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Jaffa · May 6, 2006, 01:57 PM

i am about to get a g3 500 pismo and i am wanting to know how os x runs on it

the pismos spec

dvd
512meg
6gig hd
airport

BigBadWolf · May 6, 2006, 02:00 PM

My old pismo runs 10.3.9 fine. I have not tried to install 10.4 on it though.

fisherKing · May 6, 2006, 02:09 PM

i ran 10.3 on my pismo and loved it.
10.4 should be fine, perhaps better...

go for it!

Velocity211 · May 6, 2006, 02:25 PM

Tiger will run slower on the pismo. Dashboard takes up a lot of memory so get the most you can.

Jaffa · May 6, 2006, 03:07 PM

but does it take adges to start up

SEkker · May 6, 2006, 03:50 PM

Tiger is great on a Pismo. You have enough RAM.

I don't recall the start up time -- but Tiger is stable enough that you only need to reboot every few weeks anyway.

PacHead · May 6, 2006, 03:55 PM

Panther runs fine on a Pismo, I'm on it right now. The ram does make a difference, because I noticed it's slightly slower after I had to pull 256 meg out (it was defective I think), and now I just have a 512 meg chip in there.

Jaffa · May 6, 2006, 03:59 PM

so basically i should get plenty of ram for it

PacHead · May 6, 2006, 04:00 PM

Originally Posted by tomboyle

but does it take adges to start up

It depends what disk is inside, a 4200, or 5400 or 7200.

I have a 5400 inside right now, and I just rebooted, and it took just about 60 seconds from chime to fully usable. I hardly restart, and usually keep it on for days or weeks.

Jaffa · May 6, 2006, 04:10 PM

thats surprisingly fast

this 3.6 p4 im using right now thats got hardly anything on it takes 2 minutes

PacHead · May 6, 2006, 04:10 PM

Originally Posted by tomboyle

so basically i should get plenty of ram for it

Ram never hurts, I believe the max for a pismo is 1 gig of ram total. Hopefully the one you are getting has one 512 chip and an empty slot. The pismo has 2 slots for Ram on the CPU, one on the top and one on the bottom of it.

It might very well have 2 X 256 chips inside, leaving you no empty slots and you would have to remove one of the 256 chips to put a 512 chip inside. If you wanted to put 1 gig inside and you already had 2 X 256 chips, then you would have to get rid of both the 256 chips and replace each one with a 512 chip.

Jaffa · May 6, 2006, 04:12 PM

eh well ive got plenty of cash

masugu · May 6, 2006, 04:22 PM

I took OSX off and put 9 back on

Problem is no real browser to use...

Don't want to change the thread, but what browser should I use with OS 9???

Lateralus · May 6, 2006, 04:29 PM

Originally Posted by Velocity211

Tiger will run slower on the pismo. Dashboard takes up a lot of memory so get the most you can.

Seconded. I'm really not all that pleased with Tiger as a release on the whole, especially on lower end hardware.

That said, I used to have a G3 500MHz Pismo with 1GB of RAM and a 5400 RPM hard drive and I was very pleased with how it ran 10.3.x.

The main thing to remember is that the main bottleneck of any system isn't really the CPU or the amount of RAM, so much as it is the hard drive. The hard drive is by far the slowest device in any computer so getting one with a decent rotational speed is one of the keys to squeezing maximum performance out of a lower end system.

Jaffa · 10:57 PM

you can get 120gb 7200rpm hard drives for the pismo
but they run very hot (apparantly)

Originally Posted by masugu

I took OSX off and put 9 back on

Problem is no real browser to use...

Don't want to change the thread, but what browser should I use with OS 9???

why dont you get icab

masugu · May 6, 2006, 05:06 PM

Hmm...I will give it a try.

Thanks so much!

Hal06 · May 6, 2006, 05:13 PM

How the hell is a six years old laptop so good looking ?, Apple hardware never ceases to amaze me…

Jaffa · May 6, 2006, 06:46 PM

Originally Posted by Inside Man

How the hell is a six years old laptop so good looking ?, Apple hardware never ceases to amaze me…

because they can be bothered to design something beautifil all the time

SEkker · May 6, 2006, 11:03 PM

Originally Posted by Lateralus

Seconded. I'm really not all that pleased with Tiger as a release on the whole, especially on lower end hardware.

