What should I do with my iMac G3?

Hey everybody, I have an old iMac g3 that I got off of ebay for 20$. (I did local pickup) It's an indigo with a 6gb hdd, 333mhz with 64mb of ram. (tray loader) It's in near perfect condition, and works perfectly.

Although it boots OS 9 great, I have no use for OS 9 at all. Do you think this machine could handle Panther? I was thinking of upgrading the ram to at least 256, and probably higher. (Whats the most ram these Rev D tray loaders can handle?) I was also thinking about upgrading the HDD with a faster one. The space isn't the issue, but didn't all the iMacs use slow 4200rpm drives? Is there anything else I should upgrade before putting panther on?

Also, where is the best place to buy ram? Crucial seems expensive, and only goes up to 256mb. Will 3d party ram work ok? I found a few knockoffs online that were cheap, and as long as they work, I don't care the brand. Also, where can I buy a cheap, 5200 or 7500rpm hdd?

Thanks

CRAZYBUBBA said:

Hi. I hate to tell you this, but the max ram is 512 on those models. (IIRC)

I have a 350mhz imac g3. I put in a 80 gb 7200 rpm HD and its very quiet and efficent. I also upped the ram to 1 gb (max on my model). Panther runs great.

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That's good to hear. I was planning on spending 30$ to get a 256mb stick. That and the 64mb stick would be 320mb, which should be good enough for just word, adium, and camino. Then I can eventually upgrade the ram to the max when I get the money.

hatchet92882 said:

you must of baught yous from the same one i baught mine from. I paid 20 also. mine is a 333 256, 6g hd and running panther, altho a little glitchy it don't do half bad.

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Heh, no, I live around Baltimore, and unless you flew out from Kentucky, I doubt we bought it from the same person.

What are the glitches that you have experienced? What are the load times like? I'm just trying to figure out if upgrading this is worth the 80$.

Thanks!

hatchet92882 said:

well, i use mine for internet, e-mail. I dunno if its firefox but the internet is glitchy, don't even try myspace, lol. i love the look of the g3 but man are they SLOW!!!

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Er...now you're scarring me. I want it to be usable, but also don't want to have to wait 10min. for a web page to come up.

Do you really think its worth the 80$ im going to spend on it?

Macky-Mac said:

I used panther on my G3 400 imac for almost a year. When online, the speed certainly was acceptable and wasn't much of a factor in my desicison to upgrade to a G5 imac a couple of years ago.

Definitely max out the ram and use an external HD if you need more storage space, that's my suggestion

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Allright, well that makes me feel better.

I only plan on using this for internet, so storage should not be an issue. I have an external, but I'm not sure I would want to use it, cause this iMac only has USB 1.1, which is way to slow.

Thanks for all the responses! I plan on buying the 256mb ram stick tonight, and Panther shortly after. (If anybody has a copy of panther for sale...drop me a PM or look at my thread in the marketplace)

Thanks everybody for your replies. I think I'm going to go ahead and spend the money...except after opening the case to see how much ram is in it, it won't turn on...hense my new thread. (please don't be a fried logic board)

Gahhh!

brop52 said:

This is why you need an anti-static wrist band.

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Didn't have one at the time, but I made sure to discharge all of my static several times. I also worked on a concrete floor, not carpet to make sure nothing would happen.

Fixed!

After re-seating the processor card, the iMac now works fine again. I'm going to buy panther and the ram tonight. Thanks again for the input...when I'm done it should be a great little machine.