[gto47]

What is the performance like on these machines when the ram is maxed out? I'm thinking of upgrading my from 256 on my girlfriend's machine but i'm unsure if its worth it. Its just used for basic word processing/web browser but as it is it can't play quicktime movies or flvs with an acceptable framerate. Will this be improved with more RAM?

I put tiger on it, not even thinking about leopard.

[imitchellg5]

Upgrading RAM is always worth it. 256 Mb is not enough to run Tiger smoothly. Quicktime movies should play better with more RAM, but most of that is due to the G3. Good thing you aren't thinking of Leopard, since it won't run on a G3 You can find the ram you need here.

[cinetic]

I am typing this on an iBook G3 900 that a friend gave me. I upgraded the ram to 640, and swapped out the hd to a 5400 rpm one, and all seems well. It surfs the web just fine, although the page drawing is a tad delayed. General program launching is quick, and I can run a few things at once with no issue. Loading a tab in the background does halt the browser for 2-5 seconds, and if the browser is loading something large, you get a 5+ second delay still (not bandwidth related).

I dunno - makes a great intermediate internet machine. I can even play movies in VLC with no issue. I've half thought about getting rid of my Macbook C2D since I mainly check my email, surf the web (A LOT!), read .pdfs (for school) and uhh, type up papers.

I'd say upgrade the ram, and keep it for a while. Make sure she isn't closing the lid all the time too... that can wear out the wires between the base and the display as I had happen on my iBook G3 700.