Snow iMac vs PowerMac 7300 G4

[jkoci]

Picked up from my brother in law who just upgraded to a new iMac. Unsure if I'll keep it. I may use it to replace my Power Mac 7300 which has a G4 400mhz sonnet in it. The iMac is a 600mhz with 256mb of ram, a CDRW, and a 40gb hard drive. The 7300 has 448mb ram, two 7200 rpm 9gb hard drives, a USB card, a 16x CD, and a 32mb PCI video card. The 7300 can run a laserwriter and Apple scanner I have as well. Suggestions? One needs to go.

 

[Mike Richardson]

The iMac wins everything except for not being able to run the LaserWriter and the scanner and the RAM. Get a cheap RAM upgrade and a FireWire to SCSI. If the LaserWriter has Ethernet switch to that or use AppleTalk to Ethernet bridge. You can part the 7300 out a bit to pay for the extra stuff, that sonnet G4 will sell for example.

Even though the 7300 has a G4, the iMac's bus is twice as fast and the CPU is 50% faster, it will beat out the G4 in all real world performance.

 

[macgreg]

I'd keep both but seeing you can't I would keep the 7300. What other Macs do you have? Can any of them use the scanner and laserwriter?

Edit: just saw your sig - the PowerBook Wallstreet should handle both the scanner and laserwriter?

 

[MacDan]

Very nice. I've been after one of those Snows for a while with no luck. Have fun!

 

[slimac55]

I don't know much about Power Mac 7300s but I would personally take the iMac just simply because I like the iMac G3s.

 

[Strimkind]

Why not the grape iMac or the 400 DV instead of the snow iMac. The snow is a nice machine and so is your 7300. See if you can find a way to keep both.

 

[Mike Richardson]

Does the world end if you keep both?

If dropping another iMac is viable then drop the 400 DV. Keep the 266 so you have a tray loader. The only iMacs I'm keeping in my personal collection right now are a Bondi Blue 233 MHz Rev A (the first) and a Snow 600 MHz (almost the last). If I come across a 700 MHz (the last) then I'll sell the Snow.

 

[bluekatt]

i wouldnt mind getting my hands on a snow imac if only to compliment the rest of my i machines

all my main macs are white

( ibook imac G5 intel imac emac )

the only ones misisng from that line up are a snow imac and a imac G4

 

[jkoci]

Why not the grape iMac or the 400 DV instead of the snow iMac. The snow is a nice machine and so is your 7300. See if you can find a way to keep both.

The DV is a keeper as a DVD player. The Grape is a possibility though. I hesitate because it is complete with the original software CDs.

 

[jkoci]

Does the world end if you keep both?

Very tempting. I would be breaking a self imposed rule of not going overboard with the number of Macs I have around though.

 

[z180]

The 7200/7500/7600/7300 are very capable machines.

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, just look on resale.headgap.com. They heavily upgrade those machines and name them...

 

[stevep]

Does the world end if you keep both?

Very tempting. I would be breaking a self imposed rule of not going overboard with the number of Macs I have around though.

As the old saying goes - rules were made to be broken. As long as you go easy on your punishment then no problem

 

[Morrick]

I'd keep the Snow iMac. You can have the 7300 if you like. [] ]'>

Cheers

Rick

 

[Bunsen]

The iMac wins everything

IMHO, it's not as clear-cut as all that. For starters, the G4 CPU wins at OS X; OTOH you have to use XPostFacto to even install it. The G3 cache in the iMacs is smaller than that in a desktop/tower G3, or in a G4 upgrade - this affects performance, under any OS.

The 7300 can also take faster PCI video cards, and whatever other PCI upgrades take your fancy. Admittedly, adding Firewire and USB takes at least one of your available 3 slots, if you need to match the iMac in terms of those ports.

 

[jkoci]

IMHO, it's not as clear-cut as all that.

That's the way it seems to me too. Both machines have advantages and disadvantages. It will be a tough choice.

 

[Unknown_K]

Keep the 7300 with printer and scanner you have now. I asume the setup does what you need it to do, so why change.

I don't think those Imacs are very reliable. Sure it might be faster but you would have to get a new printer and scanner and that would cost you money (or time looking on freecycle).

If you are going to replace all the old stuff you might as well get a much newer machine to go with it or don't bother.

 

[jkoci]

Keep the 7300 with printer and scanner you have now. I asume the setup does what you need it to do, so why change.

That is they way I'm leaning now. The 7300 is used for word processing and some graphics using the scanner. It is actually quite fast suing OS 9.1. Another point is that the 7300 is easy to get into. The form factor is great. If the monitor ever goes I can easily get another unlike an iMac.

 

[Unknown_K]

My main machine (other then getting a slightly bigger HD and more RAM) is pretty much the same as it was when I put it together new in 2001 (ancient). I keep looking at new tech thinking about getting a new machine, but outside of getting into new games (Starcraft 2 looks promising when it comes out) I just don't need one. Going retro gaming pretty much removed the need to upgrade my main machine every 2 years like I used to. Just about anything made in the last 5+ years will do web, irc, youtube, and office work. Sure a new system will rip DVDs faster but I download and burn them to DVDr to play on a real DVD player, not archive them and play them on a smaller PC monitor.

You might want to get a nice cheap/free B&W. Easy enough to put in a cheap SCSI card for all the old SCSI gear, takes cheap SDRAM and discarded IDE drives, plus it still has ADB plus USB and Firewire.

If you stay behind the bleeding edge long enough you get all the "obsolete" stuff for next to nothing or free even as others upgrade. Who uses SCSI, firewire, or IDE anymore, people junked all that working and useful gear for SATA and USB. If you like classic mac OS 7/8/9 you can find plenty of people tossing their pro apps out because they need OSX versions. Granted the new versions probably have some added functionality but for casual users you will never need it.