Power Mac G3 Yosemite

[zachy85]

I was at my parents over the weekend and decided to reclaim my G3 tower from 1999. I am pretty sure its the 350 mHz model. I remember adding a second 32 gig hard drive back in the day to spilt my OS 9 and X installs.

Wondering what the utility would be in hunting down a processor upgrade? I think I will max out the RAM.

This is more for fun/tinkering than anything else, won't be using it for anything day to day.

 

[Hrududu]

Unfortunately processor upgrades are getting really hard to find, if not flat out scarce these days. About 3 years ago they were much easier to find. Probably the best option is finding an original 400MHz chip and overclocking to 450MHz. RAM is a lot easier and cheaper to get a hold of. The full 1GB shouldn't run you more than $30 total.

 

[zachy85]

Thanks! Thats helpful. I am finding out that the processor upgrades are extremely scarce. I would have assumed that a ton would be showing up on ebay these days.

I did see this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sonnet-Enco...mputing_Parts_Accessories&hash=item27dd9eb1d3

Seems like it might be a decent option. I know that I shouldn't put in a processor faster than 700 mHz as it will drop the bus speed down to 66mHz.

 

[Hrududu]

Ya thats not a bad deal for that 500MHz G4. Another option is a Radeon 7000 PCI or 9200 video card. Those can also be had cheap, and combined with a G4 chip, you should see some decent performance.

 

[gavinstubbs09]

My B&W is one that I've done some things to. I lucked out and a guy in Japan had a Radeon 9200 12MB card and a 450MHz FastMac G4 CPU. That was $60 for them both but it just happened to be luck that I came across them.

But as the other guy said they are relatively hard to find these days. Just check ebay every so often!

 

[zachy85]

Thanks for the feedback guys. The processor seems like it might be one of the tougher parts to fine, so I have decided to make a few easier upgrades:

RAM: Max out to 1 Gigabyte
(I think the machine currently has 448 mb in a 64+128+256 config)
$6.99*3 256mb PC100 DIMMS=$20.97

Sata: Sonnet ESATA PCI Tempo card
Microcenter: http://www.microcenter.com/product/222076/Tempo_Serial_ATA_Hard_Drive_Controller#
$13

SSD: 64 gig drive
Amazon: Kingston SSD
$49.99

Molex to Sata adaptor
Microcenter: $2.49

Graphics: Radeon 9200
Ebay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Power-Mac-A...283?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27de6208d3
$27.95

All in all, a little over $100 bucks doesn't seem so bad for all this. Now I need to find a Tiger disk to install the OS onto the SSD!

 

[Intell]

Why get the ATI 9200 for it when the GeForce 5200 supports CoreImage?

 

[zachy85]

Why get the ATI 9200 for it when the GeForce 5200 supports CoreImage?

No reason, except that I saw somewhere that it was probably the best video card this machine can support. I'm happy to learn otherwise!

 

[Intell]

The GeForce 5200 may be the best. Some models have 256MB of ram on a 128-bit bus and have VGA/Svideo/DVI out as well as CoreImage. While the 5200 is the slowest CI card, it's the only PCI one that can flashed for Macs.