Desktop G3 - now with topless photos!

[Dog Cow]

And I refuse to call these 'beige'. They are not beige! Apple hasn't made a beige Mac since 1986! They are platinum!

Anyway, this was a 4-week process, but totally worth it. Maybe even longer. This summer, I stopped in the local campus computer shop to hunt around for a monitor for my then-new Mac mini (well, it's still new, just less so). Anyway, it turned out they were an all-PC shop, but they had an Apple ColorSync 20" monitor for $35. I bought it and used an adaptor (two, actually) to hook it into my Mac mini. It still serves as the main monitor 4 months later today.

Anyway, I happened to notice there was a StyleWriter II (which I already have) and a Power Mac G3.

Fast forward past summer to 1 month ago, I went back to buy that desktop G3. It ended up taking them 4 weeks to get around to testing to see if it works (they said they don't sell untested equipment) and to erase the hard drive and reinstall the OS. I actually had to loan them some of my stuff, like my VGA-to-Mac monitor adapter and my OS 8.5 install CD so they could do the wipe and reinstall.

Now this morning, I went back in and got a thumbs-up! Finally, the process was finished and they were ready to sell. I got my baggie of supplies back, and they had originally thought they were going to charge me $50 for the CPU, but later realized it was only worth about $30. They also included the ADB design keyboard, and an original ADB mouse (came from a different Mac, I think). Also, was a StyleWriter II printer.

Well, they wanted $10 for all those accessories, but it turned out the SW II was dead. Would not turn on! Since I already have a working one, I decided to skip it and they took $5 off the price.

In the end, I now have a G3, mouse, keyboard, and my original goodies baggie in my car trunk, and I'm really eager to get home and try them out.

As for the specs, I don't know. I haven't had the time to start it up or take off the case. From the outside though, this G3 is kick-ass! Not only does it have localtalk so I can connect to my older Macs and GS, not only does it have Ethernet so I can connect to my Mac mini, not only does it have a floppy drive, a Zip drive, a CD drive, and a SCSI port, but the previous owner also took the time to install a USB card so I've got 2 USB 1.1 ports (assumption, I highly doubt they're 2.0) where I can connect an iPod, flash drive, or any of my other USB accessories. (He also took the time to write his name and phone number on the front in marker-- will clean that off tonight)

This is truly a valuable addition to my Mac collection. :beige:

 

[MultiFinder]

It's always nice to have one of those 'bridge' machines; enough old portage to talk to the oldest of machines, but enough modern portage to be useful in the modern world. Nice find

 

[Dog Cow]

It's always nice to have one of those 'bridge' machines; enough old portage to talk to the oldest of machines, but enough modern portage to be useful in the modern world. Nice find

Exactly! It used to be my b&w Yosemite G3 was the bridge, but it's at my parents' house so I no longer have access to it. This desktop G3 is even better since it has serial ports. With the Yosemite, I was fortunate to have an LC with an Ethernet card, so the LC was technically the bridge.

Having a USB card is just icing on the cake, so to speak.

 

[MultiFinder]

That's one of the main uses of my 6500/225; one machine with SCSI, Localtalk, ADB, Ethernet, and USB, plus an OS that can talk to System 6 or X

 

[Dog Cow]

I installed OS 10.2 without a problem. That's as high as I'll go with it. I also put on OS 9.2.1. The purpose of this G3 is to run PowerPC applications and to serve as a network bridge to my older Macs and Apple II's.

It turned out that the previous guy was quite the Mac user. I think this G3 was used in an office, or at least a home office. The last serious use it got seems to be from around 2001-2002. Though there were some files modified as late as 2005. The PRAM battery is still going and the Mac knows its serial number, when it was manufactured, and knows it has 22,000 hours of use!

