Defintely a step forward for Apple
Written: Oct 20 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fast. Stable. Good quality. Excellent flip-down case. Stylish.
Cons: Weird mouse. Bug with ATI card needs patch. Keyboard missing back-delete
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| JudgeDr's Full Review: Apple Power Macintosh G3 (M7104LL/A) Mac Desktop |
I've been using a Mac G3 for over a year now. A large part of my work involves graphics design since I'm in the advertising business. I also use a PC running Windows 98 (P-III 550MHz). Generally I've been happy with the G3, especially if I compare the performance to my previous Mac which is a PowerPC 7300. Here's a rundown:
Processor: G3-350 / 384Mb RAM / OS 8.6
Softwares I run almost every day includes:
Graphics: Adobe Photoshop 5.5, Adobe Illustrator 8, Adobe Indesign v. 1 - These software runs with good speed. Generally fast. Not much to complain about, although some filters tend to run slowly (But they also run slowly on a P-III 550). Opening a big file (A4 350 dpi and up) in Photoshop is quick. Opening, closing and high-resolution preview for Indesign is quite slow, but I attribute this to the software design and not to the G3 itself.
Word Processing: Microsoft Office - Zippy fast. Word files open in under 4 seconds. Excel files around 3 seconds. That's with over 100 fonts installed. Take out the fonts and they should run even faster.
Games: The Sims / Age of Empires - You don't get the "choppy" movement. Runs smoothly and looks great. No problems encountered so far. Lucasart's Racer crashes the computer every time though.
Keyboard
Looks good. The keys are big and positioned normally. Good quality and tactile response is excellent. So far it survived regular abuse and pounding. However I miss the "backspace delete", this makes correcting typing mistakes a bit of a hassle.
Computer Case
This is a beauty. Access to the G3's internals for upgrading is a snap - simply pull and voila! No more fiddling with screws. Wonder why nobody thought of this before?
Graphics card - ATI Rage 128
If you just bought your G3, be forewarned that there's a bug in ATI's software. Quick scrolling or dragging of huge graphics (although it also happens with text) crashes your system. After downloading a patch from Apple's website, the problem went away.
CD drive
Satisfactory function. Good quality. Nothing much to say here.
Mouse
This one is a definite miss for an otherwise outstanding computer. I think Apple focused too much on the looks and not enough on the function. I have average-sized hands and for me the mouse is too small and uncomfortable. It's rounded shape makes it difficult to know (feel) where the front of the mouse is so if you're not used to it, you'll sometimes see yourself pointing the mouse in the wrong direction. I think this problem is corrected with a much better mouse for the Cube.
Internet
Hooking up to the internet via a modem (generic 56K / TCP/IP) was painless. I am now using DSL and setup is quick and easy.
Floppy disc drive
There's none,which is a shame since a lot of our clients still uses floppies.
Monitor:
I didn't get the monitor since it's too small for my needs.
Will I recommend the G3 :
If you're a graphics designer, definitely a big yes, although expect to work around some problems.
If you're a gamer - perhaps. It's a good, solid machine for gaming and the ATI Rage performs quite well with the G3 processor. Quite stable too. Weigh that against the limited gaming software available as compared to the PC.
If you're a word / numbers cruncher - It's too overpowered for such tasks, unless you don't mind spending more - (People drive 4 x 4's in the city).
If you're a computer newbie - seriously consider the Mac. Everything's easier, and in my opinion, it's way more stable than a PC running Windows.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
JudgeDr
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Location: Earth
Reviews written: 23
Trusted by: 15 members
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