the speed of Mac OS X versions

A

Abacab

Registered
Hello

I have a iMac G3 350 at home, running os x 10.3.5 with 256m ram.

It's usable but not fast enough...

Question no.1) Would it be faster to use an older version of OS X like 10.2 or 10.1?

Question no.2) If so, will i have a lot of bugs and compatibility issues with older versions?

Question no.3) Is 256m of ram enough to run OS X ok?

Question no.4) To make things faster, I know I can change the HD with a faster one, but I've heard that I cannot put any kind of HD because faster ones run too hot. Is there some kinds of HD running at 7200 rpm that could fit in?

Thanks
 
I think it is faster to stay with panther over the older versions. they have refined the OS more for speed improvements. more ram would be a benefit i think. I belive that your model will take 512mb and maybe 1gig. it should have two ram slots accessable on a plastic door on the bottom.
 
Abacab said:
Question no.1) Would it be faster to use an older version of OS X like 10.2 or 10.1?
Click to expand...
Each version of OS X since the Public Beta has been faster than the previous version due to improved internal efficiencies in the code. So OS X 10.2 would be slower than OS X 10.3
Abacab said:
Question no.2) If so, will i have a lot of bugs and compatibility issues with older versions?
Click to expand...
Some of the applications that run under OS X 10.3 will not run under 10.2 so you may have to install older versions of the applications and may lose some functionality.
Abacab said:
Question no.3) Is 256m of ram enough to run OS X ok?
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OS X can run with as little as 128 MB of RAM but 256 MB is not enough for optimum performance. Based on some recent articles I am of the opinion that 640 MB of RAM is the OS X 10.3 "sweet spot." Performance improves dramatically up to that point. Performance will continue to improve up to 1 GB or more but not as much as it does up to 640 MB.
Abacab said:
Question no.4) To make things faster, I know I can change the HD with a faster one, but I've heard that I cannot put any kind of HD because faster ones run too hot. Is there some kinds of HD running at 7200 rpm that could fit in?
Click to expand...
There are several factors effecting drive performance including cache size, ATA Bus speed, and the rotational speed of the drive. The ATA bus speed probably has more to do with hard drive performance than the rotation speed of the drive itself. Rather than worrying about heat problems with an internal drive why not get a good external firewire drive. It will probably be faster than the internal drive and should have a lot more room to grow. Besides that it will be a snap transferring the firewire drive to your next Mac when you finally upgrade.
 
512 MB is the most RAM you can install in that G3 iMac. Go for it. And an internal 7200 rpm HD will make quite a noticeable improvement in performance on that machine (a FireWire drive is not an option for you.) I put one in my old iMac and it actually runs cooler now and much more quietly. Those old 5400 rpm iMac HDs were not so good.

Now, while maxing out your RAM and upgrading your HD will certainly give your iMac a boost, don't expect miracles from that 350 MHz processor. It's just about the minimum required to run OS X, and even short of the minimum to run many of todays apps. :( But for web surfing and email it should certainly suffice. :)

Panther definitely runs faster than Jaguar in any machine, so don't downgrade.

Hope this helps.
 
'Todays apps' don't usually have minimum processor speed requirements, unless you're talking video production or games for which the user definitely wants at least a G4, of course.

I think upping the RAM and exchanging the harddrive will give this lil' iMac another life. For E-Mail, word processing, webbrowsing etc. at least. The basic stuff, so to speak. But even some light layout work in InDesign can very well be accomplished on such a machine.

However: If you _really_ want some decent speed, I'd try and get a used iBook of some sort. They're like the "entry level Macintosh" now (not counting the eMac) and whether you get a G3/700-900 or a G4/800-1x00, they all are good little machines that will serve you better than your old iMac. You could still sell that old iMac, too. Install something basic, say OS 9 with AppleWorks (which was included) and Outlook Express as well as some decent browser - and someone without much computer experience can enjoy all this new technology...
 
Thanks everybody for your good advices.

So I think its clear now, more RAM, Faster HD.

By the way, the mac's not mine, its my father's... But in a way it's mine too...

And yes Timmargh, I am a Genesis fan, that music is sooooo good.
 
1.) No

2.) N/A

3.) IMO 512mb should be the bare minimum for OS X. I've heard the 640mb 'sweet-spot; thing before, but I don't buy it. I would say the 'sweet spot' varies depending on how you use the machine. 640mb might be ok for light use, but 1gb or more would be a pro's level.

The more you have in your machine, the happier both of you will be together. Apple's official specs for yours say it has 2 slots, but a max of 64mb. I could have sworn I've heard of people running more than that in those models.

So, buy yourself a 512mb chip for $82.00 and then pop her in the empty slot. Boot up and see if it'll recognize more than 512mb of ram. If she does, great...you now have 640mb or 768mb (depending on what your ram is now...single 256mb or dual 128mb chips). If not, remove the old stuff and leave just the 512mb chip in.

4.) Never heard anything about heat issues with a 7200rpm drive. Can tell you on a beige G3 300 DT that the extra RPMs does make a slight difference. Tiger Direct usually has good prices on hard drives...but don't discredit a local place like Best Buy. I've been able to find the same drive at Best Buy for $30 less than Tiger Direct (both had rebates) and not had to pay $10 in shipping. A 7200rpm drive with an 8mb cache would be a great upgrade...maybe even grab a firewire enclose for $35 to $50 to convert the old drive into a backup.

