Getting a Mac G3

T

The Mac

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I know this computer is pretty old but im buying it for 25 bucks and it looks pretty cool. I never use/have a mac before. Dose this support like all new programs? Or will i have to buy an upgrade? Can i add a cd burner to it some how?

Sorry if my questions are stupid. Im a total noob on macs. I have vista.

Its 233mhz and 160mb RAM.
 
I'm guessing you have this:
http://lowendmac.com/imacs/rev-a-imac-g3-233-mhz.html
(recommend you read that article)

This is a great computer to see if you would enjoy the mac experience. However, it's ten years old. I don't know what you mean by "all those new programs", but I wouldn't expect a gaming machine. It'd be a great internet terminal, along with the other basic Apple apps. Probably not enough hard drive space for iTunes and iMovie.

I'm assuming you want to upgrade to OS X. It probably has OS 9 on it, which is nice, but probably not what you had in mind. You can run up to OS X 10.3 (Panther) on that mac, which you can buy online from people like OWC. Before you install that, you'll need to install some firmware updates:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86117
You can get a mac-compatible cd burner to attach, or look for an internal one. I don't think that the internal version is being made anymore, but you may be able to get one secondhand.
10.3 is two versions behind the latest, 10.5, so you can't run everything, but it's still pretty compatible. Think Windows 2000. You won't be able to install 10.4 or 10.5 on that machine.

If you want a machine that can do more, and run the latest OS, etc, a budget option would be the G4 towers. You can get these on eBay or Craigslist for under $100. You'll need 867mhz + to run Leopard. If you have a PC, you can buy a KVM and hook the tower right up. G5 towers are even faster, at a higher price. If you really want to switch, you can get a new, intel mac (which runs vista), or a refurbished intel mac if you want to save 20-30% (avalible at the online Apple Store).
 
You can run iTunes, just not the latest. The problem with iTunes is that you have a very small (4 gb?) hard drive, so there's not a whole lot of space for music. Also, you have USB 1.1 ports, so while you can hook up an external drive, it may not work with rich files.
 
It all depends on the specifications of that particular iMac. There were many iterations of the iMac G3, ranging from the original one that only had USB 1.1 to the last ones that included Firewire. The other consideration is the version of Mac OS X that is installed. I believe that if you run 10.3.x on it (aka "Panther"), you can still use the latest version of iTunes on it. You could always bump up the RAM as much as you can to have Mac OS X 10.3 or greater run decently.

You're only bottleneck would be the speed of the CPU. If it's the 233 MHz version, then your experience will be quite slow even with a lot of RAM. Also consider that the video graphics chipset on it is VERY old and would not support Core Image which helps speed things along on the video side. So in essence, the CPU would also be doing a lot of the video processing through software rendering.

Another thing to consider is that if you're going to install Mac OS X on it, it has to be on the first 7.5 GB of space on the hard drive, otherwise it will not run. This was a limitation in the iMac when introduced in 1997, YEARS before Mac OS X was released or even preinstalled on all Macs.

Think of it as trying to run Vista or even XP SP2 on a 233 MHz Pentium II with only 160 MB RAM and an 8 MB video card of the time. It would be near impossible to expect the feature set of a modern computer out of something that old with Vista. You could probably run XP on it, but the experience would most likely be a slow one, just as Panther would be on that iMac. It's amazing enough that Panther would even be able to run on a Mac of that age at all.
 
Some G3s support 2.0, but not yours. If they aren't backwards-compatible, they won't work.
 
The Mac said:
So newer 2.0 usb devices won't work for mac G3s'?
Click to expand...
USB 2.0 is supposed to be backward compatible with USB 1.1. It will, however, communicate at USB 1.1 speeds through a USB 1.1 port.

Caveat: USB is a port (several ports, actually), a cable, and a specification. Many USB vendors' products are fully USB-compliant. However, some vendors do not fully support the specification. FWIW, there is no correlation between the price of the product and the level of USB-specification support.
 
The issue isn't how the port is setup, it's how much data the port is designed to handle. Most 2.0 devices will work slowly on a 1.1 port.
 
oh thanks! You think the computers video card can handle youtube and like small video clips? Cause i heard it can't. Idk any about computers really if you notice. lol. thanks for helping me out! i really appreciate it.
 
Well, it's not a bad Mac for what it is, but you can't expect from it what you would expect from a more modern computer. Again, it would be like expecting a 233 MHz Pentium II from the late 90s (which is about the time that iMac was released) with similar specs to run Windows XP with IE 6 or 7, and view most of the "Web 2.0" stuff like YouTube and other sites. It's just not going to be a realistic solution. But for a basic system for basic internet and e-mail usage under OS 9 (maybe OS X), it's not all that bad.

If you're willing to spend a little more, get yourself a used Power Macintosh G4 that will allow you to install a PCI or AGP video card that IS supported under Core Image. The G4 with the Altivec multimedia extensions will also improve your media experience, even on an first or second generation Power Macintosh G4.
 
yeah. You think i can get a Maxtor Personal Storage 3000LE 40GB to work for it? its an external drive. Will i need a certain amount of ram or hard drive space or anything? It said it will work on a 1.1 usb port and MacOS 9.0 or higher but i don't get this part of the review.

While the 3000LE will work with the USB 1.1 ports on current computers, you'll need a USB 2.0 adapter card (not included) or a USB 2.0-capable computer to take advantage of the new standard's higher data-transfer rate. Maxtor offers a PCI USB 2.0 adapter for about $50 on its Web site.

http://reviews.cnet.com/hard-drives/maxtor-personal-storage-3000le/4505-3186_7-6753205.html

MacOS 9.0 or higher are supported as well. The benefit of the Personal Storage 3000LE is that you can install it on USB 1.1 ports should you not have any USB 2.0 ports. This greatly eases file sharing with other computers. Unfortunately, with this kind of setup, you are stuck with a USB 2.0 hard drive crawling at 900KB/s at best.

http://www.everythingusb.com/hardware/index/Maxtor_Personal_Storage_3000LE.htm

This is the best i found

http://www.modfactor.com/reviews/storage/Maxtor 3000LE 40GB USB 2/Maxtor 3000LE 40GB USB 2.html


This will work right?
 
The Mac: If you buy that 233 iMac and then try to upgrade it, well you will just be throwing good money after bad. The VRAM is on that machine may be as low as 2MB and may only be upgraded to as high as 6MB, with a chip no longer available. The internal HD is easy and cheap to swap out (don't even think about any external HD, it will be quite useless), but maxing out the RAM on that machine will set you back about $90 for a lousy 512 MB. And the latest OS supported on it is only 10.3, as opposed to the current 10.5. And it will run dog slow. Trust me, I own one. :(

Go with nixgeek's suggestion and try to pick up at least a G4.
 
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I don't really want to upgrade anything. Cause im buying it for 25. Im trying to spend least amount of money as i can. I just want to add an external hard drive. Would it still work? Or would it lag a lot? Would any Ram work? all ram chips are compatible right? Cause i got 256 ram on my old computer that broke due to motherboard was fried. i think.
 
Personally, I wouldn't recommend it for what you want. A "Sawtooth" Power Macintosh G4 system would be much more worth it and would support PCI expansion cards. Despite their age, these still handle Mac OS X quite well given a decent amount of RAM. Hold on to the $25 and save up a little more for this particular model if you can.
 
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