Hi All

There is someone local to me willing to give away a PowerMac G5 QuadCore for free.

One issue is that there is no power cable. Is it right that it just uses a UPS cable rather than a normal kettle lead?

Other is that it has a NVidia graphics card, so I will have to source the correct card. I know I will need an ATI card but will I need one that is Mac specific as I'm wondering how much one will actually cost.

The potential cooling issues don't seem to be a problem and it is free so should I go for it?

Zetec-S

> I will need an ATI card but will I need one that is Mac specific

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=12791&forum=11

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So I could keep the NVidia to get into the early boot menu but then also run an ATI (non-flashed) card for Morphos?

Also, am I right in thinking the built in network card is unsupported?

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You can't beat the price, and since it is local, you can just go pick it up, instead of having to pay for shipping it to where you are.

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I don't know what you mean by UPS cable, or normal kettle lead, but the Quad G5 PowerMac does have a different power cord that is specific to this model, and I have never seen one like it before, so I think you will need to order one of these power cords designed specifically for the quad G5, or get one used from a dead quad G5 machine. There might be someone who has made an adapter some time in the past, but I have not seen any.

Quote: You don't need a "Mac", or "Apple" video card to run MorphOS, but the video cards that have a "PowerMac" bios allow you to see the early bootup and firmware screens, which is important for some users. If you look long enough, you might be able to find a decent old ATI video card for free, or very cheap. Check out the list of supported video cards on the official MorphOS website.

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If you don't mind the power consumption and fan noise (which I don't think is too bad), I would definitely go get it. It's the fastest MorphOS system available for some software, and the other fastest system is the X5000, which is thousands of Euros/Dollars/Pounds.

Some users say that the air cooled, later 2.3GHz G5 PowerMacs are the best overall MorphOS systems, but actually, all of the Mac computers that run MorphOS, do it fairly well.

> So I could keep the NVidia to get into the early boot menu
> but then also run an ATI (non-flashed) card for Morphos?

There have been several reports of this working in that thread.

> am I right in thinking the built in network card is unsupported?

Yes, I think so.

The standard PSU power lead is a three core IEC C13 or C14 "kettle" lead. These may also be used in UPS (although it's more common to have a standard mains plug socket these days.)

The standard laptop mains-to-power supply cable is a three core "clover" IEC C5.

The 2005 G5 power cable is an proprietary Apple 922-6782 three core cable.

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From what I know it's not Apple proprietary cable. It's "the 60320 C19 IEC power cord receptacle, commonly used in high power data center and server environments with devices such as servers, PDUs and other data center and network gear".

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I think you’re right as my own research has lead me to believe that a C19 would work.

Powermac IEC C19 cable is present on Amazon and you can also easily build it yourself with the right connector.
About pice gfx card you have to use the default apple nvidia 6600 card for early startup menu and add a pc Radeon x1900gt/xt to boot into morphos.
At moment built in lan can’t be used, but you can add a pcie Realtek card (vert cheap) or a pcie Wi-Fi card Who can be based on various chipsets.
There’s already a thread about it.

I hope g5 quad will be soon officially supported by next mos release, even for fans.
At this time my powermac suffer of overheating with mos, while OS X and Linux are ok.

> add a pc Radeon x1900gt/xt to boot into morphos.

While X1900 GT, X1950 XT and X1950 Pro are the officially supported cards, I guess that X1900 XT, X1900 XTX, X1950 GT and X1950 XTX will work as well.

Yes of course they are all based on same chip.
Indeed would be better refers to chip names rather than board names.

> Yes of course they are all based on same chip.

Actually, it's three different chips (RV570, R580, R580+), see there. Each of the three officially supported cards has a different chip :-)

Yes you are right, sorry.
Different chip's name but same architecture targeted to different users by marketing rules, this lead me to mistake.

Anyway any gfx card based on RV570, R580, R580+ will work at best on powermac g5 quad under morphos.

> Different chip's name but same architecture targeted to different users
> by marketing rules

Architecture is similar, but not quite the same:

RV570: 330M t., 80nm, 3 q., 12 t.u., 36 p.s., GDDR3
R580: 384M t., 90nm, 4 q., 16 t.u., 48 p.s., GDDR3
R580+: like R580, except 80nm, GDDR4
(t. = transistors, q. = quads, t.u. = texture units, p.s. = pixel shaders)

Thanks for your help guys.

I’ve agreed to pick this up at the weekend.

Not sure when I’ll get a chance to sort a graphics and network card but I’ll at least have it then.

Using that quad G5 for morphos could be a wasted you will have 3 cpus idle.
It could be a better system for linux or macos, any old G5 do a great work on morphos.

Even on a 2 ghz G5 morphos flys.

A quad G5 still makes a nice electric heating for your feet under the table, so idling cores have a purpose at least.
But a dual/triple boot is advised as it still is a decent leopard Mac machine with all this raw power.

> Using that quad G5 for morphos could be a wasted you will have 3 cpus idle.

Given that MorphOS disables the second CPU on PowerMac7 machines, I wonder why MorphOS cannot do the same for all but one CPU core on PowerMac11 (or at least the second CPU on the quad-G5).

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This made me laugh. It is starting to get cold enough to freeze the plants in the garden here the last week or so, and we have begun using the furnace again to keep the house warm, but I have the furnace vent in my office closed. The computers under my desk do indeed keep my feet warm, and I'll be adding my own Quad G5 PowerMac under that desk soon, so I'll have even more CPU heating available to keep me warm.

Well I’ve collected it and I’m really pleased.

It’s definitely a 2.5 Quad and it’s got 8GB of memory (overkill for me as I just want it for Morphos).

Graphics card is a GeForce 6600, which was expected. For some reason it’s using the third slot which is x8 when I thought it would use the first slot. But to be honest I’ve never had a big tower with card slots even in my Amiga days.

It currently boots into a clean install of Mac OS 10.12.4.

So now I need to source a graphics card and a network card and then it will be ready to install Morphos.

> It currently boots into a clean install of Mac OS 10.12.4.

If that's true, it can't be a PowerMac G5. Latest PPC release was 10.5.8.

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You got me worried there but it definitely is MacOS Sierra 10.12.4 and it’s definitely a G5 as I’ve opened it up and it says G5 and has all the cooling etc.

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Got to the bottom of it.

For reasons I don’t understand on the splash screen when you go to about this Mac it says macOS Sierra, which having looked it up makes no sense as that came out in 2016.

However, when I look at System Software Overview it says 10.5.8. Which makes a lot more sense.

Why it’s been made to look like Sierra I have no idea.

I have now spent hours trying to find a compatible graphics card on eBay and I seem to be going around in circles.

When I look at x1900xt and x1950gt cards they mainly seem to have been used in MacPro’s and thereby appear to not work in G5’s without a reflash. Something I can’t do as I haven’t got a PC.

I don’t mind using a PC Card and booting off the Nvidia first but I just don’t seem to be able to find PC Cards as cheap as the MacPro ones.

Any help appreciated.

> they [...] appear to not work in G5’s without a reflash.

The only X19xx series card that's also been available with a PPC ROM is the X1900GT.