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Minto Took · Feb 3, 2005, 12:28 AM

My parents' have my sister's old iMac G3 from her college days. Currently its stock except I upped the RAM to 196MB. I'm thinking of nabbing it for myself since it just sits on my desk at home. What I'm thinking of using it for is getting an old firewire camcorder and doing some video work (this one came with iMovie or whatever it was called in 2000). I posted this question on another forum and someone suggested I throw OS X on it. If OS X would work decently, I would expand its use to a development box as well via Xcode. Now would a 400MHz G3 be able to run 10.3 for example? I'm sorry if this is a total noob question but I'm still new to the whole Apple thing.

UberWeenie · Feb 3, 2005, 01:03 AM

Originally posted by Minto Took:
Now would a 400MHz G3 be able to run 10.3 for example? I'm sorry if this is a total noob question but I'm still new to the whole Apple thing.

I have a G3 400 iMac with 640 MB and OS X runs surprisingly well - I have been re-doing it after purchasing a Mac Mini and the job has been a pleasure - I thought the Mini might have spoiled me, but the iMac is holding up its end.

I think you would need to bump the RAM on yours, though. 192 MB is a little thin for OS X on any Mac.

Minto Took · Feb 3, 2005, 01:07 AM

Originally posted by UberWeenie:
I think you would need to bump the RAM on yours, though. 192 MB is a little thin for OS X on any Mac.

I've been meaning to anyway as its horrendous now on 9.2.1 with four applications open. I'll either take it to 768mb or 1gb.

UberWeenie · Feb 3, 2005, 01:11 AM

Originally posted by Minto Took:
I've been meaning to anyway as its horrendous now on 9.2.1 with four applications open. I'll either take it to 768mb or 1gb.

I suspect 512-640 MB is the 'sweet spot' but you will have a lot of fun in any case . If you are new to OS X the iMac will serve well as an introduction.

amazing · Feb 3, 2005, 01:36 AM

I'm running Panther on a beige G3 266 mhz, and it's much preferable to OS 9. You'll definitely need more ram, and probably an external firewire HD. You can get great deals because of all the rebates floating around, such as at outpost.com, and a macally firewire case from newegg.com

As for the video editing, I think it might work, slowly. Big question is whether you'd drop some frames?

Minto Took · Feb 3, 2005, 01:43 AM

Originally posted by amazing:
As for the video editing, I think it might work, slowly. Big question is whether you'd drop some frames?

I see your point. I remember when I administered a Mac lab in my high school that had Quicksilvers which would stall a lot in iMovie. I'm sure that was a RAM issue though.

Mike Pither · Feb 3, 2005, 03:16 AM

Originally posted by Minto Took:
I see your point. I remember when I administered a Mac lab in my high school that had Quicksilvers which would stall a lot in iMovie. I'm sure that was a RAM issue though.

I have done some video editing with my iMac 400 and never had any problem. Just up the ram to 512mb+

533 · Feb 3, 2005, 08:02 AM

I'm running 10.3.7 on a iMac G3/400Mhz with 384 Mb of RAM. It performs really well, even compared to my Quicksilver 1.25Mhz. For surfing the web and office stuff the amount of RAM is enough, for video/photo I'd upgrade it at least to 512 (but don't expect too much from this machine for video editing). A big difference made the upgrade to a 7200 rpm harddisk (an easy and cheap upgrade once you've figured out how to open the case). Just for getting to know OS X this iMac performs imho well enough.

pliny · Feb 3, 2005, 08:06 AM

I'm another iMac dv 400 mhz user. I run 10.3 with 768 mb and it works like a champ. Swapping out to a 7200 rpm drive can't hurt.

andreas_g4 · Feb 3, 2005, 08:11 AM

My partens use a 400 MHz iMac w/192 RAM, too. They only use Word OR Safari/Mail at the same time, and it works. It's not a problem when you stay in the application you work in.

Editing video is another thing. Of course does it work, Apple introduced iMovie when the 350/400 MHz iMacs were the top-of the-line consumer macs. But be sure, as everyone said, to upgrade RAM to at least 512. You could even consider a cheap bigger/faster HD, since HD swapping is very easy in the G3 iMacs. Some screws, that's it.

amazing · Feb 4, 2005, 11:23 AM

Just be sure to apply the firmware upgrade to the iMac while you're still in OS 9. If you try to install OS X without the firmware upgrade--and the installer will definitely let you do this--then you're going to have enormous difficulty resurrecting the iMac.

Remember: firmware upgrade before upgrading.

SmileyDude · Feb 4, 2005, 01:13 PM

i have a 400mhz iMac as well -- I have 10.3.7, 1GB RAM, and a 7200RPM 80 gig drive. Runs pretty well, all things considered.

As for RAM -- I recommend Crucial. The last time I didn't purchase RAM from Crucial was when I was trying to upgrade the iMac to a GB. The RAM, although it matched the specs, wouldn't be recognized by the iMac. I bought a pair of 512s from Crucial and have never had any problems.

Others may have had better experiences elsewhere with RAM -- I just don't like risking my money on other brands of RAM when I know that the Crucial RAM will just work.

vsurfer · Feb 5, 2005, 01:32 PM

iMac G3 400mhz iMac / 320 MB RAM / 7200RPM 40 gig Western Digital drive. w/ Airport card installed. Running Panther 10.3.5

Runs great for such an 'old' machine, using everyday applications.
Makes a great extra machine for the kids -- except for gaming (fuggeddaboudit!)
Built-in speakers are still terrific after all these years (and better than the ones in my new iMac G5.)

using TiBook with 1 GB RAM for the heavy lifting (Dreamweaver, Graphics and DTP apps.)

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iMac g5 1.6 ghz, 256 MB RAM
Ti Powerbook 1.0 ghz, 1 GB RAM
iMac G3 400mhz iMac / 10.3.5, 320 MB RAM