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Upgrading a Powermac G3
- Thread starter monke
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Depends on what G3 PM you have. But you can get CPUs, RAM and hds. Up to 1ghz if its a beige, more if it's a B&W.
Depends on what G3 PM you have. But you can get CPUs, RAM and hds. Up to 1ghz if its a beige, more if it's a B&W.
Duff-Man says...in the beige series you should have no trouble upgrading the hard drive, cpu, ram and also putting in a better pci video card (the on board video can accept a small v-ram upgrade as well but its hardly worth it if you can pick up a cheap pci card). As for buying in Canada, there may be a couple places but you will find better deals in the USA, even factoring in shipping etc. Have a look at some of the online shops like Other World - just one example - and price stuff out. Also look through the articles and upgrade database entries at xlr8yourmac for how upgrades have worked for other users.
Lastly, look carefully at what you are spending on all these things and think about whether you are just better off buying a new Mac instead (like a Mini perhaps).....oh yeah!
Lastly, look carefully at what you are spending on all these things and think about whether you are just better off buying a new Mac instead (like a Mini perhaps).....oh yeah!
^^Yes, as Duff-Man says, although you can get a pretty decent computer out of your machine for $300 or a bit more, you can get a BRAND NEW Mac mini for $200 more, or if you need more power, a used G4 powermac for around the same price. There is no denying the improvement of either of these systems over an upgraded G3, for just a hundred or two dollars more. There always comes a point when upgrading a system is no longer worth it due to reductions in prices of more recent technology, and I think that for the G3's, that time is now.
But, you have to keep in mind the cool factor of having a 1ghz 768mb RAM beige PM running OS X. Personally, since I don't have a ton of money and I need a new computer sometime in the next 6 months to a year, all I'm doing to my beige is upgrading to 10.2 and throwing in an additional 128 ram to make it 320. I'm just gonna stick with my 266 G3. btw, cheapest and best (imo) upgrade for functionality is pci usb card. That is, if you don't mind playing with tons of drivers and/or running os x.
Most of the time, "cool factor" and "I don't have a ton of money" do not go hand in hand. But youre right, there is a cool factor there. Just like upgrading a 4-cylinder 120 HP engine to be a 310 HP beast(My '99 AWD Turbo Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX) Has a much higher cool factor than a stock 300 HP V8
I Love my Blue and White and Beige G3's
I have upgraded my G3 Yosemite with the 1Ghz Sonnet Card. Max out ram to 1GB and added some Maxtor Hard Drives. Video card by ATI 9200 which has 128 MB of VRAM. Just for fun even installed an Alchemy TV Tuner so I can use it later like a TIVO. DVD Burner too.
Currently runs 10.4.2 without any problems. A new G5 would of course be snappier, but still love this box. Still amazing that this box was originally released 6+ years ago and can still run the latest and most modern OS--Tiger! Show me any PC that has that kind of longevity.
I use my Beige G3 side by side for things like this--email and light web browsing, but even it surprises me from time to time when it handles video streaming or Photoshop work from time to time, and it is 7 years old.
My experience with Apple over the years reinforces what we all know--that the Macintosh Platform and OS is a superior product period.
I have upgraded my G3 Yosemite with the 1Ghz Sonnet Card. Max out ram to 1GB and added some Maxtor Hard Drives. Video card by ATI 9200 which has 128 MB of VRAM. Just for fun even installed an Alchemy TV Tuner so I can use it later like a TIVO. DVD Burner too.
Currently runs 10.4.2 without any problems. A new G5 would of course be snappier, but still love this box. Still amazing that this box was originally released 6+ years ago and can still run the latest and most modern OS--Tiger! Show me any PC that has that kind of longevity.
I use my Beige G3 side by side for things like this--email and light web browsing, but even it surprises me from time to time when it handles video streaming or Photoshop work from time to time, and it is 7 years old.
My experience with Apple over the years reinforces what we all know--that the Macintosh Platform and OS is a superior product period.