Upgrade G3 or buy newer?

Ok, so here's the deal, I have recently acquired an old Power Mac that is in perfect working condition except that it is terribly outdated. I am a photographer and have been wanting a good Mac to work on my photos with and am trying to decide whether it would be worth it to spend the money to upgrade everything on this computer (i.e. HD, processor, ram, OS, etc) or get rid of it and put the money towards a newer Mac. Here are the specs:

1999 B&W Power Mac G3
350 Mhz Processor
1 MB cache
512 MB RAM (Still has one out of four slots open)
6 GB HD
CD-ROM
ATI Rage Graphics Card
MAC OS X Panther 10.3.5

I'm a Mac lover but I am definitely not a computer wiz. Any suggestions would be appreciated. One of my main questions is would I be able to upgrade this computer enough to be able to use the Leopard or Tiger OS and run Adobe CS4 or CS5 applications efficiently, as that is my main goal. And if so what would it take to get it there? Please help!

~CC~

You answered your on question. Every ones going to tell you to find a new machine to use the latest photo imaging software...but you could still use the old G3 to store photos or be a server. I still have one loaded with graphic software from the day and still use it every so often.

ClulessCarolina said:

One of my main questions is would I be able to upgrade this computer enough to be able to use the Leopard or Tiger OS and run Adobe CS4 or CS5 applications efficiently, as that is my main goal.

Click to expand...

Absolutely...positively...no way you're going to be able to upgrade a 1999 Powermac G3 in order to run CS4, CS5, or Mac OS 10.5 Leopard...and not have spent a bunch more money that would have gotten you a much better computer for the same or less $$$.

If your goal is to run CS4, CS5, and/or Mac OS 10.5...don't consider anything less than a dual 1.8 to 2.0 ghz Powermac G5. In fact...to run CS5 you need a multi-core Intel processor...which a 1999 Powermac G3 doesn't even come close to meeting those specs.

HTH,

- Nick

Don't for the love of Mike sink a ton into upgrading that machine. I had the 300 MHZ version back in the day and did many of the upgrades you are contemplating. They're not that hard but the performance boost may not be as much as you expect. Speed improves but not nearly enough to run what you are interested in.

The hard drive and memory are easy yo upgrade. The processor isn'y overly difficult but the fastest I could find was a 500 MHzG4.