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B&W powermac g3

P

papadopolis1024

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 14, 2007
373
0
bought it on monday should be here by tuseday.... but i have been thinking about WHAT TO DO WITH IT! i have no idea.. i am also about to buy a video camera.... im assuming i should do all the iMovie stuff on my iBook G4 (1.33 GHz) not on the power mac.... but i have been doing some thinking and here is what i am going to maybe put in it

80 Gb HD
i will max out the RAM with 4 256 Mb of RAM
ATi Radon 9200 pro 128 MB "mac edition"
and maybe some neon lighting (any ideas for this one)

hows it sound?
anymore ideas....?
 
Yes, you can do those things, but your CPU isn't going to change. Is the graphics card going to be compatable with the board? The iBook all and all should do better. Finally, you are spending an awlful amount of money on something that is kinda old. I'd save that money for an iMac 17" Intel Core 2 Duo 1.83 Ghz.
 
macgeek77 said:
...Finally, you are spending an awlful amount of money on something that is kinda old...
Click to expand...

That's a major understatement considering the OP is thinking of using it for video editing. The G4's are long in the tooth... any thing before that is practically obsolete for anything but web surfing and general office stuff. It's not that the machine itself is slow (well, maybe it is compared to what's out there), the problem is with the software. If you buy an old machine and install older versions of software with no hope of ever upgrading, you can get some life out of it. But is it worth it?? As for me, I wouldn't touch anything older than G4 unless it was given to me. Even then, that can be a problem if you have to spend money upgrading. It's like throwing good money after bad.
 
My B&W edited video fine using iMovie 2 or 3, I can't remember which.

That said, the thing will DIE if you try to run a new version of iMovie. Your box should be good for checking email, writing papers and light web surfing. It'll be very good at anything in OS 9 too.
 
Machines in this range are good for:
A) web browsing, email, and word processing
B) Children and old people that are not very computer literate, great learning machine.
C) OS 9 specific aps.
D) File Server. Stick an SATA card and a gig ethernet card, load with large hard drives.

Be wary of option D, 4 drives and a card can easily run you $400-$600.
 
As a project/mod box, the B&W's are great & fun to play with. Same for using it as a back-up/storage/file server/kiddies-granny's learning box.......

But to try & make into something it's not, nor ever will be (fast/up to date/video editor), is a complete waste of money, time, & parts.........

If you plan to run OS 9 or earlier OS on it, forget the Radeon 9200....it wont make any difference. The stock Rage128 will do just fine. However, in you insist on using OS X, stick to Jaguar or Panther (10.2 or .3), max da ram, and get the 9200, and that will give you a reasonably usable machine...
 
I was given a B&W G3 with a 350 MHZ cpu. I overclocked it to 450mhz, upgraged the HD to 60GB 7200 Rpm, put a Radeon 7000 64MB in it, put a USB 2.0 card in it, and a wireless card. It did speed things up A LITTLE BIT. However, it was no where near enough to do any heavy photoshopping or any video editing. It was really only good for web browsing. I just upgraded to a 24in iMac Core Duo. You are MUCH better off buying a Mac Mini or looking on ebay for a G4 or G5. It was not worth upgrading the B&W. I am probably going to sell the parts I put in it on ebay. I hope I can get some of my money back.
 
thanks those links are great!

well today i was cleaning my basment and i found my old compaq! and so i brought it upstairs to rip the HD from it instead of buying a new one turns out its only 40 GB (it will do for now) but beacause my compaq (i know shoot me now) is broken i could not wipe the HD (i just thought of this) if i put it in my B&W with out killing it just long enough to wipe it.

i also riped the RAM (one 32MB and the other i have no idea it dose not say)
i got the CD-W
and i riped the modem from the PCI slot
 
princealfie said:
Me too. I love my B/W G3. I plan to save up for a Mac Pro next year but it's awesome for a music server and Photoshop machine :D
Click to expand...

NICE!

i know that i am going to put all my music on it! i would like to get os x server but its just to expensive..... and it will also be for other normal stuff
internet and several other things
 
papadopolis1024 said:
NICE!

i know that i am going to put all my music on it! i would like to get os x server but its just to expensive..... and it will also be for other normal stuff
internet and several other things
Click to expand...

Add 1 GB of RAM, 4 x 750 GB IDE drives using a Sonnet IDE adapter PCI, and a ATI Radeon 9200 (or Nvidia FX 520 256 mb graphics card PCI) and then you are set to have a 3 TB file server on your hands... that's what I plan to do with mine.

But I would love to have the Mac Pro too! :)
 
papadopolis1024 said:
thanks those links are great!

well today i was cleaning my basment and i found my old compaq! and so i brought it upstairs to rip the HD from it instead of buying a new one turns out its only 40 GB (it will do for now) but beacause my compaq (i know shoot me now) is broken i could not wipe the HD (i just thought of this) if i put it in my B&W with out killing it just long enough to wipe it.

i also riped the RAM (one 32MB and the other i have no idea it dose not say)
i got the CD-W
and i riped the modem from the PCI slot
Click to expand...

still need help! please!!!
 
Great Machine....

I did the absurd with mine two years back...

Panther ( OS X.3.9 )
Highpoint 1820a
3x 320GB SATA drives ( RAID 5 )
PowerLogix 900 G3
WD 120 on ATTO EIDE card
Radeon 7500 Mac Edition
756 MB memory
Pioneer DVR-A05


I use it really regularly as an Apache2 dev server, Subversion Vault, iTunes server, Audio Hijack Pro recorder ( for House of Blues weekly ) and general backup storage vault for images, and other important documents and downloads ( Apple and MS Dev mostly ).

This machine is extremely stable and reliable. It is the most important machine in my current network. I will probably replicate it to my DA733 ( upgraded to dual 1.4 ) when leopard comes out.

The G3, while it can run tiger, probably never will as I do not want to spend the time to test and reconfigure the custom unix packages installed on it.

As for UI, I use VNC ( yes I put a VNC server on it ) to get to it.



As for cost, If you remove the disk subsystem, something you would need to buy for any machine, the only real cost above and beyond is the powerlogix upgrade $200, the memory ( off ebay really cheap ) and the video card $129.

While I would not use it as a desktop, as a server, it has many years left in it ( or until it tips over and catches fire ) .

Max.
 
Angrist said:
Machines in this range are good for:
A) web browsing, email, and word processing
B) Children and old people that are not very computer literate, great learning machine.
C) OS 9 specific aps.
D) File Server. Stick an SATA card and a gig ethernet card, load with large hard drives.

Be wary of option D, 4 drives and a card can easily run you $400-$600.
Click to expand...


Due to the limitation in bandwidth, a GB card is a waste, as even with a good disk system, they are problematic, and never get above 20 MB/s anyhow.

The 11 MB/s the internal card handles is good enough for this machine.

Max.
 
maxvamp said:
Due to the limitation in bandwidth, a GB card is a waste, as even with a good disk system, they are problematic, and never get above 20 MB/s anyhow.

The 11 MB/s the internal card handles is good enough for this machine.

Max.
Click to expand...

Yeah, just use a Sonnet Wireless card for Ethernet with lil antennae. Sweet system there :)
 
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