G3/266 - beige is still beautiful :)
Written: Dec 01 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: reliable, ages well, value, expansion room
Cons: lots of newer models out there
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| beanbear's Full Review: Apple Power Macintosh G3 (M7104LL/A) Mac Desktop |
Synopsis:
Not the fastest or coolest Mac, but damn it, the beige G3 desktop ages better than I could have ever expected. Incredibly cost-effective to own over a couple of years.
Configuration:
266mhz Rev. B
352MB RAM
20GB IBM Deskstar 7200RPM IDE drive
60GB Maxtor DiamondMax 5400RPM IDE drive
24x IDE CD
6MB VRAM/ATI Rage Pro video
17" Apple ColorSync monitor
external SCSI Zip drive
external SCSI Panasonic CD-R
3Com cable modem
Iomega Buz
Intro:
I won't go into the PC vs. Mac debate here - if you here, you're probably interested in a Mac and just determining what kind. The "beige" G3 was the last of the classic Macs, specifically the last of the great desktop/minitower chassis that began with the 7500/8600 series.
I've owned it since new since 8/98 and it's been a great workhorse. I love the ease of upgrades (as you can tell) and think that I'll be keeping it for at least another 12-18 months after I get a processor upgrade, probably the acclaimed G3/466 from Other World Computing. For now, I'm ok on speed - the new hard drive and 256MB RAM card made a world of difference.
Speed:
Well, 266mhz is 266mhz and it's no comparison to a blue-&-white G3 or a G4, but it's still quite respectable for medium-intensity image editing and video capture. The real differences come into play if you're using an application that utilizes the G4's Altivec set, then things could be faster by factors of 5 & 10. If you've still got the original 4GB Western Digital drive, ditch it - it's perhaps the slowest IDE drive in the universe - and turning off virtual memory and getting more physical RAM will do wonders.
Compatibility:
No major problems, although Mac OS X public beta was a total letdown and disaster. Be forewarned, it is moody with beige G3's...
Upgradeability:
Really great. Not as sexy as the swing out panels of the translucent chassis machines, but real easy. Coming into this, I never had ANY experience doing any hardware upgrades, but the beige G3 was just too easy and I've never had a problem. The epitome of plug-and-play, even for hardware upgrades.
Reliability:
Pretty good, although computers get so customized and there are so many issues, one man's beige G3 heaven can be another's pit in hell. FWIW, I run a small MP3 server on it 24/7 and do all regular activities on it without any problems. I've been careful not to junk up the system with all sorts of free/shareware and I only restart once a week or so. Crashing is rare - more RAM is key for this.
The IDE CD is tempermental - it tends to "stall" quite a bit and choke on MP3 discs or other CD's with lots of files. Nobody has been able to tell me why...
Value:
It's all relative. It never makes too much sense to buy a used computer only to upgrade, and I think the kind of upgrading I do only makes sense because (a) I have no burning desire for a new computer and (b) I've invested a modest amount in keeping it current for a while. It's probably only somewhat cheaper in the long-run, but I've been able to customize it to totally how I want it. So for me, the value is great. For every part I replace or upgrade, I auction the old one on ebay. To date, I've spent well under $1k in upgrades.
Ideal next upgrades would be either the G3/466 card or a G4, a 19-21" Trinitron FD monitor, an Ecrix or Travan-5 tape backup (preferably internal), DVD-RAM drive, and maybe another hard drive in the 50-80GB range.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
beanbear
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Member: B Kim
Location: Chicago, IL
Reviews written: 62
Trusted by: 7 members
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