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G3 Imacs - what can i do with it?

V

venomphil

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 22, 2007
7
0
I've just been given 2, G3 Imacs
both with MAC OS 9.2

They are totally foreign to me
as I have always been a pc user

but i want to know, what can i do with them?

Upgrade OS - how? is there a guide u can link me?
Upgrade hardware? - is that possible
Software - where do i get it from?

Thanks (y)
And please don’t answer with anything to amazingly witty
I know how people get on forums if they know more than you :p
Im a mac noob :confused:
 
You can run some versions of OSX on those machines but OS 9 will almost certainly be faster albeit less stable. Hardware upgrades are almost limited to hard drive and RAM. You can buy all sorts of third party software for them still, but work out what you're doing with the operating system first. Depending on what you want to use them for kind of determines whether it's all worthwhile in my opinion. I really need to know more about what you're wanting to do before I can offer anything more substantial. Sorry. Personally, I'd keep OS 9 on them, avoid spending any money on hardware and then keep them as file servers. :)
 
I love Mad Jew, but have to respectfully disagree: I have fixed up numerous G3 iMacs for friends as they want to join the Apple generation and can't really afford anything. I have stuffed these old iMac workhorses with the maximum ram (1 gig) and fast 7200rpm hard drives and put Tiger on them with great results. It is a toss up between Tiger and Panther on them. They have great screens and will last pretty much forever. Fix 'em up and give them away to needy friends at Xmas. Or turn one into a kitchen iTunes machine, the Harmon Kardon built in speakers on them sound surprisingly great.
 
venomphil said:
I've just been given 2, G3 Imacs
both with MAC OS 9.2

They are totally foreign to me
as I have always been a pc user

but i want to know, what can i do with them?

Upgrade OS - how? is there a guide u can link me?
Upgrade hardware? - is that possible
Software - where do i get it from?

Thanks (y)
And please don’t answer with anything to amazingly witty
I know how people get on forums if they know more than you :p
Im a mac noob :confused:
Click to expand...

Tell me about what color and speed they are? Speed in MHz listed on bottom in fine print... 233, 333, 350, 400, 500, or 600? Are they tray-loaders(233-333MHz) or slot-loaders(350-600MHz)? Look on the front to tell where you put CD media in. iMac G3's are awesome machines!! I use all of mine a lot!!! If they are slot loaders, you are in luck! You can put up to a 120Gig Hard Drive in them. BEFORE you do anything, check the firmware version! Do they have Airport cards in them? Open the bottoms and check. Sorry if I was too witty, it is basic stuff I mentioned.
 
Here's another idea :D

iMac.jpg
 
iCube said:
Awesome picture!!

How did you get the full size picture up NOT as an attachment?

Thanks
Click to expand...

slightly off topic from the rest of the thread but what he did was put the picture up on photobucket or a similar site and put in the link with
Code:
tags.

And on the topic of the thread the iMac is a slot loader. I would personally max the RAM put in a larger HD and then instal OS X on them, 10.3 is probably the fastest on there.
 
California said:
I love Mad Jew, but have to respectfully disagree: I have fixed up numerous G3 iMacs for friends as they want to join the Apple generation and can't really afford anything. I have stuffed these old iMac workhorses with the maximum ram (1 gig) and fast 7200rpm hard drives and put Tiger on them with great results. It is a toss up between Tiger and Panther on them. They have great screens and will last pretty much forever. Fix 'em up and give them away to needy friends at Xmas. Or turn one into a kitchen iTunes machine, the Harmon Kardon built in speakers on them sound surprisingly great.
Click to expand...

i second california. Look at the imac in my signature, It's awesome. I'm going to upgrade it to panther in a month :)
 
Use it ...

I have one of these and stil use it to run a set of filemaker 4.1 databases I made 4 years ago. It's one of the coolest point of sales systems I ever saw ...
 
mrkramer said:
the iMac is a slot loader
Click to expand...

The thread starter was given 2 G3 iMacs and hasn't stated what kind.

Yes I was off topic and when I noticed the photobucket link with tags and I edited out the question, sorry.
Thanks for letting me know. :cool:
 
Not long ago I picked up an iMac G3 / 600MHz / 40GB / 128MB / OS 9.2.2 real cheap. It was one of the last G3's Apple sold.

Upgraded to OSX 10.3.9, 640MB, runs great. Mostly Safari, iTunes, iWork '05. Although the CRT screen takes some getting used-to again.

