[macvillage.net]

Getting a Beige G3 (company selling them for $75 to get rid of them in favor of newer machines)...

Don't know the exact specs yet.... but considering

A G4/500 upgrade (can overclock to 600 they say)
http://www.powerlogix.com/products2/pfg4zif/index.html

New harddrive 7200RPM, perhaps an ATA/100 card

Max out RAM.


Any recommendations? Any other ideas?

[Vanquish]

Radeon 7000 PCI with QE enabled over PCI ?

[captain swing]

i have a g3/233 running os x 10.2.4 ... i have done some upgrading, but sill very hard going, so slow. think twice is my suggestion before spending much. the upside for me is that it has been the most stable machine i have ever owned (including my g4).

if your needs are minimal, then it might be a good idea.

swing

[Eriamjh]

Buy it for an iTunes server and put it in the garage or wherever you need your music. Put a bigger HD in it if you need it, but don't bother with a PCI IDE card. The speed isn't needed (beige systems have IDE).

I wouldn't bother with QE over PCI unless you are using the system a lot for.. uh, use.

Think about what everything costs before you buy upgrades and stuff. Determine your application before investing. I am using a 200MHz 604e (1996-97) as an iTunes server for music. Works fine. I use it for little else. Your Beige G3 is at least twice as fast as my 7300.

[OreoCookie]

Use it as a server, don't use it as a primary machine. The costs for an upgrade will not be worth it.

[macvillage.net]

Yea, most likely a server, perhaps a light use machine.


Thinking to hell with the graphics cards (can only get so much out of PCI anyway, not worth it)... the bottleneck is in the bus anyway.

Now looking at that 800MHz G3 chip.


What IDE card to get for it? Heard bad things about the ACards... Promise?

[Landos Mustache]

I have my G3 tower 266 working great with OSX. It have 392 RAM, a USB, Firewire card in it.

It is used by my mother and sister for Word, internet and syncing the iPod. It works great for all these tasks.

You can use it for much more then just a server.

[Mac Write]

I have a Beige G3, and it is my only Mac and I do Webdesign and light Photoshop with it (those are the muscle apps).

I am at least 24 months away from a new Mac at best.

Anyways with the 970 so close I wouldn't want to buy until Jan 04 anyways (Rev B 970's)

It's worth upgrading this computer. I just replaced my 60GB with a 120GB (60GB was dying and I don'ttrust the warrentie replacement as a primary drive).

I also Maxed out the RAM, and added a OrangeMicro USB/Firewire card in March 2001. I also have the orginal Radeon card.

computer is great,but a CPU upgrade (1GHZ) will be in hear late next year or 2005. Then this will be a great backup computer and server for my 970. oh and great computer for playing videos on my TV.

[booboo]

I would say first and formost don't spend more than $100. For this you can:

1. Get a PCI Radeon 7000 DDR for PC and flash it - NB not all PC versions can be flashed - but don't run Quartz Extreme hack, it will actually slow down the real-world functioning of the machine. ($40)

2. Put in a 256MB RAM stick (in addition to what you already have) I had no problem just putting cheap generic PC133 DRAM in mine, but some have had problems. ($25)

3. Overclock the bus to 83MHz (if it runs stable)

4. See how far you can push the existing processor, and then back off a little. Consider a better heatsink and transfer compound. You will be unlucky not to get 10-15% ($10)

5. Replace the existing HD with something more modern. I'm not sure it's worth going 7200 rpm or spending more for a top spec drive as the Beige's ATA controllect isn't great. Remember to make the first partition 8MB or less!

A beige G3 running Mac OS X at >=300MHz is pretty useable. Think very carefully about the cost of a processor upgrade compared with the cost of a better base machine second hand, i.e. a Digital Audio G4/466 or better.

I elected to keep a second OS X capable Mac and the Beige G3 is the one I chose, it has serial ports and scsi and a floppy disk, all of which occasionally prove useful, certainly more useful and cost-effective than burdening my main machine with a load of PCI cards and peripherals....

[davidflas]

I recently purchased a G3/266 DT off of Ebay for $112.50 as I wanted to have an desktop machine to go with my PB. I also wanted a machine to hook my scsi devices to. I upped the specs of the G3 to:

768 MB of RAM $99 from datamem
120 GB Western Digital 7200RPM HD $109 after rebate from Circuit City
SIIG ATA 100/133 EIDE card $79 from Other World Computing
Lacie internal 48x12x48 CDRW drive $59 from MacResQ
M$ Optical Mouse Blue $29 from Circuit City
I use that with the two port USB card that came in the machine.
I plan to buy a Radeon 7000 so I can connect a digital flat panel monitor at some point.

Did I spend too much? Perhaps, but I wanted the compact DT form factor and it works great for websurfing, itunes jukebox/cd burning, etc.. and I does a great job driving my Nikon LS-2000 scsi film scanner.

[suprz]

you can easily overclock that beige G3 and that will increase your bus speed. a friend has my old beige G3 300mhz and overclocked it to 350mhz and increased the bus speed to 87mhz (from 66mhz) and it is very stable. whatever you do with that G3 just keep in mind its limitations and enjoy what it can do.

[firefly]

How about the new 1GHz G4 ZIF upgrade from Sonnet? $589