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bookofjames · Dec 18, 2005, 11:30 PM

Hi guys, need advice on something.

I'm planning on buying a 2nd hand iMac G3 (either 266/350/450) and upgrading it for my home network to act as a local fileserver, stream music and the occasional internet surfing station. Here's a few questions I have:

1. Wat's the max HDD space I can upgrade to?
2. Max RAM?
3. Can I upgrade to Tiger? or Panther? Which OS is the max I can go?
4. Wat other things can I do to optimize it so it runs faster?

Is there a website I can go to where I can find these answers? I may consider other Mac models to do likewise in future (like the PowerMac G3, etc).

Thanks for all your help.

James

chefpastry · Dec 19, 2005, 01:35 AM

1. 137GB
2. 1GB using two 512MB SO-DIMMs
3. Yes. Yes. As far as I know, it's still supported.
4. Very little, I think you've got everything covered.

If you have your heart set on an iMac, I suggest that you look for one with Firewire ports in case you ever want to add more storage. Personally, I would look for a tower because it is much more flexible in terms of upgradability.

bookofjames · Dec 19, 2005, 02:50 AM

thanks for the reply chefpastry. Glad to know that Tiger is still supported on these old machines. However is it true that future versions will not be supported on non-firewire Macs? (or is it this version? i'm not entirely sure)

Also, do u mind if I ask where you got the info for (1) and (2)? I'd like to check up on the same info for the Powermac G3s Yosemite and maybe the G4 towers.

Anyone else had experience souping up a 2nd hand Mac? Please share your experiences. Feedback from the community is always helpful.

thanks in advance,
James

chefpastry · Dec 19, 2005, 07:01 AM

As time progresses, support for older hardware will get dropped. It's inevitable.

To be honest, I got the info off the top of my head. But you can check via Apple's website. http://www.info.apple.com/support/applespec.html

Be aware that many times, Apple's listed "maximums" are understated. For example, they may say that the maximum amount of ram you can put in a certain machine is only 512MB, but in actuality it's 1GB, etc. Why do they do this? I don't know.

MightyWinnebago · Dec 19, 2005, 09:19 AM

Originally Posted by chefpastry

Be aware that many times, Apple's listed "maximums" are understated. For example, they may say that the maximum amount of ram you can put in a certain machine is only 512MB, but in actuality it's 1GB, etc. Why do they do this? I don't know.

It's because when the machine was originally created, 256 meg strips were as big as tehy made, so 2x 256= 512. Once people started making 512 sticks, they just never updated the information on their old machines.

MightyWinnebago · Dec 19, 2005, 09:25 AM

Originally Posted by bookofjames

thanks for the reply chefpastry. Glad to know that Tiger is still supported on these old machines. However is it true that future versions will not be supported on non-firewire Macs? (or is it this version? i'm not entirely sure)

Also, do u mind if I ask where you got the info for (1) and (2)? I'd like to check up on the same info for the Powermac G3s Yosemite and maybe the G4 towers.

Anyone else had experience souping up a 2nd hand Mac? Please share your experiences. Feedback from the community is always helpful.

thanks in advance,
James

This is pretty much the best you're going to be able to do:

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...ht=frankenimac

I have a 600mhz Harmoni G3 upgrade with Firewire Port,
512 megs ram (768 actually, but it wouldn't recognize the 512 strip as 512, only 256)
120 gig 7200rpm HD (make sure you partition the HD to have a small partition (under 8 gigs) in FRONT. Otherwise it won't boot.
8 meg gamewizard voodoo2
Rev A motherboard for mezzanine slot
Electroluminescent cabling all over the back half that lights up with all internal wiring and a toggle switch in the side panel
Custom black vinyl tribal graphics on the inside of the shell.

bookofjames · Dec 19, 2005, 11:13 PM

thanks MightyWinnebago, any pics of ur cool machine?

Waragainstsleep · Dec 20, 2005, 01:43 PM

Worth noting that an iMac must have firewire to run Tiger. The tray-loading iMacs do not have firewire and will NOT run Tiger. Most of the slot-loaders (DV of later) do have firewire, so will run it fine. The few which do not, I have never tried to install it on. There is a good chance they will run it since they are so similar to the DVs with firewire. But I would get one with firewire anyway, since its so handy.

bookofjames · Dec 20, 2005, 08:20 PM

point noted and many thanks for pointing it out.

EnemyTerritoryish · Dec 20, 2005, 09:22 PM

Originally Posted by bookofjames

thanks MightyWinnebago, any pics of ur cool machine?

Eh... maybe.

Sorry for the bad quality, it was back when I only had a DV cam.

