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bob-nine · May 28, 2007, 02:10 PM

BACKGROUND
I am sick and tired of Windows machines, and am ready to make the change. Do not tell my boss as I am an IT PRO. Windows machines are my career.

MY QUESTION
I am considering buying an iMac from a friend. It is G3 700 MHz, 256MB RAM, 60 GB HDD, CDRW. Right now it has OS 9.2 loaded. I would prefer the latest OS installed. Will this mahine smoothly run the latest version? If I buy the latest OS, does it come with iLife?

I know that it can be upgraded to 1GB RAM, and I would want to do that very quickly. I know that this machine WILL run OS X. I want to know if anyone is doing it, and if it runs well. If I do this, am I in for a lot of waiting? WIll it be sluggish?

Thanks in advance.

CharlesS · May 28, 2007, 02:20 PM

It will run the latest OS as of today, since Tiger will run on any machine that has FireWire ports. It will be a little sluggish, and you'll definitely want to upgrade the RAM, but you should be able to get by. However, be aware that there is a possibility that Leopard might not support the G3 anymore, so you could get orphaned right away.

Frankly, if I were you I'd forget the iMac and go get a Mac mini while you still can (assuming the AppleInsider rumor about the mini being discontinued is true). Even the low-end one will be a lot better than a G3 iMac.

bob-nine · May 28, 2007, 02:38 PM

I understand your comments. I would prefer a new Mac any day of the week. My decisions are money based. You will always get a better deal from a friend.

Is anyone running this OS on a G3? Any expereince would be appreciated.

I also have to calculate the price of memory and the OS in the deal. Where do I go to get the best deal on this? Are all the prices the same?

OreoCookie · May 28, 2007, 03:00 PM

The biggest problem with these machine is the screen: both the resolution (it's not fun to use 1024x768 on a 15" CRT) and the age will show.

The performance will be OK, but I'd really suggest you try and look for a different type of machine (e. g a Mac mini or an iMac G4 with LCD).

JKT · May 28, 2007, 03:58 PM

10.4 runs as well as 10.3 on the G3 iMacs and is very usable (if relatively slow compared to even the low end Macs of today or even the G4 minis), but you will want between 756MB and 1GB RAM to be absolutely comfortable, 512MB at the bare minimum. Note, some of the graphic niceties of OS X 10.4 are not possible on the iMac G3s as the GPUs aren't up to displaying them. This doesn't mean the OS becomes unusable, but things like the water ripple effect that appears when you add a new widget to Dashboard simply don't happen. (IIRC, another example is that fast user switching doesn't use the cube effect and instead uses a fade transition).

iLife doesn't come with the OS, but you can get iLife '05 relatively cheaply (the last version but one) and it does most of what iLife '06 does anyway (it lacks iWeb, but that is the only significant difference).

Having said all that, unless you are getting the iMac very cheaply, I would consider a more recent Mac as well. They are still great little machines but, if you did get the iMac and assuming you do like OS X etc. you will soon be dying to upgrade to something better.

bob-nine · May 28, 2007, 05:26 PM

Good points. I will have to consider them all.

Where can I find "not current" versions of software?

Big Mac · May 28, 2007, 05:30 PM

My vote: 10.3

analogika · May 28, 2007, 06:30 PM

Originally Posted by JKT

10.4 runs as well as 10.3 on the G3 iMacs and is very usable (if relatively slow compared to even the low end Macs of today or even the G4 minis), but you will want between 756MB and 1GB RAM to be absolutely comfortable, 512MB at the bare minimum.

Exactly that. In my experience, 10.4 seems more polished and smoother on the G3 iMac - not nimble, but graceful and comfortable, like an old Cadillac.

My vote is definitely: throw in an extra 512 MB RAM and go to Tiger.

TyPod · May 28, 2007, 06:49 PM

I say you do what others have suggested, get a Mac mini. That way, you can run both Mac OS X and Windows. Also, it will be a little more "futureproof" and will have way better specifications than an old iMac G3.

Thinine · May 28, 2007, 07:42 PM

Upgrade to 1GB, buy Tiger. That's about all you can do with the machine.

JKT · May 29, 2007, 02:28 AM

Originally Posted by bob-nine

Where can I find "not current" versions of software?

e-bay.

Note, another thing to factor into your costs is the price of iLife - this comes pre-installed on more recent Macs by default so even though, e.g. a second hand G4 Mac mini might ostensibly cost more than your friends iMac, once you factor in the price of additional RAM, iLife and OS X (and perhaps a new hard drive as well, depending on the original capacity), the difference might not be so great.

D'Espice · May 30, 2007, 02:18 AM

In my experience, 10.4 feels a bit smoother and faster on a G3 than 10.3. Experienced this both with an iMac G3/350 and a PowerBook Pismo G3/400, the first with 384MB of RAM, the latter with a gig.

If you're going to give 10.4 a go and do not upgrade your memory to a gig then you might wanna consider killing Dashboard - it just sits there in the background and eats up a lot of memory. You can disable it, simply google it and follow the instructions. It made 10.4 more usable on the iMac G3, however didn't make any difference on the Pismo (thanks to the abundance of memory). Depending on what you're going to use it for 512MB can be enough - the iMac is my girlfriends and she uses it for surfing the web, emails and some word processing - and does definitely not require any more memory than is already installed. I on the other hand keep a dozen of apps open and running in the background on my Pismo - can't even start to imagine how incredibly slow that'd be with less than a gig.

My vote: 10.4 and if you can afford it some additional memory. On the other hand, if you're willing to fork out some money, get an Intel Mac Mini - performance-wise they kick the living crap out of any iMac

Thinine · May 30, 2007, 02:20 AM

Originally Posted by D'Espice

If you're going to give 10.4 a go and do not upgrade your memory to a gig then you might wanna consider killing Dashboard - it just sits there in the background and eats up a lot of memory. You can disable it, simply google it and follow the instructions. It made 10.4 more usable on the iMac G3, however didn't make any difference on the Pismo (thanks to the abundance of memory).

Please stop spreading this FUD. Dashboard does NOTHING unless you explicitly activate it. Remove all of the activation preferences and it'll never use any resources aside from disk space for the widgets.

analogika · May 30, 2007, 03:42 AM

Please stop using the term "FUD" for stuff that isn't.

That was simply misinformation. It was not purposely deceitful propaganda, and it certainly wasn't aimed at instilling Fear, Uncertainty, or Doubt in anyone.

vespina · May 30, 2007, 07:44 AM

I recently buyed and used iBook G3 800 Mhz with 640 MB RAM, and it runs OSX 10.4.9 at this moment. I agree with the one who said that 10.4 runs better than 10.3... it's a little slow, but completaly usable and stable. Go for it without any fear.

Victor Espina

peeb · May 30, 2007, 10:32 AM

Don't buy this machine. The costs you are going to sink into it are better put towards a newer second hand machine that comes with OSX and iLife.

jmiddel · Jun 3, 2007, 03:09 PM

First, I have run a 800 iBook with Panther and Tiger, they both run just fine. Of course you will not want to use Photoshop on it. But I had this idea, I don't know the price of your friend's G3, but at MegaMacs.com - Your source for Mega Mac Deals you can buy a G4 for about $200, a 19" monitor will set you back another $150. Biggger screen and faster CPU! My wife uses a G4 with Panther and it runs great, using basic stuff such as web browsing, Word, InDesign, it feels not much different from my dual processor G5. The G4 is much better than the G3, IMHO. Good luck with whatever you choose and welcome to the world of Mac computing

(BTW, I have no personal or financial stake in Megamacs)