Forums | MacLife

DMODE · 2007-08-11 12:05 pm

There is no way I was going to go out and spend 2 grand on a new mac. I am not poor, but man I am not rich either. So I got a used G3, I bought a copy of tony hawk 2, nice game. It's plays really good, like my gamecube, I have tony hawk wasteland on that, anyway. I really don't need it for gaming but that tells what the Mac can do. The web is not helping me fine g3 software. You guys been there done that, but I need help finding the names of good g3 software, photo editing, writing software, ect. This software, when I get it will tell me if I'm ready to make the big jump and put PC behide me. I have the MAC bug. I think I want to, but I need to get to the basics with this cool looking little desktop I'm looking at. I tell you for 600 MHz it's faster that a 1.7 PC.

Pariah · 2007-08-11 12:31 pm

Macupdate.com is your friend for finding Mac software. A great Graphics app is GraphicConverter. Think of it like Irfanview on steroids.
Be sure to look over the provided manual PDF to appreciate all GraphicConverter can do.
Don't look for G3 specific apps, what is more important is the system version you have. Lots of apps require 10.2 or newer, many 10.3 or newer and an increasing number 10.4. That should be revealed by the system requirement statements that go along with the software.
Welcome to the Mac.

DMODE · 2007-08-11 12:43 pm

Thank you, WOW I get. It's just a new way of saying stuff. A 10.4 game won't run on a 10.2 but a 10.2 game will run on a 10.4. The other thing with the video? Like the PC is 8 to 256 in numbers. Like my PC's Have been 8 to like 128 on the newer one. This MAC I'm guessing is 8 or 16 with a 3D bust maybe. Like my gamecube is ATI. Can VIdeo cards be upgraded in mac, because I heard they could not. Thats why I alway heard MAC where the best in so many ways, because there made to do the cool stuff. PCs you have to build it to how you like it. . I think Hollywood does all there FX ect with MACs. BUt if antthing this run tony hawk 2 really nice.

Pariah · 2007-08-11 1:04 pm

DMODE wrote:
Thank you, WOW I get. It's just a new way of saying stuff. A 10.4 game won't run on a 10.2 but a 10.2 game will run on a 10.4. The other thing with the video? Like the PC is 8 to 256 in numbers. Like my PC's Have been 8 to like 128 on the newer one. This MAC I'm guessing is 8 or 16 with a 3D bust maybe. Like my gamecube is ATI. Can VIdeo cards be upgraded in mac, because I heard they could not. Thats why I alway heard MAC where the best in so many ways, because there made to do the cool stuff. PCs you have to build it to how you like it. . I think Hollywood does all there FX ect with MACs. BUt if antthing this run tony hawk 2 really nice.

If you have a tower G3 you can upgrade the video but not with a iMac. But there is no point in upgrading a G3 to be honest. You would be much better off performance wise and value wise getting a G4 if the G3 isnt filling your needs.

DMODE · 2007-08-11 1:15 pm

Sounds Great, I'm going to learn on My iMAC, get a few programs. Learn the real feel of owning MAC then I'll drop a few grand for a new one, and when I go current I'll go current my friend. Thanks for all the help, but if you or anybody knows of just some really good G3 software I might be missing out on , please let me know I just spent 200 bucks for this for a MAC thats like 7 years old plus 40 for tony hawk so I'm going to get at least a year out of it, with a few more programs of course. This is a great site my the way.

Pariah · 2007-08-11 1:46 pm

It might be better if you asked for software to do stuff you want, there is a huge amount of great Mac software around.

KrowMagnum · 2007-08-11 2:33 pm

Don't forget the Open Source software....... there's tons of it out there for OS X.

GIMP is a decent photo Editor and is free Open Source software. Photoshop is still the best, but shareware like the Graphic Converter app mentioned is pretty good for the money.

Most Macs are just like PC's and can be upgraded in the same ways. Except of course the iMacs which were never intended to be user upgradable expept for hard drives and RAM.
When looking for Mac upgrades always remember it has to be Mac compatible. With the Mac's small marketshare Mac hardware and software is not as plentiful as x86 stuff but is getting better every year. Video cards are really the only hardware limit on Macs anymore, a large precentage of other hardware is cross platform and works fine with Macs.

There's nothing a PC can do that a Mac can't.......and usually do better.

Random User · 2007-08-11 2:56 pm

KrowMagnum wrote:
There's nothing a PC can do that a Mac can't.......and usually do better.

Except excel at gaming.

