Forums | MacLife
Wide is the new black
You are not logged in.
#1 2008-02-08 6:23 am
Building the ultimate B&W G3.
Well, I finally got the credit card out and put down the money to build the Ultimate Power Mac G3.
A while back, I acquired an old B&W G3 Server, 450 MHz rev. 2, with two SCSI PCI cards and a quad fast Ethernet card.
It has since been my intention to make this machine my new server, replacing the current Silicon Graphics 320 dual 650 MHz Pentium III Windows 2000 machine.
So, today I ordered a PowerLogix 1 GHz PPC750FX upgrade, 1 GB (4x 256 MB) of PC100, a four port SATA PCI card and an ATI Radeon 9200 video card. The video card is, of course, completely unnecessary for a server, but since I have always been keen on the B&W G3's, I just felt I needed to have the best possible video card in it, thus making it the Ultimate Power Mac G3.
Now, I have two PCI slots left open. Any ideas as to what I might stick in them? I was thinking maybe a gigabit Ethernet card and perhaps FW800/USB2, to top it all off?
,xtG
.tsooJ
Offline
#2 2008-02-08 8:28 am
- dvpierce
- Negusa Negest
- Moderator
- From: Minneapolis, MN
- Registered: 1999-08-30
- Posts: 16311
Re: Building the ultimate B&W G3.
Alien wrote:
Now, I have two PCI slots left open. Any ideas as to what I might stick in them? I was thinking maybe a gigabit Ethernet card and perhaps FW800/USB2, to top it all off?
That would work. I can't think of much else you could use, except for specialty type stuff you wouldn't need on a server, like an A/V card or something.
"Now commences the process of cutting off the head, which generally takes from an hour to an hour and a half by an expert workman with a sharp blade." -Reuben Delano, Wanderings and Adventures
Offline
#3 2008-02-08 3:03 pm
Re: Building the ultimate B&W G3.
I have two old G3 towers whose parts I recently combined(One of their front panel boards is crap).
Between the two of them, I have a SCSI card, an 802.11g card, a 5-port usb2 card, an ata-133 card(One of the towers is a rev. 1), and a Radeon PCI(no number, just "Radeon").
The first one(with the bad front panel board) has a G3/300 overclocked to 350MHz with Arctic Silver 5. The second one has a G3/400 which could not be overclocked. The fan on the Radeon PCI has been removed(because I hated its high-pitched whine) and replaced with a better fan which is held on by Arctic Silver Epoxy.
Eventually I'm going to try building a Hackintosh with the second case.
Offline
#4 2008-02-09 11:48 am
- dvpierce
- Negusa Negest
- Moderator
- From: Minneapolis, MN
- Registered: 1999-08-30
- Posts: 16311
Re: Building the ultimate B&W G3.
Ooh... use it as a WAP. Hadn't thought of that.
"Now commences the process of cutting off the head, which generally takes from an hour to an hour and a half by an expert workman with a sharp blade." -Reuben Delano, Wanderings and Adventures
Offline
#5 2008-02-09 5:33 pm
- NightCougar_37
- Has been Larrabee vaccinated..have you?
- From: The back of my Netherdrake
- Registered: 2001-07-22
- Posts: 8700
- Website
Re: Building the ultimate B&W G3.
Didn't have any 750GX left? Would have been a better chip.
"Hideki...Full of energy!!"
"Chiiii!!!"
Offline
#6 2008-02-10 7:05 am
Offline
#7 2008-02-10 4:20 pm
Re: Building the ultimate B&W G3.
I was always interested in in the idea of upgrading the B&W with a G4 CPU, but never did. A link on this page explains how.
http://xlr8yourmac.com/G3-ZONE/yosemite/
Offline
#8 2008-02-11 9:41 am
- stephen
- Slack monkey
- From: UK
- Registered: 2002-09-28
- Posts: 282
Re: Building the ultimate B&W G3.
My B&W has an Nvidia FX5200 card in it. It does core image......if you want to pimp out more than with a R9200!
Dual 2GHz G5:3GB/460GB/Radeon 9600/LaCie 300GB/Formac Studio TVR/BT Keys
B&W G3: G4-500/1GB/120GB/NVidia 5200FX PCI/DVR-106
Offline
#9 2008-02-11 10:06 am
Re: Building the ultimate B&W G3.
adamjg wrote:
I was always interested in in the idea of upgrading the B&W with a G4 CPU, but never did. A link on this page explains how.
http://xlr8yourmac.com/G3-ZONE/yosemite/
Never really looked at G4 upgrades. I want I/O and raw integer processing, so the 750GX will do me nicely without reducing bus speed to 66 MHz like the G4's require.
stephen wrote:
My B&W has an Nvidia FX5200 card in it. It does core image......if you want to pimp out more than with a R9200!
