Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

New to Macs, got a cheap G3 on eBay and have questions!

W

whitewolf1218

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 29, 2008
18
0
Ocala, FL
Hey everyone, I've been looking for an inexpensive Mac on eBay for a while now, and found an iBook G3 600MHz for $199. I got it because the programs were worth it - Adobe Photoshop, MS Office, and iLife incl. Garageband. I've been using Windows for as long as I remember, and so I'm not familiar at all with Macs, besides briefly playing around with my friends' Macs. It'll be here in a couple days, and I wanted to clear up some things before it got here.

So, my first question is: How well will Garageband run on a 600MHz G3 with 256MB RAM? I'm pondering upping it to 640MB, but I want to make sure it'll make a big difference before I purchase the extra memory. How well will the system run in general (OSX 10.3) with the G3 600MHz processor and 256MB memory?

Secondly, I have a couple external HDDs that I use for backup on my two Windows systems. Can I use one of these on my Mac? Or is there some reason why it wouldn't work?

Next, if I want to upgrade my hard drive, is there a program that can image the OS and all of my programs like there are for Windows, or do I have to get an OSX CD and reinstall it myself?

Lastly, about reinstalling the Mac OS. Are there licenses for these? Or can I just get a copy of OSX 10.3 on eBay and get a bigger hard drive and reinstall OSX on the new hard drive with no problem?

Sorry this was long, thanks for your replies!
 
Well I'm sorry to say but a G3 wont get you anywhere.. Garageband wont run. Heck iLife or iWork wont work You cant install the latest OS (Leopard) your machine has great troubles running tiger. I suggest you just load OS 9 on there and you will get best speeds and you can run internet, email, quicktime, appleworks. I'm sorry but photoshop will NOT run on that. let alone 640 mb of ram. i also suggest you put 1gb of ram into it because 256 is horrible!.
I garentee you will have some problem with it within the first year whether its logic board or screen. The battery is probably in horrible condition

I'm sorry but thats either

A)Waste of money
B)Collectors Computer

This computer will not get you anywhere.

-=|Superman|=-
 
These G3s can only handle up to 640MB of memory, 1GB won't work, especially since 128MB is soldered into place on the mobo.

I got it primarily to learn the Mac interface and become accustomed to OSX, because in a couple years when I need to upgrade to a new computer, it may not necessarily be a Windows PC. I'm all into multimedia - heavy into music, pictures, videos, the works. I have two new Vista PCs now (one laptop for school, and a desktop for everything else), so having a 3rd new computer now would be pointless.

That's why I went with a cheap Mac.
 
macintosh.apple said:
Mac OS 9 will not let you learn the interface, its completely different than OS X.
Click to expand...

macintosh.apple is correct. OS9 is completly different then OS X. You might be able to run Tiger or Jaguar on it because Tiger runs well on my 667MHz PowerBook G4 with 1GB of RAM. But maybe it won't run too well on your iBook because becides having a bit faster processor, my PBG4 also has more RAM, a faster FSB, and overall better hardware. I guess it wouldn't hurt to buy a cheap copy of Panther or Tiger from ebay and give it a try. Photoshop won't work at all on your iBook because it basically doesn't work on my PB. Garage band most likely won't work either but Office '04 might. I suppose it might be worth trying out.

The external hard drives are a different story. If they are USB than they will work, but they will be EXTREMLY SLOW. Your iBook only has USB 1.1 so you'll only get 16Mb/s (if that) out of it.

You can buy a copy of OS X from ebay but I'm not sure if it's legal. Though, if you do, I doubt law enforcement is going to burst into your home and stop you from using it.
 
Thanks for the responses. I figured Photoshop wouldn't work, and if Garageband doesn't work, I'll live. Like I said, it's for the experience. I want to learn the Mac interface.

It's already running 10.3 Panther. Hopefully it runs well.
 
CJRhoades said:
macintosh.apple is correct. OS9 is completly different then OS X. You might be able to run Tiger or Jaguar on it because Tiger runs well on my 667MHz PowerBook G4 with 1GB of RAM. But maybe it won't run too well on your iBook because becides having a bit faster processor, my PBG4 also has more RAM, a faster FSB, and overall better hardware. I guess it wouldn't hurt to buy a cheap copy of Panther or Tiger from ebay and give it a try. Photoshop won't work at all on your iBook because it basically doesn't work on my PB. Garage band most likely won't work either but Office '04 might. I suppose it might be worth trying out.

