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Just won auction for B&W G3; Have questions

mus0r

mus0r

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 27, 2005
229
0
First of all, I've had lots of vodka tonight, so bear with me :D

I just won a B&W G3 on eBay; I intend to use it as a media centrer type thing. I have a firewire DVD burner and a firewire HDD for storage. A G3 450MHz should be ok, right? I have no objection to upgrading it later, but that should be fine for burning some VHS to DVD and whatnot, yes?

I have some extra RAM laying around, so I can easily upgrade that.
 
Welcome..

I bought my first G anything macintosh back in Febuary of this year. Since then I have purchaced 2 more (one new) and am more then hooked!

I use my G3 for a media center currently. It has a 160gb hard drive, with many video files and Itunes files loaded onto it. The biggest recommendation would be to get that baby up to 512 memory(2x 256), and find a cheap G4 upgrade for it.

I am currently running a G4 500 MHZ ZIF processor in my B&W with 512 Memory. It handles Tiger just fine, and is actually FASTER then Panther when doing complex work or video Ripping (yeah I know I should use my G5, but I love old macintosh hardware). With a small G4 upgrade, and 512 memory, your B&W will be able to do quite a bit of work, and serve your media needs quite well.

Mine is on 24/7 running Folding@home, and serving Itunes music to my mini neighborhood WIFI net setup by my neighbors and myself.
 
Wow. A G3 is so dog slow. It doesn't have altivec so as a media center, it don't look like it's gonna be useful. At least a bottom of the line G4 400Mhz is at least 3 times faster than a G3 crunching floating point numbers.
 
Lacero said:
Wow. A G3 is so dog slow. It doesn't have altivec so as a media center, it don't look like it's gonna be useful. At least a bottom of the line G4 400Mhz is at least 3 times faster than a G3 crunching floating point numbers.
Click to expand...

What rubbish! G3s aren't "dog slow" they are still perfectly operable. We use my iBook 366 for hours every day.. it's fine! This blue and white G3 is much faster than that also.

I recently opened up the iBook, took out the Hard disk, attached it to a USB dongle and then my PowerMac G5... I then installed Tiger :) I have Tiger running on this iBook 366, 6GB HD, 192mb RAM and its running pretty well... The only problem remains the 800x600 screen! Grr apple.
 
SpaceMagic said:
What rubbish! G3s aren't "dog slow" they are still perfectly operable. We use my iBook 366 for hours every day.. it's fine! This blue and white G3 is much faster than that also.

I recently opened up the iBook, took out the Hard disk, attached it to a USB dongle and then my PowerMac G5... I then installed Tiger :) I have Tiger running on this iBook 366, 6GB HD, 192mb RAM and its running pretty well... The only problem remains the 800x600 screen! Grr apple.
Click to expand...

"Pretty well"? How low are your standards? Sheesh... :rolleyes:
 
What is it with people trashing old hardware? The G3 was Apple's workhorse for many years and is still a viable processor :rolleyes:

To the original poster: it can't hurt to try it out. I recommend getting lots of RAM and a good video card with lots of VRAM (to take graphic processing work off the main processor.)

Good luck!
 
I want you all to know that while I am waiting for my PowerBook to come back from repair, I AM TYPING THIS MESSAGE ON A 300MHz B/W G3 WITH 320MB RAM, A 12GB HD, AND PANTHER!
And it is not slow AT ALL. Now mind you, I am not using iMovie with this. But iChat, Safari, Finder, iPhoto, TextEdit, OFFICE, everything works GREAT!
I bought this machine on eBay for $92 (with shipping) and paid $25 to upgrade the RAM from 64mb to 320mb (added a 256mb card) and it is GREAT with Panther.
 
Well, that's a lot of replies :)

Ok, well, I wasn't planning on using 512MB RAM sticks because PC100/133 is getting expensive due to its age. I do have several 128MB and I think a couple 256MB, so I can put 512MB+ in it.

I do plan on adding a G4 upgrade, just not right away. As a matter of fact, I won't even be using the computer right away as I'm planning on modding the hell out of it :D The other reason I wanted it was because I want a project to work on.

