Old Cool Computers

jji7skyline

Does anyone have any old computers at home that are cool?

I bought an old PowerMac G5 last night for really cheap.

I'm planning to mod the case so that it will fit any ATX board so that it can be used as a PC, and possibly a Hackintosh case.

For now, it just runs Mac OS X 10.5.8 on a PowerPC CPU with 3GB RAM and a really slow video card.

MrFlash67

I'm posting from a Macbook2,1 2.16Ghz, with upgraded ram, and new battery and hard drive.

jji7skyline

MrFlash67 wrote:
I'm posting from a Macbook2,1 2.16Ghz, with upgraded ram, and new battery and hard drive.

Cool! Is it white? I think they made some black ones too.

novice27b

I have a powermac G4 which I bought for £20. I have overclocked it to 1GHz, and it has 2GB of RAM. I think i'm going to use it as some kind of server. I really like how the side panel opens on a hinge for easy access: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/PowerMac_G4_MDD_open.jpg

MrFlash67

jji7skyline wrote:
MrFlash67 wrote:
I'm posting from a Macbook2,1 2.16Ghz, with upgraded ram, and new battery and hard drive.
Cool! Is it white? I think they made some black ones too.

Yeah, it's white. My teacher way back had a black one, and I was hoping to get one all that year. I didn't.

Also, I want the case and screen of one of the lamp G4?'s to make a robot.

turkey3

I have some old old PC with Windows Millenium in my basement. Not sure about its specs except an Intel Pentium III. I'm told it doesn't work, but I would like some day to fix it and keep running it to play some classics like RCT. I think it might have a hard drive issue.

jji7skyline

novice27b wrote:
I have a powermac G4 which I bought for £20. I have overclocked it to 1GHz, and it has 2GB of RAM. I think i'm going to use it as some kind of server. I really like how the side panel opens on a hinge for easy access: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/PowerMac_G4_MDD_open.jpg

Awesome! I've always liked the way those things open. Very cool. The way they're set out makes them pretty easy to mod for a Hackintosh too.
It must have been pretty hard to overclock, how did you do it?

MrFlash67 wrote:
jji7skyline wrote:
MrFlash67 wrote:
I'm posting from a Macbook2,1 2.16Ghz, with upgraded ram, and new battery and hard drive.
Cool! Is it white? I think they made some black ones too.
Yeah, it's white. My teacher way back had a black one, and I was hoping to get one all that year. I didn't.

Also, I want the case and screen of one of the lamp G4?'s to make a robot.

That sounds interesting, you could put wheel son the bottom and display stuff on the screen.

turkey3 wrote:
I have some old old PC with Windows Millenium in my basement. Not sure about its specs except an Intel Pentium III. I'm told it doesn't work, but I would like some day to fix it and keep running it to play some classics like RCT. I think it might have a hard drive issue.

Here's a tip. Most small independent computer shops have a small pile of IDE hard disks salvaged from old systems. They might give you an 80GB one for free or really cheap.

MrFlash67

jji7skyline wrote:
MrFlash67 wrote:
jji7skyline wrote:
MrFlash67 wrote:
I'm posting from a Macbook2,1 2.16Ghz, with upgraded ram, and new battery and hard drive.
Cool! Is it white? I think they made some black ones too.
Yeah, it's white. My teacher way back had a black one, and I was hoping to get one all that year. I didn't.

Also, I want the case and screen of one of the lamp G4?'s to make a robot.
That sounds interesting, you could put wheel son the bottom and display stuff on the screen.

I'd probably rip out the insides and just use the screen, with a Raspberry Pi or something controlling the robot.

I also want a G4 Cube, as a RasPi case.
Really, I want cases and Raspberry Pi's.

Last edited by MrFlash67 (May 1, 2014 00:09:07)

Ersatz-

I recently got a powermac G4 for free
I'm waiting for them to deliver the adapter that lets me connect it to my monitor

novice27b

I also have a laptop with a Pentium III and 512MB of RAM.

jji7skyline

Ersatz- wrote:
I recently got a powermac G4 for free
I'm waiting for them to deliver the adapter that lets me connect it to my monitor

Cool! Is it the cube one or the tower one?

