Recommended Softare for Power Mac PPC Processors

[Shepherd_of_Anu]

This week I picked up a Power Mac G5 for next to nothing. I got it from a educational institution and from what I can tell it seems like it was barely even used at all. There is practically no dust inside the computer and everything looks brand new. The only downside is that it has a Dual PowerPC chips which Apple has chosen to move away from, moving over to Intel based chips. I think it actually has two processors, not just a dual core like most processors today.

What software can run on a Power PC chip that is still decent for audio production? I assume most of the big music software packages stopped supporting PPC chips a few years ago but I am not up on the latest mac info because generally I only use macs when I have to.

If I can't find some good software or if nobody I know needs this computer I am thinking about modding the case to be ATX compatible and then building a 8 core, windows based, AVHD capable PC video editing machine. That would require extensive modification of the case though... and sadly the perfectly working innards of the machine would be scrapped. The case is pretty sweet though. Solid aluminum construction. I have found lots of tuts on how to build a hackintosh out of this case but I am only interested in building a windows machine since I own the windows version of Adobe Creative Suite.

I am not a big mac fan at all but one thing I will say is that the g5 cases are very well constructed. What a beast!

[Shepherd_of_Anu]

Something that pisses me off about Apple... their products are custom, one-off designs which are destined for the landfill once a part breaks. Its next to impossible for the average individual to take an mac product and fix or upgrade it. On the other hand I can take older PC parts or cases and easily upgrade or build a new computer upon an older chassis.

Basically they are designing a product that for all intents and purposes cannot be reused in the role it was originally designed for. That to me seems to be a flawed product. If I constructed a bicycle tire that could only work with the original tire it came with and no replacement, people would shun my product. That is pretty much now Mac designs their products You can't even interchange their own product's parts. Like why couldn't you upgrade the components of the computer between versions of the Macs. (ie g3 g4 g5) Since you cannot, Macs are pretty much a one-off disposable product. I have pc computer cases that are ten years old that will fit most boards that are out on the market today. Re-usability... that means something I think.

[livecollective]

Something that pisses me off about Apple... their products are custom, one-off designs which are destined for the landfill once a part breaks. Its next to impossible for the average individual to take an mac product and fix or upgrade it. On the other hand I can take older PC parts or cases and easily upgrade or build a new computer upon an older chassis.

bollocks, i have repaired multiple imacs, macbooks and minis... i am an average individual... its not different than fixing another computer.

Basically they are designing a product that for all intents and purposes cannot be reused in the role it was originally designed for. That to me seems to be a flawed product. If I constructed a bicycle tire that could only work with the original tire it came with and no replacement, people would shun my product. That is pretty much now Mac designs their products You can't even interchange their own product's parts. Like why couldn't you upgrade the components of the computer between versions of the Macs. (ie g3 g4 g5) Since you cannot, Macs are pretty much a one-off disposable product. I have pc computer cases that are ten years old that will fit most boards that are out on the market today. Re-usability... that means something I think.

yeah there stuff is proprietary...they recycle parts. they are not one-off disposable products. I have had my og macbook since 2006... i have repaired it, and everyone i know with a pc has gone through 2 or 3 computers in the last 6 years. I also work in IT and have to deal with pc laptops (1000 of them) at this school... and talk about being cheap/hard to fix/disposable.

Oh and btw, i just got another macbook today . Having used both for production and business, if I can afford it... mac all day. Let me know when OSC and midi over wifi are built into the pc os and ill start paying attention again. And when it comes to design/film... no way do PCs hold up. Also most studios (well all the ones I have been too, that are not some bedroom bs) use apple products.

I am not even an apple fanboy, your post just seems way off base.

[tone-def]

Pretty much agree with livecollective.
Regarding what software can run on it.

Presonus studio one
Logic 8
Pro tools 8 (need digidesign hardware, can be found cheap on eBay)
Reaper
Digital performer

[ethereal]

Ableton 7
Reason 3 (4 also works but runs badly i believe)

You should really give logic a try if this is your first experience with a Mac.

[tone-def]

Reason 4 was fine on PPC. i was using it on a 1.8GHz single core machine with no problems. much more efficient than Logic and Pro Tools ever was.

[Shepherd_of_Anu]

bollocks, i have repaired multiple imacs, macbooks and minis... i am an average individual... its not different than fixing another computer.

No, no. This particular computer is is total bullshit. You can't even buy another mac motherboard and put into this case because it was designed to only fit the motherboard it came with. So what you might think? Well this computer's case is quite nice. I just weight the computer and it weighs about 44 lbs. That is pretty hefty for a computer. The case is made out of solid anodized aluminum, built to last you a lifetime. If you could upgrade it I bet it might be the only desktop case you would need in a lifetime so long as the technology doesn't change too radically. It doesn't make sense to have such a heavy duty case for a computer that is going to outdated in a year or two. It makes even less sense to have such a fine piece of hardware not be compliant with any other motherboard form factor out there. Its just ridiculous. You should at least be able to buy new Mac components that will share a common footprint. Would it have killed them to just put the motherboard holes in the right place? Its just a stupid idea dreamed up by assholes who want you to fork out thousands for a whole new computer when all you really need is a new motherboard.

I found a lot of DIY tuts on turning this case an ATX compliant case but I am starting to think that I would rather put a Raspberry Pi inside it and then use all the extra space inside for extra storage space, or a bunch of hard drives or something. That would be sweet.

I think I have some reason 3 disks somewhere around here. I will have to give that a try.
I doubt you can buy Logic 8 anymore.

[Shepherd_of_Anu]

Pretty much agree with livecollective.
Regarding what software can run on it.

Presonus studio one
Logic 8
Pro tools 8 (need digidesign hardware, can be found cheap on eBay)
Reaper
Digital performer

Hey, I am trying to get to the bottom of something here... Logic 9's tech spec web page says that it requires an Intel based Mac and osx 10.6.xx but I have read on several forums that Logic 9 is in fact a Universal Binary and although it is not advertised, Logic 9 will run on a PPC based Mac. I have read people arguing for and against this and I am wondering what to believe. Some people have tried to ask Apple about it but they were not very forthcoming about the situation.

Some people claim to be able to run Logic 9 on a PPC. Does anyone know if there is there any truth to this? Maybe someone who might be using a PPC Mac? I have only toyed around with Logic in the past but I was thinking about giving it a serious go. I generally do not like working with macs because of my past experiences using them for video editing but I am trying to keep an open mind because the program has such a good reputation.