As the world upgrades...

[iMac600]

...i'm considering a downgrade! My name will really be valid again as I start searching for iMac G3's. Fact is I miss the little G3 and i've started to notice that it's outperforming my G4 in most tasks, except maybe photoshop, but even then it's running about the same as the G4 does now.

It won't be my old iMac though unfortunately. My brother now owns the machine and the only chance I have in getting my old machine back is if I find a 600mhz Indigo model (his favourite colour), but i'll hunt around and see what I can find. The G4 will not be up for sale and will most likely remain on my desk, but most likely as a server or something.

Extra equipment is already lined up... 512mb RAM in 2 SDRAM cards, 160gb HDD, Airport card and Adaptor, External DVD-RW and Internal CD-RW. So I can easily transition back into an AIO iMac at any time.

Only downfall will be the 1024x768 resolution limit.

Let the comments begin!

 

[MacMan]

The good thing is that G3 iMacs and PowerMacs are easy to come by these days and very cheap as everyone seems to be getting rid of them. My parents use a 400MHz indigo iMac which I heavily upgraded to 576MB RAM and an 80GB hard drive, and it really flies! The only downfall I find is the screen size, 15" @ 1024x768 is a little pokey by today's standards.

 

[steve30]

Sounds good.

I love iMac G3s. I'd get one if I had the space.

 

[david63]

My main machine is a G4 400MHz which does fine. Although I do like the G3 IMacs but on ebay they seem to be a lot more expensive than the basic level G4's, which I would think by virtue of the G4 processor are generally faster.But for general internet browsing and word processing type apps is this difference noticable?

 

[MacTCP]

I liked my iMac G3 when I had one. Sadly, the motherboard died. I always liked the Flower Power color the most. Someday I'll get one.

 

[Orion]

My 1.25ghz emac would smoke any of the G3 iMacs.

I have a 450mhz slot loader and a 333mhz tray loader and I can't stand using either because of the slowness with OS X. Actually, the 333mhz one seems faster at times than the 450 even with less RAM. No idea why though.

 

[iMac600]

Well i'm having some issues locating such a machine. eBay has one for $160... a bit far out of my price range considering my older one (350) was only $25.

For the record, my G3/600 smoked the G4 in performance tests. OS X was more responsive, apps ran well and without issue. The only real performance advantage the G4 has is under video (QuickTime and iMovie) and under Photoshop. Even then the difference in Photoshop and QuickTime isn't major.

The 1024x768 limit is a real downfall, but I could easily live with it. Like I said, if I need to do a high resolution task, i'm keeping the G4 around.

 

[LCGuy]

The iMac G3s are fantastic machines if you can learn to live within their limitations. I'm on my tray load iMac 333 right now and even though its nearly 10 years old, its still a great machine. And whats neat about the tray loaders is that if you disconnect the internal display (tray loaders use a standard DB-15 Mac video connection, which can be accessed by removing the bottom panel with the Apple logo) and connect any multisync Apple display, or any SVGA display with an SVGA adaptor, the iMac can actually drive a monitor at any res up to 1600x1200, provided you have the VRAM maxed out.

 

[Bunsen]

And if you strip it right down to the motherboard, it's a little square thing a little larger than a MiniITX or a Cube logic. As well, with the 233MHz tray loaders, you can relatively easily add a floppy drive, serial and ADB, and drop in a 333Mhz CPU module.

 

[LCGuy]

233's already have serial...thats what the IrDA board uses. Take the ass off it, disconnect the IrDA cable, and plug in any serial device, and theoretically you should be good to go.

Another thing i'd like to try one day would be to try the opposite...use an iMac IrDA board on a different Mac.... [}] ]'>

 

[Cory5412]

I now feel compelled to find an iMac233, just for the potential to use Serial and ADB with it. I've got a usb floppy drive so that one's not of utmost importance at the moment.

The upgrade cycle of the world is always a bit of an interesting topic.

My thought has always been that when you stop needing more power, or needing access to newer versions of software or the most modern websites, you can stop upgrading your computer. Unfortunately it is difficult to stay too far behind as a university student, but I've met (and am sometimes envious of) plenty of people who do just fine with some quite old machines.

 

[MacMan]

... it is difficult to stay too far behind as a university student, but I've met (and am sometimes envious of) plenty of people who do just fine with some quite old machines.

I've been doing just fine with my 466MHz G4 DA at Uni. Seven years old and still going strong! For most of first year I used a 400MHz G3 which did the job and the only reason I upgraded to the G4 was because it was cheap.

