

 

[ChrisTech]

A HackIntosh might be kinda fun though...

If you have the time to look into it, virtual Macs may be a way of getting used to them, I am told (ahem) that you can install OSX in VMWare if you use certain code http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/290949-how-to-install-os-x-10x-snow-leopard-to-el-capitan-in-vmware-workstation-1011-workstation-proplayer-12-player-67-esxi-56/

Not that I would do it, you understand (cough)

 

[Markverhyden]

I'm going to keep an eye out for a 2011-12 Mac Mini. When I was jonesin' for a Mac, I picked up a G5 iMac too. Realized what it was after the fact, then picked up a C2D iMac with a broken screen. It turned out to be the rare, expensive broken screen, but allowed me to get a couple of Mac jobs done. Someone gave me a white macbook C2D ~2009 vintage, spilled something on the keyboard, which meant you had to replace the entire palmrest. Being more familiar now with how Apple sticks their systems together, next purchase will be one of the minis that you can take apart/upgrade, etc.

iMacs too big and heavy, laptops too proprietary even with the Intel pieces. A HackIntosh might be kinda fun though...

You can't do much internal upgrading on the new MacMini's
http://www.macworld.com/article/283...ades-but-hints-at-pcie-ssd-possibilities.html

 

[FremontPC]

You can't do much internal upgrading on the new MacMini's

Yeah, that's why I wanted to stick with the older stuff. I figured Late 2012, for the USB3 and Ivy Bridge. I'd be fine with Intel HD graphics.

 

[BrianofNazareth]

Can anyone recommend some utilities I can use to clean it up?

Grand Perspective
AppCleaner
OnyX
Tidy Up
TinkerTool
Yasu
KnockKnock
TaskExplorer