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Blue and White PowerMac G3 - Worth it??
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Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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I found a pretty good deal on a PowerMac G3 (Blue and White)
The system is a 450MHz G3, 128MB RAM, 9GB HD
All said and done its around $90 shipped. Worth it? I'm considering buying it for a younger sibling to forcefully switch him to the Mac platform.
Now my question is multifaceted due to my limited experience with this generation of Apple hardware:
a. Is it worth buying an older Mac? It is out of warranty, and repairs will surely be expensive.
b. Will it run OSX Tiger?
c. What are the best upgrades? Is the CPU upgradeable on these? And how much does one typically need to spend to make this a "useable" system?
d. Am I the only one who thinks they are sort of ugly?
Now I should point out that I already have a spare 80GB harddrive, and a DVDRW that I could use...
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Moderator
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
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It will run Tiger, but barely. It's not fun to work with them (judging from my experience with a G3 400 and various iMacs of roughly the same speed), especially if they have less than 512 MB RAM. You can obviously upgrade them, but you should keep in mind that you can get a significantly faster Mac for a few squids more. AFAIK the fastest cpu upgrades are 1.1 GHz G3s …
What are the specs of the machine?
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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
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Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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Its 450MHz G3, 128MB RAM, 9GB HD.
I would like to get a newer iMac since he needs a new monitor, and I don't want to fool with ADB/ADC adapters and such. Ahh, decisions decisions..
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: If I tellz ya, then I gotsta killz ya !
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Assumming your sibling wont be doing anything stressful with it, with 768mb-1GB of ram & your 80gb HDD & DVD, it will run tiger just fine, for a youngin.......
One cheap upgrade you could do for ~$30 would be a Radeon 7000 32mb video card. Using the "QE Extreme" hack, you can enable Quartz Extreme, and that will speed up the OS X gui & screen redraws to a usable speed, and will improve movie watching also.
Beyond the above & you may as well go for a Sawtooth or DA, which can be found for ~$180-300, and come out with a faster, much more usable & upgradeable system in the long run........
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Personally I find it hilarious that you have the hots for my gramma. Especially seeins how she is 3x your age, and makes your Brittney-Spears-wannabe 30-something wife look like a rag doll who went thru WWIII with a burning stick of dynamite up her a** :)
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Moderator
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Hilbert space
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128 MB is not nearly enough. 512 MB is the bare minimum.
I would think you can find better deals with used G4s.
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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
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Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Seattle, WA
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I actually just did the same thing, but my purpose was to set up a high-capacity HD server. To that end, I picked up 1GHz G3 upgrade, 3x256MB DIMMs (already had 128MB), an SATA card and 4 large HDs. I'm very pleased with the results (and it runs 10.4 just fine), so it can be done.
That said though, it might not be the best solution for you. It'll take a bit of fortification to bring it up to speed.
- The hard drive that will come pre-loaded on this machine is going to suck. It'll be loud, slow and unreliable. You really should replace it with that spare 80GB HD. Plus the machine only has an ATA/33 bus. You should think about a higher speed ATA card. $~100
- As stated above, you'll need to add more RAM. The machine can only handle 256MB per DIMM, so plan on picking up 3x256MB DIMMs. ~$100
- 450MHz G3 may be workable, but it could be tough. I'd suggest looking at a high-clocked G3 upgrade. ~$200
- Keep in mind that 10.4 only comes on DVD now (you have a pay extra and make a special order for the multi-CD install). You should utilize that spare DVD-RW.
None of these items are very expensive but by the time you're finished bringing the machine into 2006, you're really in the price range of a new (or used) Mac Mini -- which would be a better machine in just about every way. It was worth it for me because I wanted to take advantage of the internal HD space. But for you (or your brother) the Mac Mini is where you should be looking. Or maybe a used iMac G4? What do those go for, now?
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Iowa State Univesity
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I've got a B&W G3/450/13gb/640. I got it for $50 with only 128MB of RAM. I wouldn't buy an old mac for the purpose of upgrading it, it's reeeeally not worth it. But the machine runs Tiger fine and is great for web/email/office/Red Faction, etc.
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: NY, NY
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I recently upgraded a "gift" G3 almost exactly like Ryan's -- it is now a fileserver in my lab.
I tried to use mostly parts that I had lying around -- the only real money investment was a SATA card and a pair of 80 GB drives. I made sure that anything I purchased could move "up" (e.g. into a more capable machine if necessary).
I have been pleasantly surprised by how well the machine runs -- I even plugged in a framegrabber and configured some lab imaging software on it without a problem.
Kind of amazing that this 7-year old machine can run Tiger. Just the thought of loading WinXP on some of our real old lab PCs is hilarious.
Good luck,
JT
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Quad 2.5 Ghz G5 7GB RAM + 7800GT
15" MBP 2.16 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 100 GB 7200 RPM HDD
G4 DA 1.2 Ghz 1.5 GB RAM + 4 HDD (fileserver)
G4 Cube 800MHz , Radeon 7000, 1.5 GB RAM
<not bad for a relatively new switcher...>
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Iowa State Univesity
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Originally Posted by JCT
Kind of amazing that this 7-year old machine can run Tiger. Just the thought of loading WinXP on some of our real old lab PCs is hilarious.
Agreed. I have some 9 year old Beige G3's that can run Tiger and work great as file servers. But the key to upgrading a mac is to do what you did...don't spend a lot on stuff you can't use somewhere else.
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Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Seattle, WA
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If you decide you DO want to get the PowerMac G3 route, I just hopped on ebay and found this guy:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll..._BIN_Stores_IT
It's a PowerMac G3 300MHz with a Buy-It-Now price of $25. It's lower-spec'ed than your $90 one, but only on things you'd want to upgrade anyway.
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Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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Thanks for all the suggestions everyone. I think I am going to try and scrounge up some more money, and find a used G4 iMac.
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Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Oct 2001
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Originally Posted by EFFENDI
d. Am I the only one who thinks they are sort of ugly?
Well, even when it is all about personal taste, I find they really cool.
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Mac Enthusiast
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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Originally Posted by angelmb
Well, even when it is all about personal taste, I find they really cool.
Oh, they are plenty cool. I guess the design does kind of grow on you after looking at enough images though. Still, compared to the latest hardware, they are a bit ugly. Looking back I can only laugh. I guess Apple decided they could only do so much with beige....then it was colourmania, and now we are back to non-colour...what on earth is next?
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: If I tellz ya, then I gotsta killz ya !
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f you decide you DO want to get the PowerMac G3 route, I just hopped on ebay and found this guy:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...07&ssPageName= MERC_VI_ReBay_Pr3_PcY_BIN_Stores_IT
It's a PowerMac G3 300MHz with a Buy-It-Now price of $25. It's lower-spec'ed than your $90 one, but only on things you'd want to upgrade anyway.
Yea but that one is a Rev 1 machine (data corruption problem), and with shipping, would cost way more than it is worth.....
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Personally I find it hilarious that you have the hots for my gramma. Especially seeins how she is 3x your age, and makes your Brittney-Spears-wannabe 30-something wife look like a rag doll who went thru WWIII with a burning stick of dynamite up her a** :)
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Lexington, KY
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my upgraded beige g3 sold for $124 this morning. we'll see if the buyer antes up.
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: Dec 2004
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I just recently sold a B&W G3 for $80 with your specs, except a 13GB HD. Tiger actually ran on it, but a bit slow. When I had 640MB or more in it, Tiger ran fine. It's not a game machine, but email, web surfing, general use (Word, Excel) it's just fine. Just put in the 80GB and some more RAm and it'll be fine.
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