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G3 Powerbook on 10.2?

T

TyleRomeo

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 22, 2002
888
0
New York
can I upgrade my girlfriend's 300MHZ G3 powerbook to 10.2. She's running OS 9.02 and has a 192 MB of RAM.

Do you need 9.2 to go to 10.2 or will any version of OS 9 work, and will 192MB of ram be enough for simple word processing, itunes, ichat and online?

Tyler
 
That system will run OS X, but I'm guessing the performance will be lackluster, at best. I'm running 10.2 on my Pismo, which originally had a 400 MHz G3 (upgraded to a 500 MHz G4 :) ). When I had the G3, performance was acceptable, but just barely so. Upping the RAM to 768 MB helped quite a bit, though, and I would definitely recommend giving the machine as much RAM as you can afford (preferably at least 512 MB). Another method of squeezing a bit more speed out of the system is to add a 5400 rpm hard drive, but that'll cost at least another $140.

OS X doesn't require that you have ANY version of OS 9 in order to run. In order to use classic (i.e., to run OS 9 apps from within OS X), however, you need at least 9.1, I believe (you might even need 9.2 to use classic in Jaguar, though I'm not sure). Upgrading to 9.2 from 9.0 is free.
 
I dunno ... I had a G3 250 "Wallstreet" and 10.1.5 crawled. Is there a big gap from a 250 to a 300Mhz? I had 160Megs of RAM at the time.

My 500Mhz iBook had 192Ram and 10.2 was pretty bad, even with 384 it wasn't that good. I pushed it up to 576 and it got much better. OS X is such a RAM hog...
 
I have 10.2.6 installed on a Pismo with stock everything and 386mb RAM, and it's not too bad actually. It's 400Mhz, so I'm not sure if the extra 100 matters much. I use it as my 2nd machine, for coding, testing, surfing, etc.

If her stuff is backed up, why not just give it a shot? You could always go back if it's too slow to work on...
 
I've got 10.2.6 running on my 300Mhz iBook with 320MB RAM with little trouble.

Some tips to increase the speed:

Max out your RAM (this is a must)
Upgrade the hard drive to one with much more cache and a faster rpm (its a pain, but its worth it)
Create a swap partition.

These three things alone will contribute to the most speed gained on an older system like that.
 
Originally posted by 5300cs
I dunno ... I had a G3 250 "Wallstreet" and 10.1.5 crawled. Is there a big gap from a 250 to a 300Mhz? I had 160Megs of RAM at the time.

OS X is such a RAM hog...
Click to expand...

yeah well im hoping 192MB and the 300MHZ G3 will be enough for really basic things. I mean the most the computer would do as in multitasking is running iChat, iTunes, safari and word. I know apple's main ram hog is iPhoto but she really wont be using it, at least not while running everything else. and doesnt 10.2 run smoother then 10.1 anyway even a G3?

Tyler
 
Originally posted by TyleRomeo
... and word
Click to expand...

Oooooh.... this will easily dwarf the ram/resource requirements of iPhoto... seriously, Word X is a pig!

Oink oink!

But, it IS usable on 192-256mb ram... can you whip out the 64mb chip and put in a 128? They're cheap now!
 
Originally posted by Codemonkey
Oooooh.... this will easily dwarf the ram/resource requirements of iPhoto... seriously, Word X is a pig!

Oink oink!

But, it IS usable on 192-256mb ram... can you whip out the 64mb chip and put in a 128? They're cheap now!
Click to expand...

maybe man, if i take out the 64 im putting in a 256. that is if my girlfriend will be cool with me tearing her comp apart.

Tyler
 
ok will Word files from OS9 automatically work in OSX? and if she has a floppy dirve with os9 will that open in OSX?

Tyler
 
ohh and is an 8GB hard drive enough to run OSX, and since she has 9.02 and not 9.1 she wont be able to use classic or OS9, is there a reason to partition the hard drive.

Tyler
 
1) 8 gigs is fine. My Pismo has a 6 gig drive, and I have just over a gig and a half free...

2) I can't answer that question about 9.01... is there a reason why she can't upgrade to 9.2.x?

3) Word files are pretty darned indestructable for most basic formatting... I'm sure it'll be fine.

4) Floppy drive?!?! :p Kidding. I'm guessing they're mountable in X... I don't see a reason for it not to be... you can still buy USB external floppy drives for Macs, so.... ?

Hope this helps a bit!

Chris.
 
Originally posted by Codemonkey
1) 8 gigs is fine. My Pismo has a 6 gig drive, and I have just over a gig and a half free...

2) I can't answer that question about 9.01... is there a reason why she can't upgrade to 9.2.x?

3) Word files are pretty darned indestructable for most basic formatting... I'm sure it'll be fine.

4) Floppy drive?!?! :p Kidding. I'm guessing they're mountable in X... I don't see a reason for it not to be... you can still buy USB external floppy drives for Macs, so.... ?

Hope this helps a bit!

Chris.
Click to expand...

1.how can see hey 9.2.2 without paying for it? is there a free upgrade to 9.2 on apple site?

2.its a wallstreet 300MHZ with 192 ram, and she doesnt have any USB ports yet, she connects the floppy drive with another connector.

tyler
 
10.1 came with 9.2.2 on CD. I just noticed 10.2 doesn't have OS 9 CD's anymore... unless I misplaced them... but I'm almost certain, one way or another it's included.

As for the floppy... not sure how universal the drivers are... if you're converting it to serial or whatever those Wallstreets have, that could be iffy...
 
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