New-Old iMac G3 user

[youno]

Hi guys

I recently managed to save an old iMac g3 400mhz from the scrapheap, the unit is in vgc and I intend to upgrade the HD to 40gb and hopefully install panther.
What I'm looking for is some advice on the best way to pimp up this old machine, and to find out your experiences of the G3.

Cheers

 

[Queso]

I used to have one of these little beauties. Panther is the right OSX version choice as once we got to Tiger they started to show their age a bit.

The maximum RAM you can go to is 1GB, which would be 2 x 512MB DIMMs. Upgrading the memory is as easy as on any other iMac, namely just unscrewing something off the case (on a G3 with a coin ) and slotting in the chips.

For the hard disk it's a little more complicated but still doable. You have to remove the bottom back part of the iMac's case plus a radiation shield to expose the drive chassis. It takes 3.5" IDE drives, and I found that 5400RPM was the best drive speed for keeping the heat down (remember that iMac DVs have no internal cooling fan). I'm not sure of the largest size you can install. I put a 40GB one in mine back in 2004 which worked perfectly, but I'm sure you could go a lot higher.

 

[bartelby]

For the hard disk it's a little more complicated but still doable. You have to remove the bottom back part of the iMac's case plus a radiation shield to expose the drive chassis

And there's that horrible point where you have to really pull the casing to get it apart!
The loud crack scared the hell out of me the first time I took my old Blueberry 350 apart.

 

[Queso]

And there's that horrible point where you have to really pull the casing to get it apart!
The loud crack scared the hell out of me the first time I took my old Blueberry 350 apart.

The worst bit for me was when I dropped one of the heat shield screws inside the unit and had to pick the whole thing up and shake it to get the screw out again

 

[bartelby]

The worst bit for me was when I dropped one of the heat shield screws inside the unit and had to pick the whole thing up and shake it to get the screw out again

You did that too huh?

 

[js81]

You did that too huh?

^^ Me, too. There was one in my classroom that I had to replace the CD drive in that I got a screw inside of that got stuck. It still worked just fine - I think it ate the screw, BTW.

 

[Queso]

I think it became an official step in the how-to guide