Unless you've got a very early tray-load model you can still do a lot with it.
 
Ok heres a (crap) picture -->
DSC00568.JPG

They are both the same

They are slot-loaders IMAC SE 700/GR/256/60/CDRW/ULTRA/56K/FW/VGA
Ive had a go at upgrading the FW to 4.1.9 (thats the newest one yes?)

Thanks for the suggestions so far
Love the cat idea, pity i dont have a cat :/

I would primarily use it to find out abit more about 'Macs'
so if i could upgrade stuff, i hope to learn from that.
 
venomphil said:
They are slot-loaders IMAC SE 700/GR/256/60/CDRW/ULTRA/56K/FW/VGA
Ive had a go at upgrading the FW to 4.1.9 (thats the newest one yes?)
Click to expand...

oh emm gee.. it's def worth taking the ram on this baby up to 1 gb.. also dump that 60 gb 4200 rpm drive for a 80 gb 7200 the difference is HUGE.
 
venomphil said:
Ok heres a (crap) picture -->
DSC00568.JPG

They are both the same

They are slot-loaders IMAC SE 700/GR/256/60/CDRW/ULTRA/56K/FW/VGA
Ive had a go at upgrading the FW to 4.1.9 (thats the newest one yes?)

Thanks for the suggestions so far
Love the cat idea, pity i dont have a cat :/

I would primarily use it to find out abit more about 'Macs'
so if i could upgrade stuff, i hope to learn from that.
Click to expand...

These really are great iMacs, and you can get a ton of life from them. They should be able to run Mac OS 10.4 quite well, although you will probably need to borrow an external DVD drive to install 10.4, since it comes on DVD. Check around and find a Mac lover that you know (we are around everywhere) who will spend a couple hours getting you started. I think that you could get a lot of usage from these machines.

My dad, for instance, is a realtor who relies on my old iMac G3 400 MHz machine in his office, and he loves it. He is running 10.4 on it, and I stop by when I'm in town to help him with any questions. It satisfies his needs very well.

Enjoy, and welcome to the world of Apple! Feel welcome to write back if you have questions as you go! Everybody had to get started somewhere, and we all learn as we go.
 
what kind of hard drive/memory do you need for the g3 imacs? I, too have one that I'd like to use as a music player, thanks!

I wonder if it would be more cost effective to have an internal of external hard drive if you were to buy a new one.

PS: Not trying to thread jack, I think these are questions that well probably come up.
 
Thanks for the responce:D
Ok so my next questions are :-

Ram - whats best/most 1G? I've opened it up and see there is samsung 256,
is it best to stick with samsung for macs?

Hard drive - is 80g the max? or can i go bigger

OS - Where do i get Tiger / 10.4 from? Do i actualy have to buy software! :eek:
 
venomphil said:
Thanks for the responce:D
Ok so my next questions are :-

Ram - whats best/most 1G? I've opened it up and see there is samsung 256,
is it best to stick with samsung for macs?

Hard drive - is 80g the max? or can i go bigger

OS - Where do i get Tiger / 10.4 from? Do i actualy have to buy software! :eek:
Click to expand...

Yes, 1GB is the ram limit. you want pc 133 or 100 imac compatible Ram, I have kingston in mine.

120gb is the max, I was just suggesting a 80GB HD because you it appears to be the smallest/cheapest 7200 rpm eide/pata HD out there.

Yes, you would have to buy the software. I have a copy of Jaguar that i can sell you for $25 shipped if you would like.
 
What to do with this old mac? I have a 700mhz G3 iBook with 384meg of memory and a 30Ghz drive. I use it for wireless internet, iTunes radio server, love the radio. Hooked up an old but nice pair of USB speakers to it. Light games, email. Run Tiger 10.4.11 on it. Still runs great.

It can't quite handle youtube videos as smooth as you'd like. They're a little jerky. Machine is still very usable IMO... it's my bedroom machine.
 
CRAZYBUBBA said:
Yes, you would have to buy the software. I have a copy of Jaguar that i can sell you for $25 shipped if you would like.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't suggest using Jaguar. That machine can definitely run at least Panther, and we all know Jaguar was still pretty early, lacking features and optimization, so it's slower.
 
so 120gb PATA / EIDE are the drives to look for

also Whats the difference between Tiger / Jaguar / Panther / 10.4 ?
is there a basic one, that i can try and then move up?

Thanks
 
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