Well, I'm in the process of acquiring a second 1 GHz B&W right now, so I'll bear that in mind... Although video is really not needed on a server, so no rush.
On the production server, I'll probably go without video output at all (maybe leave in the Rage128 in case of emergency), but it will sure be nice to be able to hang dual 21" Studio Displays off of the 9200 on the test server.
,xtG
.tsooJ
Offline
#10 2008-02-28 9:04 pm
- pkmgarf
- Member
- From: Sussex, WI
- Registered: 2007-06-13
- Posts: 435
Re: Building the ultimate B&W G3.
I'd throw in USB2.0 and FW if you need it. That and a wireless card. There are numerous third party ones that work (unoficially, as you won't find many advertised for Mac use that aren't crazy expensive). Other than that....no idea. Depends what else you want to do with it. There's not much else you would need as a server Machine.
Offline
#11 2008-03-05 8:54 pm
- TravisReynolds
- Member
- From: Seattle
- Registered: 2008-03-02
- Posts: 70
- Website
Re: Building the ultimate B&W G3.
so you built your own mac?
From the one, and Only Travis Reynolds. You stay classy San Diego
Offline
#12 2008-03-05 9:25 pm
- FutureDreamz
- 1.1.2.3.5.8.13.21.34.55
- From: カナダ
- Registered: 2007-01-07
- Posts: 4491
Re: Building the ultimate B&W G3.
TravisReynolds wrote:
so you built your own mac?
You can't legally do this with mac OS X. It's an old PowerMac.
Thanks for clicking.
Offline
#13 2008-03-06 10:45 am
- dvpierce
- Negusa Negest
- Moderator
- From: Minneapolis, MN
- Registered: 1999-08-30
- Posts: 16311
Re: Building the ultimate B&W G3.
FutureDreamz wrote:
TravisReynolds wrote:
so you built your own mac?
You can't legally do this with mac OS X. It's an old PowerMac.
Not exactly.
"Now commences the process of cutting off the head, which generally takes from an hour to an hour and a half by an expert workman with a sharp blade." -Reuben Delano, Wanderings and Adventures
Offline
#14 2008-03-06 7:00 pm
- FutureDreamz
- 1.1.2.3.5.8.13.21.34.55
- From: カナダ
- Registered: 2007-01-07
- Posts: 4491
Re: Building the ultimate B&W G3.
dvpierce wrote:
FutureDreamz wrote:
TravisReynolds wrote:
so you built your own mac?
You can't legally do this with mac OS X. It's an old PowerMac.
Not exactly.
::double checks::
I stand corrected.
Thanks for clicking.
Offline
#15 2008-04-21 12:38 pm
- XRA
- Member
- From: Dallas, Texas
- Registered: 2000-12-30
- Posts: 2325
Re: Building the ultimate B&W G3.
adamjg wrote:
I was always interested in in the idea of upgrading the B&W with a G4 CPU, but never did. A link on this page explains how.
http://xlr8yourmac.com/G3-ZONE/yosemite/
I've got a B&W with a G4/450 (originally a G3/350) in it, unfortunately, the logic board is dead. 
Very easy to upgrade.
The best portion of a good man's life are the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.
- William Wordsworth
Offline
#16 2008-04-21 4:08 pm
- pkmgarf
- Member
- From: Sussex, WI
- Registered: 2007-06-13
- Posts: 435
Re: Building the ultimate B&W G3.
The logic boards aren't that expensive. Well, at least the old PowerMac G4's aren't. I bought one for my Gigabit Ethernet for like $30 when I thought the ethernet port on mine went dead (it came back to life and I sold the board for the same price). Maybe the G3's are more expensive?
Offline
#17 2008-04-25 3:31 am
- Temetka
- High Priest
- From: Behind the altar...
- Registered: 2002-07-02
- Posts: 2149
Re: Building the ultimate B&W G3.
No. I have been finding Rev1 G3 boards for less than $20 in SoCal and Rev2 boards are roughly $35. I picked up a Rev2 to replace my flakey Rev1 and my home server is much happier now.
Puddlemonkey said: My High Priest Rules!
Jdude wrote: Anything in the name of Temetka, I suppose.
Metallica wrote: Obey your Master!
Offline