The external hard drives are a different story. If they are USB than they will work, but they will be EXTREMLY SLOW. Your iBook only has USB 1.1 so you'll only get 16Mb/s (if that) out of it.

You can buy a copy of OS X from ebay but I'm not sure if it's legal. Though, if you do, I doubt law enforcement is going to burst into your home and stop you from using it.
Click to expand...


theres a BIG difference between a g3 and a g4... a 667 mhz g4 is better then a 1.42 ghz g3.... mainly because of velocity engine.... your ibook g3 will be horrible for os x
 
superman193 said:
theres a BIG difference between a g3 and a g4... a 667 mhz g4 is better then a 1.42 ghz g3.... mainly because of velocity engine.... your ibook g3 will be horrible for os x
Click to expand...

Yes yes, I get the point that my new Mac is going to be horrible, thank you so much for reassuring me twice on that fact.
 
im sorry but i have to chime in on this.

My iBook G3: OS X Panther (10.3.9), 500mhz, 640mb, 5400rpm 40gb hd

I got this ibook for $200 as well. Mine was probably more of a steal since it came with an upgraded hd, ram, and an original airport card. Anyways, with OS X Panther on it, it actually DOES run photoshop cs1 semi-ok unlike what other posters here have said. I also have MS Office 2001 on it (new ms office provides me with absolutely no useful new features). iPhoto 4 and iTunes 7 run perfectly fine on it too.

Of interest: the ibook hinge broke few weeks ago so I dismantled the ibook and did a 12 hour project converting it into a fully functioning imac-like desktop. I just found the tutorial for that online. Its VERY cool... this old ibook allows you to do scary stuff like that cus you know its not worth that much anyway.

So yea, stay away from Tiger, iLife '06/'08, and yes... definitely do NOT use OS 9... it has no relevancy to learning OS X for your potential future new mac purchase.

Have fun with your new ibook!
 
Your iBook meets the minimum system requirements for Garageband 2 (600Mhz 256MB of ram) and therefore i'm sure it also meets the requirements for Garageband 1 as well.

I would think its safe to assume that if it includes the software that it is able to run it as is.......

Panther would be a fine os for you but tiger may be a bit better (only if you up the RAM to 640MB though.)

I can't speak for how fast it'll be because I've never owned a G3 of any kind.

I left the Mac world for a few years after my Powermac 5400/180 with OS 8.5.

I didn't come back until I got a Powermac G4 (450MHz).

I think your iBook G3 will serve you well for what you want to do with it.

Enjoy.
 
nintapple said:
im sorry but i have to chime in on this.

My iBook G3: OS X Panther (10.3.9), 500mhz, 640mb, 5400rpm 40gb hd

I got this ibook for $200 as well. Mine was probably more of a steal since it came with an upgraded hd, ram, and an original airport card. Anyways, with OS X Panther on it, it actually DOES run photoshop cs1 semi-ok unlike what other posters here have said. I also have MS Office 2001 on it (new ms office provides me with absolutely no useful new features). iPhoto 4 and iTunes 7 run perfectly fine on it too.

Of interest: the ibook hinge broke few weeks ago so I dismantled the ibook and did a 12 hour project converting it into a fully functioning imac-like desktop. I just found the tutorial for that online. Its VERY cool... this old ibook allows you to do scary stuff like that cus you know its not worth that much anyway.

So yea, stay away from Tiger, iLife '06/'08, and yes... definitely do NOT use OS 9... it has no relevancy to learning OS X for your potential future new mac purchase.

Have fun with your new ibook!
Click to expand...

Thank you so much nintapple for chiming in, knowing you have an iBook similar and ran similar programs makes me feel much better :)

And thanks to apunkrockmonk for the GarageBand sys. specs, that's good to know. Like I said, I think I'm going to beef up the memory to 640MB, just to be safe. Heh.
 
