Q's for Mac G3 owners

Q\'s for Mac G3 owners

Just bought a G3 on ebay for $90 /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbsup.gif Can't believe they are so cheap. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/huh.gif My buddy has one that he uses for music production and I got mine for the same reason. we are both musicians that played in the same bands for several years now. I will be using Mark of the Unicorn for digital multi track recording. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/buttrock.gif

So, the one I got has a built in I omega zip drive. How will this work and what does it do?
And what do I have to do to get a USB port installed?
If I think of anything else I'll post later.
Thanks! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Re: Q\'s for Mac G3 owners

Well, I used to have g3 266mhz. I do recommend you upgrade the cpu 500mhz either newtech or other brand. The zip100 is just basically good for backup files like your personal's doc, .txt or whatever.

music tracking. I would recommend upgrade larger memory 512mb or 1gb rams. these are cheap nowtoday.

Re: Q\'s for Mac G3 owners

I've had terrible luck with Iomega zip and jaz drives. Personally I would toss them before they develop the Click of Death. Definitely get scads of RAM and consider a CPU upgrade card and a bigger hard drive (try Other World Computing). To get USB, you need a little PCI card with USB ports and OS 8.6 or higher. And you can replace the CDROM drive with CD-RW.

Re: Q\'s for Mac G3 owners

Yeah just trash the Zip drive. What's the specs on the G3? Is it a beige or a blue and white? Check out:

http://www.lowendmac.com

Re: Q\'s for Mac G3 owners

Zip drives may not be able to hold the amount of data that recording could require/produce. You may be better off getting an external 200 gig firewire drice from LaCie (assuming that you have firewire).

Re: Q\'s for Mac G3 owners

Sabby, thanks for the link.
It is a beige unit, motherboard unknown, am currently awaiting payment to clear and it's arrival.

My friend has nearly the same one, I say nearly as I don't have mine in hand yet. He is running a Mark of the Unicorn hard disk recording/sequencing program and Toast, plus a sampling program and another audio program I can't remember.

We have had experienced any speed problems, but he has upgraded to alot of Ram. I will probably follow suit as I will be using the same program. But I want to see prices to determine how far I can afford to go with upgrades.

I have a spare "ACER" external CDRW that I want to use, hence the USB.

Re: Q\'s for Mac G3 owners

Yeah the beige G3s are kind of tough. On the one hand they're cheap, so you can afford to do a lot on upgrading. On the other hand they're lacking most the standard features that came with B&W G3 (Firewire, USB, that nifty enclosure)

Great starter machine, you should love it. Start putting some money away now for when you want to buy a Powerbook a year from now /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinser2.gif

Re: Q\'s for Mac G3 owners

The beige G3s are not as friendly for upgrades. They had 3 different motherboards, the first gen will allow only one USB, not the two sided cards. There are several known issues with adding them, like not being able to use the sleep mode.

I would suggest not putting alot into upgrades. Play with it. You'll like it so well, that you'll want to get a newer one. Even just the early B/W are much more friendly for upgrades.

Re: Q\'s for Mac G3 owners

Here's what I got,
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4127302137&category=14911&sspagename=STRK%3AMEBWN%3AIT&rd=1

Its a Revision B board.

Hate to sound stupid but what is the Firewire?

My buddy has some stuff he is going to give me too. A modem, converter to use spare monitor I got, and an internal CD burner. I found a $22 USB card I can add and a 256mb memory stick for $60 shipped.
I do have an external CDRW, an "Acer". Do you think I will be able to get it to work with the G3?
I'm just using the G3 for recording so I'm not worried about anything else.

Re: Q\'s for Mac G3 owners

I'm pretty sure the Rev B will support a double sided USB card. You need to check and see what the config of your RAM is. IIRC you have 1 permanent slot and two add on slots. If all three are being used, then you have to remove one to add a new one, so it won't be 128 + 256. Also, there's a limit on the size chip it'll accept. I don't remember if it was 128 or 256. I know that it won't accept a single 512.

Re: Q\'s for Mac G3 owners

Here is a link to a much better explanation than I could ever give.

http://www.apple.com/firewire/