B&W G3 300 MHz

[joshc]

Just collected a B&W G3 today, which I got off eBay for £10 ($14.39). Just updated the firmware and installed 9.2.1. My first PowerMac and this will be my main system for running OS 9 for all the old software/games I like. I can now say goodbye and good riddance to Basilisk and Sheepshaver.

Project plans, in order of priority:

- Up the RAM, currently 320MB.

- Get a Sonnet, or other brand, of IDE controller so I can use larger disks. This is a Rev. A model, so unfortunately the on-board IDE controller completely sucks.

- Then put in a nice large capacity HD.

- Somehow make the case fan and PSU fan quieter, or alternatively install a quiet ATX PSU and do a little trickery to make it work.

- Upgrade the graphics card from Rage 128 to Radeon 9200.

- Get a faster processor - what I *want* is a 1.0 GHz G4 Sonnet Encore/ZIF, but they are too expensive for me.

- Get a fast Ethernet card?

- Add more USB ports via a PCI card?

- Upgrade CD-ROM drive to a CD/DVD combo that is fast and quiet.

Will post pictures soon -- the case is in decent condition, some scratches and other marks, and one side of the door doesn't close flush to the rest of the case. But for a computer TEN years old, this aint bad at all. ;D

 

[istar1018]

Did everything you are proposing to do, and I can say that you will not be disappointed. My $9.99 B&W started life as a stock 300 MHz Rev. A, and is now quite happy with maxed ram, a big ATA hard drive, a DVD-RW drive, a Sonnet 1 GHz G4 processor upgrade (finding a cheap one of these was a big help), and PCI USB 2.0, Radeon 9200 & ATA-133 cards. Most of these parts were hand-me-downs / surplus, and didn't cost an arm and a leg, either.

Running Tiger, it's hard to believe that this is a 10-year old machine.

Good luck with your project!

 

[MacMan]

I've heard it is pretty easy to overclock B&W G3s, it is just a case of shifting some jumpers about (no soldering required). My B&W G3 was overclocked from 350MHz to 450MHz by the previous owner and it has served reliably for years.

 

[Unknown_K]

I stuffed a g3-400/1mb with 1GB of RAM, Radeon 7000 mac edition video, 40gb, 20gb, 6gb for OS 9.2.1/osx 10.3.9/dump drive) along with a SCSI card and a ATA/66 card in the B&W in my room. I have a g4-450/1mb, Radeon mac edition, 512MB RAM, 64 bit SCSI card with 9GB scsi HD , Matrox RTMAC video editing card, and 2 10 or 20GB HDs for OS 9 and osx 10.3.9 in that machine. Both machines are revision 2 IDE, the G4 has a DVD reader while the G3 has a 40x liteon cdrom drive. Nice cool running machines and you can still use all your old ADB stuff.

 

[System7]

I would really try getting a 350 or 400 cpu module. Those are slower by a little than the beige's. Less L2!

 

[MultiFinder]

£10 for a B&W isn't bad at all! Enjoy, you lucky little...

 

[Christopher]

I hear the 1000MHz G3's are better because it doesn't downclock your bus speed from 100MHz to 66MHz.

 

[joshc]

Pictures as promised:

B&W G3 with 22" Hanns.G display, 15" Sharp LCD, iMac 17" Core Duo:

In this one, you can see the damage to some of the casing, which means the side-door doesn't close properly, but meh.

 

[Christopher]

^^^ Pretty.