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horizon · Jul 9, 2003, 06:29 AM

O.K, I familiar with modern macs, but not with the older ones. I'm expecting to receive a beige G3 266 desktop with 20" monitor in the next few weeks. What I'm curious about is the modem set-up, is it possible to get a PCI V90 56k internal modem for this machine???? Have any of the readers here upgraded one of these machines in any way shape or form??? I had one of the 2nd rev I Macs, the colored variety, so I'm pretty familiar with the performance I can expect. I would really like to hear from anyone who has (had) one of these machines, their opinions, and any particular quirks the model may have......Is it a big job to add a USB card? or a Firewire card. How about the i Apps, can I run iMovie and iTunes. (I'm guessing the answers yes!) I'm only looking at using OS 9.2 on the machine so please bear that in mind when making comments.

One last point while I think of it, the machine seems to have v.little VRAM, and as such I'm concerned about its ability to drive a 20" monitor. What should or can I do about that.

Thanks for any help,

steve

firefly · 07:28 AM

There isn't (and never has been) a way to use PCI modems in macs - no drivers. The only way to get an internal modem is to get the 56k comm slot modem, which was only available in the US and will be very hard to find now. Best way is to go for a standard external serial modem. The G3 is a good machine that will take up to 768MB RAM, and now CPUs up to 1GHz G4 (I have a 533MHz G4 upgrade in my beige, and the performance is fine in OS9). Although, it is showing its age, with a slow bus and no AGP, etc, and is not great for running OSX. USB and Firewire PCI cards are no problem at all - you can even get both on one card. iApps will be fine as long as they work on OS9. Also you can get a VRAM upgrade from the standard 2mb, to 6mb which fits onto the motherboard. Instead you could get an ATI Radeon 7000 PCI graphics card which would not only have much more VRAM (32MB) but provide much better 2D/3D performance as well. To further improve performance you should also replace the hard disk if it is still the original.

-Q- · Jul 9, 2003, 12:32 PM

Yeah, what firefly said.

The beige has been a real workhorse for me and has performed admirably through all the various upgrades and poking at its innards that I've performed. I currently have mine with a G4/466 processor upgrade, 768 MB of RAM, a Radeon:Mac card, a FireWire/USB combo card and two new hard drives inside. No issue, no problems...it just works all the way through OS X 10.2.6.

You should be able to upgrade yours as easily as well. The only issues you may have is:

Finding a serial modem. I don't even know where to begin looking for those things nowadays.
Depending on what revision motherboard you have, you may or may not be limited in hard drives. The revision A ROM didn't support slave drives on the IDE bus.

Enjoy the beige.

tooki · Jul 10, 2003, 12:46 PM

There was an internal modem in some beige G3s, but it's exceedingly rare.

The beige G3 doesn't have a comm slot. (Besides, Comm Slot modems [Express Modem] were awful -- they were very finickey about what software they would and wouldn't work with. And Apple dropped support for them in Mac OS 9 -- installing it will actually delete the Express Modem drivers!)

Just get a used serial modem. If you can find win an auction on eBay, I highly recommend a Global Village Teleport 56K V.90 modem. They're selling for about $10. (There's even a brand new one for $50!) Without a doubt the finest external modem ever made for a Mac. Try to get one that comes with the GlobalFax CD -- that's some of the finest fax software ever written for the Mac. (And it'll only work with a Global Village modem.)

Note that the Teleport 56K V.92 is not the same beast, it's just a rebadged Boca Research modem with a Mac cable. The older Teleports were Mac-only modems which are really nice.

Anyway, your beige G3 will work great with a USB card. I suggest getting a SIIG card, they're $40 or less for a 5-port card. No special drivers are necessary under Mac OS 9.1 and later, just plug in the card and it'll work.

tooki

tooki · Jul 10, 2003, 01:00 PM

P.S. There exists a Global Village internal modem. Don't get it, it's only for the blue-and-white G3.

tooki

Gene Jockey · Jul 10, 2003, 03:18 PM

I've got a ZOOM 56K serial modem in storage. It worked with my Beige G3 before I got broadband. I retired my G3 and my Cube and Powerbook have internal modems, which I don't use, but in any case I don't need the serial modem anymore. PM me if you'd like it.

--Josh

drjoe · Jul 10, 2003, 05:19 PM

Agree with all of the above. The beige G3 is a workhorse that just keeps going and going and going. Although I use 10.2.6 on it my comments are relevant. In OS 9.x there is no support for slave drives in the Rev A machines. In OS X there is, the roms are patched at boot time. I have a 467 G4 processor, 768 meg of Ram, an ATI 7000 card, an Initio Rev F Miles card with external Raid, a dual USB/FW card. THREE internal hard drives [Master on bus 0,,slave on bus 1 and a one GB on the internal SCSI drive for OS X's swap partition/drive, and replaced the stock CD ROM drive with an LG-4120B combo drive to watch the occasional movie. For a modem Ebay has a wide selection of external modems, GV being the most common. I can't imagine a machine that could have repaid my investment over a period of over five years, going on six, more than this one has.

-Q- · Jul 10, 2003, 09:41 PM

Originally posted by drjoe:
I can't imagine a machine that could have repaid my investment over a period of over five years, going on six, more than this one has.

Agreed. But I"m hoping the G5 I ordered will take a run at the beige's record.

suprz · Jul 15, 2003, 06:07 AM

i had a beige G3 and like everyone here said, it is a workhorse! one of the easiest computers to swap HD's on. and it is easily overclockable. my original 300MHZ G3 is now with a friend and running at 375MHZ without a hitch. He also has OSX 10.2 on her and she performs good for her age. The stock video card is lacking for OSX but it is only 4mb of Vram so that's to be expected. Great machine to work on, and it just plain keeps on going!

damn, now i miss her......

CIA · Jul 15, 2003, 09:45 AM

What exactly makes your trustworthy G3 a She?

suprz · Jul 15, 2003, 11:42 AM

Originally posted by CIA:
What exactly makes your trustworthy G3 a She?

because, "she" was stylish, sexy, and cool....but "she" could also be a bitch if she wanted to....

bierslayer · Jul 22, 2003, 01:17 PM

While the Beige G3 experts are here, I picked up a barebones G3 for dirt cheap. I know very little about upgrading the inner goodies. So I got it home and opened it up and see that there is no hard drive. (No wonder it was dirt cheap!) What I'd like to do with this unit is use it to play music (ala iTunes), access internet, and misc. storage of files that won't require much space. I plan to run OSX. I need help with suggestions for a hard drive to purchase ( I really don't need more that 20 gb) that's very inexpensive as this unit won't get much use. Also, I want to add RAM (it's got a paltry 32 mb) and I'd like to get up to 256 mb RAM. Help with that would be appreciated as well. Sources and brand names are helpful. Oh yeah, this is a Beige G3 at 266 mHz. I have a snow iMac G4 running Jaguar and maybe it would be useful to network the two units via ethernet so any suggestions in that regard are appreciated as well.

Cheers from Madison WI

bierslayer · Jul 25, 2003, 10:15 AM

bump (see message above) Help! I'm so confused with all the lingo!

Cheers

-Q- · Jul 25, 2003, 10:55 AM

Originally posted by bierslayer:
bump (see message above) Help! I'm so confused with all the lingo!

Cheers

I'd start a new thread. And use some paragraph breaks. Hard to wade through all that to see what you need.