EnemyTerritoryish · Dec 20, 2005, 09:24 PM

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep

Worth noting that an iMac must have firewire to run Tiger. The tray-loading iMacs do not have firewire and will NOT run Tiger. Most of the slot-loaders (DV of later) do have firewire, so will run it fine. The few which do not, I have never tried to install it on. There is a good chance they will run it since they are so similar to the DVs with firewire. But I would get one with firewire anyway, since its so handy.

It depends. I find the later iMacs up until the lampshade imacs pretty much inferior to the first generation of iMacs. You could upgrade them to 512 megs ram, huge hard drives, and fast CPUs. There are even G4 upgrades floating around for them. You can upgrade them to a 600mhz harmoni like I did, which also gives you a firewire port, and if you want to play some older games, a 1st gen iMac with a gamewizard will run a game in classic MUCH FASTER than any other iMac, because all the other CRT iMacs had really really crappy outdated videocards.

- Rob

PS: I was running 10.3 on it with no problems, I see no reason why 10.4 would kill it. I just haven't used it in a while because I'm doing more CPU intensives tasks these days.

bookofjames · Dec 20, 2005, 10:42 PM

so does that mean a lampshade iMac would be a better choice? but the prices in the 2nd hand market for those are still quite high nowadays. I would love to get me one of those though. IMO those are the coolest iMac designs. prefer that over the all-in-one design of the current iMac.

bookofjames · Dec 22, 2005, 01:38 AM

hi guys, I'm finally deciding on an iMac G3 400 indigo. A good deal just came up.

Just wanna check regarding the RAM, am I limited to only PC100 SDRAM? how about PC133? is that supported on my iMac?

I'm planning to max out the RAM, leave the HDD as it is and get an external Firewire HDD.

Chinasaur · Dec 22, 2005, 08:05 AM

http://www.lowendmac.com/imacs/2001-400.html

EnemyTerritoryish · Dec 27, 2005, 12:25 PM

Originally Posted by bookofjames

hi guys, I'm finally deciding on an iMac G3 400 indigo. A good deal just came up.

Just wanna check regarding the RAM, am I limited to only PC100 SDRAM? how about PC133? is that supported on my iMac?

I'm planning to max out the RAM, leave the HDD as it is and get an external Firewire HDD.

You can use PC133, it'll just 'clock down' to PC100 speeds. Sorry you picked up the indigo. That generation is a lot less upgradeable, but oh well. At least it has a happy home.

- Rob

Waragainstsleep · Jan 1, 2006, 11:59 AM

Its perfectly suited to the job it was bought for. File serving, music streaming and internet.
It will take 1GB of RAM, and run the latest OS. Latest OS means its as secure as possible on the net, and will also run the latest versions of most apps/plugins/players etc. Also, networking is one of the things which gets better with every OS release. Handy for file serving.
Nice as a G4 would be, it would not really speed up file serving much, if at all. It might help with web and music, but the G3 is fast enough really.

Do the the original iMacs play DVD movies under X? My Lombard PowerBook won't, and its a pretty similar machine in terms of spec and architecture. One of its few failings.

ShadowoftheColossus · Jan 2, 2006, 12:20 PM

If by original you mean 1st generation iMacs, no, they do not. They never had the hardware to do so, they didn't even have DVD drives.

gumby5647 · Jan 2, 2006, 09:08 PM

Originally Posted by EnemyTerritoryish

It depends. I find the later iMacs up until the lampshade imacs pretty much inferior to the first generation of iMacs. You could upgrade them to 512 megs ram, huge hard drives, and fast CPUs. There are even G4 upgrades floating around for them. You can upgrade them to a 600mhz harmoni like I did, which also gives you a firewire port, and if you want to play some older games, a 1st gen iMac with a gamewizard will run a game in classic MUCH FASTER than any other iMac, because all the other CRT iMacs had really really crappy outdated videocards.

- Rob

PS: I was running 10.3 on it with no problems, I see no reason why 10.4 would kill it. I just haven't used it in a while because I'm doing more CPU intensives tasks these days.

Unfortunately, those Voodoo II cards are becoming impossible to find, otherwise, this type of mod would still be very practicable. Once upon a time, Voodoo or somebody released OpenGL drivers or something for that card....Xyber233 sent them to me once.....got them to work on a demo for CroMag Rally. (wonder if they are still floating around out there...)

ShadowoftheColossus · Jan 2, 2006, 10:18 PM

>shrug< I have one. The big problem was the card became useless in OSX, as nobody cared if Voodoo2s would be compatible with OSX. As for OPENGL, it's always worked with OpenGL since about mid 1999. I ran Q3 with it a lot.