Like brand new condition (Beige) Power Macintosh G3!

[jdmoser]

I picked up this beauty for only $20 back on Sunday: http://i.imgur.com/BdubkMc.jpg

I got it from the original owner, even got the original receipt. It was purchased in 1998 for nearly $4000 (the tower, including monitor and other accessories). With it I also got the original software packages, an AppleDesign Keyboard, and an ADB Mouse II.

Here it is running Mac OS 9: http://i.imgur.com/9e1oCBC.jpg

...in gorgeous 1080p: http://i.imgur.com/pe9xhKI.jpg

It only came with onboard video, which doesn't even support 1024x768 in millions of colors (just 1024x768 in thousands), so I threw in a spare ATI Rage card I had lying around. Does 1080p with millions of colors like it was meant to or something... seriously, for a 15 year old computer with only 192 MB of RAM, I think this is pretty badass. I even threw a full 1080p wallpaper on the desktop (not pictured) and the computer doesn't even hiccup. Now that's a Macintosh

It's by no means my oldest Mac, or my newest. But I'm very happy to have it. For those of you who have this machine too, what do you like to do with it?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Very nice . . . one day!

 

[bibilit]

For those of you who have this machine too, what do you like to do with it?

Yes i have got one as well (used to have two, one was sold) mine has Mac OS 9 and 10.3 working fine (Xpostfacto) with the on-board video card.

Was lucky to get it with max Ram.

And yes pretty usable, mostly used to get some software and then copied to floppies.

 

[jdmoser]

And yes pretty usable, mostly used to get some software and then copied to floppies.

Mmhmm! That's what I've also been finding it very useful for. I've got a few compact Macs, so it's nice to be able to download software and be able to throw it on a floppy all on the same machine for use on those computers.

I've been making do with a USB floppy drive until now, which worked fine enough except for writing images. And classic Mac OS files don't always transfer intact...

 

[bibilit]

I am lucky also, as the one i kept is the last 366 Mhz variant.

The beige is also easily upgradable (Zif and Overclocking) and will accept SCSI and ATA disks.

 

[Classic Mac]

Nice, I believe this is one of two models that was shipped running OSx and lacks the usb like found in the blue/white. A bridge computer. The other was a wallstreet I think.

 

[ianj]

...in gorgeous 1080p: http://i.imgur.com/pe9xhKI.jpg

 

[Cory5412]

Incidentally, I don't remember the beige G3 shipping with Mac OS X on it. The first blue/whites didn't even ship with Mac OS X.

The Beige G3 is interesting as a transition machine, which it pretty much is. It's got fewer capabilities and less expansion than its predecessor but it's not as capable or quite as expandable as its successor. (ram speed can ultimately have an affect, and firewire on the blue/white was a nice touch.)

Certainly a nice machine, but even for 1999, 1920x1200 isn't particularly surprising. SGI/Sun and Sony were shipping CRTs capable of that res (and higher) in like 1996/1997, and Macs have pretty much always had access to those cards.

It's certainly in nice condition though. It may be worth getting it a dedicated monitor, 1080p is certainly a lot of working room for system 8/9 era applications such as AppleWorks 5, QuarkXPress 4, and Office 98.

 

[Gorgonops]

Incidentally, I don't remember the beige G3 shipping with Mac OS X on it. The first blue/whites didn't even ship with Mac OS X.

"Public Beta" didn't even come out until September 13th, 2000. No Beige machine ever shipped with OS X of any flavor. (The one possible grey area is that weird Rhapsody-based version of "OS X Server" that came out in March 1999; technically the Beige was discontinued a couple months earlier but it's "possible" that some dealers were preloading Server on leftover stock? Maybe? But yeah, no.)

I've never felt much love for any of the machines based on the chipset used in the Beige G3 that I've touched. (This includes the Beige itself, the tray loading iMacs, and the B&W. The Wallstreet/Lombard Powerbooks and early "Toilet Seat" iBooks are also based on the same tech.) They might be okay running OS 9, but with OS X they're all "finicky", and and the hardware itself seems unaccountably glitchy. (Really picky about RAM, PCI card incompatibilities, etc.) Even under the "classic" OS I'd swear the Beige is less reliable than a similar, say, 7600.

 

[NJRoadfan]

I never had a problem running 10.4 on a beige G3. It takes standard PC66 SDRAM and has no problems running PC100 or PC133 modules. If you want to max out the RAM to 768MB, you need double sided 256MB modules, the same required for Intel 440BX motherboards. I think its chipset configuration was unique as the B&W had a 100Mhz memory bus and a newer system I/O chip. The machine was bizarre because it was old world, but officially supported MacOS X up to 10.2. In terms of PCI cards, I have found that the earlier pre-G3 PCI machines tended to have a lot of timing problems since they had a weird bus divider (50Mhz memory bus to 33Mhz PCI). The beige G3 has a standard 1/2 divider.