So you're probably looking at $200 to $250 for everything, including shipping. Like someone else put, you might just want to consider grabbing yourself a newer machine. Put the iMac up on E-Bay and use the proceeds to help out with that.

eMac 1GHz/ 256MB/ 40GB/ CD-ROM/ NO MODEM - Apple Certified: $549
eMac 1.25GHz/ 256MB/ 40GB/ Combo/ E/ 56K - Apple Certified: $649
iBook G4 1GHz/ 256MB/ 30GB/ Combo/ E/ 56K/ 12-inch TFT - Apple Certified: $799
iMac G5 1.6GHz/ 256MB/ 80GB/ Combo/ 56K/ 17-inch - Apple Certified: $1099
Power Mac G5 1.6 GHz 256MB/ 80GB/ SuperDrive/ GigE/ 56K - Apple Certified: $1199
 
mdnky: That spec sheet says [it came with] 64 MB RAM, expandable to 512 MB max using two 256 sticks. (This doesn't mean their original specs still hold, as single 512 sticks are now sold for all slot-loading iMacs.) The only question, as you pointed out, is whether RAM totaling over 512 MB will be recognized. Anyway, I've got just 512 MB total in my old iMac and it runs fine. Of course, with only a 350 GHz processor, that iMac will never be a speed demon, but maxing out the RAM will certainly make a noticeable improvement.

Unfortunately that model does not have a FireWire port. :( But yes, an internal 7200 rpm HD with 8 MB cache would be a very good investment. :)
 
I have a blue and white 500 MHz G3 with 768MB RAM. For what I use my computer for, it's useable if I don't open a lot of memory-hungry apps like M$ Word, Excel (both with large 30+MB documents in each), Adobe Photoshop Elements, GIMP, iTunes, iCal, Classic to run Cambridgesoft ChemDraw Ultra, UCSF Chimera (open source X11 application/molecular modeling software). Having all of these open does slow things donw a little when switching between applications, but things pick up after the switch.
 
andychrist said:
...Of course, with only a 350 GHz processor, that iMac will never be a speed demon...
Click to expand...

Heh!



Anyway, I have the exact same machine sitting on my desk for my mum. She'll use Office X and I have Firefox as the default browser, since IE ran much too slow, and is horrible.

I upgraded the RAM to 320MB, and clean installed the OS, and it runs like a ROCKET. Close to the speed of my PowerBook G4 (when I have everything open in RAM).

Another pro with a new HDD is that it'll give you larger disk space and that's going to make a huge difference in OS X. I've heard repeatedly that OS X or 9 running HFS+ just dies when the FAT doesn't have any room to breathe.

They're amazing machines those little things. I have it in Jaguar, because I don't have another licence for Panther, sadly.
 
I installed a new HD, it's a Maxtor 40gig 7200 ata-100, and added 128m ram for a total of 384m, and it's a lot faster
 
Abacab said:
And yes Timmargh, I am a Genesis fan, that music is sooooo good.
Click to expand...


I didn't get his post right away. I reread the posts like three times but did not even look at your name. I get it now.
 
mdnky said:
The more you have in your machine, the happier both of you will be together. Apple's official specs for yours say it has 2 slots, but a max of 64mb. I could have sworn I've heard of people running more than that in those models.
Click to expand...


64mb is the min (not the max)
 
andychrist said:
Unfortunately that model does not have a FireWire port. :( But yes, an internal 7200 rpm HD with 8 MB cache would be a very good investment. :)
Click to expand...


If they have the DV model then they do have two firewire ports, but I don't think they would be able to boot off of a firewire drive.
 
Jeffo said:
If they have the DV model then they do have two firewire ports, but I don't think they would be able to boot off of a firewire drive.
Click to expand...
I have booted of a firewire device many times. In OS X you just have to "bless" the drive. I use Carbon Copy Cloner and it backs up your drive(s) and can "bless" the backups, even firewire drives.
 
I have an iMac G3 400 with 512 or 640 RAM (can't remember and I don't have it in front of me). I also put in a 7200 Seagate Baracuda (mostly because it's dead quiet drive). We use it as a file server.

IMHO, anything less than a Dual 800 G4 is too painful for using OS X. I know many people will disagree with me, and that's fine. I've got several machines running OS X and the only ones I can tolerate are the Dual G4s. My iBook is a G4 800 and it's fine for web surfing and the basics, but starts to hurt when I try to get real work done. I put 640 in it as well. I have only done "real" work on the suped up iMac 400 in emergency situations.

This is not to say that real work can't get done on these machines (I edited a documentary entirely on the iMac 400 and used the iBook to edit a demanding time-sensitive trade show video). I'm just saying it's not a very pleasant experience. It's all relative though. If I got a Dual G5 here, I would never want to touch the Dual G4s again, I'm sure.

It is clear to me that Apple developed OS X beyond the capabilities of the machines it would run on for a few years. Only now that G5s are here would I consider OS X to shine the way we all anticipated.
 
Yeah, and a G6 or G7 will certainly make OS X shine better, somehow, and that ol' dual G5 will look awfully old by then. Your point being...? Of _course_ a faster machine makes the slower one look 'bad'. But the question of the thread was which version of OS X to use on oldish hardware. And I guess OS 9 can't really be counted as some kind of early version of X, so basically: The thread's been answered already. The _newest_ version is what you want to be running on older (and newer) hardware for maximum performance.
 
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