Upgrading my iMac Rev A (233) Bondi - Tech Support Forums

jrock · February 28th, 2003, 01:22 PM

Hey y'all.

I own (among other things) my original college computer, an iMac Rev A. For you unbelievers, the Rev A was the first released iMac, true color bondi blue, tray load CD, 233 mhz G3, running OS 8.1

I love this baby, I have upgraded it to 96mb ram from 32mb, everything else is still original. I am possibly interested in putting one the G4 upgrade cards on this thing, boosting it to a G4 500, so I can run OS X. Am I crazy? I'll put more ram in it (256 total) but the graphics is unupgradeable as far as I know. Is this worth the cost - I'd really like to have a Mac running OS X, but a new iMac is out of my budget. If not - what should I do with this box? Yellow Dog runs on it perfectly.

Thanks!

Bob The Great · March 1st, 2003, 03:25 PM

Well I have to say I love Macs! I don't own one, but they look great (I love the new styling of the G4 and laptops). I'd say if you have the money it would be cool! Those things aren't the fastest for graphics, but can still do great video editing with those things, and get e-mail play afew games, but most importantly run one of hte best os's around!

lreid · March 2nd, 2003, 12:06 PM

the only thing you can really upgrade on a original 233 imac is the ram....I ve worked on macs for 15 years. you cant add any video cards to it..and i think it came with ati rage built in.

les

thekingofpain · March 2nd, 2003, 01:25 PM

If you purchase an upgrade card make sure it is returnable---I had alot of probs trying to run OS-X and finally abandoned it...

thekemp · March 2nd, 2003, 01:42 PM

id say put mandrake on it....get some more ram first though

jrock · March 3rd, 2003, 01:53 PM

Thanks everyone! Yea, ram is needed, no doubt. as for the graphics card for a *short* while there was a company that had an upgrade, but not for long. Missed that boat already I think. Also - yeah - I think mandrake should be good. 8.2 is the latest for PPC - is it worth it - I ran 9.0 for a while...

thekingofpain · March 3rd, 2003, 02:12 PM

Sonnet has the HarmoniG3 that takes rev. A iMacs to 500mhz for 300$

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/harmoni_g3.html

jrock · March 3rd, 2003, 04:00 PM

Thanks man - but the realy question is - is my old iMac really worth that 300 dollar upgrade...I mean will the performance jump be worth it? I do notice it has a crippled cache, right?