How about some tips? G3/233 Ressurection...

T

thedbp

Frantic Messenger of Hope
Just acquired a free G3/233 with no HD or CD-ROM. I'm looking to set it up as a webserver for the time being running OS X, of course. It's got the stock 2MB RagePro graphics chip, 32MB RAM. I have a PC100 128MB chip from a B&W I'll throw in, plus a G3 350 processor to speed it up a tad, and a 12GB IDE hard drive to give it some space.

here's my questions: I want better video performance, I don't want to spend a lot of $. I've heard that the Voodoo2 is a good choice for this, but does anyone know of any compatibility issues with OS X? AFAIK, I don't think there are OS X drivers for the Voodoo line of cards. Anyone else have any suggestions for better graphics performance? i don't want to get the 4MB card for the RagePro to max it out to 6MB because OS X doesn't support hardware acceleration on this chip at all. *blarg!* Any suggestions?

Also, the only CD-ROM I have to put in it is a 52x cheap-o PC drive that may or may not work. Alternately, i can hook up an external Apple 6x CD-ROM SCSI drive, but will it install OS X? I can use it to install OS 9 for sure, but i'm looking to keep this machine as classic-free as possible.

So any general suggestions that anyone could make as far as the best way to economically raise this thing from the dead (it was literally pulled dumpster at a University) would be great. I hate seeing good Macs go to waste.

And this brings me up to lucky 7 Macs!
 
nice score... if it is a serve, i wouldnt bother with messing with the video setup... as for your scsi woes.... wow. that is a tough situation.

it has an ATA bus, too, doesnt it?
 
It's a Rev. 2, so it supports master-slave ATA chaining too. I could buy a CD-ROM, but I honestly don't have the dough. Besides, I guess that would be a sort of "security measure" as a server, so no one can boot it from a CD and reinstall it or something. I dunno, basically I just wanna see how awesome I can pump this thing up before I actually have to spend money ;)
 
It'd be cool just to install Darwin and run it a straight command line server. You definately wouldn't need any kind of video upgrades and it would probably run better than all-out OS X.
 
Not only is that cheapo 52x CD-ROM workable, its BOOTABLE, and performs like a champ. Soon as my drive mounting sleds get here I'll mount the HD and CD-ROM permanently and install X on this thing. Yay!

Also, a little note: I am using a 128MB stick of PC100 RAM from my B&W, but its a hair too tall. I sorta have to press down on the top of the case to get it to close enough to get the power cord in. I don't think its going to cause too many problems, but in case someone else was going to buy some PC100 RAM for their beige G3 desktop, be aware that the height of the chip is an issue. It'll work in the far left RAM slot but not the other two, as it keeps the chassis to far raised to get the case on and power plug in.

More results as they come :)
 
Ok, so I swapped the 128 chip out for a shorter 256 from by B&W. So I only have 896MB of RAM as opposed to a full gig in my g4, boo hoo, and my new G3 is up to 288. yay.

here's the interesting part: found some great instrux online and overclocked it to a 70MHz bus, processor running at a very cool 78 @ 420MHz, originally rated for 350. Running VERY stable and VERY fast. Next up is the swap in of a Firewire/USB card from an 8600 and the battery from a Quadra660.

Also, that CD ROM, while it will boot a 9 CD, will NOT boot an X CD. Gonna try to switch out this drive for one from a 6500. Just have to convince the owner of the 6500 ... ;) Haven't tried booting X from an external SCSI CD-ROM though.

More later!

and yes, this is just an excuse to get my post count up
 
Pulled the floppy drive out and stuck in a 5400rpm 1GB drive to use as a VM volume. It's getting painted black w/ silver trim this week, too. Need to temporarily swap in the DVD-ROM from my G4 in order to install X (i hope this works as this CD-ROM refuses to boot to an X partition. tried imaging the install CD to the internal 1GB, but no dice there. hangs on boot.) then this thing'll be ready 4 anything. added external SCSI zip drive too.
 
OS X is running very nicely on this machine! Had to swap out the drive from my B&W tower to install X, then found out that the CD-ROM isn't supported AT ALL in X. Oh well. Gonna try a generic 50x that I'm going to trade for this CD-ROM and hope that works. No dice on the 6500 drive, its SCSI, as is the drive from my 8600. damn! I was hoping to build this entirely out of spare parts without having to buy anything.
But I must say, even with only 2MB of VRAM, this thing runs fine in OS X. App launching, screen refresh, its all fairly snappy. However I do see a Radeon 7000 in this thing's future ;)
Also I painted the case with a nice thick coat of gloss black enamal paint with silver highlights on the power button, apple logo, and cd-rom button. It looks SWEEEEEEET. I'll post pix and screenshots when all is said and done.
 
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