I was curious to see if there's anyone who sticks with the tray loader iMac G3 models over the slot loaders, and why that is. From what I gather, they are much more durable and sturdy these days, and maybe a bit easier to get into. Definitely a lot lower spec than later models though, with no FireWire. Myself, I probably wouldn't buy a slot loader online anymore given the repeated disasters I've seen with them getting destroyed. If I could find a 333MHz tray loader model at a good price I'd probably get one.
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Anyone prefer the tray-loader G3 to the slot-loader?
- Thread starter retta283
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I still have a couple of those old "credit-card" CDs.
Can't work in a slot-loader.
And, I've seen too many slot-loaders that will pull a CD in, but refuse to push the disk out to eject. Those rubber rollers get hard with age, or the eject motor gets stubborn, whatever. The tray-loaders seem to handle "old age" more gracefully than slot-loading drives.
Can't work in a slot-loader.
And, I've seen too many slot-loaders that will pull a CD in, but refuse to push the disk out to eject. Those rubber rollers get hard with age, or the eject motor gets stubborn, whatever. The tray-loaders seem to handle "old age" more gracefully than slot-loading drives.
Until I put her out to occasional use, my Bondi iMac was a solid, daily use machine for emulation, games, some word processing work, etc. My son had a 500mhz graphite slot loader that was also in daily use, that I picked up at around the same time (IIRC, it was a twofer deal, but my memory could be failing me as it was 15-16 years ago). That machine's flyback went out ages ago, and I had attempted a repair, but the plastics just crumbled. The Bondi is still structurally solid and pumping along, with a @dosdude1 400mhz G4 upgrade, and I occasionally pull her out for a few classic games when the mood arises. I do need to replace the now-tired CDROM drive (I know which one will work), but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.
I prefer the slot loaders for the very reasons you stated - FW, faster CPUs etc. I have a nostalgic attachment to them as well as my wife had one when I first met her and this was the first mac I really had experience with. Lastly between the two I think the slot loaders are more aesthetically pleasing and I liked how they did away with the i/o door which is a pita on the tray loader IMO.
And I currently own three tray loaders LOL. The tray loaders are way easier to get into and maintain IMO. I really like the "pull out" design of the tray loaders, so from that perspective I vastly prefer tray loaders to work on. I wish Apple had continued this ease of use/repair design from the tray loader to the slot loader.
I agree the slot loader cdrom is a pain too but even on the tray loaders these days, I use a usb external cdrom drive, circumventing the internal drives altogether.
And I currently own three tray loaders LOL. The tray loaders are way easier to get into and maintain IMO. I really like the "pull out" design of the tray loaders, so from that perspective I vastly prefer tray loaders to work on. I wish Apple had continued this ease of use/repair design from the tray loader to the slot loader.
I agree the slot loader cdrom is a pain too but even on the tray loaders these days, I use a usb external cdrom drive, circumventing the internal drives altogether.
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