Upgrade Time

[cromm]

Hi there,

I have acquired my very own PowerMac G3, the B&W version. It runs Panther quite well, considering that it is a 300MHz machine with 512MB ram, a 6GB disk, and only an ATI RAGE 128.

I want to use this as my main system for web development. I am so taken with OSX that I can't go back.

My question to the experts out there is what is the best bang for my buck in terms of upgrading it? As I said, performance is acceptable, with the exception of perhaps screen redraws and scrolling pages in Firefox or Safari. its laggy and it seems like the framerate is really slow. An irritation, but not a major showstopper.

I ahve about 500$ that I can sink into this machine. What should I do? Go for a CPU upgrade? If so, whuich one? Would my video performance improve with a Radeon 9200 and the QE hack?

What is the best way to make this thing fly!?

Your honest and expert advice is appreciated!

Thx 😉

 

[brap]

I ahve about 500$ that I can sink into this machine.

How about sinking it into an eMac?

There appear to be some awesome $550 refurbs on Apple.com - stick in a $30 combo drive and you'd be sorted... they gots G4s and everyfink.

(sigh... £250 for a 1GHz eMac? One can dream.)

 

[cromm]

No, my only real option is to make this G3 go. For a couple hundred I can get a solid CPU upgrade.

 

[jxyama]

How about sinking it into an eMac?

i was about to suggest the same thing.

$500 in reviving an older machine doesn't sound like a good investment when you can almost buy a brand new machine that will be much better in performance.

 

[jxyama]

No, my only real option is to make this G3 go. For a couple hundred I can get a solid CPU upgrade.

well, if the current machine is "acceptable," i'd just save the money toward a new one when the B&W croaks.

 

[diamond geezer]

The biggest problem with the B&W, is the flakey FireWire support. You can't boot off FireWire drives, which makes supporting them difficult.