 

[equill]

My main machine is Indigo-1 500 (2001) CRT with Tiger. Next to it is Indigo-2 iMac 500 (2002) CRT with Panther. Behind me in the sound rack is a Snow 500 (2000) CRT with Jaguar. Below that are a Graphite 400 (Panther) and another Snow 500 (Panther), just 'resting' on mains power. All have their rear feet elevated to assist convective cooling. Their production years attest their ages. I recently switched their HDDs and uses around, but I should have made Indigo-2 the main, because its video (China) is brighter and sharper than that of Indigo-1 (Czech) or the Snows (Korea). All were new (Snow) or near-new when I got them. They have from 640 to 1024MB of RAM each, and I can safely bid in the last 10sec of eBay auctions using the Tiger iMac. I have no grizzles about the speed of iMacs.

That said, I record that a Seagate 40GB 10k rpm HDD in Indigo-1 lasted only two months before dying, I presume, of heat failure. The Snow 30GB 5400rpm HDDs are nearly seven years old. I use Office 2004 constantly on Indigo-1 in my work as a technical writer/editor. There is not enough screen real-estate to accommodate toolbars and enough of each page on iMacs. My wife's 1GHz 80GB eMac is much superior for the purpose, and its display is excellently clear. Given those reservations, enjoy your next iMac.

de

 

[Pinstripes]

The G3 has always been my favorite chip [^]

 

[Bunsen]

Another thing i'd like to try one day would be to try the opposite...use an iMac IrDA board on a different Mac.... [}] ]'>

Hey now, that's a thought.... perhaps on a Beige/Taco

 

[Scott Baret]

Talk about downgrading...

Last year I began the first semester with an iBook G4 and an iBook G3 as my two main computers. One for OS X stuff and the other for OS 9. Towards the end I swapped out the iBook G4 for a Mac Plus, relegating the iBook G4 to the "use as a laptop around the house" role--I still use it almost daily but it's no longer on a desk.

The result? Increased productivity. The one-two punch of MacWrite Pro and MacDraw II was enough to take care of all of my work. If I need a spreadsheet, I use Claris Resolve. I also have the original MacPaint, Kid Pix, and Print Shop on there for other things. To add pizzazz to my work, I used Cliff Joyce's WetPaint utility, ArtRoundUp (the utility alone justifies the purchase of WetPaint--I own two volumes, one of which is on physical floppies and the other from the old Software Unboxed deal they used to run). I also have HyperCard and for my breaktime, I got all of Cliff Johnson's games (3 in Three, At the Carnival, and Fool's Errand) plus some classics like Klondike, Cairo Shoot Out, Battle Chess, and Shufflepuck.

I use System 6 with Multifinder and some additions--SuperClock, Backdrop, TrueType, and Bomb Shelter to name a few. That way I can run both MacWrite Pro and MacDraw II and have room to spare for something else--MacPaint, maybe Print Shop or CDT Remote (I have a CD-ROM on the Plus and use this part of CD-ROM Toolkit to play my CDs).

I'm going to try DeskPaint this semester. I've had it forever, it came with my copy of Cool Mac Clip Art Plus. It's a little DA that reminds me of MacPaint 2.0 but can read more formats. It should be a good convenience to couple with ArtRoundUp for my WetPaint.

The reason productivity went up? No distractions! No Myspace, Facebook, fantasy sports, Wikipedia, AIM, forums, or...68KMLA. (Don't get me wrong, I love it here, but when you have a term paper to write and you come across 68KMLA and answer some Mac Classic analog board question instead...well, any of you who have been through it know the deal). The 4MB of RAM, as I said earlier, is enough to run the programs I need. I will purposely open them all so I CAN'T open a game--and I keep my games to a minimum, as I said earlier.

The programs are actually powerful enough for anything I need them to do. MacWrite Pro is more than capable--no need to even think about Word. MacDraw II has been one of my favorite programs since 1991. I like the graphics in Claris Resolve so much that I don't bother with Excel. Did I mention the manuals for these programs are excellent as well? You don't find that on a modern computer.

(I used to have the little Claris Resolve cheat sheet next to my computer at all times when I started to use it back in 1995...shame they don't make those for iWork)

 

[MacMan]

I know what you mean about greater levels of productivity on older Macs. RetroChallenge last month was brilliant because I very quickly found myself doing things other than playing around on the computer. My internet connection was from my Quadra 700 and was very limited compared to an OS X machine. When I'm at uni I tend to use my Mac Classic or SE/30 for wirting up reports and analysing data mainly because I find them much easier to use and they feel faster than a modern machine.

 

[bluekatt]

il stick with my imac G5 thank you very much

though recently i go tmy claws on a dual G4 800 mhz quicksilver

not exactly lowend but not exactly brand new either

 

[iMac600]

A new advantage to the iMac G3 is that I can boot Mac OS 9 on it, because when I put the HD in the G4, I forgot to partition it. So with OS 9 on the drive, it still won't appear in the bootloader.

Having OS 9 will allow me to run VPC5 and finally, Rollercoaster Tycoon.