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BuZZ22k

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 16, 2002
32
0
My compnay is giving these things away. I got a centris for free and might be able to pick up this G3 for $50. Is it worth getting? Can I ugrade it if need be? Compared to a PC how fast would this be?
 

tjwett

macrumors 68000
May 6, 2002
1,880
0
Brooklyn, NYC
well, compared to a 266mhz PC it would be the same or maybe a little faster but it will surely feel slow compared to anything new. you can upgrade it though. there are lots of daughter cards to beef up the processor and whatnot. might make a good little server. talk them down to $49.99 and it's a go.
 

FattyMembrane

macrumors 6502a
Apr 14, 2002
966
154
bat country
YES!!! buy it. thats a good deal. if it comes with keyboard/mouse/monitor you should not pass this up. you can actually run osx on this machine straight out of the box (it will be kind of slow, but fun to see osx in action, it's very pretty :)). you should definately buy it, os9.2.2 will be as quick as greased lightning on that thing, but if you want, you can buy a 500mhz g4 upgrade from http://www.sonnettech.com for $400 (kind of pricey, but nice if you have the dough) and osx should run pretty smoothly. you can get a radeon 7000 pci for $120 if you want to play better games, but the pci card will not support quartz extreme in osx.

in conclusion... go for it, those are sweet machines and that's a steal of a price. os 9.2.2 will be very quick and osx will be fast enough for light use. make sure that you put at least 256 megs of ram in the machine if you can. and if they have any extras, send me one :D
 

job

macrumors 68040
Jan 25, 2002
3,794
3
in transit
Originally posted by FattyMembrane
you can get a radeon 7000 pci for $120 if you want to play better games, but the pci card will not support quartz extreme in osx.

Actually the PCI Radeon supports Quartz Extreme....

But I'll leave it up to you to find the hack online... ;)
 

zimv20

macrumors 601
Jul 18, 2002
4,402
11
toronto
fwiw, i have that exact machine (160 meg RAM) running jaguar (no os9 installed).

yeah, it's a dog. this afternoon i ran xbench on it, the score is 23 (compare to the normalized 100 for a dual 867).

i use it to run my webserver and ftp server, and it's fine for that. but the user experience [i.e. sitting at it and using the gui] is somewhat miserable. i'd agree w/ getting the upgrades others mentioned.
 

blogo

macrumors 6502
Apr 1, 2002
290
0
Buy it now, I got one and they are very useful.
With some extra ram and a little overclocking you can run Jaguar pretty good on it.
 

e-coli

macrumors 68000
Jul 27, 2002
1,937
1,153
well, you know that centris you've got?

Multiply it by 20, give it steroids, and kick it in the pants and that's what you've got for $50. Pretty good deal to me.
 

Hemingray

macrumors 68030
Jan 9, 2002
2,926
37
Ha ha haaa!
Originally posted by hitman


Actually the PCI Radeon supports Quartz Extreme....

But I'll leave it up to you to find the hack online... ;)

Been there, done that. I personally don't recommend it. I have a Yikes G4 (PCI graphics) with a Radeon 7000. When I enabled Quartz Extreme it LOWERED my graphics performance over 30%! Some G3 users have reported better performance, but not everyone. You won't really know until you try it.
 

pretentious

macrumors regular
Sep 4, 2002
214
0
"Reality"
I've been looking for any G3 under $200 dollars, that is a great deal!
What kind is it, a beige? B&W?
You wanna hook a brotha up?
 

BuZZ22k

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 16, 2002
32
0
It is a beige, and I didn't get it. It went to the next bidder. :(

$100

grrr I saw one on ebay for 80 though.
 

job

macrumors 68040
Jan 25, 2002
3,794
3
in transit
That's a shame..

Still, if you can get one and upgrade it, it's worth the effort...

Especially if you just want a Mac to experiment with before spending hard earned cash on a new one... ;)
 

jefhatfield

Retired
Jul 9, 2000
8,803
0
Re: Is a PPC G3 266 worth $50???

