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I had this type of G5 machine for eight years. While I upgraded the disk and memory at some point, and decided to upgrade the GPU, the only thing that ever bro

I had this type of G5 machine for eight years. While I upgraded the disk and memory at some point, and decided to upgrade the GPU, the only thing that ever broke was that I had to send in one of the displays for a couple weeks because of a power supply issue (so the display failed, not the computer). And when I finally decided to get rid of the machine, it still worked perfectly; I gave it to a friend and his kids have been really happy with it. My reason for replacing the machine was purely due to needing a good Intel box for modern software development. Apple really built things to last, and this is something I could never convince people of years ago. Everyone was so sure that some crappy PC costing a few hundred less was somehow so much better than these “expensive Macs” at the time, never understanding that the PCs were breaking all the time and the Macs basically never did.

danielbarla 9y ago
> Everyone was so sure that some crappy PC costing a few hundred less was somehow so much better than these “expensive Macs” at the time, never understanding that the PCs were breaking all the time and the Macs basically never did. Eh, I'm the proud owner of a crappy PC costing many times less than a G5, and it's been chugging along with since 2007 just fine. Some of the parts have been periodically upgraded where appropriate, so calling it the same PC is perhaps a bit of a Ship of Theseus dilemma, but there are certainly components in there which haven't changed at all (e.g. 3x 320GB Seagate drives, which are still going and I'm too lazy to chuck out). Being able to build and upgrade it piecemeal has allowed me to go for good specials, and I've generally been buying at the price / performance sweet spot at every turn. It shouldn't be underestimated how much of a saving that gives. I probably still haven't spent nearly the price of a G5 on it, and I have a PC which is basically on the VR-capable performance line. Bu basically, just don't buy the cheapest components and you should be fine.

danielbarla 9y ago

> Everyone was so sure that some crappy PC costing a few hundred less was somehow so much better than these “expensive Macs” at the time, never understanding that the PCs were breaking all the time and the Macs basically never did. Eh, I'm the proud owner of a crappy PC costing many times less than a G5, and it's been chugging along with since 2007 just fine. Some of the parts have been periodically upgraded where appropriate, so calling it the same PC is perhaps a bit of a Ship of Theseus dilemma, but there are certainly components in there which haven't changed at all (e.g. 3x 320GB Seagate drives, which are still going and I'm too lazy to chuck out). Being able to build and upgrade it piecemeal has allowed me to go for good specials, and I've generally been buying at the price / performance sweet spot at every turn. It shouldn't be underestimated how much of a saving that gives. I probably still haven't spent nearly the price of a G5 on it, and I have a PC which is basically on the VR-capable performance line. Bu basically, just don't buy the cheapest components and you should be fine.