That said, I used to have a G3 500MHz Pismo with 1GB of RAM and a 5400 RPM hard drive and I was very pleased with how it ran 10.3.x.

The main thing to remember is that the main bottleneck of any system isn't really the CPU or the amount of RAM, so much as it is the hard drive. The hard drive is by far the slowest device in any computer so getting one with a decent rotational speed is one of the keys to squeezing maximum performance out of a lower end system.

I've installed Tiger on a Pismo (1GB RAM, 5400 rpm HD) and two iMac G3s 400 MHz 512MB RAM /7200 rpm HDs.

All three systems were faster under Tiger than Panther, and all are acceptable in terms of speed [none are as quick as OS 9, however].

This same Pismo finally died when the logic board failed. I replaced it with a PB12" for my wife, and she still misses the Pismo. In reality, surfing, games, and email are not that much faster on the replacement maxed out 1.3GHz G4 PB12.

freakboy2 · May 6, 2006, 11:19 PM

OSX is all about the ram and HD especially if you have an old slow laptop hd.. the new fast drives might be 2x faster than what it came with, and given that the hd causes huge waits - load times - then it's really noticeable to get a faster one.

tooki · May 7, 2006, 03:16 AM

Just a person here who runs Tiger on a 400MHz Pismo with 1GB of RAM and a 40GB 5400RPM HD. It's surprisingly fast.

tooki

fisherKing · May 7, 2006, 10:47 PM

Originally Posted by SEkker

I've installed Tiger on a Pismo (1GB RAM, 5400 rpm HD) and two iMac G3s 400 MHz 512MB RAM /7200 rpm HDs.

All three systems were faster under Tiger than Panther, and all are acceptable in terms of speed [none are as quick as OS 9, however].

This same Pismo finally died when the logic board failed. I replaced it with a PB12" for my wife, and she still misses the Pismo. In reality, surfing, games, and email are not that much faster on the replacement maxed out 1.3GHz G4 PB12.

that may seem true for surfing, simple games, email...
but my 1.33g 12" kicks the pismo's ass for real work (like audio recording, video editing, heavy photoshop use, avi playback...etc etc). the pismo could not do some of the audio work at all...

i loved the pismo, but i would never go back!

SEkker · May 7, 2006, 11:59 PM

Originally Posted by fisherKing

that may seem true for surfing, simple games, email...
but my 1.33g 12" kicks the pismo's ass for real work (like audio recording, video editing, heavy photoshop use, avi playback...etc etc). the pismo could not do some of the audio work at all...

i loved the pismo, but i would never go back!

Agreed -- there is a nice speed bump for real work from the Pismo to the G4.

But there is an even BIGGER leap going to one of the new mactels.

fisherKing · May 8, 2006, 09:53 AM

Originally Posted by SEkker

Agreed -- there is a nice speed bump for real work from the Pismo to the G4.

But there is an even BIGGER leap going to one of the new mactels.

not for me...yet.
reason, photoshop, indesign, dreamweaver. not intel-ready...yet.
only logic.

still...waiting for tomorrow's rumored macbooks...!

tigas · May 8, 2006, 07:58 PM

My Pismo was a disappointment when I upgraded into Tiger. Panther seemed slicker and snappier, even though the interface animations were, in fact, faster in Tiger. Also, while I have a replacement 5400rpm disk, it's one of the first ones, so any disk loading slowed the machine to a halt. And Panther worked fine with 512MB but Tiger craves at least 1GB...

So, I went to 1GB, got a G4/550 and a 7200rpm disk will be coming my way in the next few months!

Since I have no desire to do any hard work on the road, I'm not missing anything on a new machine.

