Cheap upgrades for G3/233?

G

gfen

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So, I'm more-or-less new to the mac world, as a PC refugee and NeXT fan what really brought me over was the joy that I can get unix stability, unix packages, and yet not have to put any effort forth to get precompiled pretty l ittle apps for the Mac GUI, too.

Presumably that's brought quite a few PC converts over. I still can't get past those irritating commercials, though.

This isn't really about that, though, and if it was I'd probably stick it in a more on-topic subsection of the site.. since I'm a refugee, I have no idea how any of this stuff words with regards to hardware.

So, I bought a beige G3/233 for $72. This is my test bed to decide if I really like OS 10 or not, and if I'm ready to ditch the PC thing entirely.. So far, I'm pretty happy, but as you can imagine this machine CRAWLS. I refuse to spend too much money I won't be able to recoup down the line, and I'm also driven by the fact that deep inside I'm an unrepentant gearhead (we'll get to why that's an issue).

So, anyways.. first thing I did to this guy was upgrade the 214mb of memory to 384mb (cost $0). Took out the 4gb drive for a 7200rpm 20gb (cost $0), wish I knew where the ATA/100 controller has found its way to. The Vram went from 2mb to 6mb (Cost, you guessed it, $0). Overclocked the CPU to 280mhz ($0, although I may have to drop it to 266 or spring the $5 for a fan), however, all this and the machine isn't really crawling any faster.

I'd like to replace either the video card or the CPU, at this point. I'd also like to think ahead to where I'm likely to purchase a new system (actually, I'm very likely to build my own from ebay parts, Apple is WAY out of line in their pricing, not to mention those repellant switch ads I have to bypass to get to the apple store).

If I buy a G3 CPU pulled from another's system, is that compatible with a G4 motherboard?
If I buy a G4 upgrade CPU, is THAT compatible?

Videocards.. this would be the simplest, easiest and wisest upgrade..except if I buy a new G4 unit, I'll want an AGP card, and obviously an AGP board does me no good in a beige G3. So, I guess I'm going to have to pick up a PCI board.. now, I'm baffled. OS X only has support for ATI Radeon and Nvidia Geforce cards? Outside of the sheer insanity of that situation (although, I guess tight control is how Apple manages to at least hold onto stability versus x86), do I at least have the option of purchasing a PC version, or must I buy the overpriced and rarer Mac version (eg, bottom feeding on pricewatch shows me a Radeon 7000 Mac for $100, and a Radeon 7000 PC for $31, I can't even find a Mac geforce card to compare).

Oh, and is there a _CHEAP_ CDRW out there? I was downright bitter when I realized there was no support for my HP9100+.

Heck, where do y'all even shop? Is there a preferred location to pick up cheap Mac hardware? "Ebay," for the record, is not valid answer. :)

Now, can anyone tell me how to get my NeXT 21" colour monitor to work on this guy? Alas, a Sun 13W3->SVGA adapter won't cut it.... (pause) No, I didn't think anyone else knew, either. -sigh-
 
There are many places to get hardware at a decent price.
<http://www.megamacs.com>,
Other World Computing at <http://eshop.macsales.com>,<http://www.macresq.com>,
Small Dog Electronics <http://www.smalldog.com>,
http://www.warehouse.com/MacWarehouse
http://www.macconnection.com/
http://www.zones.com/Mac_Zone/
http://www.macmall.com
http://www.usbstuff.com
All of these places do have a refurbished section and a parts section.

I am sure there is an adaptor for that monitor - or the one you have is not configured correctly. Get one that gives you a choice of settings determined by the speed of the refresh rate of the monitor.

Now the sluggishness of your Mac is because of the processor speed. 233mHz is not fast when you are comparing it to a 800mHz. You can get a new board with the G4 already on it, or get a faster G3 to put on the present board. Then with all that you have done, you should notice a big difference.
Upgrading the Video would depend on what monitor you are going to use with it. The difference between the pc and Mac radeon iis probably not only the architecture, put also the connectors that sit in the video port.
 
Video upgrade: Adapter wise, its a nonissue. I'm using a PC style VGA monitor now with a Enhance Liberty adapter. I'd just as soon use a PC style VGA rather than the (to me) highly irritating DVI.
So, I suppose I am to assume that PC video boards, even of the same layout (PCI Radeon versus PCI Radeon) aren't compatable. Is this where I curse at Apple again? :) I also understand the bulk of the work is being done in the CPU, however, one of the newer video boards with a GPU would certainly take some of the load off, as well as keeping things snappier on the desktop.

CPU wise: It actually looks like a cheap G4/400 may not be as ridiculously overpriced as I thought. I'd rather make the jump to a slower G4 than a faster G3, prefering to take advantage of teh Altivec (or whatever its called) features in OS10. However, if I buy a G4 ZIF CPU for my G3 motherboard, since it appears they share teh same pinout..does that mean if I do purchase a G4 motherboard down the line, the G4 CPU will also fit into that? IE, outside of the CPU itself, the exteriors are teh same? Pins, voltages, interfaces, et al?

A NeXT megapixel display doesn't just use a different physical adapter, I'm afraid. I'm pretty sure it uses different sync rates, however, I can't seem to find out. There's not a whole lot of information on that out there. Y'know, perhaps I should just start a new thread with that question, wonder if anyone else has tried it...
 
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