The Wallstreet G3 always seemed wonky... period. That machine did weird stuff with the PMU, particularly when the PRAM battery went bad.

 

[Gorgonops]

I think its chipset configuration was unique as the B&W had a 100Mhz memory bus and a newer system I/O chip. The machine was bizarre because it was old world, but officially supported MacOS X up to 10.2.

I guess I was lumping everything that used the MPC106 (aka "Grackle") in one of its various forms together. In any case, maybe it's bad karma but I've had *terrible* luck with DIMM compatibility with all of those machines. SDRAM DIMMs that worked flawlessly *for years* in some rotgut Pentium II/III (usually with a 440BX-based motherboard) running 24/7 as a server almost inevitably gave my B&W heartburn, and I had similar luck with SO-DIMMs in the iMac. (These were DIMMs with the correct configuration that were detected as full size, they simply didn't work properly and caused kernel panics, hard disk corruption, etc. Oddly DIMMs from similar vintage Dell machines almost always work, perhaps they coincidentally settled on the Apple-specific settings as the corporate standard.) The word-of-mouth I've gotten from the Beige G3 owners I've known generally corroborates the impression of these things being "picky" but your mileage undoubtedly may vary.

In terms of PCI cards, I have found that the earlier pre-G3 PCI machines tended to have a lot of timing problems since they had a weird bus divider (50Mhz memory bus to 33Mhz PCI). The beige G3 has a standard 1/2 divider.

This is another area where I've just had terrible luck with the B&W at least. So far I haven't had an issue with video cards but with both network and USB cards that machine has been *way* more picky than a Quicksilver G4. (As in "pull the card that works fine in the G4 out of the G4, plug it into the G3, it causes pain and agony. Works fine again once it's back in the G4.") Again, undoubtedly a "mileage may vary" thing.

The Wallstreet G3 always seemed wonky... period. That machine did weird stuff with the PMU, particularly when the PRAM battery went bad.

The B&W and to a lesser extent the Beige both have a rep for entering strange coma-like states that magically resolve themselves if you, I dunno, unplug them overnight or sacrifice a chicken somewhere in the vicinity. (No to mention actual hardware failures that are common, like voltage regulators in the Beiges and the Firewire module in the B&W.)

All of those machines are picky about IDE drives as well. In both the B&W and the iMac I've encountered multiple cases of drives being recognized well enough to let you install an OS only to find it unbootable when finished. (It's such a joy to be greeted by the screen-filling Ghostbusters-logo-sans-ghost on the B&W when that happens.) Swap in a different brand or model of drive, works fine.

(OS X seems to be a factor here; sometimes the "bad" drives work fine with 9.)

 

[waynestewart]

I was running a 266 mhz Beige G3 when OSX came out. OSX felt horribly slow compared to OS9. I wasn’t too happy with the way OSX ran but realized that after what Apple paid for it that that it wasn’t going away. So I bought a 333mhz G3 ZIF which I soon overclocked and a faster HD. After that OSX only felt only mildly sluggish. Of course it made OS9 feel great.

I always liked the beige G3. Been meaning to rewire an AIO so I can use a PCI video card with the built-in display and throw in a bunch of upgrades

 

[LCGuy]

Ahh, the Beige G3. Mine's somewhat decked out (max RAM, Sonnet Tempo SATA with 500GB drive, SuperDrive), but I've given up trying to get it to run OS X. I've tried 10.2, 10.3, 10.4....it just doesn't want to know about it. Nice machine, but really, they're much, much happier on OS 9.

 

[jdmoser]

Nice machine, but really, they're much, much happier on OS 9.

And that's definitely what I appreciate the older Macs for.

The first time I ever used OS X was on a B&W back in 2006. Got a new MacBook in 2007, and this year I grabbed a Mac Mini. So I never particularly feel the need to experiment with OS X on older machines. For all its differences and flaws, classic Mac OS is what I think makes playing with classic Macs the most enjoyable. And classic Mac OS is certainly what all those Macs were built for running.

 

[bibilit]

but I've given up trying to get it to run OS X. I've tried 10.2, 10.3, 10.4....it just doesn't want to know about it.

Weird, mine is running happily 10.3, while at the same time my B&W is sluggishly running the same OS :-/