I just got an iMac G3 Bondi Blue trayloader. It's a 233MHz processor and 23MB of RAM on OS 9. I saw on everymac that I could put 256MB of RAM in there but I was wondering what are some other upgrades that I could/should do? Is there any way to upgrade the processor? I read about replacing the daugherboard but I can't seem to find any for sale anywhere. This is also my first old Mac, so feel free to give me some basic tips for taking good care of it.
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iMac G3 233MHz trayloader upgrades?
- Thread starter HardZero
- Start date
There are some upgrade cards but they're hard to find. You can also do some part swaps.
https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/26786-fst-almost-ultimate-rev-a-imac-upgrade-kit-parts/
https://68kmla.org/forums/index.php?/topic/26786-fst-almost-ultimate-rev-a-imac-upgrade-kit-parts/
You can take that up to a 333MHz CPU by swapping in one from a later iMac. That's the max though, the later / faster ones aren't compatible.
I think they can take up to 512MB of RAM as well, but you need to find the right RAM sticks for that, and they're a trifle more expensive. Single banked is the word IIRC. Honestly though if you're running OS 9 or 8.x, 256MB is plenty.
I think they can take up to 512MB of RAM as well, but you need to find the right RAM sticks for that, and they're a trifle more expensive. Single banked is the word IIRC. Honestly though if you're running OS 9 or 8.x, 256MB is plenty.
Yes, any Rev A–Rev D accepts 512 Mio memory, two "low density" modules each 256 Mio. Just a few years ago, there were plenty of processor cards for little money in fleeceBay. They must have been pulls from the tens of thousands of iMacs headed to death/disposal.
My main computer for many years was a slot loading iMac motherboard I built in to a Tonka truck. It can handle 512 megs, drives up to 128 gigs without extra software and up to 2 TB with Intech's ATA Hi-Cap software:
http://www.speedtools.com/STATA.html
You can use XPostFacto to keep the base OS in the first 8 gigs for booting, then boot in to a partition that's the rest of the 128 gigs, then have /Users be the rest of the drive above 128 gigs because files there aren't necessary until the OS has booted enough to load the ATA Hi-Cap driver.
For accelerators, some people sold Apple cards with a G4 swapped in place of the G3. I had one of those, but it wouldn't see all 512 megs properly (worked fine with 256 megs). But I also have a Sonnet HARMONi G3 accelerator with a 600 MHz G3 and Firewire:
http://www.welovemacs.com/hag3up.html
Note that by default this machine can only run up to 10.3, but I'm running Tiger thanks to XPostFacto. I still use it regularly, since I can run Mac Classic software on it, it has a 2 TB drive and has more than a terabyte of movies on it, and it has a serial port in place of the modem so I can print to an ImageWriter II. It even shares the ImageWriter over the network
http://www.speedtools.com/STATA.html
You can use XPostFacto to keep the base OS in the first 8 gigs for booting, then boot in to a partition that's the rest of the 128 gigs, then have /Users be the rest of the drive above 128 gigs because files there aren't necessary until the OS has booted enough to load the ATA Hi-Cap driver.
For accelerators, some people sold Apple cards with a G4 swapped in place of the G3. I had one of those, but it wouldn't see all 512 megs properly (worked fine with 256 megs). But I also have a Sonnet HARMONi G3 accelerator with a 600 MHz G3 and Firewire:
http://www.welovemacs.com/hag3up.html
Note that by default this machine can only run up to 10.3, but I'm running Tiger thanks to XPostFacto. I still use it regularly, since I can run Mac Classic software on it, it has a 2 TB drive and has more than a terabyte of movies on it, and it has a serial port in place of the modem so I can print to an ImageWriter II. It even shares the ImageWriter over the network
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