600Mhz G3 iMac - Will this suit my needs?

[kerb]

Well I'm buggering off to uni but the family desperately needs a new computer.

At the moment we have something like a 400mhz Celeron (i know!) 64MB SD-RAM and 15 gig hard drive.

This speed demon is running... XP Professional!

So it's obviously it is one hell of a sluggish computer. My sister wants a mini iPod but I told her there is no point whilst we have that. I was looking on eBay and came across a G3 600mhz iMac, 256MB RAM, 40GB hard drive in Graphite which is running Panther.

She just needs to access the internet, chat to her friends on MSN messenger, use iTunes, word process, put digital photos on that kind of thing.

Is it a goer even running Panther? What if I stick another 512MB of RAM in there?

After being a PC user for many years I have no way of telling what's a fast Mac CPU and what isn't.

Thanks for any help.

 

[paxtonandrew]

Well I'm buggering off to uni but the family desperately needs a new computer.

At the moment we have something like a 400mhz Celeron (i know!) 64MB SD-RAM and 15 gig hard drive.

This speed demon is running... XP Professional!

So it's obviously it is one hell of a sluggish computer. My sister wants a mini iPod but I told her there is no point whilst we have that. I was looking on eBay and came across a G3 600mhz iMac, 256MB RAM, 40GB hard drive in Graphite which is running Panther.

She just needs to access the internet, chat to her friends on MSN messenger, use iTunes, word process, put digital photos on that kind of thing.

Is it a goer even running Panther? What if I stick another 512MB of RAM in there?

After being a PC user for many years I have no way of telling what's a fast Mac CPU and what isn't.

Thanks for any help.

For the specs you have mentioned above, this would be a fine computer for your family's needs. My 333Mhz iMac runs panther with 256mb ram without many problems. an extra 267 mhz would make the computer really smappy!

What price is the computer on he new for? If is is anywhere near £549.00, get an eMac, they are really good value, especially for your needs.

 

[kerb]

still 2 days to go

1 bid of £50 and reserve not met so it's still too early

I've looked at the eMac, bit on the big side but it's definately in for consideraiton.

 

[neoelectronaut]

If you or anyone in your house is in school, or is a teacher, etc. I say plunk down the $750 and get an eMac Combo Drive. (Or even less, if you can catch the rare times Apple puts up refurb models for around $500)

I know it'll be more expensive than the iMac you mentioned, but a G4 processor is leaps and bounds faster than the G3, and thus, will last you quite a bit longer.

 

[Littleodie914]

Yep... G4

I agree with the above post. The G4 processor running Mac OS X (especially panther) will result in a significant performance boost. My Yosemite G3 (see sig) runs Panther alright, but it's not really enough to do any photo editing. Safari, MSN Messenger, sure. I can also state for the record that I networked my iBook with the G3, and played a nice match of MOHAA with myself, no skipping at all! (Strange... I know)

 

[mikeyredk]

Well I'm buggering off to uni but the family desperately needs a new computer.

At the moment we have something like a 400mhz Celeron (i know!) 64MB SD-RAM and 15 gig hard drive.

This speed demon is running... XP Professional!

So it's obviously it is one hell of a sluggish computer. My sister wants a mini iPod but I told her there is no point whilst we have that. I was looking on eBay and came across a G3 600mhz iMac, 256MB RAM, 40GB hard drive in Graphite which is running Panther.

She just needs to access the internet, chat to her friends on MSN messenger, use iTunes, word process, put digital photos on that kind of thing.

Is it a goer even running Panther? What if I stick another 512MB of RAM in there?

After being a PC user for many years I have no way of telling what's a fast Mac CPU and what isn't.

Thanks for any help.

hey you have the same system as i do. the 400 celeron running xp but i have 386 ram in mine and 20 gig hard drive.

just to let you know there selling refurb imacs on the apple store special page. i would like but it would just die in 5 mins.

 

[Abstract]

Yeah, try to get a refurb instead if it's possible. Used Macs keep their value for so long that their price/performance ratio gets quite low when buying a used Mac.

The computer you mentioned above is great. At school, there's a 350MHz G3 that's running Panther quite well with only 384MB of RAM. I was shocked. Make sure to add more RAM, and it'll run very well. However, like others have said, an eMac is very very good value for the price, which can't be said for some of the used Macs going around, especially the used Flat Panel iMacs.

When comparing any Apple computer model to the eMac, the eMac is the best performer for it's price in the Apple lineup, and if you're a student, you can get the eMac from Apple using the educational discount. Just go to the Apple webpage, go to the Store, look to the left side of the screen and click on "Education."

 

[Jigglelicious]

That iMac would be easily able to do everything you listed. I'm currently running a 450mhz iMac, and its able to do just about everything with quite good speeds. Nothing blazing fast, but for just browsing the net and chatting, its a great computer. And I actually like the monitor on the iMac better than that on my eMac.

With that said, it would probably be a better investment to go with an eMac. While the iMac is still a great computer, you're limited with its measily 8-16mb VRAM which does NOT support quartz extreme, and your optical drive options are very limited since the iMac uses some strange sized slot loading drives. I believe I saw a combo drive online for nearly $300!!

So basically, unless you're on a really tight budget and can get the iMac for like $200-300, i'd spend the extra money and get an eMac that will last you quite a bit longer. I bought a 800mhz eMac for $500 from the Apple refurb store, and made the modifications to turn it into the Mac in my sig. Quite a good value!

 

[Shaun.P]

I have the machine you want...

Hello, I have the exact machine you want, except mine has more memory (640MB) and is the snow colour, not graphite.

I swtiched to a mac from a PC with an AMD Athlon 1.1Ghz, with 128 MB ram, and a 6 GB HDD, and I'd say my computer runs around the same speed as the Athlon that I had. It's a fantastic machine, I connect my 3G 20GB iPod to it, my digital camera, printer, broadband cable box, and they all work perfectly fine.

When I bought my computer it came installed with Mac OS X (10.2) and when I upgraded (Christmas '03) to Panther I noticed better performance.

Typical things that I run on my computer include: MSN, iTunes, QuickTime, Windows media player, AppleWorks, Mail, Safari, iPhoto, The Sims, Age of Mythology, which ALL run perfectly fine.

I would not say that the 600 Mhz chip is slow, it will do everything that you want to do with it, and more.

BTW - I've had my machine since January 12th 2003 (1.5 years) and I have NEVER had a problem with it. It is a well built machine with a great design. I highly recommend it.

 

[Horrortaxi]

Since it's been a few posts since somebody addressed your actual question--yes, the 600mhz will be a significant upgrade over the computer you have now and it will be perfect for the things your sister wants to do.

You wouldn't necessarily see a difference going from 256MB to 640MB doing things like email, chat, and word processing. I say 640MB, btw, because of how the iBooks are configured. They have 128MB on the board and 1 slot for additional RAM--512MB max. So with a 512MB stick you'd have 640MB.

There are many good reasons to get a faster computer and I'm not going to ignore what other people have said, but if this iBook were the only computer avialable to you or if it was an outstanding deal it would be just fine.

And G4 doesn't automatically = faster than G3. My 700mhz G3 wipes the floor with a 400mhz G4. The clock speed is generally more important.