As far as whether it has enough power, if I find myself needing any help the computer I'm typing on now is a dual 1.8 G5 and I have a 12" Powerbook, too. So, I have backup, if necessary. My main concern as far a the power of the G3 is for recording TV or putting my VHS tapes on DVD. I can edit the video (cut out the blasted commercials, etc.) on the G5, but I was asking whether or not the G3 would be fast enough to *capture* the video in the first place.
 
Excellent computer

Bought my G3/300 in Jan. 2000, have not had one problem with it. Added a 256MB Ram chip and SCSI PCI card. Has 6GB original HD plus 9GB SCSI HD and under cd drive a 1.2GB ATA HD. Still can add one more HD if needed. Runs OS 9.2.2, use QuarkXPress, Photoshop, Illustrator, Appleworks for work. For play it runs UT GOTY edition and Links 2000. Connected to the internet via ethernet network. Runs great, once had it running 24/7 for 3 months crunching SETI@Home and the cpu temp was never higher than 109ºF. I still use it daily.
 
I bought a B&W g3 400mhz about a year and a half ago on ebay.

It came with Panther already on it. It has 512meg of memory, a new larger hard drive, a second video card ATI 32 meg something or the other. DVD drive.

It's a good machine. I've got a pair of old Dell 17" lcd monitors on it. I just recently bought a new apple keyboard for it. I have a microsoft scrollwheel usb mouse. I have it hooked into the internet through a wireless bridge on my home network. I use it daily to work on my papers for college, surf the net, watch movies, download bittorrents. Sure, it can get doggy if I start loading up to much stuff at once, but it runs a darn site better under panther than any 1999 pc would if you tried to run XP on it.

Apple hardware has a heck of a shelf life. I even loaded WoW on it, just to see what framerate it would get. Now, 5 fps is pretty bad, but for a 400mhz g3, I'm suprised it would even start.

Over all, I'm very happy with it. It gave me an inexpensive way to try out osX and see if I could live the Apple way. Now I'm watching the Apple store trying to decide if I want to buy an iBook after they go through the next updates, or bite the bullet and go for a powerbook. I'm sold, I may have to deal with XP/NT/2000 in my day job as a systems admin, but I don't have to dirty my hands with it at home or school.
 
So has anyone tried doing wht I'm wanting to do?

Also, what would be the best way to hook it up?

I have a switch-box-thingie that has a bunch of inputs on it. I was going to use the G3 to replace my DVD player, and burn all my VHS to DVD so I wouldn't need the VCR, either. But I wonder what the best way to deal with the TV recording would be?

I need these things hooked up: G3, Cable, PS2
 
mus0r said:
So has anyone tried doing wht I'm wanting to do?

Also, what would be the best way to hook it up?

I have a switch-box-thingie that has a bunch of inputs on it. I was going to use the G3 to replace my DVD player, and burn all my VHS to DVD so I wouldn't need the VCR, either. But I wonder what the best way to deal with the TV recording would be?

I need these things hooked up: G3, Cable, PS2
Click to expand...

I am doing exactly what you are attempting on a MUCH older 6500/275 with Native TV/Video cards built in, and my Powermac G3 B&W. I use the 6500 as a poor mans TIVO to record TV shows and other items, Copy VHS Tapes into Quick Time files. I then copy the data onto the B&W to Encode into DVD files, and or compress them into files that I an burn onto smaller CD/RW disks that I can take to work to watch on my Dell Laptop.

I can't get as high of quality of video because of processor limitations of the 6500, but it does well with making video files I can later compress on my B&W, Digital Audio, or G5. The nice thing about having a 2nd Apple, is you can deploy processor intensive tasks on your standby Macintosh, while you work on the other. If you get the G4 upgrade later, you can take advantage of the Altivec aware programs speed bumps.
 
I used to have a B&W that i did just that with except going from vhs to DVD. I had to use OS 9 to record the video since i didnt have any hardware that would work uner OS X but it recored video just fine going through an ATI XClaim Vr's video inputs i was able to get 647x480 files at 30 fps. After i got the video recorded I used an ethernet cable and just dragged the files on to this computer which i'm curently typing on which is also a B&W but it has a 600mhz G4, 768 RAM along with 3 HDs which come out to a total of 280 gigs. Just wondering what kind of recording device are you planning on using?
 
chv400 said:
Just wondering what kind of recording device are you planning on using?
Click to expand...