Jaffa · 09:44 AM

i would upgrade it to a g4 but you cant get the upgrades in the uk

is it possible to order them from america and pay them in us dollars still be sent them

PacHead · May 9, 2006, 11:18 AM

Originally Posted by tomboyle

i would upgrade it to a g4 but you cant get the upgrades in the uk

is it possible to order them from america and pay them in us dollars still be sent them

Why would you upgrade a pismo to a G4 550 ? Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but a G4 chip is not really much more powerful than a G3 chip, except it has the added Altivec stuff on it .

Instead of upgrading a Pismo G3 500 to a G4 550 (Waste of money IMO), wouldn't it be better to uprade to a G3 900 ? The G3 900 would kick the ass of the G4 550 I think.

Jaffa · May 9, 2006, 12:01 PM

the g4 550 performs better than the g3 900 in almost everything

but still would i be able to stuff from us websites and still get it ( i live in uk)?

Lateralus · May 11, 2006, 12:29 AM

Originally Posted by tomboyle

the g4 550 performs better than the g3 900 in almost everything

Negative.

The 750GX G3 outperforms a G4 at the same clock speed in anything that doesn't love AltiVec. It'd stomp the snot out of one running 40% slower.

tkmd · May 11, 2006, 11:28 AM

I run 10.4 on my Pismo 400 (768MB/ 5400 RPM) I it run OK. At least as well as in Panther. In fact, Safari is clearly faster in Tiger on the Pismo. There are limits, even with that amount of RAM (using more than two active apps (ie apps that are actively working; not at idle) bring the g3 400 to a slow down. but for light wp/ web browsing, 10.4 on the Pismo is fine.

Save your Pismo- you'll be able to trans plant the mini's CD motherboard into it (once the price starts to drop!)

tigas · May 11, 2006, 12:20 PM

The G3/900 was never a realistic option. Too many overheated/ burned / dead upgrades in the field. Just check xlr8yourmac.com. Most of the gains from any Pismo upgrade come from the bigger cache anyway, not from the CPU speed, and the more RAM a Pismo has, the more having a big cache helps it.

@tomboyle. Check out Fastmac.com and ask some questions, they are very helpful. You can send them just your CPU card if you feel up to the task of disassembling it, then they check it for problems, solder new cache chips and a G4, and ship it back to you as good as new.

bstone · May 11, 2006, 12:46 PM

dont' forget about the optical drive replacement. the stock LG drives (CD/DVD-ROM) that came with the pismo died not too long later. check out reviews.macnn.com or my article on how to replace the drive cheaply.

PacHead · May 11, 2006, 12:52 PM

Originally Posted by bstone

dont' forget about the optical drive replacement. the stock LG drives (CD/DVD-ROM) that came with the pismo died not too long later. check out reviews.macnn.com or my article on how to replace the drive cheaply.

Yeah, no kidding. My Cd/Dvd drive on my Pismo has been out of commision for the past 2 years. I haven't bothered replacing it, since I do not need it at all.

VetPsychWars · May 13, 2006, 11:32 PM

I have the Fastmac G4/550 and a 7200rpm Travelstar 80GB drive in my Pismo, and 512MB. I've been quite happy with it.

The G4/550 was faster than the G3/400 that I had; after I upgraded, things like exporting video and ripping CDs basically doubled in speed. The 7200rpm drive made a small but noticeable difference in how fast applications launced and things like that.

Tom

babagaga · May 31, 2006, 06:54 PM

ok, based on this thread i'm pretty close to upgrading my g4 pismo (daystar!) with a 100 gb hitachi travelstar 7200RPM/8MB 7K100 for $165. any reason not to get this? i've read it may be loud?? and hot?? but i'd love to take advantage of that speed...
or should i settle for a 5200rpm, and if so, any recomendations for make/model...?
i do a fair bit of heavy photshop use, cad, and a little audio stuff, as well as the usual email, web, cd/dvd burning.
cheers
ps, while i'm asking, best place to get ram? and should i spring for two 512's (for 1gb total) or just one? (as i have 2@256 now, i'd then be at 768) is it worth another ~$100, as i'm not wealthy?

