Apple iMac G3 Specs

megamaced

megamaced

Geek Geek Geek!
Hi all

I am looking for full specification information for the ~233, 266 & 300MHz version (the original iMac). Specifically, I am looking for information on expandability - PCI, AGP, SoDIMM? Front Side Bus speed, Hard drive compatibilty and speed. Everything!

If anyone knows of a good website with all this information, I'd love to know it! :)

I think the iMac could make a great media centre. All it needs is a decent operating system such as SuSE Linux :)
 
Suse does not have an official build for PPC, only i386 and IA-64. You're better off with a distro which has an offical PPC build, such as Debian, Ubuntu, or Yellowdog. You can look into upgrades for your old mac hardware at http://www.lowendmac.com/ although you should keep bang-for-buck in mind. You might end up spending enough on upgrades for a 300MHz iMac that you could have bought a brand new Sempron rig instead. :P
 
The iMac doesn't have PCI slots, so that puts the nail in the coffin :(

I was hoping to stick a Hauppauge TV card in one, but that's not gonna happen. I suppose I could go USB, but it won't be as cool
 
Yeah those were the beginning of the unofficial anti-upgrade movement apple went through with it's non-tower macs. Pretty much all you'll be doing is adding ram and maybe a new harddrive unfortunately. Sure you could go with an old tower but it wouldn't be as cool.
 
Exfoliate said:
Yeah those were the beginning of the unofficial anti-upgrade movement apple went through with it's non-tower macs. Pretty much all you'll be doing is adding ram and maybe a new harddrive unfortunately. Sure you could go with an old tower but it wouldn't be as cool.
Click to expand...

I was reading on the internet that these iMacs are real pigs to upgrade! To change the hard disk, you have to turn the iMac upside down, and remove it's belly. Then you have to take out the whole motherboard including cables. You even have to take out the processor and CD-ROM before you can get to the hard disk :eek:

I am still keen to see a Power PC running Linux. I gather they run more effeciantly then an Intel or AMD x86. I know so little about MACs though, so it'd be interesting taking one apart and see how it ticks! Do Apple computer have CMOS setup screens? Are they simply a PC rebadged with an Apple logo?
 
No you don't get to configure anything through a BIOS of sorts like you do a PC. You just see a candy colored load bar and then the desktop. Apples chips have a totally different architecture then that of the x86 variety, which is why all the software is specialized and you can't use all your PC programs without a [crappy] emulator.
I'm not sure if linux would run any better on a mac but it sure wouldn't on a 233/333Mhz G3 compaired to a Socket A AMD XP or Sempron for example.
 
thats strange! How do you configure your devices on a MAC then?
How would I go about setting master and slave for example? Or setting my boot options :confused:
 
You don't I guess, it does it for you like it does with most stuff. It is handy how you barely ever need to deal with drivers and numerous reboots but it does happen from time to time. It's a fairly elegant operating system but there is an obvious lack of customization options for the deeper working and performance settings.
 
megamaced said:
How would I go about setting master and slave for example?
Click to expand...
With the jumpers and the drives' physical position on the IDE chain, of course. Just like with a PC.
megamaced said:
Or setting my boot options :confused:
Click to expand...
Open Firmware... *shudder* it's kind of a nightmare. Macs pretty much designed to be what they are and nothing more. This goes for both hardware and software.
 
I've got another quick Apple Mac question....

Do those Beige G3 Powermac's have standard PS/2 and DB-15 VGA ports?
 
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