[Madison]

Hello,

I am saving my pennies for an upgrade for my 333mhz iMac. There are several available, but the price difference is over $100, my question is this, is a G3 600mhz any faster than a G4 433 or 500mhz? I know the G4 chip is faster, but is that only on Altivec enhanced apps? The Sonnet card is $100+ cheaper, plus has a Firewire port too, but the idea of a 500mhz G4 sounds nice also. I'd appreciate input, thanks.

Tom King

[vmarks]

A g3/600 to a g4/500?

Not a lot of difference, unless there's faster or more cache on the processor card.

Do you need firewire?

If not, g4.

If you do have a use for firewire, g3/600.

[Kenneth]

I used to have the HARMONiG3 upgrade card for my iMac Rev.A... the firewire port is very useful.

[Feathers]

Believe it or not I know "exactly" your dilemma. I have two Bondi-Blue iMacs (original 233's). One of them has a 500mhz Sonnet with Firewire, the other has a NewerTechnology G4/433Mhz with 1 meg backside cache. My own problem is that I want to sell one of them! Which to sell!!!!

There is no doubt that the firewire is handy. There is also no doubt that OSX is faster on a G4 machine. Increasingly, Apple are leveraging software against new hardware by making the apps G4 only and things can only get worse when they kill off the last of their G3 devices (the iBooks).

To be honest though, even taking altivec into account, a 600Mhz G3 will best a 433mhz G4. Plus firewire and $100 less.

Interms of upgrading now and perhaps selling the machine in a year or so, it is more attractive in resale WITH firewire.

Finally for increased performance, particularly with added firewire, for iMovie or whatever you might consider putting in a new, bigger faster Hard-Drive. With the $100 bucks saved by purchasing the Sonnet, a 7200rpm IBM Deskstar 40gig or a Maxtor DiamondMaxPlus will make a surprising difference, and bitch out your memory while you've got the puppy open!

One word of warning - Install the new processor card and close the machine up and reboot before changing the hard-drive.

Bare in mind also that the system bus of the RevA-D iMacs was only 66Mhz and only changed to 100Mhz with the slot-loading babies so performance with iMovie my still be a bit slooowwww! The faster hard-drive should guarantee no dropped frames though!

[D'Espice]

It all depends on how much RAM you already have, which OS you're running and what applications you're using.
In my opinion, you should get the G3/600 processor and for the $100 saved get a 512MB ram stick. That'll increase performance big time, especially if you're running OS X.

[imaxxedout]

Go with the 500 or 600mhz Harmoni upgrade from sonnet... it's AWESOME. I myself am running the 600mhz Harmoni and I bought it so I could do video editing... it works great. upgraded to 512 megs ram and a 120 gig 7200rpm hard drive, it works fan-freaking tastic in iMovie.

And don't listen to the people who complain about bus speeds, it really doesn't matter.

- Ca$h

PS: Unless you're using an altivec enhanced app, the G4 isn't really faster than a G3, so go with MHZ on this one.

[Aku]

Errr... what to do. Monday I'll have the money for serious upgrade on my 233 revA imac. I already have a 800MzFP imac w/ 512 ram. I basically wanna use my old 233 as a secondary iMovie machine.

I'm getting another 512 for the FP800, but I've been teaching a friend to use iMovie and want to double productivity. He's good at editing and i love this little b!tch machine, but I'd love it even more if it could handle iMovie. We basically get about 20 minutes of good footage per day, which means we shoot about 1-2 hours per day when we go out to seriously have fun and break the laws.(Yes it is possible to get a reckless driving ticket in an off roading only area. People shouldn't picnic in the middle of offroading areas then call 911, those bastards)

Anyways, which is the best for iMovie? I need firewire for import off the miniDV, but I also need speed for iMovie. I'm seriously looking at the Harmoni 600 but I'm not sure.

Thanks for any help

[Aku]

Oh yeah, and does anyone know if people have been successful (first hand) with putting in 512 MB sodimm's?

I think it's possible from way back in the day posts from that Japanese guy(Sorry, can't find his name). But I'd rather not be a guineau pig unless I have to. I guess when Tuesday comes around I'll know if I have to be the one to test the 512, but please post if you have experience with them on the rev A's.

Wonder if 640MB 600Mz g3 on 8.6 with voodooII would outperform 1024MB 800Mz g4 on 9.2.2. Guess I'll let you know in a week.

[imaxxedout]

I have the 600mhz Harmoni and it works great in iMovie.

A few things:

512 sticks WILL NOT WORK. REPEAT: THEY WILL NOT WORK. They only register as 256 meg strips. I know because I have one in my machine. I originally wanted 1 gig of ram, but it only recognized it as 256.

Secondly, the Voodoo2 is an old card, has never had great drivers, and has only 8 megs of memory. It will not outperform said 800mhz G4.... also, the voodoo2 is a 3d only card, it does no 2d work at all, and it does not work in 'windows'... so it's basically good for one thing: UT. Even with a 600mhz harmoni it plays UT ALRIGHT.... but the vid card is still severely limited.

- Ca$h

[gumby5647]

I'll add my vote for the 600MHz G3. That firewire port can come in handy, plus its good for resale value....

[slider]

Well if you're going to start adding things like ram and a faster HD to run OSX you might want to consider a classic iMac running a 600Mhz processor with two fireports, 100Mhz sys bus, and a better graphics card than what is in the 333 iMac. It's 799 and still available at some resellers such as MacMall.com. Or you could bite the bullet and hold on to your baby a little longer and get a g4 machine down the road. What is the Harmoni going for now? $299 and $399, kinda steep if you have not already invested into the machine ie. new HD and additional ram.

[imaxxedout]

True, but I sold my old processor on ebay for 100 bucks, so >shrug<...

If you haven't upgraded your iMac at all, I'd agree, it's a waste of money... but if you already have money in it, go for it.

- Ca$h

[drcarl]

Originally posted by slider:
Well if you're going to start adding things like ram and a faster HD to run OSX you might want to consider a classic iMac running a 600Mhz processor with two fireports, 100Mhz sys bus, and a better graphics card than what is in the 333 iMac. It's 799 and still available at some resellers such as MacMall.com. Or you could bite the bullet and hold on to your baby a little longer and get a g4 machine down the road. What is the Harmoni going for now? $299 and $399, kinda steep if you have not already invested into the machine ie. new HD and additional ram.

I agree with slider.

I wanted to upgrade my iMac 333, but then looked at the costs:

Harmoni $300-400
Hard Drive $100
CD-RW $100
Mac OS X $120
RAM $50?

If you add it all up, you can get an iMac with better features, updated software, and a warranty (plus you now have TWO iMacs!). It's a little bit depressing that it costs so much, because doing the upgrades would be a lot of fun. For me, the decision came down to: do I buy an eMac or a FP iMac?

Got the iMac and couldn't be more happy.

[imaxxedout69]

But if you already have a big hard drive, a voodoo2, and lotsa ram, all you need is basically the Harmoni.

- $