iMac G3

I just got an iMac G3, my first mac, yesterday from craigslist. It's running OSX Panther version 10.3.9

400MHz PowerPC G3
320 MB SDRAM

Is this good for a starting mac or what?

I don't think i'll be able to get a good one anytime soon..

Well, i guess it depends on what you are doing. For the basics its fine, but for about anything else it can be a bit slow, just depends on what kind of stuff you do.

And this is something you are going to hear A LOT,

MAX OUT THE RAM!
It's the best thing you can do for your iMac.
Welcome to M-F and good luck!

For basic word processing and internet it will get by. The G3 is quite old in terms of the processor line. E.g. G3, G4, G5, Core Duo, Core 2 Duo (current). Many of the popular programs being written now aren't likely to run on Panther. My advice is to upgrade to Tiger and Max the RAM.

This baby can go up to a gigabyte up ram so I've checked.

My mom ordered a 512MB ram, and I made sure it's the right one. PC100 168-pin.

This iMac has two ram sticks in it, one 256 and the other 64, which I'll remove and keep the 256MB and replace the 64MB with 512 for 768.
When my mom can she'll buy another 512 to replace the 256. (only 14, can't get a job) I'll notice a big difference with 768, so for now I'm using OS9.

And I'm just using the internet, chatting, e-mail, and playing dvds for this, which works really well (just last night I watched The Ring).

I still have a one question:

1. Could I upgrade the processor and if yes, what kind and can I mail it or take it so a certain place to have it done since my only experience is upgrading optical drives, ram, and hard drives on PCs.

No, the processor is not removable.

are you sure the proc. is not removable? i know of some sites that sell G3 and G4 processor upgrades, but they may only apply to the Mac Pros, i'm not sure.

Processor upgrades are most likely for the PowerMacs. The earliest model iMacs (bondi blue and five flavors) had removable processors. The later ones (I suspect you have a slot load DV) have the processor built into the logic board.

Yeah, I do have the slot loading DV.

And I guess the best I could do is upgrade the RAM..

You could toss in a new, larger HD (up to 128GB) and the larger cache will help a little. But yea, that's about it.

At the moment I have:

Two tabs for two Google Groups i'm in.
One Google Search.
Two eBay pages.
Two 404 pages.
And this.

I just closed them out and everything's still slow.

I'm using Firefox.

MenuMeters Download MenuMeters. Are you maxing out the processor or RAM?

bryphotoguy said:

MenuMeters Download MenuMeters. Are you maxing out the processor or RAM?

Click to expand...

The RAM.

Alright, when you run out of RAM, your HD is used to help with the excess. This act will keep you working but it slows down your computer a significantly. If you add 1GB or RAM, you will be able to do more before it starts slowing down like it is.

bryphotoguy said:

MenuMeters Download MenuMeters. Are you maxing out the processor or RAM?

Click to expand...

I dwnloaded the MenuMeters thing and I don't know much about this stuff, but I am using 203MB with 117MB free.

When I had my iMac G3, i bumped the ram from 384 to 768. I was running Jaguar and I didnt notice that much, but i know it helped a lot. You will notice more running Panther or Tiger. And obviously, a big difference in speed in os9. It's pretty cool, upgrading ram can be a beautiful thing

@bryphotoguy:
Yeah, I know what virtual memory is, but thanks.

Tanner31593 said:

When I had my iMac G3, i bumped the ram from 384 to 768. I was running Jaguar and I didnt notice that much, but i know it helped a lot. You will notice more running Panther or Tiger. And obviously, a big difference in speed in os9. It's pretty cool, upgrading ram can be a beautiful thing

Click to expand...

When you were running Jaguar did things really speed up or was it sluggish or was everything running fine in the first place?

Some people say Tiger, 10.4, runs faster than Panther, 10.3, on G3 Macs. You will need the 1GB upgrade if you'd switch to Tiger though.
I don't know what to really say. It should be able to run more than a half dozen FireFox tabs but it is a 8.5 year old computer. It's going to struggle running todays loads.

Well I can't get another 512MB until later, since I don't think my mom'll buy another one 'til later on.. so will 768MB do it for now?

For e-mailing.. chatting.. and Firefox.

yea, those aren't intensive programs. You should be fine.

bryphotoguy said:

yea, those aren't intensive programs. You should be fine.

Click to expand...

Except for Firefox, which is laggy when I type. The text is laggy, and browsing is a bit sluggish too.

But I'll manage. Everything else is working pretty fine.

Right now I am using 225MB and i have 95MB free.

If I had that 768MB in here right now I'd have 542MB or so available. That's about a half times more than the RAM i have in here right now! The 768 will be twice as much as the RAM I have in here right now as well.