One of the first things I did was run my disk utility to see what I could un-delete. Nothing. Either this guy covered his tracks, or his old files overwrote the new. Which is a shame, because I found aliases to files which had been deleted such as ClarisWorks 4. However, there was an entire Norton antivirus suite and Microsoft Office (Word 6, Excel 5, PowerPoint 4(?) ) I don't remember what version of PowerPoint it was. The OS was 9.2.2

Anyway, I connected it to my Mac mini and copied the 1 GB of data to the mini, then completely erased the 6GB hard drive and installed OS 9.2.1 on it. Afterward, I installed OS 10.2.

Here are the specs:

It appears this guy bought the top, fastest model of G3 for the day. It has a 300 MHz processor, 1 MB cache, 6 GB hard drive, and originally had 64MB of RAM. Fortunately, this guy installed another SIMM so it has a total of 192 MB now. Very good. Also has usual CD-ROM drive (which I will upgrade to faster model with burner soon) and 100 MB Zip drive.

The inside was very dusty, so I took everything out and cleaned it up. Exterior needed some cleaning as well. The dirtiest things were the keyboard and mouse!

Photos!

First night topless!

Front Perspective

Front

Topless again

A peak inside

Backside

Not pictured: ADB mouse and AppleDesign keyboard. We've seen these a million times before....

 

[Christopher]

Take that battery out unless its new. It might esplode.

 

[Dog Cow]

It's still working. The G3 had the correct date, but not time. I've actually never had a battery explode before, though.

 

[MrMacPlus]

I am having regrets that I threw my old "Platinum" G3 away

I really had no choice though, not enough room.

 

[Dog Cow]

I really had no choice though, not enough room.

I can understand. It's quite a beast! One of the largest desktop Macs, I think.

 

[Christopher]

I really had no choice though, not enough room.

I can understand. It's quite a beast! One of the largest desktop Macs, I think.

The PowerMac G5/MacPro is the bigger one. There's side by side photo's of the B&W/PowerMac G4 tower with the G5 tower. It makes the B&W look tiny.

 

[Dog Cow]

That's a tower configuration. Desktop refers to horizontal layout, where you'd put your monitor on top.

 

[iamdigitalman]

very nice!! I have a beige G3 tower (the lowest config), and a dead AIO. I harvested the AIO for parts and plan on installing them into the tower, dual booting X,9, and linux, and have it be my bridge (though I have my IIc hooked to my B&W so that is one bridge for my II).

The AIo carcass is going to scap. Shame too since it's a nice machine. A beast, but nice.

I do remember an encounter with a G3DT config. my old elementary school had one the teacher used in the media center. I should go back and see if I can pick that up, along with some bondi iMacs.

-digital

 

[Lateralus]

I really had no choice though, not enough room.

I can understand. It's quite a beast! One of the largest desktop Macs, I think.

The PowerMac G5/MacPro is the bigger one. There's side by side photo's of the B&W/PowerMac G4 tower with the G5 tower. It makes the B&W look tiny.

The 9600 still takes the cake by volume though. Imagine how huge it'd be if it had feet/handles like the G5/Mac Pro does.

 

[techfury90]

The funny thing is that the 9500 really isn't that big.

 

[Unknown_K]

The 8600/9600 is still shorter then a 950 (but much wider).

 

[Dog Cow]

I have a beige G3 tower

Never call it that!!! They're not beige!

 

[II2II]

Come on folks. If you want to look at naked pics of Macs, keep it to the IIsi or earlier, because it's morally wrong to look at topless pics of 11 year olds.

Sheesh.

}

 

[madmax_2069]

I have a beige G3 tower

Never call it that!!! They're not beige!

I and just about everyone else calls them Beige G3, cause everyone knows them by that name.

if you go to Apples forum they have a section called Power Macintosh G3 (Platinum-Beige) , if you dont like that we are calling them Beige G3 you better get on Apple as well. cause it is what people calls them, as a test type in Beige G3 into google and then do the same with Platinum G3 you will see what i mean.

 

[Dog Cow]

I have a beige G3 tower

Never call it that!!! They're not beige!

I and just about everyone else calls them Beige G3, cause everyone knows them by that name.

Well, whomever started that trend is an idiot. And I don't know why people call them that. I however, refuse to call mine 'beige'.