[Lordison]

I have a desktop G3 266 with 192MB of RAM and a 4GB HD, and I plan to get a new hard drive now that i have DSL and i'm downloading like crazy. But I also want to speed my computer up for gaming since there are some really good games coming out and my computer is able to handle Diablo II, but only with everything cool turned off.

I've been thinking of getting a new graphics card since my comp only has a Rage Pro, but I don't know the best one to get at a sensible price.

Another option is a proccessor upgrade, but I don't know if they are really worth the money.

Anyone have any ideas of which way to go, or if there is a better way to beef up this beige G3? I would like to stay away from very expensive solutions since i will most likely get a new computer when i head off to college, but i need speed now. Thanks.

Lordison

[smic]

you can overclock very easily with jumpers
i'll look for the info for it
but it sounds like you havent really played with your mac that much
but the graphics card is easy to upgrade, rage pro 128 and voodoo 3's are going cheap now
and compared to the rage pro you got they kick some serious ass
i have a rage pro on my imac, but my friend has a g3 300 with a rage 128 and the games looked much nicer, and he had a voodoo 2 card and that was much nicer too
both are somewhere around $100-150 or cheaper, since the voodoo 5 and the raedon cards came out

but if your planning on using osx get the rage 128, it will give you way nicer looking games and so far its the best supported card for osx now

oh and a bigger hard drive would be a good upgrade too

and if your serious about gettin a processor upgrade or overclocking look at http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/
lots of good info for all you want, upgrading and everything

[Lordison]

Thanks for the tips and the link, that web sites seems to be just the thing i've been looking for. I'll take what you've said into consideration

[COmie JOe]

just to let you know the maker of Voodo went defunct so I would advise aginst it. I have heird Nvida is good.

[smic]

nvidia did buy 3dfx, but there still is drivers for the cards and the graphics on them are really nice, but there probably wont be any support

nvidia on the other hand has phenominal graphics
still mostly pc, but slowly gettin mac'ified'

[COmie JOe]

yea they have good graphix but they need to port more of there cards to the mac, same with ATI. like some AGP version of their cards.

[petek]

I haven't played with graphics cards, but I highly recommend a processor upgrade for the beige G3s. I put the Formac G3/466/1M in my rev A 233 about 6 mos ago and am very happy with its performance and stability. I'm now running OS 9.1 and had no upgrade-related conflicts.

Another noticable speed-up is going to a 7200 rpm HD. I put a Maxtor 40 G Diamondmax plus in my G3 and was surprised at how much difference it made.

Altogether these mods, plus additional 128 M RAM and an Orange Micro firewire/usb card, have made this a great machine.

[davidflas]

I just put a 30GB 7200RPM Maxtor in my Dad's minitower G3/266. Made the computer noticeably faster, and much quieter too. He had the stock 6GB in there before. $149 at Circuit City.

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"life is pain, Highness, anyone who tells you different is selling something."--The Man in Black from The Princess Bride