OS X on an iMac 400 G3

imac david · December 27, 2002 8:34AM

Hi all,

a friend of mine has a 2 year old CRT iMac G3 400Mhz. I am tempted to urge her to upgrade to OS X, but am wondering about performance. She'll also add RAM, to either 256 or 512 (at the moment she only has the original 64MB pre-installed).

Any comments from anybody with this set up?

Cheers

David

boardwalk2 · December 27, 2002 8:43AM

Been using OS X (now to 10.2.3) on an iMac G3, 400 MHz, 384MB RAM. Work very well and you will surprised with its performance and stability even on a 2 or 3 year old computer. Upgraded from 128 MB to 384 MB as part of 10.1 upgrade - made a big difference.

thegelding · December 27, 2002 9:03AM

my kids have the same set up as boardwalk2....1999 blueberry iMac DV 400 with 384 of ram...runs 10.2.2 well....for the things they do it seems to run almost as well as my iMac 800 G4....but they mostly do email and im and surf the web and stuff like that....i would say go for it, but really up the ram to at least 384 or higher if you can....g

rhoq · December 27, 2002 9:08AM

I have an iMac 350 and I am currently running OS-X 10.2.3

It runs very smoothly and you will be glad you made the jump to X. Definitely increase your memory. I went from 192MB to 512MB...

microtrash · December 28, 2002 11:45AM

If you want good performance on your 400mhz, you need at least 384meg RAM (512 recommended) and I sugest to change also your hard drive for a faster one. Since 7200RPM 40GB are "cheap" you can gain a lot of performance, because OS X read a LOT of files as opposed to OS 9. I can tell you that my friend's 450mhz imac with 7200RPM HD is a little faster that the new 600mhz imac of my father with is 5400RPM HD.

[ 12-28-2002: Message edited by: microtrash ]

keda · December 28, 2002 3:41PM

I'm posting this from a Lime iMacDV 400/786. It runs great. My comparisons are my G4/500 at work and my Beige G4/500 upstairs. They might be a bit faster, but this little Mac keeps up just fine.

I whole-heartedly say rake the plunge (w/more RAM).

ast3r3x · December 28, 2002 4:08PM

i am posting from a B&W G3 400Mhz, with 384 RAM. It runs very fine and there are no major delays, 10 wasn't really useable because fo speed until 10.1.x and then even after that it was a little annoying but wit 10.2.x it is fun in the sun with no crashes and speed extremly close to 9.

kingofsomewherehot · December 28, 2002 8:45PM

i use an iMac 266 with 192MB, and Jag runs just fine on it. ... certainly good enough for anything a GIRL would use it for !

(

just kidding ladies

)

imac david · December 29, 2002 3:31AM

Hi,

thanks for the comments guys. I will take the plunge (just bought 512MB of memory, now Jaguar!).

One comment surprised me - upgrading the HD. I thought the CRT iMacs are not upgradeable? She only has a 10G HD, and I must admit that when I put on some of my MP3s I suspect it will be used up quickly!

Can I upgrade, or did you mean buy an external Firewire HD?

Cheers

David

eman · December 29, 2002 10:27AM

You can upgrade the internal hard drive.

thegelding · December 29, 2002 10:45AM

the old iMac2day site had instructions on how to upgrade the internal hard drive...didn't look too hard...there was some debate about going to 7200 rpm because of the increased heat in a computer without a fan....if you want to be safe, go 5400 rpm and if you are a risk taker, go 7200.....g

brad probably can link to the site for you....

pscates · December 29, 2002 10:51AM

Hi David -

I had a 400MHz iMac DV for a couple of years and pretty much ran OS X on it from last autumn (2001) until I sold it to a buddy in March of 2002.

I had 384MB on it and was running 10.1 and was very happy. I'm hoping to get with my buddy sometime in the next several months and bump her up to 512MB and install Jaguar for her.

I (and she now) was very happy with it. I think it's a RAM thing, to be honest. As long as you have plenty, OS X seems to scoot along rather nicely. And RAM for those types of iMacs is REALLY cheap, so why not have 512MB (or more)?

And yes, regarding the hard drive: it most certainly can be upgraded. However, I've read in several places that they recommend NOT sticking in a 7200RPM model because the iMac's lack of a fan. There may be heat issues raised by sticking in a hard drived that's faster than the 5400RPM ones that came with the iMac DV series.

I'd hate to risk that. I actually got mine upgraded from the original 10GB to 20GB (it was a warranty replacement for a bad hard drive and when they ordered the replacement from Apple, Apple sent the shop a 20GB instead...said they didn't do the 10GB ones anymore).

There was an article in Macworld, about a year ago, that outlined - step by step, and with photos - how to upgrade the hard drive in the iMacs (both the original tray-loading series AND the slot-loading DV models).

