09-05-2010, 11:31 AM

Hello Mac-Forums Admins and Fellow Users:

First and foremost, thanks for the opportunity of allowing people to seek out assistance and knowledge on-line. It is much appreciated. Second, I'll try to keep this short and to the point:

*Veteran PC user (DELL Inspiron E1505 & DELL Dimension 1600 C w/Vista and XP)
*Have dabbled some with Macs(G3s, G4s, G5s) on my job
*Have used Liquid Edition 5, iMovie, some Final Cut, Premiere Elements 4.0, Vegas Platinum Pro Pack 9, Pinnacle Studio 12
*Recently got a refurbished iMac G3 with following specs:
i)700 Mhz processor
ii)80 gb Hard Drive
iii)256 mb RAM
iv)Tiger OS 10.4.11
v)Also have Office 2008 on it

What's the max amount of RAM I can add to my iMac G3, so I can run something like Final Cut Pro (or something comparable)? I shot a wedding video yesterday that I'd like to start editing on on my G3. I also have an external 500g Hard Drive as well. Thank you so much.

09-05-2010, 06:25 PM

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Here are its specs:-

iMac G3/700 SE (Summer 2001) Specs (iMac - Summer 2001, M8510LL/A*, PowerMac4,1, M5521, 1857) @ EveryMac.com

You will see 1GB is the maximum and the processor is now just on ten years old so editing may be more than a little difficult.

09-06-2010, 01:05 AM

Originally Posted by harryb2448

G'day and welcome to the forums.

Here are its specs:-

iMac G3/700 SE (Summer 2001) Specs (iMac - Summer 2001, M8510LL/A*, PowerMac4,1, M5521, 1857) @ EveryMac.com

You will see 1GB is the maximum and the processor is now just on ten years old so editing may be more than a little difficult.

Wait a minute - so are you saying that I can't edit at all? Or that I wouldn't be able to edit with something comparable to Final Cut on it? Clarify, please. Thank you.

09-06-2010, 09:57 AM

Originally Posted by Black_Apple

Wait a minute - so are you saying that I can't edit at all? Or that I wouldn't be able to edit with something comparable to Final Cut on it? Clarify, please. Thank you.

Like Harry said...the computer you're working with is almost 10 years old. You said that you're a "Veteran PC User"...so then you should know that a 10 year old computer is VERY VERY old when it comes to computers!!!

Now add to that the fact that you want to do something on a 10 year-old computer (video editing) that can be pretty darn demanding on a MUCH newer computer...and you have a combination of OLD computer hardware & a demanding task (video editing)...and you're going to end up with a very unhappy experience.

Now that being said...Final Cut Pro has been around for close to 10 years in one form or another...so you need to identify exactly which version of Final Cut Pro you want to use...then see what the system requirements are for it...and then see if your iMac G3 meets the requirements. It's very possible if you can find a very old version of Final Cut Pro that you may be able to do some video editing.

But if you were thinking of using a newer version of Final Cut Pro on your iMac G3...I would suggest you give yourself a really HARD pinch on your arm...so that you can wake up from whatever computer dream you're having...cause a newer version of Final Cut Pro just "ain't" gonna run on an iMac G3!

Hope this helps,

- Nick

09-06-2010, 03:55 PM

Originally Posted by pigoo3

Like Harry said...the computer you're working with is almost 10 years old. You said that you're a "Veteran PC User"...so then you should know that a 10 year old computer is VERY VERY old when it comes to computers!!!


- Nick

Got it - but, like I said, I did say veteran PC user, so I'm new to Macs. Did not know right off that G3s were 10 years old. Thanks for the clarification.