Hello- Long time Mac fan

Joined
Jul 5, 2007
Messages
72
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Western Australia
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini PowerPC G4 Mac OS X 10.5.8 120 GIG HDD Ethernet
Hello all

My name is Dan and I'm a long time Mac fan , I've been using the G5 Mac's that my college where I study at, has in the library down stairs, and.. absolutely amazing stuff. :)

Anyway I just acquired a G3 Imac from a friend , who just recently moved intersetate and didn't want to take it with him. So I thought what they hey, I'd take it for him. This is going to be my first mac I ever owned. That and my crappy Windows XP PC.

iMac G3 350Mhz
256Mb
7Gb CD 56k & Ethernet
2 USB Ports
Firmwire (Which I just learnt is more a plug in for digital videos and stuff?)

Just a few questions
I know this is a fairly basic system and that I can't do much with it (according to alot of people on MSN) I was just wondering what stuff can I do to upgrade?

I am thinking about adding more ram and getting a new hard drive. I don't think these sorts of Imacs support more then 1 HDD in the system?? I don't know.

I would take it doing intense graphic editing with Adobe Photoshop CS would be paintfully slow? If that is the case, that would be okay, that's what I have my other Windows PC for.

I will be using the system for mainly assignments/internet and MSN Messaging and the occassionly downloading images from my Camera.

Great forum! BTW:)

Macs Rock!

Regards
ShadowDan
 
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
780
Reaction score
18
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
20" iMac Core 2 Duo 2.16Ghz, 500GB HDD, 1GB RAM, 128MB ATI Radeon X1600
G3s were introduced in 1998 and stopped in 2002.

Yeah, don't even bother trying Photoshop, I would imagine it doing real bad.

I dunno. I've never used a G3, but you know, they're pretty old. They also use PowerPC processors, which were replaced with Intel last year.

If you can I'd recommend you try getting a newer system if you want to run Photoshop and other such apps. A G4 or G5 would be better...whatever.

Of course any of the Intel ones would blow the G3 away, but hey, lots of people start off with G3s.
 
OP
S
Joined
Jul 5, 2007
Messages
72
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Western Australia
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini PowerPC G4 Mac OS X 10.5.8 120 GIG HDD Ethernet
Oh well I don't think I was going to bother photoshop, just wanted to ask though. However MS Office 2004 would be alright then I suppose and a few chat programs?

Unfortunetly I won't be able to get a new Mac for quite a while, so I reckon this will be a little good machine to learn the OS itself too. :) I want to mainly use it for the internet, college work and some random digital photo stuff as the other pc is staying as a dedicated digital tv pc (along with the Photoshop stuff that I need to do)

You are right though people start off somewhere. If I had the cash believe me I would get a newer model:)

Thanks for the advice though mate.
 
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
780
Reaction score
18
Points
18
Your Mac's Specs
20" iMac Core 2 Duo 2.16Ghz, 500GB HDD, 1GB RAM, 128MB ATI Radeon X1600
You've got OS X on it right? These machines came with OS 9 originally.
 
OP
S
Joined
Jul 5, 2007
Messages
72
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Western Australia
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini PowerPC G4 Mac OS X 10.5.8 120 GIG HDD Ethernet
My friend put OS 10.2 on it, not sure if that's Mac OS X? Yeah I knew about Mac 0S 9 being shipped with these imacs :)
 
Joined
Oct 3, 2005
Messages
2,722
Reaction score
88
Points
48
Location
Ontario, Canada
Your Mac's Specs
Custom PC
My friend put OS 10.2 on it, not sure if that's Mac OS X? Yeah I knew about Mac 0S 9 being shipped with these imacs :)

10.2 is code-name "Jaguar" and is indeed OS X (X being 10 in Roman numerals).

There are versions of OS X up to 10.4, until 10.5 "Leopard" is released hopefully this Fall.

Even those iMacs are low-spec'd, they're still useful. They can run Tiger decently if given enough ram (I would suggest 512mb or more). For using Safari and MSN simultaniously, they are decent. My friend had a 266mhz G3 with Tiger (10.4), and it ran decently.

As for Photoshop, I wouldn't even waste the time to install it to try it. It will lag and be horrendously slow. My old G4 PowerMac (400mhz, 1gb ram) could run it, but when it came to multiple/high-res images, it would kill the system and bring it to a crawl.

I'd check into the Mac Mini's as they are powerful, yet cheap to purchase. Until then, use the G3 you have now to explore the world of Mac and of OS X and become familiar with it.

Just one piece of advice; forget everything that you learned about Windows. Although both OS's have similarities, OS X is much different at the same time. If you keep saying to yourself "Well, this is how I do it in Windows," you'll just frustrate yourself with even simple tasks in OS X.

Most of all, read about it, ask questions, and use the search feature on this site before posting new threads that most likely will have been answered in the past. And most of all, have fun with OS X! :)
 
OP
S
Joined
Jul 5, 2007
Messages
72
Reaction score
0
Points
6
Location
Western Australia
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini PowerPC G4 Mac OS X 10.5.8 120 GIG HDD Ethernet
Thanks for the advice guys

Photoshop a big no no. LOL Oh well thats I have still my PC for I suppose.

So forget about What I learn in windows...done.

I've been fortunate enough to play with Mac OS X in the Library at my college where I study, but I want to play with it at home and farmiliar myself with it even more.

Even if I just use it for viewing photos, and updating my ipod shuffle, using it for Word Processing , Spreadsheeting that will be great.

As my Windows PC is just now going to be a dedicated Digital TV system. I think this will be a great machine to do my basic work on :)

I know 7 GIGS is a small amount of disk space, but if I space it wisely it should be fine.

I'm off to search for a couple questions I had, at your advice punkr0x0r if I can't find the answers I will post back here again or something.Since this forum has heaps of help topics and stuff I should find the answers pretty quickly.

Regards
ShadowDan
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top