Sign In
Register
Help
My daughter has a 400Mhz G3 10 GB iMAC. (Purple)
I am looking for advice on how and the best ways to upgrade.
It has one DIMM1/J13 chip (64MB) and one DIMM/J14 (128MB) chiip. Can either or both of those be upgraded to a 256MB chip? I believe both can go to 512Mb or 1GB. If so, recommendations on the vendor/chip would be appreciated.
Also need to upgrade the hard drive. What are the options?
Thanks so much for any replies
Page 1 of 1
Upgrading a G3 400mhz 10GB imac
#1
afternoonsand 
- Newbie
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 14
- Joined: 20-December 03
Posted 20 December 2003 - 01:08 PM
MultiQuote
#2
PCsmashr
- Member
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 426
- Joined: 14-August 03
Posted 21 December 2003 - 10:23 PM
I dont know, ive never got into the guts of an imac before. The ram is easy to change, as its rigth in front, but the hard drive is burried deeper. try www.xlr8yourmac.com for info on upgrading components. For ram, you should go with crucial manufacturer (www.crucial.com) They have the best warranty and shipping (all orders of ram over 30$ free shipping) For a hard drive upgrade, ive always used maxtor hard drives, and they have never once failed me. Hope this helps you. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
#3
DanLopez17
- Member
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 181
- Joined: 11-June 01
Posted 22 December 2003 - 10:18 PM
Start your research here:
http://www.everymac....imac/stats/imac[/u]dv400.html
So... as for memory, you need to ensure that you purchase PC100 or PC133/100 SDRAM. 512MB chips are quite expensive and not everyone caries them, but 2 chips of 256MB each will bring you up to 512MB total, which is more than excellent for most applications.
As for the hard drive, you need to think about what the uses for this machine will include, and then estimate the storage you would like to have accordingly. You don't need much more than a 40GB drive unless you're planning on editing movies or music. Then again, an 80GB drive wouldn't hurt.
Be aware that different boards have different capabilities. I do not have your model, so I don't know if there is a maximum capacity or what it is. My Mac has been behaving beautifully with 512MB and a 60GB HD. I'm nowhere near running out of HD space. Then again, I don't have music, movies, or other interesting files on my hard drive. It all depends on what you're going to do. But that's what I would recommend... 512MB RAM, 60+ GB HD.
As for who/where, there are many brands/vendors. I would check local stores (Best Buy, CompUSA, etc) to see what the promotions are, then check out Other World Computing
. Brands I would recommend for memory would be Kingston, Viking, Mushkin, and Crucial. For hard drives, Seagate, Western Digital, Maxtor. Those lists are actually in my order of preference. To be honest, I've used all those brands in my personal computers and never had a problem. I have, however, noticed that the computers I troubleshoot that have bad hard drives have tended to have Maxtor drives. Then again, that may have just been a bad batch (because this was a series of drives from a bulk purchase).
http://www.everymac....imac/stats/imac[/u]dv400.html
So... as for memory, you need to ensure that you purchase PC100 or PC133/100 SDRAM. 512MB chips are quite expensive and not everyone caries them, but 2 chips of 256MB each will bring you up to 512MB total, which is more than excellent for most applications.
As for the hard drive, you need to think about what the uses for this machine will include, and then estimate the storage you would like to have accordingly. You don't need much more than a 40GB drive unless you're planning on editing movies or music. Then again, an 80GB drive wouldn't hurt.
Be aware that different boards have different capabilities. I do not have your model, so I don't know if there is a maximum capacity or what it is. My Mac has been behaving beautifully with 512MB and a 60GB HD. I'm nowhere near running out of HD space. Then again, I don't have music, movies, or other interesting files on my hard drive. It all depends on what you're going to do. But that's what I would recommend... 512MB RAM, 60+ GB HD.
As for who/where, there are many brands/vendors. I would check local stores (Best Buy, CompUSA, etc) to see what the promotions are, then check out Other World Computing
. Brands I would recommend for memory would be Kingston, Viking, Mushkin, and Crucial. For hard drives, Seagate, Western Digital, Maxtor. Those lists are actually in my order of preference. To be honest, I've used all those brands in my personal computers and never had a problem. I have, however, noticed that the computers I troubleshoot that have bad hard drives have tended to have Maxtor drives. Then again, that may have just been a bad batch (because this was a series of drives from a bulk purchase).
#4
yogic
- Newbie
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 3
- Joined: 05-January 04
Posted 05 January 2004 - 03:05 PM
I have a question on whether I should upgrade my iMac to OS X.
I have a 350MHz G3/512MB-Memory/64MB-L2-Cache/Slot-Load-CD 1999 iMac running OS 9.2. It's plenty snappy (especially compared to the dinosaurs I'm used to using) and I don't want to dog the machine out with an OS it can't handle, even if it's technically feasible. Anybody have any experience in this area?
RE the note on Maxtor drives:
I bought a Maxtor drive for this iMac, and the guys upstairs (who work computers for a living) suggested Western Digital, as Maxtor drives are unreliable.
I have a 350MHz G3/512MB-Memory/64MB-L2-Cache/Slot-Load-CD 1999 iMac running OS 9.2. It's plenty snappy (especially compared to the dinosaurs I'm used to using) and I don't want to dog the machine out with an OS it can't handle, even if it's technically feasible. Anybody have any experience in this area?
RE the note on Maxtor drives:
I bought a Maxtor drive for this iMac, and the guys upstairs (who work computers for a living) suggested Western Digital, as Maxtor drives are unreliable.
Page 1 of 1
