What is Digg?130 Comments
- Threnody, on 10/12/2007, -3/+36On a personal note, I have a 350 Mhz G3 iMac in my living room. It's great for listening to internet radio or streaming iTunes, and company can use it when they come over. It's running Tiger and quite frankly I was shocked at how well it worked, although I did upgrade the RAM to 512 MB and got a 7200 RPM hard drive for it.
Friends have actually commented that it's better for web browsing than their two-year-old, malware-clogged PCs. Looks great too! - rjbme, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14I just bought a blue iMac DV+ that has the 450MHz G3 in it (~$115). It came with 0S 9 and 64 MB of RAM but I immediately updated it to 512 MB and OS 10.3.9. It sits in the guest room for company use and right now I utilize it as a backup destination (it has a 20 GB HDD) and sits there happily running Folding@Home when not being used. For surfing the web and checking email, it performs admirably. Firefox seems a bit quicker than Safari. I really like the older Macs as I also have a B&W G3 tower but it is not nearly as nice as the iMac. The iMac is just fun to have as I had the original iMac when I was in college.
- fudgebrown, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14I miss my Tangerine iMac, and my Sage iMac as well - those were great little machines - in retrospect, I would have kept them, and would have been fun to load Tiger on them...
- AhmedB, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15Ok, I'm an Apple fan here ..(just to get it out of the way)...but, I was listening to a podcast (The MacCast), and the host made a very valid point...He said 'with every release of Mac OS X, performance improves and the computer feels faster and snappier, as opposed to Windows, where every release makes the machine slower and needing upgrade'...that I completely believe in, it might also be just a cause of the underlying UNIX core, but still makes one OS much better than another...
- dickrichie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8the cool part is you can get a Mac Mini for 599 with intel inside but all Mac everywhere else.
- jamesb5, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Nice article.
My girlfriend's parents use the same exact model at their home (purple, 400 Mhz iMac dv) and it has suited them fine for Internet, music and email. - MoofTheStoof, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Welcome to the cult of mac. Longevity has always been one of our strong suits. The oldest in my stable is a Rev. B Bondi iMac (1998) - still works perfectly with 10.4.7 though I wouldn't do much more than browse/check email with it. My Cube (2000), on the other hand, is still a damn fine workstation. Of course, I've taken the trouble to max the RAM, add a 200GB HD, a Geforce3 card, and a 1GHz G4 CPU, but compared to current models, 1GHz G4 should be obsolete - it's not.
- Killgore, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Good article, and would always be nice to get the features of the mac os without having to shell out 1500+ for a new intel-mac (although that would be nice).
- Prod_Deity, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I plan to use my All-In-One PowerMac G3 whenever I'm able to get memory & a hard drive for it.
I agree with previous posts about "older" computers being great for company to use.
That way if something happens, you're not out a few hundred bucks. - darcasey, on 10/12/2007, -11/+17I'm running Tiger on a Dell right now
- DPowers08, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I have the original Bondi Blue iMac G3, tray-loading, though the CD drive doesn't work anymore. Other than that, it runs fine (OS 10.2.8). As others have said, its fine for web-browsing and listening to music.
- benjamincanfly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I have a Graphite iMac (I think it was called the DV SE or something along those lines - 400 mhz or so) set up next to my work machine. I LOVE running two machines at once, it is a whole new level of freedom. I can watch a DVD on the iMac, or simply run my "personal" processes it (IM, blog-reading, music streaming) to leave more processing power available on my work machine. It also makes it far easier to test web code as I debug it. I almost sold this thing, but now I'm glad I didn't.
- joeolivas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5These are great little computers. I went to the CA state surplus sale and picked up a 350mhz/64MB one for $50. I added another 256MB or RAM and now it runs Panther quite well, and is even better running Linux. It's quiet and produces very little heat. Unfortunately, after I moved, it's now sitting in a room in the land of misfit computers.
- horrortaxi, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9I love old Macs! A few years ago I bought my mom a pink 333mhz iMac to replace her Windows box (which was pissing her off--she got tired of dealing with antivirus and slow response times because her processor was being hogged up by stupid processes). She had that iMac through 10.2, 10.3, and 10.4 and it really just got faster and faster with each new OS. I was amazed. Eventually she learned to tweak her pictures in iPhoto and the speed of the computer started to frustrate her a little, so I got her a Mac Mini. Now I'm using the iMac in my classroom with 10.3.9 on it (because 10.3 is what we have a license for at work) and a couple dozen kids use it daily for word processing, web browsing, and a bunch of old educational games. Accounts with limited privileges keep the kids from messing up each other's stuff and hosing the whole computer. Nobody complains about speed or not being able to do what they want to do. It's 8 years old and it's still a great computer. Ask me about my beige G3's and I'll tell you a similar story. I've even got a capable old 7600 laying around (no OS X obviously). 120mhz--woo hoo.
