iMac G3 (Adding more ram to it)

[ComputerWizKid]

I was just given an iMac G3 because it was "too Old" to be of any use. It still had Mac OS 9.1 (Before the whole OS X thing) I formatted the HD and I installed OS X Tiger 10.4. It works great for my use (To learn how to use a Mac) as I am mostly a PC Guy
Any way this is the Late 2001 Model so It takes the Old PC133 SD-Ram. So my question is do I need high or low density ram? and I doubt Apple still sells parts for this machine. It supports up to a Gig so that is what I will up it to 512 X 2 Sticks
Do I need to worry about the timings CL2-CL3 Etc?
Thanks

 

[kamikazekyle]

Since you said the iMac supports up to a Gig, it's probably one of the 350-600 Mhz models. It's plain-ol PC133, so not much special to look to. If you can find something with tighter timings, that might help a bit ,but given the age of the memory it's going to be "whatever you can find for the price."

Here's probably what you want:
http://www.crucial.com/store/listpar...20%28G3-350%29

You can buy it there, or probably find the same spec'd RAM cheaper elsewhere. Heck, you might have some compatible stuff laying around.

 

[ComputerWizKid]

Yeah it is the 600MHZ model and the only one I had laying around was a 128MB.
The iMac came with 256MB and that's what I received it with
Thanks

 

[manly]

Isn't high-density non-standard? So don't get that.

Timings won't matter but officially it's probably CL3. SDRAM is fairly pricey; but make sure to check out the FS/FT forum here, maybe Craigslist or eBay. If it's as expensive as I think, I wouldn't even push all the way to 1GB (depending on what you plan on doing). Tiger can do "okay" on 600-750MB RAM.

 

[ComputerWizKid]

I was looking at eBay and it is about $25 a GB (Expensive)
I just plan on using it as a learning Mac (As I am a Mac newbie) and once I get used to it (Which I pretty much have already) a internet and music box and a Quicktime and an iTunes machine (I will not install those two on my PCD
it is actually a good machine (in my opinion) It was probably deemed too old because it had the old Mac OS 9.1

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I was looking at eBay and it is about $25 a GB (Expensive)
I just plan on using it as a learning Mac (As I am a Mac newbie) and once I get used to it (Which I pretty much have already) a internet and music box and a Quicktime and an iTunes machine (I will not install those two on my PCD
it is actually a good machine (in my opinion) It was probably deemed too old because it had the old Mac OS 9.1

As somebody who has had to deal with a number of these machines, I disagree vehemently with your opinion.

What you're essentially doing is putting Vista on a 600 MHz Pentium III. Having more RAM only slightly reduces the urge to go on a killing spree.

Good luck & god bless. :\

 

[manly]

As somebody who has had to deal with a number of these machines, I disagree vehemently with your opinion.

What you're essentially doing is putting Vista on a 600 MHz Pentium III. Having more RAM only slightly reduces the urge to go on a killing spree.

Good luck & god bless. :\

I've never owned an iMac but he already has Tiger on there. If it was already terribly bad, I doubt he'd entertain a RAM upgrade. I highly doubt it's comparable to Vista on a P3; people even complained about Vista on 1 GHz CPUs and up.

Actually $25/GB for SDRAM is a steal (less than I thought it'd be). I think Apple released Safari 4 for Tiger, so you're in good shape there too.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I've used Vista on a 733 MHz PIII (768 MBs RAM), and I've used Tiger on a 600 MHz iMac (512 MBs RAM). I would say the sensation is similarly bad. *shrug*

9.1 works great for classic gaming, though, as the onboard Rage 128 is faster than most OS 9 games really ever needed.

Different people often have widely disparate ideas about what is "slow" or not, though. I probably qualify as "spoiled rotten."

 

[ComputerWizKid]

Yeah the computer is not fast but it is tolerable (To me at least )
The only thing that I am hating is the display (CRT) it has a VGA port but that only does mirroring of the main display so no matter what monitor I use I am limited to 1024 x 768 and it has no DVD drive only a CD-RW
I don't know if I should upgrade it or save for a decent mac
I will be out $ either way but this one was free and I can afford $100 for upgrades

Probably Ram and a DVD Drive and maybe another HDD

For the DVD Drive can I use another PATA Slot load slim drive? the drive is a standard PATA/IDE slim drive (at least I think it is) but it has a special apple adapter that will come off as it is just screwed on to the back of the drive

how I know about that is this:--------------------------------------->
I was given an iMac (350MHZ G3) years ago 4> and I was not interested in Macs at the time so I stupidly trashed it for parts (and I almost killed myself in the process Damn CRTS:hmm:)

Thanks and sorry for all of the questions

I know my SN is ComputerWizKid but that does not extend to Macs :sneaky:

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Monitor/Graphics aren't upgradable.

No second HDD bay. So upgrade/replacement is doable, but not another (second) HDD.

I'm pretty sure the internal CD is "special" somehow. Custom mounting holes or something. MCE Tech offers an upgrade kit. Problem is, most drives won't be recognized by the machine as bootable, so good luck installing an OS on another HD. The Pioneer DVR-K05 might also work (so I've read.)

If it's really that important to watch DVDs with the thing, I'd just throw a DVD-ROM in a FW enclosure (no USB 2.0, just 1.1 - 12 Mbps, blech) and call it a day. It probably won't be bootable (depends on drive firmware) but it'll play in DVD Player.

And I'd double check your specs; half of those little bastards had DVD-ROM / CD-RW Combo drives. Since it couldn't write DVDs, sometimes they get mislisted.

 

[manly]

I'd spend no more than about $40 on RAM and call it a day. Give Tiger a good "test drive" and if you're hooked, Lion is coming this summer.

Dave's right, you really don't want to put much money into a G3. Since it's 600 MHz, it most certainly has a Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW).