Is OS X on 450Mhz G3 iMac DV+ Fast Enough?

alpha575alpha575
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Hey guys, good to be back talking about macs again. About two years ago I sold my mom my old iMac DV+. She uses is for her business selling things on ebay. She basically takes pictures, and uses the internet, and that's about it. She knows how to do what she does, but it's all a 'step-by-step' type thing. She really doesn't know why things work, just that certain steps will do what she wants.

Anyway, it's getting to the point where the old OS 9.2 isn't cutting it, and there really aren't any modern browsers available for the OS. We really don't want to spend any more money than we have to, but we were considering getting a new Mac Mini. I was wondering if OS X will run with reasonable speed on the iMac DV+. If so we'd just upgrade it and use it for quite a bit longer. Anyone had experience with OS X on a similar iMac and wish to share?



Thanks a lot.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    steve666steve666 Posts: 2,600member
    I have a iMac G3400DV with OSX Panther and 576 Mb RAM.

    It works fine, maybe not a speed demon but certainly works better than I thought it would.



    Just remember to have 512Mb RAM. Less will slow it down
  • Reply 2 of 5
    costiquecostique Posts: 1,084member
    I have exactly iMacDV+ 450MHz with 256MB RAM. It's good enough for web surfing, Mail/Entourage, iTunes, Office, even games like Age Of Empires. iPhoto is slow, though for some reason it's relatively slow on a G5 too. There is one caveat, though: the iMac has a 5400 RPM drive, which sucks with virtual memory. So to have a machine which won't annoy your mom you should really put 512MB RAM in it. It makes more practical sense than changing a HD (like I did).
  • Reply 3 of 5
    imac davidimac david Posts: 286member
    My girlfriend has the exactly the same setup. It works absolutely fine under OSX10.2.8, though like others have said, up the RAM. I have 768 installed.



    David
  • Reply 4 of 5
    stupider...likeafoxstupider...likeafox Posts: 1,618member
    I'm just about to do the same for a relative (though with only 350MHz). I've heard enough to convince me to shell out for 512MB of memory rather than put that money towards a Mac mini (might still advise them to get one later if/when they complain about the speed).



    I also intend to try out ShadowKiller (http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/shadowkiller). I'm not the world's biggest fan of haxies but if there is a noticeable speed difference I will go with it. However, as they say themselves, your mileage may vary.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    smirclesmircle Posts: 1,035member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by alpha575

    We really don't want to spend any more money than we have to, but we were considering getting a new Mac Mini. I was wondering if OS X will run with reasonable speed on the iMac DV+.



    Depends what speed you expect. I have a PowerBook titanium 400 (512MB) and had it running both on OS 9.2 and OS X 10.3 and the speed is noticeably slower while running OS X.

    If you mother is not bothered by getting back a slower computer, go for OS X, but remember to upgrade the RAM.



    If you are going to buy OS X (vs. pirating it), you need to weight the price of a license versus selling the iMac on eBay and investing the money into a much more futureproof Mac Mini and a display.
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