I was going to buy one of those ATI cards (can't remember which one it was) that had the S-video in and out and an RCA video out. I think it might have been a Mac All-In-Wonder, but I can't remember. I was also thinking about getting at USB ATI TV Tuner, since they're pretty cheap.

Is the actual video capture very processor intensive?
 
Lacero said:
Wow. A G3 is so dog slow. It doesn't have altivec so as a media center, it don't look like it's gonna be useful. At least a bottom of the line G4 400Mhz is at least 3 times faster than a G3 crunching floating point numbers.
Click to expand...

The G3 is pretty much the same chip as the G4 minus Alti-Vec and really most new programs STILL dont take advantage of Alti-Vec a ZIF upgrade and some more RAM and you will be OK.
 
Spock said:
The G3 is pretty much the same chip as the G4 minus Alti-Vec and really most new programs STILL dont take advantage of Alti-Vec a ZIF upgrade and some more RAM and you will be OK.
Click to expand...

That was what I was thinking...would the Apps I intend to use really make use of Altivec? I'll be using whatever comoes with the ATI, and I'll probably be editing in iMovie (Final Cut seems like it would be overkill :) )
 
Check out www.dvwarehouse.com they carry G4 and G3 ZIF upgrades for You B&W they can also tell You the advantages of the G3 and G4 but remember the B&W was a top of the line comuter in its day I would say get in try it and see what happens, You have a Powermac G5 if the G3 can't take it. I would not put a whole lot of money into it remember the Mac mini is only $499 so make sure you dont spend to much on a upgrade if You go that way
 
Spock said:
Check out www.dvwarehouse.com they carry G4 and G3 ZIF upgrades for You B&W they can also tell You the advantages of the G3 and G4 but remember the B&W was a top of the line comuter in its day I would say get in try it and see what happens, You have a Powermac G5 if the G3 can't take it. I would not put a whole lot of money into it remember the Mac mini is only $499 so make sure you dont spend to much on a upgrade if You go that way
Click to expand...

Well, I was going to get the Mini, but it has no *internal* HDD bays, and only 1 RAM slot (i.e. 1GB = $$$). Besides that, it has a 4200 (or 5400, I don't remember) RPM drive. If the CPU was up to the task in the G3 I was going to put an ATA133 or SATA card in it; if not I'd get a ZIF upgrade first. The other thing is that I wanted something that's out of warranty...because I want to mod the case. Like I said previously, this is also a project for me.
 
mus0r said:
I was going to buy one of those ATI cards (can't remember which one it was) that had the S-video in and out and an RCA video out. I think it might have been a Mac All-In-Wonder, but I can't remember. I was also thinking about getting at USB ATI TV Tuner, since they're pretty cheap.

Is the actual video capture very processor intensive?
Click to expand...

The reviews of that ATI USB box says it's pretty processor intesive ... even on a new miniMac

oops ... it's USB 2 anyways: EyeTV Wonder


peace | neut


btw- i run a 400 B&W as an AirTunes and image server, and a public use machine; works pretty damn well with 768RAM and a 300+GB 7200rpm 8MB HD RAID. :)
 
Perfect topic as I just bought a Blue and White on eBay also. One question that maybe someone on here can answer....how do you tell which Rev of the motherboard you have? I heard there were a lot of problems with the Rev 1.
 
jkeithh said:
Perfect topic as I just bought a Blue and White on eBay also. One question that maybe someone on here can answer....how do you tell which Rev of the motherboard you have? I heard there were a lot of problems with the Rev 1.
Click to expand...

from apple history

I was wondering if you could add the fact that there was a
silent release to the G3 line, mid 1999.
The ATA chip was changed so it better supported slave
drives etc. you can recognize the rev. B by the hard disk
mount space. The first G3 B&W's had space to mount a single
hard disk to the casing, whilst the second revision had a
complete rack laying under the power suply wich could easily
be taken out and has space to mount 3 or four hard disks.


peace | neut
 
jkeithh said:
Perfect topic as I just bought a Blue and White on eBay also. One question that maybe someone on here can answer....how do you tell which Rev of the motherboard you have? I heard there were a lot of problems with the Rev 1.
Click to expand...

On the back of the there should be a label that says Rev.1 Rev.2 I have a Rev.1 with no problem I have 2 hard drives in the thing and it works fine.
 
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