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What to do with my old G4?
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 7:04 am
by timriley
Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics) - PowerPC 400MHz - 704Mb SDRAM - OSX 10.3.9
It's just sitting there in my bedroom.. I never use it... I use my laptop for everything instead.
I just switched it on and it still works (I somehow lost OS9 a while back though)... I could upgrade the processer (up to around 1.8GHz) and the RAM (up to 2GB), but that could cost around £500.. Money that would be better spent elsewhere i think..
It also has an old Digidesign Digi01 attatched with PTLE 6.4 installed.. I never bothered to install DP5 on it!
Im just curious to know what other people have done with their out of date computer systems? There's always ebay i guess but is there really still a market for this stuff?
Re: What to do with my old G4?
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:41 am
by dj purple
i've got the same, a g4 400 with some ram, 2 drives, a korg 1212 card, xtra grafix card....
let's link them together, daisy chain style, tape them together so they don't move too much and then launch them, out of a plane at 25,000 feet onto george bush's ranch in texas. that's the best use for them now.
Re: What to do with my old G4?
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 8:59 am
by timriley
dj purple wrote:i've got the same, a g4 400 with some ram, 2 drives, a korg 1212 card, xtra grafix card....
let's link them together, daisy chain style, tape them together so they don't move too much and then launch them, out of a plane at 25,000 feet onto george bush's ranch in texas. that's the best use for them now.
Im tempted.....

Re: What to do with my old G4?
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 1:21 pm
by funkyfreddy
worse yet..... what do you do with a dead G4 Dual 800? Anyone interested in any parts? maybe we could swap, lol?
Re: What to do with my old G4?
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:07 pm
by buzzsmith
Maybe a charitable donation?
I Googled "donate computers to charity" and a whole list came up.
I guess you could pick one close by your area that seems on the up and up.
Just a thought...
Buzzy
Re: What to do with my old G4?
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:49 pm
by timriley
buzzsmith wrote:Maybe a charitable donation?
Yep, i accept them!
No seriously, i was thinking something along those lines..
Re: What to do with my old G4?
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 4:03 pm
by kassonica
dj purple wrote:i've got the same, a g4 400 with some ram, 2 drives, a korg 1212 card, xtra grafix card....
let's link them together, daisy chain style, tape them together so they don't move too much and then launch them, out of a plane at 25,000 feet onto george bush's ranch in texas. that's the best use for them now.
Classic
NOw I've got an emac lying around which I'm up for taping to your towers from the err drop...

Re: What to do with my old G4?
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 6:07 pm
by Dwetmaster
My Itunes' music server is happily living in my old G4 Ibook...
Re: What to do with my old G4?
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 7:09 pm
by therealbigd
i still use a G4 with Logic Node for a few extra tracks!
Re: What to do with my old G4?
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 7:11 pm
by mhschmieder
My G4 iMac has gone from roughly $500 to $600 at used Mac sites, to about $150, in the span of just one year.
So I guess last year was the year to upgrade and sell

.
I pretty much decided to keep the G4 iMac for portable use anyway, in case I get a tower next time around.
Re: What to do with my old G4?
Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 9:34 pm
by MIDI Life Crisis
buzzsmith wrote:Maybe a charitable donation?
BINGO! I donated mine to my wife's 4th grade class and even got her a 22" screen to go with it. Now she's running her class stuff on a 1.4 gHz machine with a DVD writer. Beats the pants off the PCs and the kids love it. If you can find a school that has had it's budget cut, they would probably be happy to take it off your hands and you get a tax deduction!
See you tax professional for details on eligibility. This is not an offer which can only be made by a formal prospectus. Not valid in certain wealthy communities.
Re: What to do with my old G4?
Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 3:04 am
by timriley
Dwetmaster wrote:My Itunes' music server is happily living in my old G4 Ibook...
I had toyed with the idea of using it for that too.. Trouble is, the sound it emits is not too unlike that of the passenger planes that fly over my house (when on a southerly airflow) from the not too distant heathrow airport (slight exaggeration, but you get the idea)...
Ive thought of even just using it as an oversized backup hard-drive to store stuff on....
therealbigd wrote:i still use a G4 with Logic Node for a few extra tracks!
Nice one!
mhschmieder wrote:
So I guess last year was the year to upgrade and sell

.
DOH!
MIDI Life Crisis wrote:
I donated mine to my wife's 4th grade class and even got her a 22" screen to go with it. Now she's running her class stuff on a 1.4 gHz machine with a DVD writer. Beats the pants off the PCs and the kids love it. If you can find a school that has had it's budget cut, they would probably be happy to take it off your hands and you get a tax deduction!
See you tax professional for details on eligibility. This is not an offer which can only be made by a formal prospectus. Not valid in certain wealthy communities.
Tax? You mean you people actually pay for that stuff..
Thanks guys!.... Very good suggestion.
Now i'm even more confused!

Re: What to do with my old G4?
Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 4:28 am
by Dave Bourke
If you have a copy of Mac OS 9.2.2, you could get your hands on a Korg OASYS-PCI card for about $200-$250 and turn the G4 into a superb "multisynth" – with VA, PCM, FM, physical modelling, effects, and more. That's what I've done with mine. Of course, since it's a dual-boot machine, it also functions as an OS X satellite synthstation.
Applications limited only by imaginations.
Kind regards
Re: What to do with my old G4?
Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 9:30 am
by funkyfreddy
Yes, I had a lot of nice stuff in OS9...... just wish my G4 hadn't died!
Re: What to do with my old G4?
Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 11:06 am
by timriley
Dave Bourke wrote:If you have a copy of Mac OS 9.2.2, you could get your hands on a Korg OASYS-PCI
Now that's an idea!
I bought it second-hand... I was a bit of a computer novice at the time so didn't think to ask them for start-up disks... I just assumed that stuff just worked
Im sure i could get hold of one though! Have to give this some thought.....