Old iMac Needs Upgrading....

I might be wrong, but I don't think there are a lot of options. (at least cost effective options)

CPU.. 400MHz cpu is pretty good. I think Sonnet has a 600MHz upgrade but it's a bit expensive. MSRP $350 I don't consider this a lot of "bang for the buck". (but if you could find a good deal)

Memory... This would help a lot, getting it over 256MB would really help. Plus, it's not a very expensive upgrade.

Hard Drive... Upgrading the hard drive will give you theoretically faster access and more storage. (limited by the older hard drive controller and bus)

Check out http://www.lowendmac.com they have lots of articles on upgrading older macs.

PS You can also upgrade by selling it to me.

Re: Old iMac Needs Upgrading....

Originally posted by gemio17
Hi all- I am going to get a new hard drive for my slot loading Ruby iMac (bought summer 2000) and throw in more ram, being as I am semi-new to this - was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on where to buy this stuff cheaper than Apple or Crucial. I would really like to get that G3 moving and was wondering if anyone had suggestions on how to accomplish that- right now it's got 400mhz proc./128mb RAM/10 GB HD.
Any suggestions (besides getting rid of it- I am revving it up to give to my bro & getting a PB for me) would be much appreciated!! Thanks.

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The processor is not upgradeable. OK thats not entirely true, but the sonnet harmoni upgrades and similar ones are for the tray loading iMacs which had separete CPU daughter cards. On yours, its soldered to the board. http://www.technowarehousellc.com/g4upforslloi.html will let you send them your entire motherboard and they'll upgrade it, but it wouldn't be much faster, and you'll be limited by the older video card (not upgrdeable at all), slow front side bus, etc. There's a lot that goes into making a computer fast, so upgrading the processor usually isn't worth it because fo the other aspects of the system that slow it down. By the time you upgraded the ram, processor and hard drive, you could have sold the machine and probably bought a new or used eMac.

A new hard drive is great and cost effective. A new one will offer somewhat better access times but the real advantage comes in storage space of course. here are instructions: http://www.macworld.com/2001/10/bc/howtoimac/ any IDE drive will work (also called EIDE or ATA, but not serial ATA or SATA) just make sure yous et the jumpers to master before installation. Forget what the article says about 7200 rpm drives, they are just fine in a slot loading iMac.

As for ram, check out ramseeker.com and dealram.com Max on your machine is 1 gig of ram.

Originally posted by gemio17
3-22 if you are really interested drop me an offer at lcalkins@mac.com....

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Unfortunately, I just bought something.. It's for my son to mess around with, doesn't need much horsepower.

Thanks anyway though!

It would have probably been out of my price range anyway, those 400MHz iMacs are going for quite a bit on eBay. It's his first computer so I'm keeping it simple (cheap). ;-)