Wanna use my old G5 Mac Tower as a music server...

[gmgraves]

But what I don't want to do, is connect a monitor, mouse, and keyboard to the thing.

 

My question (and I think I know the answer) is this:

Is there any software solution(s) out there that will allow me to see and manipulate files on my old Mac using a a pad or smart phone via Wi-Fi?

[souptin]

Yes, is easily done. Apple's Remote Desktop is nice if you are keen on spending money where a free solution will probably work just as well. Free, or much cheaper solutions being the many VNC clients, as well as Apple's own Screen Sharing.

 

The server part of VNC is built in to OSX - Leopard is as far as you can go on a G5 and will run fine on it without causing any major compatibility problems when connecting from newer computers. Your choice of lah-de-dah music software that runs under G5/Leo is limited though, if that's important to you - Pure Music or nothing, unless you have some older installers around for Amarra (from memory Amarra sucked pretty hard under Tiger) or Decibel. I think the screen res always defaults to quite a low one without a monitor attached but I'm not sure of that or how effective any of the workarounds are for this.

 

I've used a G5 headless as a proper server at work for ages and it's pretty stable, so I doubt there will be many occasions where you will need to connect a monitor and keyboard to it.

 

Oh, ps: Fair warning - It sounds like a small helicopter once the fans start going.

[gmgraves]

Yes, is easily done. Apple's Remote Desktop is nice if you are keen on spending money where a free solution will probably work just as well. Free, or much cheaper solutions being the many VNC clients, as well as Apple's own Screen Sharing.

 

The server part of VNC is built in to OSX - Leopard is as far as you can go on a G5 and will run fine on it without causing any major compatibility problems when connecting from newer computers. Your choice of lah-de-dah music software that runs under G5/Leo is limited though, if that's important to you - Pure Music or nothing, unless you have some older installers around for Amarra (from memory Amarra sucked pretty hard under Tiger) or Decibel. I think the screen res always defaults to quite a low one without a monitor attached but I'm not sure of that or how effective any of the workarounds are for this.

 

I've used a G5 headless as a proper server at work for ages and it's pretty stable, so I doubt there will be many occasions where you will need to connect a monitor and keyboard to it.

 

Oh, ps: Fair warning - It sounds like a small helicopter once the fans start going.

 

 

Thanks, I will look unto these options. About the fan noise - we've met! This computer sat next to me on my desktop for years....

[Daudio]

George,

 

I have use a G4 as my music server for about 3 years now. It runs 10.5 Leopard, and I can control it easily from my MBP using the built in Screen Sharing facilities. Even was able to Screen Share into my new MacMini from the remote controled G4

 

I haven't tried Remote Desktop yet, so I can't comment on differences.

 

My G4 has a DAC/ADC/SPDIF sound card, extra USB-Firewire ports, and 2-533mhz CPUs. It's maxed out at 1.5 GB RAM through, which is really impacting me with iTunes interface response time. My music library has grown steadily, and somewhere around 500GB, the iTunes internal database got too big to reside in memory, and interacting with the iTunes interface slowed down to molasses, but kind of random, to maximize the frustration !

 

But my 2010 Mini has 8GB and a speedy engine, so it should handle its tasks with aplomb, and make me happy with my server again (when I can get everything converted, copied, set up and such...)

 

I'd like to use the G4 in some other audio related roles, and it has been a comfortable and faithful servant and tool for 3 years of building my music library, but those 3 fans never shut up and I am way tired of all that noise in the middle of my system.

 

Good luck with your G5,