Happy Tenth to the B/W G3!

[Cory5412]

Just as a heads up, on Jan 5th 1999 was the day the PowerMac G3 blue/white systems were announced. This pertains to the 300, 350 and 400MHz models, although the 450 was really only a speedbump, so it kind of counts too. [] ]'>

I know there are a few of these on this board that are either still in daily use, or have only been retired very recently... which I've just got to say, is really impressive.

 

[Mike Richardson]

You can drop a G4 in one of these and use Leopard. That's some pretty good longevity. Kind of like Tiger on a 1996-era 7500 with a G3/G4 card.

 

[Bunsen]

Or Vista on a PIII

 

[Cory5412]

I've actually used Vista on a PIII Celeron, 800MHz with 512mb of memory.

The easiest way to describe it is that it can happen, but that it's maybe not the most pleasant thing ever.

With a video card that had drivers to take it above 640x480, it would be fine. (As fine as Leopard can be on a G4 of similar specs, anyway.)

 

[LCGuy]

Well, Cory, I've had Windows Server 2008 (basically a beefed up Server version of Vista) on a PIII Celeron 600 with 384MB of RAM!

Its...not pleasant, but not as bad as you'd expect either.

Have to say though..its hard to believe that the B&W is 10 years old...I remember seeing photos of them when they were first released, back when I was 14, thinking, "wow, this is the future of the Mac".

 

[MrMacPlus]

"wow, this is the future of the Mac"

And the Pro still has the same basic case design, wow.

 

[John8520]

Well it lacks the fundamental aspect of the hinge down motherboard, which was amazing.

 

[Unknown_K]

I have 2 B&Ws in use, one with a G4-450. Both are very nice machines. I remember looking at them back in early 2001 when I decided to buy a 8500 powermac and beef it up with a G3-400 and tons of RAM (B&Ws were real pricey back then).

Nothing realy bad to say about them, and the PS seem to be much better then the early to middle G4 designs with ADC.

 

[Temetka]

I have always liked the B&W G3 Machines. I think they had more personality in terms of case coloring than the later Yikes! and Sawtooth machines. For me I have installed a 500MHz G4 ZIF in mine and it runs great! It's actually hard for me to decide between my B&W or my 8500. Both have great personality and I really enjoy using both of them.

 

[z180]

I thought about to post the same topic yesterday.

These Macs accept 1GB of RAM and HDDs up to 128GB.

ZIF CPU upgrades up to 1100 MHZ are available.

The 300mhz model is a bit slower because of the halved cache.

The G3 runs a lot more operating systems than my 6100.

I have still one of these and use it for Mac OS 9.2 even I have a G4

Digital Audio.I got simple blue and white speakers and the original mouse and keyboard together with the computer.

Her is something bad to say:

A problem are the rev-1 boards (a buggy Harddisk controller) and the

facts that the machine accepts only single sided RAM sticks and can't boot

from Firewire,USB or ordinary DVD drives.

The power supply works but has 200 W only,while my G4s has 338 W.

My harddisk works but is slow rotating and only 6GB

known OS list:

Mac OS 8.5 to 9.2.2

Mac OS X DP1-4 +public Beta

Mac OS X 10.0 to 10.4

Rhapsody

Linux

NetBSD

OpenBSD

FreeBSD

 

[joshc]

These Macs accept 1GB of RAM and HDDs up to 128GB.

Is this really true? Obviously 128GB was huge 10 years ago, but I still don't see any reason for that sort of limit.

 

[techfury90]

Yes. ATA controllers made before LBA48 was introduced (around 2002) cannot address more than 128 GB of disk space. You can work around this by using a card.

 

[Rodus]

^^or by using an external firewire or USB2 + pci card

I have to say I love the B&W, I got one on ebay only a couple of years back simply cos I remember when they were released and I was desperate to get one but couldn't afford it. They still have a lot of uses.

 

[Christopher]

I would love to own one solely because I want to use my ADB keyboards.

That does work in OS X right?

 

[Dog Cow]

Yes! A 450MHz b&w G3 with 256MB RAM, 100GB total HD storage, ADB keyboard and mouse, and OS 10.4.9 is still the main Mac in use at my parents' house!

I would love to own one solely because I want to use my ADB keyboards.
That does work in OS X right?

Yes, all versions. (except for 10.5.x, I believe.)

 

[istar1018]

... and they're CHEAP!

Wegener Media has barebones B&W 300s for $9.99 + shipping. (No affiliation) Locally they go for free / cheap on craigslist all the time.

 

[dudejediknight]

Running 3 hard drives in my G3 450mhz Rev. 2 box (dual 120gb ATA drives and the original 9GB SCSI), along with a CD burner and internal Zip drive. I'd have maxed RAM too, if more of those damn 256MB RAM sticks I snagged would be properly recognized! Still, 896MB is pretty darn good.

She's been a steady beast since the day I snagged her off eBay. Gets on the net through a wireless game adapter, and handles pretty much everything I can throw at her. Still running 10.3.9 though since I don't have a spare DVD drive or a set of Tiger CDs to use on her. She also boots into OS 9 when needed. Kinda stuck at the moment since the original keyboard finally wore out, costing me that third USB port, but hanging in with a classic ADB keyboard for now.

She's still kicking after nearly 10 years, though I know there are a few more upgrades in her future, as soon as money isn't so tight. God willing, she'll have 10 more.

 

[LCGuy]

can't boot from ordinary DVD drives.

Really? I've booted my iMac (tray loader) off a couple of DVD drives...if a lowly iMac 333 that was never intended for use with such flash hardware can do it, I can't see why a B&W wouldn't...its just ATAPI, after all...

 

[bluekatt]

I've actually used Vista on a PIII Celeron, 800MHz with 512mb of memory.
The easiest way to describe it is that it can happen, but that it's maybe not the most pleasant thing ever.

With a video card that had drivers to take it above 640x480, it would be fine. (As fine as Leopard can be on a G4 of similar specs, anyway.)

i ran vista ( briefly) on my p3 xeon 1266 mhz with 512 mb ram and a 512 mb vid card

it ran rather well ( the video card most likley helped a lot ) but i got rid of vista after a few hour i just cant stand it thinsg are chanched not because it makes sense or to make it easier but just for the sake of chance