I got an iMac G3 400Mhz and that runs OSX just fine so your iBook being faster at 600Mhz should have no probs I imagine ( maybe graphics issues ???) , the only thing my iMac struggles with is flash ....its great for most browsing and for learning OSX it's brilliant :) no way willl it run GB or photoshop though

g3 users unite :D:p
 
marbles said:
I got an iMac G3 400Mhz and that runs OSX just fine so your iBook being faster at 600Mhz should have no probs I imagine ( maybe graphics issues ???) , the only thing my iMac struggles with is flash ....its great for most browsing and for learning OSX it's brilliant :) no way willl it run GB or photoshop though

g3 users unite :D:p
Click to expand...

w00t! Kudos to people actually running G3s with OSX! I'm feeling much better about my purchase now.

Anyone else have any imput? Please share!
 
Yeah this iMac is running 10.4.11 no probs , has a 1Gb Ram in but tbh 640Mb would probably be enough , the HD is upgraded to 80Gb too so that prolly helps running OSX a bit .
I have another iMac , a 450Mhz graphite with stock HD, 512 Ram and although it noticeably struggles with the odd thing here and there if the RAM was up to 1Gb it would fly , well sort of :p.


I'm getting a new machine soon but will probably keep one of these G3's as a server or something , not sure yet but yeah G3's :cool:
 
And what if you would bump up the memory to 640 MB, install MacOS 9.2.2 and programs like: Office 2001 with all service packs, Photoshop 5.5, 6.0.1 or 7.0.1, etc.

These programs will run great on your G3.

True, that they are older now, but why would you force install programs on a hardware, that was constructed or build for this?

And also, you make almost anything with those older apps. Newest doesn't always mean better.
 
I would say G4's are the absolute minimum to buy now. And I would
recommend you stick with the intel Mac's really.
 
Sure, $200 for a G3 is a good deal, but once you start boosting the RAM and the hard drive, you'll be looking at a ~$400 investment. I think you would have gotten more for your money is you had shopped for a G4 with better specs in the $400 range. Anyway, good luck, welcome to the cult of mac. Enjoy!
 
krye said:
Sure, $200 for a G3 is a good deal, but once you start boosting the RAM and the hard drive, you'll be looking at a ~$400 investment. I think you would have gotten more for your money is you had shopped for a G4 with better specs in the $400 range. Anyway, good luck, welcome to the cult of mac. Enjoy!
Click to expand...

Eh, I don't mind using one of my two external HDDs when I'm at home, and it's not like it's going to be my main computer. It'll be 3 of 3, and I found memory for around $40 on eBay, so I figured it would be worth it. Thanks for welcoming me to the cult of Mac :p

I would've looked into the Mac Minis if I really wanted to stretch things, because I love the look/reviews of Leopard, but iLife gets such bad ratings due to iMovie, so I decided to hold back and stay Windows-oriented for multimedia purposes... for now.
 
whitewolf1218 said:
w00t! Kudos to people actually running G3s with OSX! I'm feeling much better about my purchase now.

Anyone else have any imput? Please share!
Click to expand...

I have an iMac 700 Mhz with 640 Mb running OsX 10.4.11
I have not tried photoshop on it but I think that should work with small files.
I mainly use filemaker pro on it, until a couple of weeks version 4.1 through classic and after I found a cheap copy of 8.5 it runs native with no speed issues.
 
whitewolf1218 said:
Eh, I don't mind using one of my two external HDDs when I'm at home, and it's not like it's going to be my main computer. It'll be 3 of 3, and I found memory for around $40 on eBay, so I figured it would be worth it. Thanks for welcoming me to the cult of Mac :p

I would've looked into the Mac Minis if I really wanted to stretch things, because I love the look/reviews of Leopard, but iLife gets such bad ratings due to iMovie, so I decided to hold back and stay Windows-oriented for multimedia purposes... for now.
Click to expand...

About the newest version of iMovie: you can still download iMovie HD (the previous version) from Apples website free of charge. If you do decide to go with a more current mac down the line, I would recommend that you do.
 
I can't imagine GarageBand running on that. I don't know about Adobe Photoshop, but I ran GIMP (the same thing as Adobe Photoshop, but it's free. gimp.org) on my 900 MHz G3 iBook with 256 MB RAM. Hope this helps.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back