G3 iMac of any use?

Does it still boot? It'd be nice to know some more about it. Anything about its case color? We can figure out what to do with it with that info.

Music server? Kids computer?

That machine will run the latest OS, can take up to 1 gig of ram, you could upgrade the hard drive too if you wanted. What to use it for depends. It could be a music server, secondary computer in another room. Nice little machine really. i've got an older iMac than that and it still works fine for what I need it to do.

Yeah, I have a Power Mac G3 400 (OC 450) and it's a great machine to watch DVD's, video, and web surf on.

A friend is still using an iMac DV400 (Indigo) that she bought used in 2004. She'd been using an HP that thankfully died and I talked her into a Mac but she didn't want to spend a ton of money.

She runs Office, iTunes, and Safari with it. I tried to talk her into upgrading to a Mac mini but she loves the look of the old iMacs and it does just fine with what she uses it for. I helped her max out the RAM to 1GB and it's pretty zippy even with Jaguar.

I still see a lot of the old G3s in use in a lot of offices for administrative tasks. If it still boots there's still probably a lot of life left in it.

Check out http://www.lowendmac.com for more info on older Macs.

My wife's sister has a 600MHz G4 iMac (graphite) that she uses for email, writing docs and storing her digital photos. It only has 128MB RAM and is running OS 9.1 but was still pretty responsive last time I played with it. Seems just as useful as my 1.8GHz Dell, more so since the Dell's registry got corrupted.

Try turning it on and see what its specs are.

plinden said:

My wife's sister has a 600MHz G4 iMac (graphite) that she uses for email, writing docs and storing her digital photos. It only has 128MB RAM and is running OS 9.1 but was still pretty responsive last time I played with it. Seems just as useful as my 1.8GHz Dell.

Try turning it on and see what its specs are.

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Get RAM, seriously. I have 1 GB in my G3 B&W and it's FAST for a G3. It boots almost as fast as my iMac G5.

I still have a Blueberry iMac G3, boots into Panther smoothly and is very nicely.

Um...I'll take it...

Send it this way. I have a 400mhz DV G3 iMac and a 500mhz G3 iMac running Panther like champs. Replaced their tiny 10 and 20 gig hard drives with cheap, 40 gig internals, added a bit of RAM and use them at work for email/word processor machines.

There is still a lot of life left in those puppies...

Note...not that I would use them though...too used to my 1.5ghz powerbook at this point...

Seeing as it's a graphite is going to have at least a 400mhz CPU and it could be a 700mhz if your lucky. I just bought one for my gf, gonna stick a 40gb HDD and 1GB of ram, it should run OSX ok. All she wants it for is web surfing and to share her net around the house via Airport (so she can sit downstairs by the fire with her iBook lol)

I love 'em. I have collected 3 from a friend with computer scrap yard. I would take a old iMac over any PC any day.

They are perfect for simple tasks like web surfing, email, music and word.

I love the style of the crt iMacs.

If I had a 400MHz+ I would use it as a music server, possibly a scanner station, and/or play some older games like Riven that just is not possible on my current iMac or PB in sig. They do make great computers for little kids who want to draw, type, goof around, etc. My 5 year old niece likes to use the hockey puck mouse as it fits her hand better.

yep. I just bought a 2nd hand 400MHz Indigo (got a great deal for it) and slapped on 512 + 128 RAM on it. Installed Tiger and its zipping along nicely. Surfing, simple text editing is no problem at all.

Macs are simply GREAT! (sorry couldn't resist)

As I've written on MR before G3 iMacs are great and indestructible machines. Especially the firewire ones -- over 400mhz. My mom had a G3500 with a gig of ram and 7200rpm hd until ... yesterday when I convinced my seventy year old mom and stepfather to get a new G5 iMac.

They are going to take classes on .mac tomorrow at the new local Apple Store. iLife and iWork classes, too. He still likes the G3 iMac so he's going to keep it and let my mom use the new one. Jobs' scrapbooking with grandma on iLife and .mac won me over.

But I still have SEVEN other friends with iMac G3s that I helped set up for them. Great computers. Ram and better hard drive is the answer for them.

P.S. I've only seen one poster on MR who ever had a 700mhz iMac G3. Would love to see one of those up close.

I know the perfect use for it...
Finding a cure for diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, Parkinson's, and Cancer. Link to Folding@Home

It is very easy to set up, and once you download the program, you don't need to do anything more. In fact, the computer can do this while sitting in the corner and collecting dust.

Make sure you join the MacRumors Team. Link

yoak said:

What kind of internet connection do they have? Can I connect it to my broadband at home?

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The Original Bondi Blue iMac has an Ethernet 10/100 jack on it.

My mate's a graphic designer in a small town on the border between NSW and Vic and his business computers are B&W G3's but his main home computer is a 600MHz graphite iMac. It's a ripper, currently he's running Jaguar and 256MB RAM and is unlikely to upgrade (he doesn't make a huge amount of money and what little he does make goes towards other things) but it's a great little computer. I certainly can feel the difference in speed between my iBook and his iMac (well I'd hope so considering the raw clock speed of mine is 2x faster than his) but it's still no slouch. I think it's Jaguar that hurts it though - I don't like having to use anything less than Panther (F9!! Where the hell is that window?? Oh yeah, no exposé....).

Good little machine though...

that thing can be great
i had a graphite 500mhz dv se it ram was upgraded to 512mb and it ran tiger swell
if it would of had panther or jag on it it would have been even faster

California said:

P.S. I've only seen one poster on MR who ever had a 700mhz iMac G3. Would love to see one of those up close.

Click to expand...

I had one, I'll spoil it for you: they look exactly the same as the 500Mhz ones

yoak said:

What kind of internet connection do they have? Can I connect it to my broadband at home?

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Sure can. I have 2 Graphite iMacs.

They have ethernet for wired connection, an Airport slot for an old Airport Card (with and adapter) or you could use a USB wireless adapter (that's what I set up for my son).

If it will boot you can upgrade the ROM (found on Apple's support pages) and then upgrade to OSX 10.3.* with enough RAM.

If it will come on but won't boot up it could be the Hard drive, RAM could be missing or the clock battery could be dead (well that may not keep it from booting).

It can't hurt to ask for it.

Good luck.

Oh, by the way, both of mine were free and needed a little work.

codepoet80 said:

I had one, I'll spoil it for you: they look exactly the same as the 500Mhz ones

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I know they look alike -- shoulda said I wanted to play with one up close and personal! Do you still have it? Musta been pretty fast for its day.