- theendcrazyeye, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5tiger will bring any old mac back to life to make more than most PCs today are.
- aquax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I sold my sister's old 600MHz iMac G3 for her. Scored an amazing $200 only about a year ago.
Sometimes I wish I kept it, it was a nice little machine for secondary usage, but it was a bit too bulky. If I can find an iMac G4 Flat Panel series for under $400, I may nab it. Great for a kitchen machine :-) - arduenn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5By using my Bondi 233 Mhz iMac (384 MiB RAM, Panther 10.3.9) I can still conveniently browse the web and do some PHP programming. I guess the Bondi survived three and a half years of web serving thanks to the fan that came with it eight years ago. :-)
- celebi23, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I've got a Blueberry iMac DV 400MHz running Tiger on it. It's actually pretty fast. It has now become my 9 year old sister's computer. Mostly for AIM & Internet
- JamesBrown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I had a 333 Mhz blue iMac and a 450 Mhz G3 iMac that were both given to me. They make nice little web kiosks and jukeboxes. They're good little machines. I like how quiet they are compared to my monsterous tower PC with its many noisy fans. Unfortunatly they are absolutely useless for watching video on.
- starmanjones, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4this is funny. G3's work great. they are not remotely slow or irritating in anyway to use. the worst part is the 66 mhz bus. that is slightly noticable but not so much that its irritating. tiger runs great. i think that they work better every upgrade because apple is streamlining the code. i don't even bother turning off the GUI effects. honestly... they make even better servers. they are rock solid. i been telling this to people for a long time now.
- thinkdif, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4right now I'm using a G3 tower. the only modifications I have made is a new harddrive (replaced my 8 gig with a 120gig) and I've added a little ram (went from 128 to 256). I have never had any problems, I use it for at least 2 hours a day. I download tv shows via bittorrent, use itunes, surf the web, even do some basic video editing in iMovie. I bet no Dell users could say their pc's have held up as well for the last 8 years!
- SmeRndmGy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I did something similar with an old Pentium system I had laying around. Upgraded to a bigger hard drive and a 450MHz AMD processor, installed XP on it, and gave it to my mom to use for her VPN connection into work. It works fine for that. If you aren't doing anything processor intensive with the computer these older "obsolete" computers still work just fine. I even have an old 486 machine running windows 95 that runs faster than some people's XP boxes. It doesn't have an ethernet jack or any PCI slots so it can't go online, but it still works fine for things like word processing.
- basketcase, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I recently bought a iBook G3 toilet seat...i mean clamshell, with 366 MHz and upgraded it to 320 MB ram. I love it with OS X 10.3.9 and the battery still holds for over 2 hrs...better than my windows laptop. It boots in lest than a minute and runs so much faster than I expected. I want to get a couple more G3's and G4's to play with. The only time its a little slow is with streaming video, but when it comes to just sitting around and browsing the web, it could never be any better.
- macgabriel87, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4yeah i have a powerbook g3 300mhz that runs tiger + all updates. runs smooth, very usable with wireless internet. i love the machine for internet, chat, music, mail, and so much more.
- cmiz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I've got a 500Mhz iMac G3 with 640MB ram running Tiger. It's a bit slow at times, but for surfing the web/checking email/word processing, it's fine. I also have a 450Mhz iMac with 312MB ram running Tiger also that I put a 120 gig hard drive in. I use it as a file/web/proxy server and the thing runs like a champ. I'll admit that it's a bit clunky for its abilities... but hey, why not?
- NatsuMatto, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5My GF game me her old college black (slate? Graphite?) iMac DV to play with, because she never used it. It had OS9 on it, but I scrounged a Panther disc from the school closets and was pretty impressed with what I got out of it... I never got around to buying extra RAM (I believe it had 256MB already), but I'm sure that would have made it even better.
