I'm curious about useing macs

[Ecodisk]

Okay I went to Ebay and found a B&W G3

Is this a decent one? I know its not the best for OS X. Also will this work with my VGA monitor?

 

[cluthz]

Okay I went to Ebay and found a B&W G3

Is this a decent one? I know its not the best for OS X. Also will this work with my VGA monitor?

Yes, it will work with your VGA monitor.
The B&W mac uses standard PC100 sdram, you could get an extra 128/256mb cheap, maybe even you know someone that are willing to give you a chip.
I think you should try to get 384 mb ram or more if you want go get the full potential of this machine.

A G3/400 will run OSX ok, but it will not be fast.
This machine also supports upto 4 drives (1 optical + 3 hds) so it's easy to add a new ata hd.

 

[Ecodisk]

Can macs use normal PCI modems?

 

[liven2]

Yes on PCI modem but why

Yes they do but they have modems and ethernet already installed is there a reason why you need a PCI modem? Just curious.. https://forums.macrumors.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=1323554#

 

[rainman::|:|]

You can't download music from the iTMS in OS 9, and that hard disk would have 2 GB of free space (maybe less) which hits a point where OS X goes wacky. (Anything less than 3 GB is bad news, less than 8 GB isn't recommended)

I thought it was based on a percentage of a drive being full-- That 10% or less free is bad, and less than 3% or something is critical. Which is pretty similar to Windows. Never heard a specific GB amount, anyone else confirm?

 

[Ecodisk]

Yes they do but they have modems and ethernet already installed is there a reason why you need a PCI modem? Just curious.. https://forums.macrumors.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=1323554#

I need one because the B&W mac that I was thinking about getting says it has no modem

 

[chaosbunny]

Just a suggestion: I'd get an external Hard Disk you can always use with a newer computer sometime as well rather than spending too much money on an old machine.

 

[Candyfingered]

I have been wanting to try out a Mac for awhile now. I've been finding really cheap iMacs with 333mhz and around 96mb of ram for about $50. I just want a cheap one for playing around on right now and testing it out . Can a Mac with those stats run itunes and surf the web decently? Since those are the main things I would be doing.

Do not get anything under 256 of ram and anything running less then OS 10.1. It won't do Mac justice.

 

[Mechcozmo]

I thought it was based on a percentage of a drive being full-- That 10% or less free is bad, and less than 3% or something is critical. Which is pretty similar to Windows. Never heard a specific GB amount, anyone else confirm?

Mac OS X defaults to having a 4 GB ish Virtual Memory 'space' on the hard drive. If it doesn't get that, it gets cranky. That is where you get 3 GB minimum from (the dynamic shrinking it does... but it HATES going below 3 GB) as well as the fact that below 8 GB you start having to spin the hard drive a bit to get all the data down because there isn't as much free space anymore, and it has to figure out where to place things, and trying to defrag on the fly, etc.

That's where those numbers come from.