hard drives...

The drives are IDE, and are interchangeable parts. You will indeed have to reformat the drive to accept a Mac OS.

I thought I might be able to do that, but my Mac knowledge is so limited that I wasn't sure. I did "google" before posting here but, I didn't find any specific answers that didn't take an hour to read. Thanks for the straight-forward answer!

Charles

Make sure you format the disk with Mac tools - Disk Utility on an OS X install disk for example - and (at least on a beige G3, maybe a Blue & White as well) OS X has to live on the first partition, which must be less than 8 gigs.

Does not apply to the blue and white.

Next - I do webdesign (Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX Pro, Adobe Photoshop and several other graphically intensive programs) and my PowerBook G4 (768 Ram) does everything that I need it do. So, this is the challenge. I want to get a used Mac desktop and I have researched several models on the net. My current windows system has a GIG of ram, 80 gig harddrive with 7800 RPM and this was the original system for design (both for print media and webdesign). Okay... Don't want to spend the money on a new system, but I have no idea what a good used Mac should be. There is a guy locally selling an iMac 450 with 128 RAM (willing to buy memory of course) and a 20 gig drive. Is this a system that will deliver the performance that I need for print and web design? If not, what other systems should I be lokking at? Should I purchase on eBay or would my current system be something worth a trade for anyone? My concern is that I don't know enough about Mac hardware to make fully intelligent choices on what is and is not a good system for my needs (I don't do any gaming...).

Thanks in advance.

Can you recommend a great Mac site for the newbies that would be a starter for the basics; system comparisons, hardware tweaks, etc?

Here's some of my favorites:

Lowendmac.com

Everymac.com

Xkr8yourmac.com

i have a b/w g3 400mhz with 512mb ram 27gbhd dvd-rom for 200$ i can throw in a 19" monitor for 100$ more. pm me if you are interested.

What you really want is at least a B&W G3 which can be upgraded easily. The iMacs are nice for general use but are limited on upgrades available. What is available for iMacs is more expensive than a tower Mac G3 or G4.

Decide how much money you want and check Ebay's completed auctions to see what is in your price range. For example do a completed auctions search in the "Apple" category for G3 or G4. A G3 running at 450MHz has more potential than the iMac G3 450 and all you need is a nice VGA monitor which you already have and can even use a KVM switch to use both computers on one monitor.

I'm running 768 on the PowerBook... do you think that 512 on the G3 400 B&W will suffice to handle the design needs? I found a site (Fastmac.com http://www.fastmac.com/products/processors/zifs.php ) that states that I can increase the processing speed. Do you think this legit? Lastly, I am still not used to MHZ difference between Windows and Mac based units. Is a 400 MHZ system going to painfully slow or just marginally slower than my Powerbook:

Spoke with another member about this next part and he thought that maybe I should post it here in the thread...

Okay, in my windows based machine, which I am planning to sell if I can get the right info on the Mac, I have a PCI TV card that's used for video editting (Pinnacle v7 for editting software). I know that I will need new software for the editting as the software that I have is for Windows XP. Question; can I pull the card out the Windows machine and install it the G3? Also, the windows machine has a CD burner and a dvd-burner (purely for backup purposes of course!). So the question that I have is whether or not I pull out my hardware and install it in the Mac since I spent a lot money on these items and they do get used.

I am not above being sent to specific URLs for tutorials if what I am asking is too much handle here in the thread.

Thanks again,
Charles

Just want to officially say "thanks" to everyone one of you for being patient with a newbie; I am really glad that I found this forum!

Again, thanks for all the info and I assure you that I am all over the net trying to learn as much and as quickly as I can!

a 400mhz g3 will be about as fast as a 800mhz pc.(just a guess on my uses). you shouldnt have to buy a new processor because this machine is actually quite nice. it should be able to handle basicly anything you throw at it , except those really dense programs thatr need g4-g5 processors.