Beefing up a clamshell

[Nik_Doof]

Ok, just got a clamshell G3 for dirty cheap off someone who obviously didn't know how much he could sell it for (got it for a touch under £100, when they sell on ebay for £250+).

Its a 300mhz G3, 6gb HDD, 192mb RAM. First of all i'm going to pump the RAM up as high as it can go... Is this little thing 512mb capable?

Also i know this is a extreme longshot, but is there any Firewire hacks? Hehe i expect a no but you never know

I'm going to slap 10.3 on it as people quote it as the best for these range, but is there any other software hacks / improvements i can get out of this machine? i want to get max bang for bucks as its destined for my very picky girlfriend who thinks her peecee is fab...

 

[jamall]

You have 64Mb of RAM soldered to the mobo and one slot to work with, so 576Mb is the max you can have. Dpending on what it'll be used for, 320Mb may be enough. You'll want to get a new hard drive as OS X will take about a third of that 6Gb drive you've got. No firewire for you, but there is an Airport card slot in there.

 

[wordmunger]

I agree with Jamall--the HD size is going to be your big problem. I upgraded the HD in my clamshell, it took about two hours and I had little parts spread all over my kitchen. Put the thing back together and I had one part left! But it works, so I'm not complaining. The biggest problem with this model and OS X is how much screen room the dock consumes. Best solution is just to keep it tiny.

It'll work fine for basic Web browsing, but I'm not sure you're going to blow your GF away with the speed of the thing, no matter what you do.

 

[edesignuk]

Regarding the RAM, read the bit on this page under "Important information about your system" (in red text).

 

[Nik_Doof]

Thanks guys,

A short chat with my gf before and shes over the moon with it... thank god. Shes more of a iLife person, she'd want to use the software available for her degree (heiroglyphics/coptic writing software) and browsing and stuff, so i don't need monster speed to impress her... shes already impressed with OSX as it is

So really i guess no need for a massive hdd, I've got a old 5400rpm 20gb here out of a Compaq im stripping down, i'd guess its ATA 33 so would that work?

Also i happy to find a Airport card in the sucker (that was, after finding where the port was). So i can get that on my AP at home hopefully.

 

[Nik_Doof]

Originally posted by edesignuk
Regarding the RAM, read the bit on this page under "Important information about your system" (in red text).

Ooo, ok. So i'd assume it would be on the Apple KB hunt or Software Update?

 

[wordmunger]

Originally posted by Nik_Doof
So really i guess no need for a massive hdd, I've got a old 5400rpm 20gb here out of a Compaq im stripping down, i'd guess its ATA 33 so would that work?

Sure, 20 gigs for casual use is probably plenty. For drive compatibility, try this site.

 

[jamall]

I'm not sure whether the HD bus in the iBook is ATA/33 or 66, but the drive will work regardless, as the ATA standard is both forwards and backwards compatible.