What's a G5 Mac worth?

[donmcc]

I'm going to a commercial printer auction (anyone want a 40" Komori press) and they have some G5 computers for sale. Anyone have any idea what these older units are worth. I need to get back into Mac, and if they go for a few hundred, this might be cheaper than buying a new unit. (The college will buy me a new, power unit for my office, but I am on my own for a home unit.)

[Steve Rindsberg]

The G5 is pre-Intel-processor-in-Macs, no? I'm not a Macxpert but, I don't think you can run any of the more recent OSX versions on non-Intel Macs, or any of the latest software. If you need it to run software that you already have on a PPC machine, then it's worth checking Amazon and eBay for comparable prices. I stumbled onto one at Amazon, used, for US$500 while looking up the processor specs, fwiw.

[Hugh Wyn Griffith]

Is that with fries or without .... ?

[ktinkel]

I'm going to a commercial printer auction (anyone want a 40" Komori press) and they have some G5 computers for sale. Anyone have any idea what these older units are worth. I need to get back into Mac, and if they go for a few hundred, this might be cheaper than buying a new unit. (The college will buy me a new, power unit for my office, but I am on my own for a home unit.)No good if you want a machine for doing work at home meant to mesh with your office Mac. If they buy new for the college, you will be way behind with a relic like a G5.

It wouldn’t be worth $500, if that is the going price. You could get a new MacBook for about twice that, or maybe find a recent MacBook Pro used for some price you can afford.

[donmcc]

Thanks for the advice. I'm not sure I will even get a bidding card. They want a $1000 deposit just to be able to bid.

Don

[ktinkel]

Thanks for the advice. I'm not sure I will even get a bidding card. They want a $1000 deposit just to be able to bid.Good grief! There must be a better solution, with less rigamarole.

[sky4forums]

If you have a spare monitor, keyboard and mouse, buying a used Mac mini might fit your home needs. I have the first gen Intel mini and it runs Snow Leopard fine. It should handle Lion when that becomes available soon. I would suggest looking for one that can take more than 2GB of memory.

[donmcc]

I am thinking about an iMac now. I was leery of this before, due to the lack of expansion. Even with a 27" screen, I feel I will miss having a second monitor set up like I have had on the PC for the last 10 years or so.

But I understand now that I can hook a monitor into the Thunderbolt port, and thus get the extended monitor. Does anyone here do that?

[ktinkel]

I am thinking about an iMac now. I was leery of this before, due to the lack of expansion. Even with a 27" screen, I feel I will miss having a second monitor set up like I have had on the PC for the last 10 years or so.

But I understand now that I can hook a monitor into the Thunderbolt port, and thus get the extended monitor. Does anyone here do that?Nope, but no Thunderbolt port. I bought my new iMac just before the new ones came out. (And haven’t set it up yet — too much going on!)

[John Spragens]

My iMac is from late 2006, so pre-Thunderbolt. It can handle a second monitor just fine. So I assume you'd have no problems with a second monitor on a current model.

[donmcc]

John

Do you get an extended screen, so you can move palettes to the second monitor. Some of the Apple help files say you can only get duplicate information on the two screens.

What kind of port do you use to connect the second monitor to?

Don

[Howard Allen]

Do you get an extended screen, so you can move palettes to the second monitor. Some of the Apple help files say you can only get duplicate information on the two screens.

What kind of port do you use to connect the second monitor to?

AFAIK, all Macs that support external displays also support extended desktop mode, and pretty much always have (I used it on a 1991 SE/30). Some (like the MacBook Pro) have a hotkey that toggles between extended desktop and "mirror mode"; otherwise you can switch using the Displays pref panel. I can't imagine why anyone would want to run an iMac in "mirror mode", other than to connect it to a projector, or if the main monitor was kaput.

The 2006 iMacs had a Mini DVI connector, which can be used on DVI, VGA, Composite and S-video with an adapter.

[John Spragens]

Yup ... confirming what Howard said ... that worked for me.

[donmcc]

Just to update everyone, I went to the auction sale yesterday. A MacBook Pro, 17" went for $500, and I kick myself for not bidding on it. The desktops went cheaper, generally, from $90 for a G4 and really old G5, up to $500 and $600 for recent G5s with 21 flatscreen monitors. I had priced myself at $300 for the one that went at $600, so came home empty.

But PCs were far worse. They generally sold for pocket change (not literally, but many in the $10 to $30 range). In some cases they were selling entire offices with desks, executive chairs, credenza, files, etc, for $50. I would have loved to get one of those chairs, but really had no way of dealing with all the rest of the crap. (I already own old PCs, for instance.)

It wasn't a throwaway auction though. They sold the 6 unit 40" Komori for $285,000. They had some big HP inkjets, capable of producing 40 inch wide color prints (8 color) on roll film, for under $2000 each ... same machines are on e-Bay for $3500.

So once my credit card gets changed over (I switching companies) I will be buying a new iMac, as several of you had recommended.