Here you go (found it online at their website):

<a href="http://www.macworld.com/2001/10/howto/imac.html"; target="_blank">http://www.macworld.com/2001/10/howto/imac.html</a>;

microtrash · December 29, 2002 12:37PM

[quote]Originally posted by pscates:



And yes, regarding the hard drive: it most certainly can be upgraded. However, I've read in several places that they recommend NOT sticking in a 7200RPM model because the iMac's lack of a fan. There may be heat issues raised by sticking in a hard drived that's faster than the 5400RPM ones that came with the iMac DV series.

I'd hate to risk that. I actually got mine upgraded from the original 10GB to 20GB (it was a warranty replacement for a bad hard drive and when they ordered the replacement from Apple, Apple sent the shop a 20GB instead...said they didn't do the 10GB ones anymore).<hr></blockquote>

I dont think 7200RPM HD will cause heat problems in iMac, since all top of the line iMac have 7200RPM disk. (starting with slot-loading 400mhz SE, then the 450 and 500mhz of july 00, the 600mhz of feb 01 and I think the 700mhz of july 01) I know this because at work I tested some different iMac at shool and HD speed vary a lot, and is not associated with CPU speed. (like 400 SE faster than a 500 low end)

paul · December 29, 2002 12:42PM

[quote]Originally posted by microtrash:



I dont think 7200RPM HD will cause heat problems in iMac, since all top of the line iMac have 7200RPM disk.<hr></blockquote>

ummmmmmm no

all iMac HD speeds from apple ARE(and were...) 5400 RPM

but i don't think the increased heat will cause problems if you install a 7200 RPM drive...

microtrash · December 30, 2002 9:54PM

[quote]Originally posted by Paul:



ummmmmmm no

all iMac HD speeds from apple ARE(and were...) 5400 RPM<hr></blockquote>

well.. ok. But how can you explain the so big speed difference between imac HD ? I've installed office 2001 at school, and installation was faster on 400mhz high-end imac than a 450 mid-end or 500 low-end.

I've take a look at dev docs on apple website, but nothing is wrote on HD speed exept for G4.

squash · December 30, 2002 10:45PM

Do yourself a favor and get an external firewire drive. I believe you stated above about thinking about it. Nothing is easier, when upgrading than just unplugging and re-plugging it in to the new machine. No extra BS, and the external fw drives work great.

To me ..putting a larger hd into an older imac is a waste of money and time.

paul · December 31, 2002 6:50AM

[quote]Originally posted by microtrash:



well.. ok. But how can you explain the so big speed difference between imac HD ? I've installed office 2001 at school, and installation was faster on 400mhz high-end imac than a 450 mid-end or 500 low-end.

I've take a look at dev docs on apple website, but nothing is wrote on HD speed exept for G4.<hr></blockquote>

lots of things can account for HD access speed...

fragmentation being the main one... but things like bad blocks can also cause slow access... an old desktop DB in OS 9...

HD RPM isnt the only thing that dictates how fast data is transfered between the HD and RAM...

who knows... maybe the iMac that were "top of the line" weren't used as much...

but there is no speed difference in terms of specs between HDs on anything except Towers (and PBs... but not anymore)

seb · December 31, 2002 8:45PM

Make sure you update the firmware first - it's on the OS X CD.

<a href="http://forums.appleinsider.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=5&t=001813"; target="_blank">or else</a>

neurokid · December 31, 2002 9:02PM

[quote]Originally posted by iMac David:

Hi all,

a friend of mine has a 2 year old CRT iMac G3 400Mhz. I am tempted to urge her to upgrade to OS X, but am wondering about performance. She'll also add RAM, to either 256 or 512 (at the moment she only has the original 64MB pre-installed).

Any comments from anybody with this set up?

Cheers

David<hr></blockquote>

Contrary to what you've read here, you will certainly NOT see good performance of OSX on an iMac G3. This OS is extremely demanding on the processor, graphics card, and memory, and older G3 systems just don't cut it. Let's face it guys...I love Apple as much as you do, but this OS is barely acceptable performace-wise on thier fastest g4 systems!

luca · December 31, 2002 11:03PM

It'll be usable. Not stellar. Not very good even. But if you'll only be using really, really basic applications, like Mail and a browser, and AIM, and only one at a time, it will do. Only do it if you really need the features.

In fact, it'll be better for some things but worse for others. For example, although OS X is a memory hog, it's better at memory management than OS 9, which eliminates restarting in order to "clean the slate" and eliminate lost bits of RAM. Also, for multitasking, it'll be better. Everything will run slowly at once, but at least you will be able to do multiple things at once.

However, I would still recommend staying with OS 9. It's right for your machine... OS X is not.

eman · December 31, 2002 11:55PM

[quote]Originally posted by neurokid:



Contrary to what you've read here, you will certainly NOT see good performance of OSX on an iMac G3. This OS is extremely demanding on the processor, graphics card, and memory, and older G3 systems just don't cut it. Let's face it guys...I love Apple as much as you do, but this OS is barely acceptable performace-wise on thier fastest g4 systems!<hr></blockquote>

If my 500MHz iBook runs Jaguar fine there's no reason why a 400MHz iMac wouldn't.

And by the way, OS X is great on the fastest G4s.

OS X on an iMac 400 G3

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