I got a blue and white power mac g3 tower running jaguar 10.3.9 Looking into upgrading it a little bit to get to know macs and the programs. Is this a good idea? I want to basically use this for the simple purpose of jailbreaking my iphone and taking advantage of the mac only programs for it I know i need to upgrade the memory and i seen 1gb sticks could i pop 4 of them in and get 4gb and go upgrade to tiger?
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Power Mac Questions
- Thread starter Treypound
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According to Mactracker it only takes 1Gb of RAM.....but it does support Tiger.
You're not going to get the best OS X experience, but it will give you a rough idea. If stuff is too slow, don't then think OS X is slow, it be the hardware's fault
You're not going to get the best OS X experience, but it will give you a rough idea. If stuff is too slow, don't then think OS X is slow, it be the hardware's fault
Thats what I thought I thought I seen 1gb sticks of memory on ebay unless it wasnt for the mac I got if so then I could pop 4 1gb sticks in the slot to go to 4gb. Either way thanks for the help
According to Mactracker it only takes 1Gb of RAM.....but it does support Tiger.
You're not going to get the best OS X experience, but it will give you a rough idea. If stuff is too slow, don't then think OS X is slow, it be the hardware's fault[/QUOTE]
According to Mactracker it only takes 1Gb of RAM.....but it does support Tiger.
You're not going to get the best OS X experience, but it will give you a rough idea. If stuff is too slow, don't then think OS X is slow, it be the hardware's fault[/QUOTE]
Actually they take PC100 memory and the max is 2gb with 4x of 512mb modules. I think the G3 PM may take PC133 and will automatically downclock. I'd stick with 10.3 since you already have it installed but Tiger 10.4 is a very nice operating system and is a better option although it may run a little slower.
Not really the best hardware to test out OS-X on but it is a foot in the door and will be hard to switch back
. Try picking up a G4 with at least a 1ghz and run Leopard. You will definitely love it!
I believe the largest RAM sticks the G3/G4 PowerMacs can use are 512MB. The 1GB PC100/133 sticks you see on ebay are high density and usually come from servers. Most desktop computers don't support them so you have to use low density RAM. The max amount of RAM you can install into your G3 is 2GB (512MBx4), but I don't know if the memory controller even supports that much.
Adding a USB 2.0 PCI card to your Mac would probably help out the most.
Adding a USB 2.0 PCI card to your Mac would probably help out the most.
Right- and the LowEndMac specs page on it confirm that. 1 gig is the max on RAM as it does not support double sided RAM so max is 4x256Mb- http://lowendmac.com/ppc/blue-white-power-mac-g3.html
To the OP- there are also a TON of reference links on that page to info on the web on the B&W G3 that could prove helpful also.
Yes, it takes PC100 and PC133 although the bus stays at 100mhz. I looked and only found 256mb in PC133. But I don't know, maybe they do exist? Got a link OrangeSVTguy?
Either way 1GB should suit Tiger just fine but it depends how much you want to do at once. It will run Tiger slower but will get it done. Just keep watch on your HD space as it could be as low as 6GB. You want at least 1GB free.
I still run a G3 B&W and it works great, albeit OS 9
Either way 1GB should suit Tiger just fine but it depends how much you want to do at once. It will run Tiger slower but will get it done. Just keep watch on your HD space as it could be as low as 6GB. You want at least 1GB free.
I still run a G3 B&W and it works great, albeit OS 9
I have PC133 512mb sticks. I thought I remember the G3 can access 2gb under OS-X and only 1.5gb under OS-9 on the G3. Those limitations are old, probably before 512mb dimms were manufactured so they only state the max specs on current hardware.
*added*
OP, I have some 128mb modules that you can have if you need them. Send me a PM.
*added*
OP, I have some 128mb modules that you can have if you need them. Send me a PM.
The B&W G3 WILL NOT see any more than 1Gb of RAM. That is 4x256mb sticks. Some later iMac G3's will see those 512mb sticks, but the B&W will not. Aside from RAM, you can get a PCI Radeon 7000 to replace the stock ATI Rage 128 card, and overclock the processor 50MHz from what its stock speed is. If you find a cheap processor upgrade, go for it. Some of the slower ones go pretty cheap if you keep an eye out. A 1GHz Sonnet G4 upgrade for a B&W just sold for $159 on ebay today.
Woow a 1GHz Sonnet G4 upgrade for $159 I think that's an insane amount I have no idea why anyone would pay that much for just an upgrade module when you can get G4 Dual 1.25/120GB/2GB with a 17" ACD (http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/sys/934122692.html) for an asking price of $250 which could possibly be negotiated down.
pnyc is right, for the cost of a new CPU upgrade you could get a complete PowerMac G4 that is much faster.
The B&W G3 WILL NOT see any more than 1Gb of RAM. That is 4x256mb sticks.This IS correct! The B&W's are limited to using 4x 256mb chips by the memory controller on the mobo.....so no, it's not a sw limit......
been there, done that, having owned 5 of them years ago, I got to know them inside & out
And NO, don't bother with the cpu upgrades....they are NOT worth the $$, since you can get a much faster G4 machine for about the same money
That computer is 9-10 years old. Just remember that when working with/on it.
lowendmac will be your BFF when it comes to getting the most out of a G3.
lowendmac will be your BFF when it comes to getting the most out of a G3.
Another thing is that the B&W G3's drive controller only recognizes 128 GB total, so if you get a 250 GB drive half of it will not be accessible.
Also, if I remember correctly, B&W G3's that weren't revision 2 had a controller that corrupted data on dual drive (master / slave) configurations.. this page tells you how to tell rev 1 from rev 2.
http://lowendmac.com/ed/lebron/ll07/1026.html
If you have rev 1 you can only expect to run one drive reliably
Also, if I remember correctly, B&W G3's that weren't revision 2 had a controller that corrupted data on dual drive (master / slave) configurations.. this page tells you how to tell rev 1 from rev 2.
http://lowendmac.com/ed/lebron/ll07/1026.html
If you have rev 1 you can only expect to run one drive reliably