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How useful this iMac can be

A

asifnaz

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 3, 2010
129
4
I am really tempted for this imac which is on sale only for 29$ on ebay .
the specs are:

Condition:
Used:
Processor Type: PowerPC G3
Product Family: iMac Processor Speed (per Core): 350 MHz
Screen Size: 15 inches Processor Configuration: Single Core
Operating System: Mac OS 9 Memory (RAM): 192 MB
Primary Drive: CD-ROM Hard Drive Capacity: 7 GB

I wonder if I buy this can it be upgraded to OS X , further can it still be useful to use this computer like internet , movies , songs , word processing etc .

(I have a macbook pro as well , just buying it out of curiousty )
 
It would be painfully slow, and unable to run any current software, so it's basically a bust at this point. I suppose it's only 30 bucks, so not a big investment, but nonetheless, it is incredibly outdated, and forget about watching videos on it.
 
That sounds just like my G3 iMac. It can be upgraded to OS X, I have mine running 10.3.9 it seems to be the fastest, but it can go up to 10.4.11. They can only do light tasks, such as iTunes music and light web browsing. YouTube doesn't work at all and don't expect it to do more then one thing at a time. Also, if you do get it upgrade it's ram to the max of 1Gb and put in a newer faster 7200 rpm drive of 120Gb or less to make it run the fastest.
 
Intell said:
That sounds just like my G3 iMac. It can be upgraded to OS X, I have mine running 10.3.9 it seems to be the fastest, but it can go up to 10.4.11. They can only do light tasks, such as iTunes music and light web browsing. YouTube doesn't work at all and don't expect it to do more then one thing at a time. Also, if you do get it upgrade it's ram to the max of 1Gb and put in a newer faster 7200 rpm drive of 120Gb or less to make it run the fastest.
Click to expand...

It is actually a 128GB cap, not a 120GB cap...
 
Intell said:
True, but they never made a 128 Gb hard drive and partitioning them is kind of hard for a newbie person.
Click to expand...

Partitioning is super easy. There are even quite a few guides on how to partition a drive...

Edit: they have made 128GB HDD's (well, sort of...), in the form of SSD's...
 
AlphaDogg said:
Partitioning is super easy. There are even quite a few guides on how to partition a drive...

Edit: they have made 128GB HDD's (well, sort of...), in the form of SSD's...
Click to expand...

Truth, but it's a G3, not worth putting that much storage in anyway, and I agree with Intell, in those exact words.

Intell said:
Any one that buys an SSD for a G3 iMac needs to seriously rethink their life.
Click to expand...
 
Intell said:
That sounds just like my G3 iMac. It can be upgraded to OS X, I have mine running 10.3.9 it seems to be the fastest, but it can go up to 10.4.11. They can only do light tasks, such as iTunes music and light web browsing. YouTube doesn't work at all and don't expect it to do more then one thing at a time. Also, if you do get it upgrade it's ram to the max of 1Gb and put in a newer faster 7200 rpm drive of 120Gb or less to make it run the fastest.
Click to expand...

I have absolutely no plane to upgrade it in anyway . I want to use as it is . I just want to experience how was a Mac back then .
 
Intell said:
Any one that buys an SSD for a G3 iMac needs to seriously rethink their life.
Click to expand...

why ?i plan to get one for my iMac G3 700mhz ,16mb vram ,768mb ram(soon 1gb) , ok only thought about a 32 gb or 64gb one as they are becoming really cheap now ,i love that little bugger , i adore it like a child i never had , i would not even consider swapping for a iMac i7 , as personally i find it looks so much better then the new iMac's,and i mean its far more reliable if you consider the little bugger is nearly 10 years old and still runs like on its first day , something you cant ask and cant expect from a more modern computer today where you are lucky if they survive the first 5 years without mayor overhaul
 
Last edited:
i have one a first gen slot loader running around 350Mhz with about 300mb of ram and a 10GB hard disc, cost about the same as the OPs. I'll be honest i struggled to find use for it, networking and connectivity options are limited. You'll also be limited to very old software.

for example, on mine i got a very old version of iTunes working (possibly version 5?) Used Bean for word processing. Comino web browser would also be a good idea. Theres no way your going to get any video working on it though!
 
Paulywauly said:
i have one a first gen slot loader running around 350Mhz with about 300mb of ram and a 10GB hard disc, cost about the same as the OPs. I'll be honest i struggled to find use for it, networking and connectivity options are limited. You'll also be limited to very old software.

for example, on mine i got a very old version of iTunes working (possibly version 5?) Used Bean for word processing. Comino web browser would also be a good idea. Theres no way your going to get any video working on it though!
Click to expand...

In such case I must give credit to PCs . They are much usable having same specs or even low .
 
asifnaz said:
I have absolutely no plane to upgrade it in anyway . I want to use as it is . I just want to experience how was a Mac back then .
Click to expand...

If I may...

You really cannot experience what a Mac was like back then unless you don't upgrade to OS X and only browse sites using the internet wayback machine on a 56K dial-up modem. You'd probably want to find software from the era too...we're talking pre-iTunes if I'm not mistaken.

For you to upgrade to OS X and beefing it up as much as you can, you are truly defeating the purpose of experiencing what a Mac was like back then.

Heck, there may be some online apps or downloads that can get you the same OS 9 experience and save you the $30...(and probably $30 for shipping I bet. It's not cheap to ship heavy items like this.) As a curiosity, it may be OK...but don't expect much more than that. With shipping and the suggestedupgrades, we are talking a few hundred bucks? Enough for a relatively recent used Mac Mini which will blow this G3 away.
 
Intell said:
You still browse the internet and play mp4/acc files on your old Pentium II machine running Windows 98?
Click to expand...

Honestly I have an IBM laptop PII 350 mhz with 128 mb ram . I rarely use it but it runs windows 2000 . can play video songs flv , .dat , mp4 etc can use Office 2000 without any problem . Browsing is ok but youtube videos are laggy .

I can even install win xp on that but it will be slow .

I think you guyz are under-estimating the specs(imac and pc both I mentioned) . Year 2000 is not very far
 
Seriously mate, I have a G3 400 Mhz iMac which is faster then the one you are looking at and to be honest it is nothing more then a hobbyists machine nowadays. Web browsing, especially flash, is painfully slow and the machine is seriously limited with regards to upgrade options, if you want to even run a current web browser then you have to install Linux and run the latest Firefox, it won't run under Panther/Tiger (the max a G3 can run) and neither will the latest Safari, OS 9 is massively outdated now and is strictly in the realm of retro machine collectors.
If you want an older machine to tinker with that is still useable then get a G4 with a 1 Ghz + CPU.
On a final note you can usually pick up a G3 iMac on free cycle so I wouldn't pay anything for it.
 
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