I was a lifelong PC guy before that and was just learning the ins and outs of OS X when she moved, and I gave it back to her to use for email and word. Sigh. - wubrgamer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4One thing I love about this older hardware is that everyone knows how to use it with linux etc. I personally use ubuntu on a toshiba that I got for ~ $500 ish
Then again, this is just the same old stuff, old hardware is AMAZING for things like this and there is no denying that this kind of material is great for doing basic tasks. Really, I've got a 1.6 ghz system and I rarely use that much. - horrortaxi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4starmanjones, welcome to an internet forum. People often do things that don't make sense. Also, many people are flat out stupid. It's best to ignore these types and not question their rationale for doing anything. Just try to pretend they don't exist.
- Ugli, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4That's true, but good luck finding batteries that are still half-decent for one of these. I've got a 333MHz Bronze, and I went to the ends of the earth looking for decent used batteries (I'm not paying a hundred bucks for a new one). Of the five batteries I currently have, only one will hold more than 2 hours charge.
If you're willing and able to rebuild your own batteries, these things are great (although the 333 struggles a bit running Web 2.0 sites like Digg), but replacement parts for the G3 Powerbooks are getting kind of scarce, at least in these parts. - CJHtxGeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I use a first gen Powermac G4, latest tiger OS mainly as an accessory to my ipod, iTunes runs so much cleaner on macs.
- NerveBand, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I have the slot loading blue looking one from 1997. Right now it has 10.2.8 which I dislike so much because i need 10.4
- LeoFREYed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Our design department had an old 400MHz PowerMac they didn't want, while I maintain 100 Windows boxes, I still manage to use the Sawtooth and it's very remarkable for being seven years old. It really is great for Word, Firefox, and even the occasional need to Remote Desktop. It's interesting to compare it to a nearly 7 year old PC as it still packs quite a punch and has improved in speed from previous versions of OSX. However, with the availability of the MacMini and lower-priced Intel Macs (like the eMac replacement) older G3/G4's may not represent the long-life value they once did. Still, a great machine, and still quite modern.
- ryan7107, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3My wife's got one, an it runs tiger at a pretty decent clip. I was wonder though, does anyone know of a good super-light-weight dsl/puppy/vector type distro for PowerPCs?
- Cooperjones, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I have a 500mhz iMac G3, a 233mhz, 400mhz. The 500mhz iMac has a 120gb 7200 hd and 1 full gig of ram on Tiger. IT SCREAMS. The 233 is on Panther with a 80gig 7200hd. VERY fast. the 400mhz has 512mb on Panther also very very very fast stable, and cool. These are great machines.
- yeahbuddy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3G3 900 w/640 mb ram here. It runs better than my new Dell on most days. Great for surfing on the back porch or using if for recepies while cooking.
- starmanjones, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3ah... i tried to edit and add this but its become impossible. but i also have several beige early 90's macs with G3 upgrades. same story. they don't blaze, but they aren't irritating to use. make good servers. run linux great.
- SaintStryfe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Welcome to one of the other cool things about Macs: they hold value.
An 8 year old computer still selling for more then 100$? Try that with a Win 98 box. The monitor is usually worth more then the computer itself. Of course, the Win98 box probably could only boot XP if you gave it a running start of 30 minutes, while OS 10.2 or 10.3 (completely up-to-date OSes that run 90% of the market's products).
I have "Grade C" G4 tower I bought some time ago 450mhz, 256 RAM, 30 gig HD - the case is in bad shape (someone dropped it down a flight of stairs) but it booted fine, with an extra network card it became a very servicable router and firewall, it also can boot into OS 9 to run a program that will not work so well natively on my OSX-only boxes or my brother's Intel MacBook. And we can VNC into it if we so desire. - nick2354, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3i just installed panther on my friend B&W 450mhz g3. we upgraded to 578 of ram. it runs fine. they love it, they wanted to try it out before buying a real mac so to speak.
- 3Den, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Absolutely. I'd pick up a G3 ibook anytime... great box. Long battery life, plenty fast for everyday tasks.
- hwood, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3My kids use my 366 clam-shell for homework, web browsing (RuneScape) and music.
I also use it for a file/print server. - jerichobp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yeah, I use a G3 iBook as my principle laptop, since i don't really need to use laptops that often. I think it's a great machine when your only using it for word processing, internet browsing, and the occasional photoshop (v7), though I wouldnt try to game on it.
