Power Mac G3 question on buying...

[BrianT1701]

I am considering buying a Power Mac G3. What do you think the most ghz i'll need in a processor will be. I don't plan to do much on it but play games maybe go online with it. I want to be able to run OS X.

I don't want to spend too much (over 100 dollars) on this.


What do you think.

[mislabeledstar]

Originally posted by BrianT1701
I don't want to spend too much (over 100 dollars) on this.


$100? If you're looking at getting a used g3 that you can run os x and do gaming, it may be a lil hard. As for a new one, impossible.

sorry, $1000 is definetly possible and you could get a nice lil something going.

[BrianT1701]

what is the minimum processor needed to run OS X. I've seen some 300-450 mhz G3's on ebay for 50-100 dollars. Maybe I'll stick with os 9 or something. I have a extremly powerful Dell PC. The mac thing is something I am just getting into and I am not looking to spend a lot of cash or get a mac that is impressive, because 1. I don't have the cash. 2. I like my PC.

[Nermal]

Officially, OS X will run on any G3 (except the first PowerBook). However I've heard that an early G3 will be really slow. I can't comment, I've never run OS X on anything slower than an 800 MHz G3.

[BrianT1701]

That is what I was thinking. If I do get a G3, I'll be sure to run nothing more than OS 9.x...

[crazzyeddie]

OS X runs alright on an iMac 350mhz.

I do have a Beige G3, and OS X ran on a 350mhz G3 on it, though admittedly slowly... If you do get a Beige, even at 266mhz, make sure you add RAM asap. OS X loves RAM and knows how to use it. I would recommend no less than 256 for OS X (without games), 384 would be nice though.

Edit: The cheapest used G3 desktop I could find was $319 at PowerMax (www.powermax.com).

[ZeeOwl]

I have a 350 MHz G3 Blue & White. OS X runs fine on it. I have 10.2.6 now. It's a little sluggish, compared to my 700 MHz G4 iMac, but definitely useable.

[ewoh24]

I've got a 300mhz PowerMac for sale. 384MB RAM, 6MB VRAM, 10.2.6 installed. Will come with 10.2, OS 9, 8.1 disks, Photoshop 6, Quark 4.4 installed. I'm asking $450.

[Akira]

Originally posted by ZeeOwl
I have a 350 MHz G3 Blue & White. OS X runs fine on it. I have 10.2.6 now. It's a little sluggish, compared to my 700 MHz G4 iMac, but definitely useable.
that's because the B&W G3s have a faster mobo (100MHz vs. Beige's 66MHz).
And your HD is probably faster too.

[superfunkomatic]

mac os x runs fine on my ol' blue and white g3 350 desktop, and fine on my g3 400 firewire laptop. i use them every day for production in web dev, photoshop, freehand, etc. i bought the g3 350 second hand for 500 bucks canadian. put 80 dollars into ram (384) runs great. fast enough for me. i work on g4 800 quicksilvers and these are noticeably slower but not so much to prevent working efficiently.

[ibookin']

If you get a used G3 I'd recommend getting a new PCI video card for it. Get one that's got at least 16MB of VRAM and is at least a Radeon and there is a way to enable Quartz Extreme for PCI video cards. This will greatly improve the OS X GUI performance, and will make the OS X experience better for you.

To enable QE over teh PCI Bus, you have to use PCI Extreme, which is available on http://www.versiontracker.com

[Santiago]

I have a beige G3 266 I use for a web and mail server. I log into it sometimes to update things, and it's pokey but usable for text editing, though web page rendering is a bit painful. It cost about $150 on eBay five or six months ago.