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How well does X.1/2 work on a G3/500?

J

JordanShapiro

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 17, 2002
39
0
Just about to purchase my first Mac since my Apple II/GS prototype signed by Woz back in, oh, 1987 I think.

Anywho, I got a great deal on a brand new iBook (well, it's physically new but still old)... a 12.1/15gb/128/CD with the 500. I'm going to be doing a lot of light work on it, i.e. web, email, word processing, some photoshop and some live audio recording via USB. How will this relatively old processor hold up under these tasks? I see lots of people with the same model so I'm assuming fine... $899 was the price and I consider that a steal!

Anyway, hints or tips you could offer would be great. "Switch" type stories are fun too! :D I'm planning on adding 256mb of RAM as soon as I get it to see what that does, RAM is cheap now anyway.

Let those ideas roll!

Thanks,
Jordan Shapiro
 
I'm typing this on a 500MHz iMac DV, and I think the G3 will suit you just fine for those tasks. My main machine is a 550MHz G4, and I haven't noticed much difference between this machine which doesn't have AltiVec and the G4 which does. In fact, they perform almost exactly the same for basic tasks.

This machine is running 10.1.5 at the moment, but I've heard reports of 25%+ across-the-board speed increases with 10.2, so I think a G3 running Jaguar would be great for you. Just be sure to get lots of RAM. That 384MB would be the minimum I would recommend. I have 256MB in the G4, and that doesn't cut it.

Good luck,
Alex
 
10.2 does miracles for G3 based machines speed-wise. Quartz Extreme does another miracle if you have the proper video card (iBook 500 not included with the last one). 10.2 will suit you just fine, BUT GET THE EXTRA RAM. OS X is almost worthless with 128 MB RAM on a G3 (have not tested 10.2 with 128 MB RAM yet, waiting for the final version...)
 
I got about the same ibook except mine is 20 gigs, cdrw/dvd rom drive and I have 384megs of ram in it

I'm running both 9 and 10.1.5 on it.... It seems fine to me...I only log onto 9 when I want to use old Photoshop filters...

Otherwise, you found a steal on that price...I think I spent around $2400 when mine came out....
 
Let me bring a little reality into your life.

If you've never run OSX before, you'll be in for a big disappointment. The UI is DOG SLOW compared to OS9. You will definitely notice the difference. Web browsing is especially bad. Every single browser for OSX is a piece of garbage. They are some combination of extremely slow, extremely buggy, and extremely unfinished.

I’m going to be labeled anti-mac for this post. Fine. I probably like the mac more than most others on this board. But I’m no cheerleader. I’ve asked similar questions in the past, received similar "the mac is wonderful" answers, and have been bitterly disappointed. These mac heads don’t realize what damage they do by lying to people instead of telling it like it is.

As far as 10.2 goes, I’ll believe the speed claims when I personally experience them. The same claims were made about 10.1. So if I had to bet, I’d guess maybe a 5% speed improvement – tops.
 
Originally posted by Faeylyn
Let me bring a little reality into your life.
As far as 10.2 goes, I’ll believe the speed claims when I personally experience them. The same claims were made about 10.1. So if I had to bet, I’d guess maybe a 5% speed improvement – tops.
Click to expand...

I have seen the results of the speed claims in action, and 10.2 gives a substantial speed increase to G3 systems, even without QE. I have a 500MHz G3 iBook with 384MBs of RAM and a DVD Drive, and, as my signature says, it feels like a lower-end (400-500MHz) TiBook running 10.1.5, except with faster scrolling. However, I do recommend going for at least 384MBs of RAM (upgrading to 640 myself:D ). Otherwise, have fun with your iBook.
 
Overall...

Originally posted by Faeylyn
Let me bring a little reality into your life.

If you've never run OSX before, you'll be in for a big disappointment. The UI is DOG SLOW compared to OS9. You will definitely notice the difference. Web browsing is especially bad. Every single browser for OSX is a piece of garbage. They are some combination of extremely slow, extremely buggy, and extremely unfinished.

I’m going to be labeled anti-mac for this post. Fine. I probably like the mac more than most others on this board. But I’m no cheerleader. I’ve asked similar questions in the past, received similar "the mac is wonderful" answers, and have been bitterly disappointed. These mac heads don’t realize what damage they do by lying to people instead of telling it like it is.

As far as 10.2 goes, I’ll believe the speed claims when I personally experience them. The same claims were made about 10.1. So if I had to bet, I’d guess maybe a 5% speed improvement – tops.
Click to expand...
...I'd mostly agree with you. However, I'd like to point out two things:
1) The claims about 10.1 were entirely justified imo, internet exploder went from 27 bounces to 2 on my machine (beige G3 233).
2) I've used 10.2 (an early build, later ones are better) and it's more than 5% (my friend says more like 15-20%).
 
Originally posted by ibookin'@mwny


I have seen the results of the speed claims in action, and 10.2 gives a substantial speed increase to G3 systems, even without QE. I have a 500MHz G3 iBook with 384MBs of RAM and a DVD Drive, and, as my signature says, it feels like a lower-end (400-500MHz) TiBook running 10.1.5, except with faster scrolling. However, I do recommend going for at least 384MBs of RAM (upgrading to 640 myself:D ). Otherwise, have fun with your iBook.
Click to expand...

As much as I want to believe you, and I DO want to believe you, I'll have to experience this for myself before laying out the $$ for 10.2. I've been burned TOOO many times.
 
Every single browser for OSX is a piece of garbage. They are some combination of extremely slow, extremely buggy, and extremely unfinished.
Click to expand...

OS 9 isn't much better, I'm hoping one day Mozilla reaches a stage where it's both fast and stable, then we can get the M$ bloatware off our hard drives, put netscape down to being a good idea at the time and just get on with browsing without having glaring bugs or inconsistencies in compatability.

The cache issue with IE 5 has never been delt with, nothing handles large pages well and you have to see more spinning wait cursors than you really should.
 
Originally posted by Faeylyn


As much as I want to believe you, and I DO want to believe you, I'll have to experience this for myself before laying out the $$ for 10.2. I've been burned TOOO many times.
Click to expand...

Remember how slow Mac OS 7.5.x and 8.x were and how Mac OS 9.x was so much faster? You're about to see that kind of increase again.

Mac OS X 10.2 is not BeOS fast, but it is significantly faster on G3 machines. I'd rather have a slower O.S. with applications than a fast O.S. with no applications any day.
 
G3 500 MHZ runs OS X just FINE

I am running 10.1.5 on an iMac DVSE 500mhz and it is just FINE. Faeylyn, I'm sorry, is ignorant. It's not "slow" at all. I dont understand what these people are talking about. 10.2 is going to be better speed wise than 10.1.5 and I am looking forward to it. I DO have 640mb of RAM. You should put in as much RAM as you can afford. I'm upping mine to 1024mb very soon (the max it can take).
 
Faeylyn

Your really stupid. Why the hell would he lie about speed increases. I have a Pismo 500 running 6c98 (until we get jaguar in about a week at our apple dealer i work at) and it works wonders on my computer. Anyways, scrap your pennies and buy it. Its worth it, i promise. Plus you will probably have to get it eventually because every application will soon require 10.2 i bet.

iJon
 
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