Got a great deal on a B&W G3, looking into upgrades

[EvieSigma]

I didn't win the original B&W G3 auction I was trying to win, but I did win the other one I was bidding on, and so I got a working B&W G3 with ZIP drive running OS 9.2.2 for $100. However, I'm already thinking about upgrades...apparently the RAM has already been upgraded to 1GB, but the hard drive is still the stock 6GB Quantum and the processor is likely the 350MHz variety. So my main upgrade concerns are as follows:

*CPU (I'd like to put a 450MHz G3 processor in there if it's not so equipped, are processor upgrades easy to come by or hard to find and expensive?)

*Hard drive (I have a WD Caviar 40GB IDE drive from my old 2004 Dell that died that I'd like to use, would it be new enough to cause problems if I have a Rev. 1 G3?)

*Expansion cards (what's recommended? Should I try and get a different video card? Should I get a sound card? Would I benefit from any SCSI or SATA cards?)

I appreciate any helpful advice you're willing to provide! 

 

[Byrd]

Hi,

CPU: Overclock the 350 and you'll get 400Mhz, and possibly 450Mhz if a good part.  CPU upgrades are rare, but keep searching on eBay.

Hard Drive: Go for the newest drive you have for reliability/better performance/less noise; the issue with the Revision 1 G3 is possible data corruption for devices on the same master/slave cable.  Personally I never experienced it, and used various 80 - 120GB drives in a Rev 1 without concern.

Expansion: Radeon 9200 Mac Edition is the best PCI video card, but if you like gaming perhaps check out a Voodoo 2/3 card; SATA card to run larger/faster HDs, USB 2.0 cards ...

JB

 

[Bunsen]

Note that any USB2 card will only run at USB1.1 speeds under OS 9.  In OS X you will get the full speed.

IIRC, that machine will take 1.5GB of RAM.  If you only intend to run OS 9, 1GB is plenty, but for OS X I would recommend maxing it out.

Any G3 or G4 ZIF socket CPU * will work in that model, whether it's an Apple OEM part or an "upgrade".  Note that you may need to update the firmware to install a G4 - search on xlr8yourmac.com for details.

* (ie, not one from a Sawtooth or later G4, nor from an iMac or Powerbook)

 

[EvieSigma]

I'm definitely considering upgrading the video card and a SATA card for using cheap modern hard drives, but I'll have to wait and see the processor specs.

Also, every source I can find says the G3 only took 1GB of RAM. I'm debating putting an early version of OSX on there, I'd like to have an OS 9 machine but OSX would be more modern and I could use the G3 for more productive tasks.

 

[Unknown_K]

1GB is the max (4 x 256MB SDRAM).

Finding a ZIF CPU greater then G3-350 will take some time and money, use what you have and see if you really need an upgrade.

I use Radeon Mac editions (before the started labeling them as 7000's), they have T&L onboard so will work with games if needed. You will need special ATI drivers under OS 9 and not what is included in the OS.

Both of my units are revision 2 so I don't have first hand experience with data corruption with newer drives on the rev 1 units. 3rd party mac ROM ATA/66 cards should be easy to find and cheap.

 

[EvieSigma]

I mostly want a 450 for OS X, but if I can't find one for a good price I might just stick with OS 9.

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

That machine will really thrive under Nine.

 

[EvieSigma]

I really wish the seller had included the processor speed as part of the description, because for all I know it's a 400 or 450 model! I mean, the original owner did spring for a ZIP drive, maybe he/she sprung for more.

 

[flashedbios2012]

Well did you receive it

 

[EvieSigma]

Yes I did, I've had it for a little bit now and it's all set up with OS 9.2.2.

 

[Cory5412]

I had a G3@450 running on a Yikes G4 (basically think of it as a Rev 3 G3) board. It was okay for Mac OS X 10.3, but 10.4 was not super great on it. (Although, I personally kind of dislike 10.4 in general.)

My advice is, as always, to figure out what you want this system to do, and/or what software you want to do with it.

Back when I had a blue-and-white, I used OS 9 on it a lot, because my personal experience with Classic Mode on my TiBook was bad. I sometimes booted into OS X on a slightly bigger/faster disk if I needed to do something long-term with an OS X app, even though it was slower than my G4, mostly to do long-running tasks. It had a bit more RAM than the TiBook too.

Today, 9.2.2 is probably one of the best choices for that machine. It's a powerful enough machine that there's no specific reason to run 8.5 or 8.6 on it instead of 9.2.2.

 

[EvieSigma]

Yeah, it has 9.2.2 on it now but I wonder if I can even do anything with it. I can install Classilla on it and it has Office 2001, but I don't know if it's modern enough to be used for occasional schoolwork.

 

[Johnnya101]

Finding a ZIF CPU greater then G3-350 will take some time and money, use what you have and see if you really need an upgrade.

AHHH I just sold a 450 MHZ zif on ebay a few weeks ago... for a G3...

 

[Johnnya101]

Yeah, it has 9.2.2 on it now but I wonder if I can even do anything with it. I can install Classilla on it and it has Office 2001, but I don't know if it's modern enough to be used for occasional schoolwork.

I have used 9.2.2 for modern tasks (And some school work). Your biggest concern is if you use google drive, you will not be able to use that. I think. Gmail loads though.

 

[EvieSigma]

Oh, I have a 5-port USB 2.0 card so I was just going to use flash drives. I'm concerned the Office 2001 for Mac documents won't load on Windows though.

 

[novusgordo]

It's the exact same file format as Office 2000 for Windows.

 

[EvieSigma]

Well that's good. I might need an older version of Office on my main PC but at least I'll be able to print stuff.

Still working on the processor and graphics card upgrade plans, but right now my funds are gonna be tied up with fixing my SE/30 and upgrading it.

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

Projects made in Office 97 and newer won't have any major compatibility issues with Office 2016. You might see a quirk or two, but your files won't be broken or anything. I move stuff from '98 to '16 and back again often enough. Just keep in mind that the font selection in 2016 is much greater than older versions. 

Excel may be more hairy if you use some of the fancier tools in '16 and try to go back to '97.

 

[senrew]

I very often use older versions of Office files. With very few exceptions, I do alright by just doing simple composing in the old versions and final formatting/styling on my modern machines.