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My Old G3
- Thread starter vespaboy
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You've hit an interesting point. I suspect the upgrade may cost a noticable percentage of the cost of a Mini. Maybe it is time to replace your machine? Maybe buy it after Tiger is announced and that'll be another savings that can used to justify the Mini. A nice new Mini with all up to date software.vespaboy said:
Also, there is some software that breaks with processor upgrades. This probably won't affect you, but it's something to keep in mind.
The issue with buying them from ebay is that you might not get a receipt you can use for a warranty. And in many cases those auctions shoot up right before they end.Solafaa said:
Also, you don't know what condition anything on ebay is in unless it's a sealed box...and then who knows if it had hidden damage.
vespaboy said:
Don't bother man. Go for a new machine, it's not worth investing money in upgrades for such old technology. In my experience, the upgraded processors cause a buggy machine and are never as much of an improvement as you'd expect.
The mini is perfect for you - though more of an investment up front, it will last you far longer than that beige thing.
Avoid the upgrade
I second the idea to avoid the upgrade. While you think you're utilizing all the upgrades you've already put into this old G3, you can't get around the basic I/O limitations of the motherboard, HD controller, video card, etc.
I upgraded a G3 B&W, assuming I could use it for a number of simple background tasks. It was not stable, and I ended up throwing away the money (a bit of a downer) and a TON of time (a major downer).
A $499 miniMac will run circles around that old machine.
I second the idea to avoid the upgrade. While you think you're utilizing all the upgrades you've already put into this old G3, you can't get around the basic I/O limitations of the motherboard, HD controller, video card, etc.
I upgraded a G3 B&W, assuming I could use it for a number of simple background tasks. It was not stable, and I ended up throwing away the money (a bit of a downer) and a TON of time (a major downer).
A $499 miniMac will run circles around that old machine.
Just look on xbench and see the benchmark difference between an upgraded beige g3 and a mac mini. There is no comparison. See my sig for specs; I have a benchmark of about 40. The new mac minis are benching at 110+.
I have a b/w g3 and am in the same boat as you; I would spend twice as much to upgrade old technology as opposed to just buying new.
I have a b/w g3 and am in the same boat as you; I would spend twice as much to upgrade old technology as opposed to just buying new.
512ke
macrumors 6502a
I have a beige G3. Love that machine. But it needs a faster processor. More memory. Bigger hard drive. PCI cards for firewire and USB. When my SCSI printer died I tried to buy a USB card for my G3. Tons of problems. My spidey sense told me to stop there. It was gonna become Frankencomputer. I'd vote for a new box or a new used box.
Lord Blackadder
macrumors P6
The lack of an AGP slot and SLOW bus are the achilles heel of the B&W and Yikes G4 towers. If you were talking about a Sawtooth or newer I'd say there are some pro's and cons to look at but in your case a Mac mini is clearly more cost effective than upgrading the G3 as a primary computer.
pubwvj
macrumors 68000
I would save your pennies until you can buy a new Mac rather than trying to upgrade the processor, etc. I've done both over the last 27 years (eek!) and in the end it was better not to go with third party upgrades for processors. RAM and HD, yes -- processor, no. Overclocking is also not a good idea.
Save your pennies and get the real thing in time.
Also, evaluate why you feel the need for a new machine. We too have older G3's and one G4 in our household. The G3's are good enough for OSX 10.3.5 (and probably 10.3.7) as well as all the software we use (word processing, spreadsheet, database, email, web, Photoshop, Illustrator, GraphicsConverter, most games, etc). The one reason I, and my sons, would like to get a screaming fast new machine is X-Plane flight simulator which could really use a lot more VRAM and processing power than we have on even the fastests (500MHz G4) of our machines. So, we're saving our pennies. 🙂 It is hard to justify the thousands of dollars for the machine we want just for a mere game... 🙂 But we're trying!
Cheers,
-Walter
in Vermont
-8F this morning,
the ice is smooth,
the snow is squeeky,
the sheep say bhaah
and the pigs say oink.
Save your pennies and get the real thing in time.
Also, evaluate why you feel the need for a new machine. We too have older G3's and one G4 in our household. The G3's are good enough for OSX 10.3.5 (and probably 10.3.7) as well as all the software we use (word processing, spreadsheet, database, email, web, Photoshop, Illustrator, GraphicsConverter, most games, etc). The one reason I, and my sons, would like to get a screaming fast new machine is X-Plane flight simulator which could really use a lot more VRAM and processing power than we have on even the fastests (500MHz G4) of our machines. So, we're saving our pennies. 🙂 It is hard to justify the thousands of dollars for the machine we want just for a mere game... 🙂 But we're trying!
Cheers,
-Walter
in Vermont
-8F this morning,
the ice is smooth,
the snow is squeeky,
the sheep say bhaah
and the pigs say oink.
as an owner of a beige G3, i would say go for the mac mini.
the Beige G3 cannot run 10.3 without some sweat (xpostfacto). but that means getting a pci graphics card. and 10.4 is probably a no go either.
powerlogix makes 1ghz G3 upgrades for the Beige, but, like a previous poster said, slow fronside bus speed and no AGP slot make the Beige G3 a really slow machine.
my Beige G3 was upgraded with a 500mhz G3 chip a long time ago. now its our fax machine/print server at work.
so yeah, get the Mac mini and dont look back.
the Beige G3 cannot run 10.3 without some sweat (xpostfacto). but that means getting a pci graphics card. and 10.4 is probably a no go either.
powerlogix makes 1ghz G3 upgrades for the Beige, but, like a previous poster said, slow fronside bus speed and no AGP slot make the Beige G3 a really slow machine.
my Beige G3 was upgraded with a 500mhz G3 chip a long time ago. now its our fax machine/print server at work.
so yeah, get the Mac mini and dont look back.