For its fiscal third-quarter, Apple sold a record number of Macs, the fourth time in five quarters that it had broken its own sales mark. While the company doesn't break down those sales between new and existing customers, it's not too big of an assumption to say that some of that new hardware is being snapped up by people ditching their PowerPC-based Macs for newer, more powerful models with Intel-built chips. And within that group, it's likely that a fair chunk of these Mac buyers are creative pros moved to upgrade now that their favorite applications run natively on Intel-based machines.

So let's say you're among the multitude who have bought that shiny new iMac or Mac Pro in recent months. Now what do you with that old G4 or G5 Mac? You could donate, recycle, or sell it, of course, though that last option is unlikely to fetch you a tidy sum in return.

But instead of retiring that old Mac, why not try to squeeze a few more years of service out of it? Macworld has covered this subject before--here are links to the 2007 and 2005 collections of new tricks for old Macs--but I've put together a list of things that creative professional can do with their old machines. In some cases, you'll have to spend some extra money for a new display, and you'll have to make room somewhere in the home or office for your extra Mac. But in my opinion, it's worth the effort or few extra bucks.

Set up a font server

If you're in the graphic design business, you probably have a ton of fonts. If you use more than one Mac (for example, I use a Mac Pro, a MacBook Pro, and an old G5), you'll certainly need to make sure you have all the same fonts on every machine.

Both Extensis and Insider Software offer font servers which you install on a host Mac for sharing across all the Macs installed on your network.

Extensis just released Universal Type Server Lite, and the font-management application perfect for a small office of 10 Macs or less. At a cost of US$1,395, it's definitely not for the home freelancer, but certainly worth the investment for a small design firm. Insider offers a server product of its own, Font Agent Pro Server; its cost varies based on your needs, so you'll have to contact Insider for a price quote.

Set up an FTP server

Mac OS X comes with a built-in file and FTP server. You can take advantage of that capability for in-house use, or make files available for clients to download. An FTP server also allows your clients to upload files directly to your computer.

In-house sharing is easy--just turn on the appropriate settings on in the Sharing preferences pane. For sharing your files across the Internet, you can give out the IP address to your clients to connect, but most people have dynamic IP addresses, so you may find that you want a more permanent solution.

Services like no-ip and dynDNS redirect a permanent domain name address to your dynamically assigned IP address.

Running older applications and OS X updates

We all have applications we love, and hate to leave behind with OS updates. Consider keeping an older OS installed on that extra Mac to run some of those older applications that no longer work on newer machines and OSs.

Let's say you're not willing to give up using Freehand or older versions of GoLive, both of which have been discontinued. While both those programs will run on newer machines, their performance is less than optimum. Keeping that G4-based Mac around will give you the ability to continue using the programs you know and love without taking the performance hit.

Because a G5 is capable of running Leopard, you can also consider using your older Mac as a test machine for incremental OS updates, as well as third-party software upgrades. Nothing is more annoying than finding out after an upgrade that the newly updated OS breaks a vital application, or that a fantastic piece of shareware doesn't work properly on the updated OS. With that extra Mac laying around, you can install any OS updates or software upgrades on the spare machine first to make sure you won't experience any adverse affects on your workflow.

Hook up your hardware

Many times I've had to scan a lot of photos or slides, but wanted to continue working on other projects. Having an extra machine around allows you to keep your main Mac's resources dedicated to your applications, while the extra Mac does the heavy lifting with tasks like scanning, printing, or burning discs.

Scanner and inkjet printer vendors are infamous for having drivers that don't always work with newer Macs and OS versions. An extra G4 running either OS 9 or an older version of OS X is all you need to continue using the drivers and software provided by the maker of your peripherals. And if you've got an older scanner with a SCSI connection, your only option is to keep an older machine around to hook it up to.

For more Mac news, visit Macworld. Story copyright Mac Publishing, LLC.