Originally posted by BuZZ22k
My compnay is giving these things away. I got a centris for free and might be able to pick up this G3 for $50. Is it worth getting? Can I ugrade it if need be? Compared to a PC how fast would this be?

i would say that this machine would beat a pentium II, 300 mhz

and for fifty dollars, that is a great deal...i think going price for beige G3 is over two hundred dollars

a fifty dollar computer would be like any pentium 1 or a powerPC that is first (601) or second generation (thru 604e)

486s and pre-powerPCs should just be given away, imho

by end of next year, i wouldn't buy anything under a G4 on mac side, or under pentium III on pc side, but that's just me;)
 

barkmonster

macrumors 68020
Dec 3, 2001
2,134
15
Lancashire
i would say that this machine would beat a pentium II, 300 mhz

Apple said that too in their old adverts at the time with the toasted intel guys in them :

BYTEmark integer index scores

Powermac G3 : 9.01
Pentium II/300 : 4.26
Pentium II/266 : 3.77

Photoshop 4.0 Performance (seconds to complete 16 common tasks)

Powermac G3 : 611.1
Pentium II/300 : 718
Pentium II/266 : 814.5
 

jefhatfield

Retired
Jul 9, 2000
8,803
0
Originally posted by barkmonster


Apple said that too in their old adverts at the time with the toasted intel guys in them :

BYTEmark integer index scores

Powermac G3 : 9.01
Pentium II/300 : 4.26
Pentium II/266 : 3.77

Photoshop 4.0 Performance (seconds to complete 16 common tasks)

Powermac G3 : 611.1
Pentium II/300 : 718
Pentium II/266 : 814.5

very good, much better than i expected since i consider the pentium II, at the time, a pretty speedy machine
 

jefhatfield

Retired
Jul 9, 2000
8,803
0
i am an email, internet, word processing, a light photoshop/illustrator/pagemaker type of guy and i never keep more than any two adobe programs open at the same time so things are cool on my g3 300 mhz ibook

it's only that my wife's G4 450 at work boots up faster and shuts down faster...and is faster at opening and closing programs

but for the operation side of doing the basic and mid level tasks i mentioned above, i am happy with a g3 chip struggling at 300 mhz

that g3 for fifty bucks is a great, great deal for the money...unless the person wants to be a cutting edge gamer or have tons of adobe and macromedia programs on at the same time...but that is not most people i know
 

job

macrumors 68040
Jan 25, 2002
3,794
3
in transit
I've got a 400 Mhz G3 and it's fine when I run Fireworks MX, iTunes, and IE all at the same time.

I very rarely do anything more than type in Appleworks or mod some textures in a Macromedia/Adobe app.

An early G3 chip (which is also upgradable) for $50, or even $80 is a steal.
 

tibookowner

macrumors newbie
Oct 13, 2002
24
0
I was pondering the same thing...

Then my wife and I were hit by a truck ... but at least my old G3 wasn't in the car... then I just upgraded to an 800 mhz TI Book...
 

BuZZ22k

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 16, 2002
32
0
*Bump*

I am getting the g3 tomorrow for $50.......

This should be easy to hook up to my network.... anyone want to buy a centris 650???? :)
 

tibookowner

macrumors newbie
Oct 13, 2002
24
0
WallStreet stuff...

Just thought I would Pipe up and say a "Wallstreet" G3 is worth 50 bucks... at least... at a minimum. Of course, I am a Little Biased, seens how a G3 was my old Daily Use Machine!
 

BuZZ22k

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 16, 2002
32
0
What is a wallstreet?

The g3 I am getting is listed on ebay for $300... woohooo

Plus mine has a zip disk drive.
 

tibookowner

macrumors newbie
Oct 13, 2002
24
0
Wallstreet description

Sorry, I lapsed into 'computer speak'... for example... a few weeks ago, I had the opprotunity to purchase a brand spanking new TI book which derives its name from the name TItanum and the Brand name power BOOK...sorry, didn't mean any CONFUSION...
 
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