SEkker · May 31, 2006, 11:27 PM

Originally Posted by babagaga

ok, based on this thread i'm pretty close to upgrading my g4 pismo (daystar!) with a 100 gb hitachi travelstar 7200RPM/8MB 7K100 for $165. any reason not to get this? i've read it may be loud?? and hot?? but i'd love to take advantage of that speed...
or should i settle for a 5200rpm, and if so, any recomendations for make/model...?
i do a fair bit of heavy photshop use, cad, and a little audio stuff, as well as the usual email, web, cd/dvd burning.
cheers
ps, while i'm asking, best place to get ram? and should i spring for two 512's (for 1gb total) or just one? (as i have 2@256 now, i'd then be at 768) is it worth another ~$100, as i'm not wealthy?

I cannot recommend spending any consider $$ in a Pismo-era machine. As great as those machines are, they are no where near the speed of the latest MacBooks.

If you cannot afford a MB, I would get an inexpensive 5400 rpm HD -- 60 GB drives can be had for about half the cost of the 100 GB drive you are considering. Then, when you are ready, sell the Pismo for a downpayment on the MB.

tigas · Jun 1, 2006, 07:36 AM

Yup, spend money on the Pismo only if you're the kind of person that still drives an original VW Bug, or a Porsche 356. Treat it as a classic, because that's what it is.

tooki · Jun 1, 2006, 11:57 AM

I'd choose a Seagate drive over Hitachi simply because of the Seagate's longer warranty. If Seagate is willing to give 2 years (67%) more warranty, what does that say about their confidence in their product's longevity?

tooki

Felix · Jan 2, 2007, 09:55 AM

So it is worthwhile to spent approximately 100 - 150 Euros on a 7200 - 100 GB HD and on OS X 10.4 upgrading a Pismo G3/500 with 640 MByte RAM? I already did a conversion to a Toshiba DVD/CD-R-combo drive.

(Finally not depending on Classic-only-Framemaker anymore and considering what to do with this reliable and beautiful laptop - yes, I also drive to classic cars regarding an earlier comment)

Thanks and best regards

Felix

wubrew · 08:13 PM

Felix, it is worth every euro if you will keep it for at least a few more years b/f you tuck it away for future reference. Go for it.
http://forums.macnn.com/69/powerbook...nt-and-future/.
There are some other pismo threads you might like to follow. Looks like you revive this thread after 6+ month! You've got to upgrade to 10.4.8 and see how snappy and stable Pismo will become.
Plus all the app.

brokecollegestudentF04 · Jan 2, 2007, 08:09 PM

Your hard drive space is your limiter.. 6GB isnt enough for most.. Ive crammed tiger in 7GB and panther in 6GB if you do the install without anything additional Languages, printer drivers that sort of thing.. you can milk the tiger install down to 1.4GB and panther down to 1.1GB with just the base install no extras.. I have tiger running on 600mhz G3 iMac with 256MB/20GB and it runs surprisingly well

finboy · Jan 5, 2007, 02:09 PM

Originally Posted by tomboyle

i am about to get a g3 500 pismo and i am wanting to know how os x runs on it

the pismos spec

dvd
512meg
6gig hd
airport

I still run 9.2.2 and Jaguar on mine, but I upped the RAM to 1M and HD to 60. Jaguar did OK on it with 512 and a 20G drive. You'll want to use a dual partition if you can, but if you keep the same drive you may not be able to.

rjt1000 · Jan 5, 2007, 02:40 PM

Hi Felix,

My 500 mhz G3 Pismo w/ 768 mb RAM and 20gb OEM IBM hard drive runs 10.4.8 just fine for stuff like web browsing and word processing. 10.3.x also ran great.

I would suggest buying a more modestly priced 40gb 5400 RPM drive which will still be a significant upgrade from your 6gb at about half the price of the models you are considering.

You could use the money saved to increase the RAM (OS X loves RAM--256 mb sticks go for $35-40 on eBay, 512 mb for $70-100), or to put towards a G4 upgrade (being in Europe, I would consider the Fastmac where you dont need to ship the entire book, only the processor card)

rjt1000