Shell-swapped iMac G3?

[oneboyarmy]

I was the only bidder on a recent eBay auction for a Flower Power iMac G3. I got a push notification that the auction was ending in 15 minutes and still had no bids. The listing didn't go into a ton of detail about the specs on the machine, but it looked great in the photos and the seller has great feedback. I didn't think I'd win, but here we are!

It arrived Saturday morning and by evening I got it unboxed, powered up and decided to see what my lucky bid got me. To start, it felt like opening a time capsule. It looks like it was powered off for the last 10 years, with the last few documents being modified in January of 2005. 

I opened System Profiler and started looking around... and it's running OS 9.0.4, has 128MB of RAM and 8MB Rage Pro video, a DVD-ROM drive and a 30GB hard drive. Definitely wasn't right on the specs for a Flower Power. Booting into Open Firmware advised me it was a PowerMac2,2. A quick peek in MacTracker and a Google search later confirmed my suspicion, this was not exactly the iMac I was looking for. Bummer. Is the slightly lesser CPU (750 versus 750cx) and lesser graphics really going to ruin my whole world? Probably not. I'm still very happy with it now that my mystery is over!

The firmware is still on a 3.x version and will need to be updated along with setting up a clean OS. I threw in the soundtrack CD from The Fellowship of the Ring to test the optical drive and was really impressed by how good the audio quality is. I'd never used a G3 series iMac for more than a few minutes back when they were new so I had no idea what to expect.

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

Yeah, the speakers are very impressive. Same with the Pro speakers of that era.

 

[Schmoburger]

I'm impressed tha you have gotten hold of an iMac without disintegrated factory speakers tbh... that is worth it's weight in gold right there.

If you can find a junk 600MHz Snow or Graphite machine this will have the 750cx and the 16Mb graphics set also... still not quite the 700Mhz of the flower power but most of the way there, and at a guess probably easier to find than the last 700MHz iMac G3's.

I had a couple spare but I only know where one currently is (as it is a meter away lol). If I can find the others I had I will offer it to you for your endeavours for not a whole lot of coin.

Anyway, enjoy it regardless!

 

[oneboyarmy]

Yeah, the speakers are very impressive. Same with the Pro speakers of that era.

I love the Pro speakers. I remember my friends getting an iMac G4 in college and how amazed I was by the sound quality. I still kick myself for not buying one of the Griffin iFire adapters so I could use a set with my iBook. 

 

[oneboyarmy]

I'm impressed tha you have gotten hold of an iMac without disintegrated factory speakers tbh... that is worth it's weight in gold right there.

If you can find a junk 600MHz Snow or Graphite machine this will have the 750cx and the 16Mb graphics set also... still not quite the 700Mhz of the flower power but most of the way there, and at a guess probably easier to find than the last 700MHz iMac G3's.

I had a couple spare but I only know where one currently is (as it is a meter away lol). If I can find the others I had I will offer it to you for your endeavours for not a whole lot of coin.

Anyway, enjoy it regardless!

I've heard the stories about them but totally forgot! I'm definitely feeling more and more pleased about this purchase. I was extremely glad to get a case that was intact and not cracked or falling apart in some way. I peeked around for a 600MHz logic board but I'm not going to go too crazy just yet. I would certainly be interested in bumping it up if the right parts came around. I have a white 600MHz iBook (8MB graphics there as well) so it would be nice to have the iMac surpass that. 

 

[MrMacintosh]

If I recall correctly, those iMac logic boards were re-designed slightly at a certain point. The CPU is in a different location, and the heatsink built into the machine won't match up properly. I believe it was switching from Motorola to IBM CPUs or something similar.

I could be a little bit off here, so feel free to correct me.

 

[Schmoburger]

If I recall correctly, those iMac logic boards were re-designed slightly at a certain point. The CPU is in a different location, and the heatsink built into the machine won't match up properly. I believe it was switching from Motorola to IBM CPUs or something similar.

I could be a little bit off here, so feel free to correct me.

I beleive it was at the 500MHz point from what I recall of various machines I have had apart that the CPU position changed so 350/400/450 chassis and 500/600/700 chassis differ.

 

[XBHS1997]

Good purchase! I'll open my Flower Power and replace the inner plastic "frame" (around the CRT) as it is broken, I also got it for a reasonable price. The case is not perfect though, but acceptable.

 

[Byrd]

I can confirm the older iMac motherboards do not line up with the shielding and heatsink placement on the last 750cx G3 iMacs - suggesting your FP iMac is indeed a shell swap, but not the internal parts/skeleton.

 

[CC_333]

So, does this mean that if I wanted to, say, upgrade my Tangerine Slot Loader from its stock 400 MHz board to a late model 700 MHz one, I'd have to swap some kind of internal parts as well? How easy is this? Would I have to replace all the innards of the machine (save for maybe the CRT) additionally to the logic board?

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