Harakou

I have an old Dell Dimension 4550 - it's not really “cool,” but it's currently sitting in the corner next to my router as a server. Right now it just hosts a bot I wrote, but after next week (finals

) I'm hoping to set it up as a home server as well.

I also see lots of old Powermacs here. I have to admit that Apple makes nice hardware!

novice27b

jji7skyline wrote:
Awesome! I've always liked the way those things open. Very cool. The way they're set out makes them pretty easy to mod for a Hackintosh too.
It must have been pretty hard to overclock, how did you do it?

I used this guide here: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/g4_mirrored_drive_doors/G4_MDD_CPU_Module.html
It involved some surface-mount soldering.

I also find it quite cool that each processor is on its own die, rather that them both being on the same one.

Last edited by novice27b (May 2, 2014 16:52:49)

economy

I love old computers-

My own computer An old dell optyplex gx280 It was used surplus and i got it for $50.
2 operating systems Ubuntu, Xp pro
80gb hdd
2gb of ram
Intel p4
Integrated gpu
PAINT!

I also have
Seen 4 old computers at yard sale FOR $1 each!
Recently I disassembled a windows 98 pc- It had a tape drive!
I set up a windows 2000/ 98 pc

I hope to get an old computer that I can hang the parts form the ceiling, connect them together AND POWER ON

jji7skyline

novice27b wrote:
jji7skyline wrote:
Awesome! I've always liked the way those things open. Very cool. The way they're set out makes them pretty easy to mod for a Hackintosh too.
It must have been pretty hard to overclock, how did you do it?

I used this guide here: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/g4_mirrored_drive_doors/G4_MDD_CPU_Module.html
It involved some surface-mount soldering.

I also find it quite cool that each processor is on its own die, rather that them both being on the same one.

Yes, it has 2 separate CPUs instead of one CPU with 2 cores. Pretty cool, and only Xeon boards and some AMD boards have them nowadays.

economy wrote:
I love old computers-

My own computer An old dell optyplex gx280 It was used surplus and i got it for $50.
2 operating systems Ubuntu, Xp pro
80gb hdd
2gb of ram
Intel p4
Integrated gpu
PAINT!

I also have
Seen 4 old computers at yard sale FOR $1 each!
Recently I disassembled a windows 98 pc- It had a tape drive!
I set up a windows 2000/ 98 pc

I hope to get an old computer that I can hang the parts form the ceiling, connect them together AND POWER ON

How would you hang the parts from the ceiling?

Zeusking19

I have an eMac which is a G4, but only 512mb of ram. It can be upgraded to 1gb, but I cant get the stand off.. xD

Oh well, what do you expect from an £11 computer..

majormax

I've got a neighborhood garage sale today, might see if there are any computer I can pick up

jji7skyline

Zeusking19 wrote:
I have an eMac which is a G4, but only 512mb of ram. It can be upgraded to 1gb, but I cant get the stand off.. xD

Oh well, what do you expect from an £11 computer..

Lol, is it DDR1 ram? xD

majormax wrote:
I've got a neighborhood garage sale today, might see if there are any computer I can pick up

Cool! Don't pay too much for one though!

Ersatz-

jji7skyline wrote:
Ersatz- wrote:
I recently got a powermac G4 for free
I'm waiting for them to deliver the adapter that lets me connect it to my monitor
Cool! Is it the cube one or the tower one?

Tower

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Apple_PowerMac_G4_M8493_QuickSilver_front.jpg/300px-Apple_PowerMac_G4_M8493_QuickSilver_front.jpg
looks like this

Last edited by Ersatz- (May 4, 2014 04:11:55)

jji7skyline

Ersatz- wrote:
jji7skyline wrote:
Ersatz- wrote:
I recently got a powermac G4 for free
I'm waiting for them to deliver the adapter that lets me connect it to my monitor
Cool! Is it the cube one or the tower one?
Tower

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Apple_PowerMac_G4_M8493_QuickSilver_front.jpg/300px-Apple_PowerMac_G4_M8493_QuickSilver_front.jpg
looks like this

cool!

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