- firsttube, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I have a 400 MHz iMac DVSE Graphite that I bought in 1999, and it's been a wonderful machine. I upgraded it to OS X Panther and it ran very well with 192, and then 512 megs of ram. I then got tiger when it came out, and with 1 gig of ram and 10.4.7 it runs quite well. Dashboard, Exposé, Spotlight, let alone a browser, itunes, and iphoto all runring great on it. It really is amazing that the computer is as old as it is. Oh yeah, I guess it doesn't even have a fan in it either. Not a bad deal. How many other 7-8 year old computers run brand new software and modern OSes without a fan? None I know of. (it was designed without the need for a fan, i didn't take it out if that's what you're thinking)
- flipmeat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3If you want to do the HDV video, you will want at least a 1.5 Ghz G4 with loads of RAM, but it will go smoothly with a 1.5Ghz G5 or better. iMovie 5 and 6 supports HDV, as does Final Cut Express.
- Tux541, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I guess I have to throw my two cents in.
I have two old machines like this and both run great. My mom has my old G3 B&W 350mhz machine. It does have 512mb of RAM, a 60 gig HD, and is overclocked to 400mhz. She uses it everyday to check her e-mail, shop online, and use iPhoto. Works great for her needs.
I also have for my personal use a 400 Mhz G4 Yikes! Also with 512mb of RAM, overclocked to 450Mhz, a flashed Nvidia FX5200 (so I have core image support), running Tiger and Ubuntu Linux. Thing runs great, I sold my Athlon 1500 Linux box for this thing to use as my spare computer.
The point is that how many 350Mhz, 7 year old PC's are in use still today? And can actually run modern software at a reasonable speed? - Tux541, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I've wondered that myself. I run Ubuntu on my 400mhz G4 and it runs pretty quick. I think that is the best your going to get. You could always run Gentoo and do it yourself from scratch!
- bedouin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I'm using an iMac DV/400 as a server running Debian. I live in a small apartment so I needed something with a small footprint that still had a display without adding tons of wires and clutter (it's in my kitchen, after all). I've booted it into OS X on occasion and found it perfectly acceptable; I'd run OS X Server on it but I'm still drawn to Linux when it comes to servers (after years of dealing with it I know where to find everything I need and generally am not thrown off by oddities).
My primary desktop is a Quicksilver I bought in 2002, which originally had an 800mhz CPU, CD-RW, 256mb of ram, and a Radeon (7500 perhaps?) with 32mb of ram. Since I've owned it I've upgraded it to a 1.4ghz G4, added 1gb of RAM, added an SATA card and 10k raptor drive, upgraded the video card from a Radeon to a Geforce 4 Ti 4600 with 128mb of ram, and changed the CD-RW with a DVD+/-RW, in addition to adding some stuff like a Sweet Multiport (provides SD card reader, firewire ports, and USB port on the front) and a AlchemyTV DVR card. It drives my original 17" Apple LCD Studio Display in addition to my 20" Dell Widescreen wonderfully. In the benchmarks this four year old machine still outran my 1.5ghz PowerBook before replacing it with a MacBook. The myth that Macs aren't upgradable is just that, and I plan to get a couple more years out of this machine yet. Of course, I've done this with PCs before, but it has been no where *NEAR* as comfortable.
To go even further back, I have a blazing fast 16mhz Macintosh Classic II with 8mb of ram on my network, which can manage to act as a web server and even browse the web with a text-based browser such as WannaBe (iCab is no picnic on this thing; Mosaic is usable). - starmanjones, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3ya, those are nice. rugged. they were doing a product placement thing on ER once. Carter brought that laptop for a patient to use. he opened it up in front of her... camera so you could see it was booted. she picked it up threw it across the room bounced it off the wall and when it finally stopped it was still running. now thats product placement. seems like you should be able to get 1024 out of it. the 800 x 600 is an old mac preference that still hangs on. its because of the arts/graphics users wanted WYSIWYG... and at that resolution whats on screen is the exact size of the out put. it took me a long time to get used to 1024... it just seemed wrong. :D but i bet you can figure that out.
- EricG, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4granted yes, its slow, but 24 seconds is still far faster than what I have seen IE load on some heavily infested Windows Pentium 4 systems ..
- pakkman781, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Absolutely. I used one of the original iMac Rev. A's with a 233 Mhz G3 and 288Mb Ram running 10.3 and it worked great. My grandparents are now using it as their main computer. Macs age very well, so long as you put enough ram in them.
- jlassman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I'm running Tiger on my early 2001 G3 iMac. It is in my guest bedroom with an account for my backed up photos, and an account to access the internet for guests. I added a 60 GB 7200 RPM HD and it is running okay with 384 MB of RAM. I keep it because it is an iconic shape, just like my G4 flat panel iMac. I got both used, and cleaned them up for display and use. I'll upgrade them to Leopard and beyond as long as they are supported.
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