Hi Lincoln, while you're soliciting opinions may I humbly suggest that
you go with the Mac mini?
Yes, it's new, and, yes, it's a consumer Mac, but, damn it's impressive.
For $725 after tax ($690 if you're a student) you get a 1.25GHz G4,
512 MB of RAM, 32 MB of video RAM, OS X 10.4, iLife ($100 CAD value)
in a package *smaller* and *lighter* than most hard cover school
books! It's 1.3 kg, the same weight as a single 1.3 L bag of milk in a
4 L bag, and is only 16.5 cm * 16.5 cm * 5 cm.
You can get refurbished Mac minis (full 1 year Apple warrantee) with
256 MB of RAM and a 56 K modem to boot ($30 option on the new Mac
minis) for (supposedly) around $500 before tax! www.powermax.com (in
the US) has Mac minis starting at $409 USD.
You'll have a hard time upgrading a B&W to that machine for the same price!
But, to answer your question: you won't find a real difference in
performance between the iMac G3/300 and a B&W G3/300 or G3/350. The
B&W does come with a 16 MB video card (compared to 2 or 4 in the iMac
G3/300) so that's a major advantage over the iMac.
If you were going to expend the energy doing the upgrade I'd make sure
to also buy a G3/500 or G4/450 or faster CPU from eBay to upgrade the
B&W. Also, you'll find that 256 MB is the absolute minimum for
"decent" OS X performance (all versions of OS X). 384 MB is better and
512 MB is best (more RAM is nice but the performance improvements for
non "power users" (PhotoShop or million and one apps open at once)
aren't worth the expense).
Quartz Extreme is not supported by the B&W's video card. It is
supported by the Mac mini!
As for wireless, you can get USB dongles or Ethernet-based bridges
which will allow you to connect to 802.11b/g or 802.11a networks.
Eric.
On 9/27/05, Lincoln Dunn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hey folks:
>
> I'm wondering if anyone has hands-on experience with OSX performance on a
> B&W G3 (300mhz, 350mhz, etc.). I'm looking at doing an el cheapo upgrade to
> my wife's imac G3/300, which is pretty poky with OSX. (I need a PCI slot to
> add a wireless card to it)
>
> Any feedback on performance on a B&W would be great.
>
> And, on a side note, if anyone has a G3/G4 bare bones that they want to
> offload cheap, let me know. :-)
>
> Thanks!
>
> Lincoln
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