I purchased a used Mac (see signature) on which OS 10.3 (panther) is loaded. This Mac only has 6 gigs of HD. Some people have indicated that this G3 cannot properly handle OS 10.3. Others have encouraged me to update to Tiger. Any comments or recommendations?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Panther on Old Mac
- Thread starter CommonMan
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I'm going to agree that it'll probably be the most comfortable with 10.3.
But DEFINITELY put at least 512MB of RAM in it if you don't already have that much. 6GB of hard drive is workable, but pretty slim--given the price at which a larger drive can be bought (you can easily get an 80GB disk for under $50 shipped from, say, ZipZoomFly.com, and another $10 or so will get you 120GB), I'd recommend getting one if you can afford it. But the RAM is definitely a priority.
But DEFINITELY put at least 512MB of RAM in it if you don't already have that much. 6GB of hard drive is workable, but pretty slim--given the price at which a larger drive can be bought (you can easily get an 80GB disk for under $50 shipped from, say, ZipZoomFly.com, and another $10 or so will get you 120GB), I'd recommend getting one if you can afford it. But the RAM is definitely a priority.
Makosuke said:
I'll say again you will want to go with more ram and Tiger. With Leopard around the corner, suddenly Panther is going to seem very out dated, and software and hardware will slowly start not supporting it. Tiger is perfectly fine on older hardware.
whenever ive had a slow computer running OS X ive turned off spotlight (10.4), turn off dashboad (10.4), window shadows (unsanity haxie), tunred on PCI extreme (PCI based mac), scale effect instead of genie for window minimizing, turn off dock animation, soft overclocking the video card
when installing the OS, omit things like extra printer drivers, language translations, fonts to save HDD space. 6GB can fill up fast
if ur feeling daring there's a jumper block for overclocking the CPU multiplier under a void warranty sticker on the motherboard. u can use small 1mm jumpers to overclock it. at the very least u could get a few more MHz out of it
more RAM will make the OS faster more than any small tweaks
every little bit helps on slow macs
when installing the OS, omit things like extra printer drivers, language translations, fonts to save HDD space. 6GB can fill up fast
if ur feeling daring there's a jumper block for overclocking the CPU multiplier under a void warranty sticker on the motherboard. u can use small 1mm jumpers to overclock it. at the very least u could get a few more MHz out of it
more RAM will make the OS faster more than any small tweaks
every little bit helps on slow macs
When looking at RAM and hard drives:
The hard drive is an IDE (parallel ATA) drive and must not be larger than 128 Mb
The RAM needs to be 16-chip PC100 256 Mb. The machine won't support 512 Mb modules, and modern 8-chip PC100 and PC133 modules will not work.
Thanks
Trevor
CanadaRAM.com
The hard drive is an IDE (parallel ATA) drive and must not be larger than 128 Mb
The RAM needs to be 16-chip PC100 256 Mb. The machine won't support 512 Mb modules, and modern 8-chip PC100 and PC133 modules will not work.
Thanks
Trevor
CanadaRAM.com
Just to cheerlead further for the b/w, Panther will run fine in that machine, just up the RAM (and if you have the discs, re-install Panther minimally, so that it is under a gig in size, if possible), and have fun!
Oh, and though I'm sure CanadaRAM's spec comments are accurate, I have gotten my machine to recognize SOME PC133 chips. Not 512mb of PC100 or PC133, though.
Oh, and though I'm sure CanadaRAM's spec comments are accurate, I have gotten my machine to recognize SOME PC133 chips. Not 512mb of PC100 or PC133, though.
Ram
I have a total of a gig of RAM in my machine. I'm keeping most non-OS files on an external HD. I don't know what the benefits of moving from panther to tiger would be. I'm still learning about panther since I am relatively new to Macs.
I have a total of a gig of RAM in my machine. I'm keeping most non-OS files on an external HD. I don't know what the benefits of moving from panther to tiger would be. I'm still learning about panther since I am relatively new to Macs.
CommonMan said:
They'll quickly become apparent once Leopard is out. Panther-compatible software will stop being produced in no time.
CommonMan said:I'm still learning about panther since I am relatively new to Macs.
In terms of how to use the OS, there isn't much different between Panther and Tiger. It's all about the new features, and new underhood technologies.
well u can use most pc133, and some 512mb simms, but they only show up as 256. i have used them in my blue/white g3