A couple of beige g3 questions

[zerohour]

Could a Beige G3 233Mhz (Rev A) be flash upgraded to a Rev C. model or is it a soldering job?

Also what PCI graphics card would you recommend and would the bios need upgrading to a Mac one ?

 

[Quadraman]

It is easy enough to find later revision G3 motherboards that trying to modify a Rev A one isn't worth the trouble if it can even be done. Try Olde Mac Milt on ebay.

For a G3, a Radeon 9200 would be good. You can get those with a Mac ROM without flashing. You can also get a Radeon 7000 with a Mac ROM if you have a smaller budget. If you plan on running OS X and need Core Image then an nVidia FX5200 flashed to Mac would be your best bet. Anything faster than that would be wasted because the bus can't pump data to the video card fast enough to keep it busy, so don't get too carried away upgrading the video because beyond a certain point you'll be wasting your money buying power your machine can't fully utilize.

 

[Temetka]

Yes a Rev a Machine can be upgraded to Rev C...mostly. You can swap in a Rev C ROM which will fix a few things. The only thing that won't change is the on-board video.

I would highly suggest a CPU upgrade as well. ZIF's are cheap and plentiful. A step up to a 500MHz G3 with 1MB of L2 cache will make that machine much, much faster.

If you do both upgrades it will be faster across the board.

You could get really crazy and install a PCI ATA/100 Controller. Then your boot times, app load times, install times, and pretty much everything that access the HD will decrease by a rather large margin as well. ATA/100 are cheap and plentiful. A 40 or 60GB drive in a machine like that would be a breath of fresh air.

With those 3 upgrades in place you would have a decently capable Panther or Tiger box.

 

[Unknown_K]

An upgrade to a ZIF with 1MB cache would give you a good speed boost no matter what speed it is (g3-350/400 would be easy to find and dirt cheap). The built in video upgraded to 6MB is fine for just about anything you would want to do with a beige G3. If you want a faster video card a Rage 128 PCI would be ok, and cheap.

By the time you start getting fast video cards, PCI ATA cards, a fast CPU, and more RAM you might as well move up to a B&W which is about free these days or spend a couple dollars for a G4 AGP.

My Beige G3s use the built in video and seem speedy to me. I have 128MB RAM in the desktop (g3-333/1MB) and 512MB in the tower (G3-433/1MB).

 

[Temetka]

Ok fine, shoot my ideas down.

Sure he could move to a B&W or a Yikes.

I was trying to illustrate what could be done with 3 minor upgrades and how much of an impact it would have on system performance.

 

[Unknown_K]

A 60GB drive, ata/100 pci card and a G3-500 ZIF are major upgrades and do cost a few bucks (you also left off more RAM). If you have them laying around, cool then use them. If you have to go and buy them all you are probably better off getting a newer machine.

The original poster seems to not know much if anything about the machine her has, get to know it as is and if you like it then start upgrading.

 

[zerohour]

I am fully aware of the capability of my machine. I just thought you may be able to advise.

The machine already has a 20Gb hard drive upgraded by me.

Do not judge my expertise by one post ... not that I am complaining when it comes to Mac my knowledge is sadly lacking but I am not a complete idiot

 

[Temetka]

Most of the upgrades I mentioned can be had for sheckels on e-bay.

I understand not everyone can afford to fully upgrade a machine.

However a lot of the members here do have some of the various upgrades I mentioned laying around.

I have about 3 Rage128 PCI cards, 2 ATA/100 controllers and more RAM sticks than I care to count. I could have more video cards and IDE controllers, but why? All I use them in is my 8500 of Doom and my BeigeG4 of Balls.

 

[Unknown_K]

I am fully aware of the capability of my machine. I just thought you may be able to advise.
The machine already has a 20Gb hard drive upgraded by me.

Do not judge my expertise by one post ... not that I am complaining when it comes to Mac my knowledge is sadly lacking but I am not a complete idiot

What you asked about the ROMs would have been answered by a quick google search, so I figured since I don't know you and have not seen you post much you were new to the system.

I don't think you are a complete idiot.

 

[Unknown_K]

Most of the upgrades I mentioned can be had for sheckels on e-bay.
I understand not everyone can afford to fully upgrade a machine.

However a lot of the members here do have some of the various upgrades I mentioned laying around.

I have about 3 Rage128 PCI cards, 2 ATA/100 controllers and more RAM sticks than I care to count. I could have more video cards and IDE controllers, but why? All I use them in is my 8500 of Doom and my BeigeG4 of Balls.

Plenty of people who come here were given free machines and think they can plug in old PC card they got and have things work.

While I and many other members love to upgrade their machines (even if it costs a few bucks) there are plenty of others around who don't want to spend much if anything at all on a machine they got for free.

Unless the poster states what they are trying to do with the machine I asume they just found it on the curb and just want to see what it does. Too many people are quick to throw out major expensive rare upgrades for people to buy without having a clue what the owner wants to do with the unit (no I don't mean you) and how much money they want to throw into it.

Yea, most 68kmla members have a box (or multiple boxes) of misc computer parts they use to upgrade machines, but we all started here at some point with nothing. For ever member who joins and gets into upgrading old macs I am sure there are a couple who don't.