NightCougar_37 · 2007-08-11 3:30 pm

Yeah still if you want gaming, your better off with a PC gaming rig. Custom rigs of course provide better options than prebuilts. I still use my Macs for stuff but when it comes to games its either spend $2.5k on a new Mac tower or sub $500 to upgrade my custom PC. Till I get more $$ coming in I just learn to deal with all the crappiness of Windows.

D'Eyncourt · 2007-08-11 4:13 pm

If you have some specific program or function in mind, you might take a look at what is available through Version Tracker. Note that in second bar near the top you can specify a version of Mac OS to use in the search (including Mac Classic AKA Mac OS 9).

Pariah did not mention that there is also an increasing hardware split: some software can only be run on the newer Intel-based Macs and not on the older PPC-based Macs (of which your G3 is one). While you are searching for software you might look for any notation specifying this as well.

DMODE · 2007-08-11 5:43 pm

The hardware split, thats good to know also. Whatever I get for the G3, like I'm thinking MP3's I have or 4000 mp3s. Plus Picture editing. ANd writing. When I go to a G5 or whatever they have going in a year or so. The G3 software will go with the G3. I play most of my games on the gamecube. I think I'll get a better console when I beat the 20 gamecubes games I got, I think I've beat 4 of them, so that will be a long time for that to. SO THE iMAC IS FOR MUSIC STORAGE,AND MP3 PLAYER TRANFER, PICTURE EDITING, MAKING HOME PHOTOS LOOK REALLY COOL. AND WRITING WITH A SPELL CHECKER. OH PLUS SURFING THE NET. i DON'T THINK I BE ABLE TO DO THE COOL VIDEO EDITING (MOVIEMAKING) TIL I UPGRADE TO A BETTER MAC. I LOVE THIS SITE, YOU PEOPLE ARE HELPING ME SO MUCH, THANK YOU

dv · 2007-08-11 5:56 pm

YOURE WELCOME. lol

Glad you're getting along. I have a 600 MHz G3 iMac and it's really not a bad machine. You'll probably like iMovie pretty well if you're getting into making movies for the first time. Be forewarned - it's an older machine, probably won't render video to XVid or DivX very fast. Oh, it'll work, but be prepared to be patient.

Your iMac has an ATI rage 128 video card, with 8 MBs of VRAM. It's not upgradeable.

If you do upgrade the hard drive - which you might want to do if home video becomes your new hobby - I would suggest sticking with a 5400 rpm or at the most a 7200 rpm unit - the higher speed drives generate more heat, and the machine itself is fanless - uses convection cooling. The extra degrees from a 10k RPM hard drive probably won't hurt the HD, but they might kick your CPU temp of the edge and cause system instability.

Best of luck with your new machine.

DMODE · 2007-08-11 6:36 pm

Cool, I have 40 gb right now. From what I gathered I can go to 128, And I know they have 120gb out there. So like maybe a 120 seagate. I watched this guy on youtube do a upgrade. He put a new harddrive, new ram plus he got a dvd frontloader off ebay from another imac that was cool, he did so he could upgrade his OS. I might do the samething he did oneday. or just upgrade, but I like this little baby. The mouse(the one button) cool thats all you need. YOU SEE I'M GEEKED OUT OVER THE MOUSE, LOL
And once again the no fan thing, I did not know that. I'll get a 5400 if i do need more space. I live in Arizona so it 100 outside and 74 inside so I'll that good to know about a hotter running harddrive.

Pariah · 2007-08-11 10:15 pm

DMODE wrote:
Cool, I have 40 gb right now. From what I gathered I can go to 128, And I know they have 120gb out there. So like maybe a 120 seagate. I watched this guy on youtube do a upgrade. He put a new harddrive, new ram plus he got a dvd frontloader off ebay from another imac that was cool, he did so he could upgrade his OS. I might do the samething he did oneday. or just upgrade, but I like this little baby. The mouse(the one button) cool thats all you need. YOU SEE I'M GEEKED OUT OVER THE MOUSE, LOL
And once again the no fan thing, I did not know that. I'll get a 5400 if i do need more space. I live in Arizona so it 100 outside and 74 inside so I'll that good to know about a hotter running harddrive.

Don't bother upgrading your internal, I am pretty sure you have both USB2 and Firewire so you would be better off adding an external drive. They are cheap enough now.
While a USB2 external will be cheaper keep in mind that on Mac USB is not bootible but the slightly more expensive Firewire drives are bootible so you could move your whole system onto the faster, bigger external drive.
You really should browse and download interesting sounding graphics apps from sites like Macupdate.com and versiontracker.com altho I have to say I find macupdate to be much easier to use and I would recommend them over versiontracker.
There are just tons of really nice little image editors floating around in the Mac world, you are bound to like one or more.
Like I said before GraphicConverter is a great graphics utility with a pretty extensive set of photo enhancing tools, particularly for color/hue/contrast adjustments.. Its available here:
http://www.lemkesoft.com/
GC is very useful in non-paid demo mode and provides access to advanced features after paying the shareware fee.

