[wednesday]

I have an iMac G3, 333 Mhz, with 384 MB RAM installed (one 256 and one 128). It has a 6 GB hard drive and has OS X 10.3 installed and runs okay. My 3 yo uses it to go to the Nick Jr website and play some games, and to play a couple other simple games we have on CD. It's a little slow sometimes at playing Flash content or Quicktime video. Besides replacing the 128 MB memory with 256, what else can I do? It has a 6 GB hard drive--I've read elsewhere that 10 GB would be ideal, but I don't feel like putting that much time and money into this machine.

I also read a reference in another thread to optimizing OS 10.3 on a 6GB hard drive by disabling unneeded features of the OS, such as Dashboard and, I forget, maybe language files? The post was a little vague and when I PM'ed for more details, the person did not write back.

Can anyone give me some direction on this? I've used Macs for years but don't have much experience in this particular area.

TIA!

[stravinsky1911]

the best thing you can do is swap out the 128 for a 256 module or better. Also, if you are running 10.3 then you really are (IMO) using the best version of OS X for the G3 machines - especially since there is no Dashboard or Spotlight consuming resources. The only other things I would do would be to remove printer drivers since they take up so much space, and use a program like Monolingual to remove the extra languages installed with the applications. Be careful with Monolingual not to remove the English language packs. Monolingual will also strip Universal apps to either PowerPC or Intel, but I was a bit wary of that feature and have not tried it. That's about it in terms of stripping the system down and remaining comfortably functional.

On the other hand, OS 9 will fly on that hardware - especially if all you're doing is web games.

[gooser]

well, for now i would suggest booting into os9 and trying that website with the browsers mozilla and opera. maybe even internet explorer. try real hard to get them to be usable. then get back to us and give us your results. good luck. of course others may have other suggestions.

[Anand]

Originally Posted by gooser 

well, for now i would suggest booting into os9 and trying that website with the browsers mozilla and opera. maybe even internet explorer. try real hard to get them to be usable. then get back to us and give us your results. good luck. of course others may have other suggestions.

For web-games OS 9 is dead. The older Mozilla is no longer supported and iCab really stinks. The best bet for an old imac is to use it for old classic games. Good OS 9 compatible kid games can be found often at places like Marshals for $5.

[wednesday]

From what I can tell -- the ONLY kid games available for macintosh are for OS 9. Even when the box says OS X on the outside--it turns out they mean OS X running Classic. Very frustrating.

OS 9 does not seem to be installed on this machine. I tried to install it from some old CDs I had for my Powerbook but I seem to be missing a needed disk.

I can get another 256 MB module for $30 ... but I'm hesitant to put anything more into this machine if what it really needs is a bigger hard drive. Because really I should just be looking for a later model iMac, right? It would also be nice to play DVDs, which I understand the next year's model of iMacs do. (This one is the very old tray-loading model, not the slot-loading model.)

[gooser]

when you go into system preferences, startup disc it doesn't list os9 as an option?

[wednesday]

Originally Posted by gooser 

when you go into system preferences, startup disc it doesn't list os9 as an option?

No. The options it shows are:

• Mac OS X, 10.3.9
• Network Startup

[gooser]

Originally Posted by wednesday 

From what I can tell -- the ONLY kid games available for macintosh are for OS 9. Even when the box says OS X on the outside--it turns out they mean OS X running Classic. Very frustrating.

OS 9 does not seem to be installed on this machine. I tried to install it from some old CDs I had for my Powerbook but I seem to be missing a needed disk.

I can get another 256 MB module for $30 ... but I'm hesitant to put anything more into this machine if what it really needs is a bigger hard drive. Because really I should just be looking for a later model iMac, right? It would also be nice to play DVDs, which I understand the next year's model of iMacs do. (This one is the very old tray-loading model, not the slot-loading model.)

i used to have a graphite 500 with a dvd rom drive. the difference between the cost of one now and what you can get selling yours should be around $50 to $75. may be less than that. they came with a 30g hard drive. bear in mind that performance will only be marginally better than what you have now. be sure you get all of the restore discs. apple also made some 600 and 700 mhz but they didn't come with a dvd drive. for the best performance for your wants and more money maybe an early model emac........................................ you are wise to limit the amount of money you want to put in your imac.