G3 iMac good enough for casual user?

My main computer has been a 1.5 GHz PowerBook, but last week I picked up a Blueberry iMac 350 MHz with 128 MB running Panther for $65, which seemed ridiculously cheap. I upgraded the RAM to 512 MB, and it runs OS X w/o much hesitation. I'm typing on it now, actually. Most of my computing needs are word processing and internet, and the iMac has been doing an admirable job. I also like having a "vintage" iMac in the house.

I spent the weekend rebuilding an Indigo iMac for a friend. A G3 350 mhz model with 386mb of ram and a huge 7gb hardrive.

I erased the hard drive and installed OSX 10.3 and then 200mb of updates later the little iMac was flying happily! (I left OS9 out..the new user for this mac won't be using it).

Then came the apps... MS Office (only 100mb of security fixes for it!) and assorted other smaller apps and utilities.

I noticed the P-Ram battery had died so a trip to Tandy and a little surgery on the iMac (ie turn her upside down ..open the little trap door and replace the battery) and the old girl was up and running again!

In reality the G3 iMac is perfect for most basic work ..word processing, email, 'net surfing etc.

Maybe not doing high end Photoshop work but then the imac ws never a high end mac. The limitations of the video card and screen size always meant that anything too graphically intensive would be slow.

But OSX is stable and quite fast in 386mb of ram. The hard drive is big enough for most immediate needs and a USB drive is always an option without serious surgery or expense.

I could cry! My 6 1/2 years good old iMac DV400 with Airport, 512MB RAM and 120GB HD just closed his eyes forever and is covered in darkness. For internet and office work the iMac DV400 is fully acceptable. I also used it with iMovie for my Sony digicam. OS9 iMovie appears to be a bit faster. Plug & play made in 1999 - still a dream for PC users. If you are 40+ of age a short brake is welcome while iMovie renders some special effects and you have a second for coffee. The only two bad points are the low powered USB ports which cause troubles with several USB sticks and a missing Appletalk serial port ;-)

I have a g3 and 2 g4 with OX and love it

I fixed my 350 Mhz 256 mb Ram 6GB HD with no firewire yesterday, installed 10.3 Panther and it runs great.


Features/Specifications:

* Apple iMac G3 350 MHz All-in-One System

* General Features:
* Grade C
* Aqua and translucent white housing
* Mac OS 8 preinstalled
* 350 MHz PowerPC 750 G3 processor (CPU)
* 100 MHz Front Side Bus
* 64 MB RAM, expandable to 384 MB using SODIMM SDRAM DIMMS(3.3 V, unbuffered, 64-bit, 144-pin, 100 MHz or faster)
* 8 MB SGRAM Video RAM
* Video controller supports resolutions of 640 x 480, 800 x 600 and 1024 x 768 using ATI Rage
* 128 VR chip set and 2x AGP
* 15" Built-in Monitor (13.8" viewable) Multiscan to 1024 x 768
* 512 KB L2 cache 140 MHz
* 6 GB EIDE Hard Drive
* 24x max. CD-ROM
* Built-in 10/100 Ethernet
* Integrated 56 kbps modem supports v.90 standard

* I/O Ports:
* Two (2) USB ports
* One (1) RJ-45 10/100Base-T Ethernet Connector
* One (1) RJ-11 modem connector
* Internal microphone
* One (1) Stereo Speaker Minijack

let's think about this...
G3 iMac - $300
Additional RAM for Tiger - $50
Tiger - $129
iLife '06 - $79
(not that you need 'em, but...)
Comic Life - $30
Quicken - $70
OmniOutliner - $40
Big Bang Board Games - $25
Total = $723
A New MacBook with all of this, plus a built in camera and remote $1099
Why bother?

Heh. I'm an IT guy for a school system where we have at least a couple hundred 266-500MHz G3 iMacs all running Panther. It was only last year that we finally got rid of the last of the initial group of Revision A iMacs we'd purchased when they were first released.

They are real workhorses and actually make up the majority of our workstations (eMacs coming in as a not-too-close second). The hard drives have died on some, but we stick in a new one and they keep chugging along.

I run a 400MHz iMac G3 as a full-time web and print server. It runs *excellently*, particularly Tiger.

I had an old iBook G3 that, until I purchased an Intel iMac, was my only Mac. If you disable Spotlight and Dashboard (which I never used), Tiger was really not that bad at all!

However, post-Intel iMac, it now houses Ubuntu, and will be my Linux testing ground ...

Yep. I'm sitting next to a 400Mhz G3 iMac. It just like the one in your picture, except sage.

It runs very well. It's the only computer our family has ever had, and is currently running 10.3.9. It used by the teenagers messeging (Adium) and their coursework (Pages), as well as my wifes papers (Word). The only problem is the size of the hard drive, we have an external firewire (only USB1!).

I've recently bought a Macbook Pro for web design work, but the iMac is in literal constant use. I'd say the Macbook Pro is twice as fast as the iMac, except Word, which is about the same. Likely becuase the Macbook it is equiped with the stock 512MB RAM.