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Upgrade An Old PowerMac. Is It Worth It?


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Ok. I have an old PowerMac. Here are the specs, don't be scared:

 

G3 400mhz

256 megs ram

Radeon 7000 32 Megs PCI Card

20 gig hdd (upgraded from the old 6 gig)

2 USB Ports and 1 Firewire port.

Superdrive

OS 10.3.5

 

It runs ok, I know first off memory is an issue. So whatever suggestions are made, memory is in the back of my mind of what to upgrade (just so expensive for it). So, I have looked around and saw where some said on Apple.com that a PCI Radeon with 128 megs boosted an old G3 B/W to fast performance graphically. Ok, that is a possibility. What do I want to do:

 

Edit photos. Can do that now, not to hard.

Rip dvds and burn them. (Don't have the software and haven't tried it)

iTunes

Burn cds. Can do that now.

Capture video (analog and maybe dv).

Edit audio.

Internet surfing and such. Can do that now.

 

 

Right now the video is sluggish in places. It boots fast, is stable but I see that Audacity and sound editing is slow. Quicktime is fast though. I want real opinions. If it isn't worth it, tell me. I don't want "you suck" or things like that. I just wanted long time Mac users to tell me since I have been PC for so long. Thanks.

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It's definitely NOT worth upgrading a G3, period. You are using a pretty old machine (at least 5 years) and the Mac have come such a far ways since. I'd recommend hanging on to your money for now. Even the base model Mac Mini would be a SCREAMING upgrade overall. Run that thing till you can afford some new... or newer. G3 is a distant memory today. It's like cherrying out an old VW with a stock motor expecting it to fly... it's not going to happen

 

AS for you DVD ripping experience, Download MacTheRipper, it will work (it will be a serious pain though). Overall, you're asking a lot from this thing... I don't think it's worth your money or your time.

 

My ultimate advice would be to get a friend with a good computer to leech off for the time being. I'm a die hard Mac fan, but intensive video work on a G3 w/ only a 20G HD is crazy.

 

(side note)- I'd personally shoot myself if that was my machine...

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Thanks for the reply. I guess I didn't tell ya, I bought the Mac to play around with. I have as my main:

 

Athlon XP 3000+

1 GIG Ram

Nvidia Geforce 6800 GT 256 Overclocked

80 GIG Hdd

DVD+/-RW Drive

CD-RW Drive

USB/Firewire

 

Plus somebody gave me a

 

P4 2.2 GHZ

512 Megs RAM

Nvidia 5600 128 Meg Card

2 80 GIG hdds

DVD ROM Drive

CD-RW DRive

 

So I have the ability to try Hachintosh with the second one. The first one, I built and it is fast. I did at one time, have a Mac Mini. I got it off of ebay. I was jipped and it didn't have the Superdrive in it, as said on ebay. I has the base G4 1.25 GHZ. It was good, but 512 ram was not enough for me. Plus no Superdrive hurt me. I got "into gaming on the pc" again and got rid of it. God, I wish I at least had that one now. I am done with PC gaming afte Oblivion. I can't spend the money to "keep up". I welcome the Wii or the 360 (when it comes down in price).

 

Oh well, I will wait. Thanks.

 

EDIT: When I get the money, I thought about going for an older PowerMac Dual G4 setup. The last ones they made with the firewire 800 is awesome. Sure no Intel, but the transition isn't super smooth for me to go Intel I don't think.

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hmpf!

 

My G3 still serves me fine on a daily basis.

 

The ram is actually pretty cheap if you ebay it. I got lucky and had a bunch of PC133 just laying around. You can bump that machine to 512 with 4 128MB sticks.

 

Your video is already better then mine. Mine has the stock 16MB ATI PCI card.

 

You could most likely overclock that G3 as well to 450 or 500 on stock cooling. Mine is a 450 O/C'd to 500. Decent bump up at this level.

 

10.4 runs a lot faster on the B&W G3 then 10.3 does. I've tested this over and over.

 

It's not a powerhouse machine, but it does it's job. Hell I even got World of Warcraft to install and play on mine (not all that playable, but I was able to move a character over to a different location)

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Sorry to hear about your bad experience with Ebay -

 

A hackintosh is a possibility, but I'd expect Apple Inc. to lock them out pretty quick... IMO

 

Have a look at my sig, I'm an intense user; the transition was/is fine...

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10.4 is faster? That is a shock. I tried to up to 10.3.9 and the machine got sluggish. Formatted back to 10.3.5 and it is faster.

 

I may have to just goof around with it. I can do all my photo stuff on it, but other editing will have to be done winblows. I thought about doing hackintosh. Even if it wasn't break neck speeds, but say faster than an original Mac Mini and it could crunch the numbers, that would be great.

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Thats the thing, to go to a G4 1ghz zif processor it costs like $400. To much for me. Then I would have to go for more ram on top of that. I wouldn't mind the processor upgrade to be like under $200. A 1ghz G4 wouldn't be that bad. My Mac Mini was fine and .25 ghz isn't that much difference.

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