Jump to content
IGNORED

Trash find! G3 Imac. Questions inside.


Compumater

Recommended Posts

So, I'm driving home the other day and I pass a pile of CRT old school TVs mixed in with some other junk, but as I'm driving past it I catch a glimpse of a oddly shaped blue monitor.

 

I decided to turn around and take a look at it.

 

Low and behold it was a blue Imac with the keyboard and mouse!

 

The dang thing looked like it had been outside in a barn doe many years. A think layer of dirt (not dust) was hard caked on it, but all the calbes were there and since I've never owned a MAC since the mac plus I figured I'd grab it to play with.

 

 

It was well past dark when I finally got to the house and this thing was way to dirty to bring inside so I hauled it to the garage and cleaned off the monitor enough so I could see if it powered on.

 

Dang thing worked!

 

Turns out it had been "maxxed out" so to speak as it had 1 gig of memory and os X10.4.11 already installed.

 

I cleaned it up yesterday, brought it inside and hooked the Ethernet plug up to my wireless vonet device.

 

I'm impressed at how well a 17 year old computer still works in doing modern stuff. YouTube is a no go, but for the most part this thing still works on the modern web!

 

I've never owned a G3 Mac, so if anyone out there has some software recommendations I'd love to hear them.

 

Old school video editors? Best web browser for 10.4.11? mp3 player? Stuff like that. I've got it setup and want to use it for a while before deciding to sell it so I'd like to get some use out of it.

 

My initial reaction to this machine and to OS 10.4.11 is that it must have been WAY ahead of its time. in 2000 us IBM guys were using windows 95 or 98 and compared to that operating system this thing is light years ahead.

The fact that its built in web browser (safari?) still surfs the web well is a testament to its programmers.

 

 

Let me know what else it can do!\

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just to prove my point. I'm typing this message from the Imac. It loaded atarage perfectly, let me sing in, and is posting this without issue.

 

I've played with Windows 98 computers, and even XP computers that have more issues with the internet than this thing!

 

 

Speed wise I'm going to compare its pathetic 400mhz G3 chip with something along the lines of a p4 1.6ghz running XP. Slow but usable.

 

I know I'm the only one amazed by all this, but seriously. A 2000 model computer that is really truthfully still useful today?!? Crazy, and then add to that the fact that It was taken from the side of the road and last used in 2010?!?! I am blown away.

 

 

End rant.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

TenFourFox seems to be the best OSX browser for PowerPCs. http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/

 

There's also the Mac OS 9 - it's still alive group on Facebook that talks a lot about PowerPC OSX software as well. That might be worth joining. People post their iMac G3's there all the time and the group is really friendly and helpful.

 

You should post the system specs. I've got 2 iMac G3s. One is a rev B Bondi Blue 200mhz with OS 9 and the other is a Clear 700mhz with Panther.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks. I downloaded it and installed and here I am trying it out. seems to work well so far.

 

The model is a "slot loaded" 400mhz with firewire ports and usb ports.

 

It has a 9 gig hard drive and 1 gig of ram. I'm hooked to the internet by way of a ethernet to wifi adapter from vonet.

 

I'm already considering a "upgrade" getting a 700mhz motherboard to swap out with this one. I think they also had some extra video ram.

Also considering a ssd harddrive of somekind for a speed boost.

 

On a side note what is the equivilent to the right mouse button? mine clicks but appears to do nothing, hence the misspelled words. (no spell check) the words light up as wrong, but hovering over them and right clicking does nothing. Bad mouse?? or operator error?

 

Anyway that's all for now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some good info here and you can compare yours to other models. http://lowendmac.com/2001/400-mhz-imac-early-2001/

 

I have a Summer 2001 G3 iMac 500mhz/1g/20gHD/CD-RW, only the second Mac I've owned that was brand new. I think it shipped with 10.1, which was nothing special to me. Most all my apps were for os9 anyway. I did eventually switch to osX, but still use many of my old os9 mainstay apps. It had 10.3.9 installed when I parked it after getting a used G4 1.25ghz MDD.

 

The G3 iMac will run some quite ancient Mac software using Classic or natively under os9.2.2. TenFourFox is definitely better than FIrefox. It would be fairly simple to swap in a larger hard drive and better CD or DVD. MB swaps aren't too difficult either. The one gig memory ceiling is probably the biggest bottleneck.

 

Eventual resale value? Not much. Free to maybe $50. In a pinch, I could still get by with mine, but I would feel pretty cramped and impatient most the time. But I published a few books and CDs with it, created/maintained our website and did all our business printing and bookkeeping.

 

-Ed

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I've been playing around with it when I have had the chance, and I really dig this old timer. the OS is snappy, and with the tenfourfox Web browser It is actually usable (but slow) on the internet.

 

I've ordered some "upgrades" for it. A 16gb SSD sata drive and a Ide to sata adaptor. This should help not only speed up things, but also quite down the system as the bearings in the hard drive were quite noisy.

 

I've also ordered a set of OS X install CD's to reinstall onto the HD when I'm done.

 

The last great thing I found was that the install of ITunes from 2005ish still works and was loaded with pod casts and music from that era. When I booted it up, it started to download all the "new" podcasts from the previous owners list.

 

Crazy to see this old tech still being as useful as it has turned out to be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...