Rick wrote: I have been running a g3/266, MT with a 6 GB hard drive and a 100 Zip Drive. . . . I'm currently looking to max out the ram at 768 MB (256 x 3) and I have just ordered the first of three 256 MB sticks ...later I hope to double up my hard drive ...maybe one or two 40 GB drives in addition to my current drive ...well that the plan.
A: I hate to be a spoil sport, because this is the Low End Mac, but being Low End Mac, that also means I am real cheap. So always bear in mind: you can buy a refurbished 1Gig G4 eMac for $600 almost anytime on the Apple Website (well, not today--but ALMOST anytime) and that includes new iLife software.
Is the G4 better than the G3? Well I have 2 266Rev1 G3s--both running OS9.2--and one has a 350G4 upgrade. (I got it really, really cheap). I hardly notice the difference for most things. For SOME graphics the G4 makes a big difference on the Beige G3.
Yes, you say, but what about a 600M G3? Isn't that faster? A: Well, I have a 500Mhz G3 iMac and a 550MHz TiBook and let me tell you, when it comes to needing power, there is no comparison between these machines. The G4 TiBook is really a lot faster--the iMac won't even run iSight and is really slow with Photoshop and iPhoto. G4's tend to be less likely to "hang." Please note that Apple has all but come out and said it isn't going to support the G3 anymore.
So my conclusion is that the G4 makes a big difference, but there's only so much you can do to jack up the beige G3.
As for Memory, I have 160Mb in one G3 and about 400 in the other. I can't tell the difference for most things---but I'm not running OSX. I suspect that after the first 256 upgrade you can stop. I have a 333Lombard runnig Panther and I have trouble telling the difference between 290 and 512MRAM (pretend it is 1997 and you are asking about whether 256MB is enough.)
People want too much money for the ROM upgrades. (For one thing, nothing you do is going to speed up the bus to the point where it is worth the money.) Get one big 120 or 160 Mg drive and chuck your old 6 Gig. Don't look back. (You can slide the old 6Gig in your CD-ROM slot and transfer the whole drive over without making a dent in the capacity of the new drive. Also, a 160 Mg drive works fine in a Rev A--but you will only see about 130 Gigs rather than about 152 Gigs. I got 2 160 Maxtors with cards for $70 each and sold the cards for $20 each plus shipping--and that was over a year ago. Use the think method and think 70� a gig or less.)
You might look out there and find yourself an old graphics card--Any five-year-old $15 card is better than the on-board video of that thing.
Note that the bottom has now dropped out of the G3 market so you will not be able to sell the machine. And remember, for a sense of proportion, just always compare everything to a refurbished eMac on the Apple site. --
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