Advice on switch to OSX on my PB G3

Alright, I feel Apple has left me out in the cold. I bought a Powerbook G3 400mhz 6GB HD 512MB ram OS 9 brand new in Aug.of 2000. Since OSX is out everything about my online experience sucks. There are only 2 choices of browsers- netscape 7.1 or ms explorer 5.1. They both have problems with numerous sites. It seems things are not compatible with these older browsers.

So I would like to know if my machine can support OSX well. I realize I will need to upgrade my HD to a faster one. What I've read the 60GB 7200rpm is what I should get. I have enough ram, but I DO NOT want OSX to crawl. I have heard that it would be slow and not worth it, but reading some of these forums I'm hearing it would run OSX "Panther" pretty good. Is this true? And if so, how do I get a 60GB HD and get it installed and where and how much for the HD and Panther OSX.


Thanks

http://www.pbfixit.com/Guide/

Choose the pb ur trying to upgrade, go to HD.
I believe you have more than enough ram to run OS X fine, i had been running it on my powerbook g4 with only 256 mb ram. But that 400mhz of course is the problem here, and since im not quite up to speed with ppc procs, i am not gonna claim to you that it will run, but seems ur good if u upgrade the hd (i know mac os takes at least like 8 gigs). plus i dont know anything about upgrading the os from 9 to x, so dont listen to me

If it's the original PB G3, I've heard that OSX won't run at all on it...

AdmiralSpock said:

If it's the original PB G3, I've heard that OSX won't run at all on it...

Click to expand...

You were misinformed, as OS X will run just fine on a 400 MHz PB G3.

Abemac - You're correct that your HDD is a bit small, but you could most likely get away with leaving it, though you'd have little room left for other applications. You can purchase Panther from Apple, or on eBay. The list price is $130, unless you qualify for the educational discount. As for hard drives, shop around at various stores, but Newegg usually has good prices.

Padawan,

Thanks for the info. If my PB will run it, then this computer will be primarily used for an internet machine from the couch, since I am connected wireless via airport. My main machine is a Dell. (I know, I know), but I need it for my work applications. Anywho, if an upgrade will keep this PB humming and doing simple stuff like: internet, email, DVD's, basic word Processing, Phonebook database, Digital photo storage, etc. Can you feel my pain? I am weighing the cost of keeping this PB!

My wife will mainly use it and I want it to be simple to use and not SLOW. Could you offer more insight as to OSX and how I am planning on using it?

Oh yeah, the guy at comp usa told me that the bottleneck in my computer if I add OS X is the video card. I have an 8mb video with 1mb L2 backside cache.


Also should I have virtual memory on? and to what settings?

Sorry for all the questions, thanks for the help.

Abemac

No problem,

Abemac said:

Padawan,

Thanks for the info. If my PB will run it, then this computer will be primarily used for an internet machine from the couch, since I am connected wireless via airport. My main machine is a Dell. (I know, I know), but I need it for my work applications. Anywho, if an upgrade will keep this PB humming and doing simple stuff like: internet, email, DVD's, basic word Processing, Phonebook database, Digital photo storage, etc. Can you feel my pain? I am weighing the cost of keeping this PB!

Your machine with Panther installed (and a larger HDD) should handle all of these tasks with no problem.

My wife will mainly use it and I want it to be simple to use and not SLOW. Could you offer more insight as to OSX and how I am planning on using it?

I currently run Panther on a 300 MHz Beige G3 with 768 MB of RAM and 6 MB of video memory, and it is perfectly fine for almost all of my everyday needs. It's important to remember that these older machines are now far from "state of the art" and won't perform like newer G4 or G5's, but their performance is still completely acceptable. I definitely wouldn't characterize my Beige G3 with Panther as "slow". I think your wife will find Panther quite easy to use.

Oh yeah, the guy at comp usa told me that the bottleneck in my computer if I add OS X is the video card. I have an 8mb video with 1mb L2 backside cache.

The video card is one of the limiting factors, but again, it won't be such a hinderance as to make your machine painfully slow or unusable for everyday tasks.

Also should I have virtual memory on? and to what settings?

Panther will take care of virtual memory for you. You'll basically just do the installation and you'll be ready to go.

Click to expand...

How can I upgrade my G3 iBook Clamshell to OSX? I REALLY WANT OSX! It has 192 mb ram. Its currently running OS 9.2.2. Thanks!

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