You mentioned MP3 playing and the obvious solution is iTunes. It works great and will network flawlessly for sharing with your PCs.

DMODE · 2007-08-11 11:26 pm

I'm glad you brought up the external drive. O.K. Wow here I go. Now the external harddrive, so if I go usb does the iMAC have highspeed usb. By bootible, does that mean I have to boot from the harddrive inside the iMAC with the OS on it, and use the external for media. If I can do it that way can the usb play avi fast through the cord? How does firewire work, I know, I know I've had PC for 10 years and have no idea what firewire is. It just got past me. Plus a external dvd drive, can that work the iMAC.

DMODE · 2007-08-11 11:27 pm

http://www.lemkesoft.com/ THANK YOU!

Nefarious · 2007-08-12 4:43 am

Firewire is like USB 2.0 but better.

One advantage is that you can boot off of a Firewire drive if it has a system installed on it.

Another advantage is Target Disk Mode. You may need this one day. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58583

Firewire 400 is approximately equal to USB 2.0 in speed.

Newer Macs have Firewire 800.

In the future, Firewire 1600 ?

Lee_Roy · 2007-08-12 11:46 am

I had that same iMac back in the day. It only has USB 1.1 and Firewire. I would get a Lacie Firewire drive with dual or triple connections (USB 2, Firewire 400 & Firewire 800) so when you move to a new intel Mac you have more connection choices. Also what version of OS are you running? Mac OS 9, X (10.1 or 10.2). Also you might want to consider going to a store that sells Macs and see how the latest and greatest look and feel, that iMac isn't worth investing any money into.

DMODE · 2007-08-12 12:32 pm

My OS is

Mac OS 10.2, Jaguar

Hey LEE ROY, Thanks for the info. If I go looking at the new Mac, I will fold. My wife would be so MAD. LOL. I don't plan on going crazy with athe iMAC. Just getting some photo, writing and mp3 software. Maybe 2 or 3 cool games that were really cool 4 or 5 years ago. Then in about a year or so. I'll go buy a brand new MAC. I could spend maybe 3 grand, so if I'm going to do that I what to know I'm 100% MAC. I am so sick of PC. Every 6 month I'm taking everything off the harddrive. (Everything is backed up). And putting the OS on, so it is new again. Viruses love me. I don't know why. I don't even P2P anymore. But I still get then. And I know Apple has that stuff under control. Thanks for looking out

DMODE · 2007-08-12 12:33 pm

Thanks for the Firewire info, and the link!

dv · 2007-08-12 4:19 pm

Yeah, just USB 1.1 on that thing. FireWire is the way to go for an external drive.

DMODE · 2007-08-12 4:48 pm

Firewire it is! Thanks

DMODE · 2007-08-12 4:49 pm

How old is Mac OS 10.2, Jaguar . Did it come out when Windows XP come out, or is it like Windows 98. Please don't say Windows 95 LOL

Pariah · 2007-08-12 5:13 pm

A good place to get parts and peripherals guaranteed to work with Macs:

macsales.com

DMODE · 2007-08-12 5:57 pm

Look what I found ...

http://iindigo3d.com/blog/?page_id=40

Forums | MacLife

#1 2007-08-11 12:05 pm

I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#2 2007-08-11 12:31 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#3 2007-08-11 12:43 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#4 2007-08-11 1:04 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

DMODE wrote:

#5 2007-08-11 1:15 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#6 2007-08-11 1:46 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#7 2007-08-11 2:33 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#8 2007-08-11 2:56 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

KrowMagnum wrote:

#9 2007-08-11 3:30 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#10 2007-08-11 4:13 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#11 2007-08-11 5:43 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#12 2007-08-11 5:56 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#13 2007-08-11 6:36 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#14 2007-08-11 10:15 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

DMODE wrote:

#15 2007-08-11 11:26 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#16 2007-08-11 11:27 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#17 2007-08-12 4:43 am

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#18 2007-08-12 11:46 am

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#19 2007-08-12 12:32 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#20 2007-08-12 12:33 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#21 2007-08-12 4:19 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#22 2007-08-12 4:48 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#23 2007-08-12 4:49 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#24 2007-08-12 5:13 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

#25 2007-08-12 5:57 pm

Re: I owned 5 pc's starting with a p133 to a 1.7 Dell. NOW TIME TO GO MAC

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