iMac G3s & OSX ???

[sharla67]

I have an older grape iMac. If I install OSX (Panther) will it perform properly if I have enough memory and if so, how much memory will it need?

 

[gallivant]

What are the specs on it?

At the office, we've got a grape tray-loading iMac with a 233mhz processor, but it can only handle 10.2. Also, you'll need at least 128 MB of RAM.

Why not check Apple's own information on the topic? http://www.apple.com/macosx/upgrade/requirements.html

 

[yellow]

All iMacs will run Panther.
Make sure your firmware is up to date. Despite the "official" min of RAM being 128MB, I'd suggest a bare minumum RAM of 256MB, but more is better (a lot better). Also, make sure you have at least a 20GB hard disk. Anything smaller and you'll be hitting the ceiling often and hard.

 

[mklos]

I have both a 233MHz iMac and a 333MHz (Blueberry) iMac running Mac OS X.3.8. Both have 256MB of RAM with a 6GB Hard Drive. Both run quite well actually. Now these aren't going to be power houses so if you want to use something like iMovie you won't want to use your iMac. It does however run OS X great and is good for getting online, chatting, checking email, and running Microsoft Office. No problems what so ever there.

I would definitely upgrade to 256MB. 128 just won't cut it. If its a tray loading iMac then you'll need to get SODIMMs, but its a slot loading you'll need to get PC133 DIMMs. Either version will hold 256. The tray loading one will may require you to get 2 128MB SODIMMs instead of just one 256MB SODIMM.

Mac OS X.3 actually runs better than OS X.2 in my opinion. It boots up much faster and runs the whole OS much faster.

 

[strider42]

I would definitely upgrade to 256MB. 128 just won't cut it. If its a tray loading iMac then you'll need to get SODIMMs, but its a slot loading you'll need to get PC133 DIMMs. Either version will hold 256. The tray loading one will may require you to get 2 128MB SODIMMs instead of just one 256MB SODIMM.
QUOTE]


Just FYI, all tray loading iMacs can take up to 512 megs of ram with two 256 meg chips. The only caveat si that the lower slot requires low profile (upper slot can take regular or low profile). Many vendors, such as crucial, only sell low profile ram so its not a problem.

If it was a slot loader, I would hesitate to say the minimum should be 512 megs since ram is so cheap and easy to install for those models. Slot loaders can take up to 1 gig of ram.