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jld · Feb 5, 2004, 02:35 AM

I'm working my way to full switcher, but I'm not quite ready yet. I've got a 12" AlBook

I'm looking to get a cheap mac desktop to play around with. I mostly planning on surfing the web, Adium, and iTunes with it.

I saw a Blue G3 400 Mhz, with a gig of ram, for about $300-$350. Would this machine suit my needs well? I'm planning on running 10.3 on it.

I'd love to have a nice new g5, but I think that's a little over kill. (and a little too pricey)

bowwowman · Feb 5, 2004, 07:12 AM

Originally posted by jld:
I'm working my way to full switcher, but I'm not quite ready yet. I've got a 12" AlBook

I'm looking to get a cheap mac desktop to play around with. I mostly planning on surfing the web, Adium, and iTunes with it.

I saw a Blue G3 400 Mhz, with a gig of ram, for about $300-$350. Would this machine suit my needs well? I'm planning on running 10.3 on it.

I'd love to have a nice new g5, but I think that's a little over kill. (and a little too pricey)

yes that machine would do fine for your uses. AND, it is easily upgradeable, should you want to do that later on.... (CPU/HD's/CDRW/DVD)

rjenkinson · Feb 5, 2004, 07:16 AM

you could probably get a faster powermac G4 for roughly a little more than that price. check this ebay page.

-r.

jld · Feb 5, 2004, 11:34 AM

What's the speed bump going to be between a G3 and a G4 of roughly the same number of cycles?

Lateralus · Feb 5, 2004, 01:14 PM

You might be able to get a G4 with a similar clock speed for around the same price if you look hard, but there is very little chance that it will have as much RAM as that B&W. And, IMO, at the clock speeds you are looking at, the amount of RAM is more important than the type of processor.

That said, I had a B&W G3 450 as my main machine back late last year and it did everything I wanted it to do with sufficent speed, but I opted for the PowerLogix 900MHz 750FX G3 upgrade from OWC for about $230 and then sold the G3 450 chip for $60. The speed difference was amazing, and with the upgrade, the B&W handled itself as well as my current 933MHz G4 QuickSilver. If I had not gotten the QuickSilver for as cheaply as I did, I would be wishing that I had not sold the B&W.

tooki · Feb 6, 2004, 02:17 AM

I have to disagree -- Mac OS X is heavily optimized for the G4, making it appreciably faster with a G4, all else held equal.

That said, if you have a 12" AlBook, I'm not sure what you'll gain by running an antique Mac. Just hook up an external display, keyboard and mouse to the PowerBook and go your merry way!

tooki

bowwowman · Feb 6, 2004, 07:30 AM

Originally posted by jld:
What's the speed bump going to be between a G3 and a G4 of roughly the same number of cycles?

as far as the cpu itself is concerned, NOTTA

When running Altivec-aware applications, considerable....

hint hint....OS X & it's gui is heavily altivec dependant

rhogue islander · 08:30 AM

I would recommend a G4 'Sawtooth' as your baseline machine (although the BW color scheme is still my favorite).

It is the first Powermac to have an AGP slot.

It will also accept cpu upgrades up to 1.4+ ghz.

Edit: Or, better yet, a G4 Digital Audio which has a faster system bus (133 vs 100).

Be sure to visit www.lowendmac.com for specifications on virtually any Powermac model.

Westfoto · Feb 6, 2004, 04:22 PM

My desktop Mac is the DP 533 (Digital Audio). I am happy with it. I have loaded it up with RAM. 1.25GB and it runs well. Yes I would love to get a new G5, but the DP 533 is running well for what it does. I am running Photoshop on it and it is faster than the TiBook 1Ghz that I have. The dual chips do make a difference. If you can find a Dual.

West