Beige G3 worth getting? I found this one on ebay...

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Beige G3 worth getting? I found this one on ebay...

I've found a G3 I'm interested in on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5100153325&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1

It's item # 5100153325
It seems to be a good deal. I don't know though.
It seems to be pretty suped up.
~Atom

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Last seen: 17 years 6 months ago
Joined: Dec 26 2003 - 16:21
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beige

It only has the onboard video, so OSX(and most OS9) graphics will suck.

Apart from that, it'd be kinda quick, and seems to be very cheap, so go for it but dont spend over US$100 on a beige.

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Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
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beige

Its nice for a starter beige but like word says, the video is gonna suck because it doesn't have a video card.

Also jsut be aware that he is most likely overclocking it a bit if he is running it at 350mhz, the only multipliers achievable with 66mhz bus speed is 333 or 366, not 350. If he's running it at 350, then he must be running at 75mhz bus.

Thats not a BIG deal but just something to keep in mind. Also if he has a b/w 350 mhz cpu in there, you could probably overclock it to as much as 450mhz (thats what my b/w 350mhz cpu is running at and its stable as anything under os x 10.2.8, it runs for weeks at a time with no powerdowns). Mine does have a nice big heatsink/fan on the chip though (a custom machined pentium 4 heatsink/fan combo).

To really make this comptuer reach is most potential, you would want to add a ide card (one with usb/firewire would be really swell like the sonnet one), and a video card so keep that in mind. The video card can be as low as 30-40 bux (if you flash a radeon 7000 pc version) to as much as over 100 bux for a mac edition radeon card and the ide/usb card could be as much as 100 dollars for a nice combo card like the sonnet one.

Also i might not go over 50-75 considering that shipping might be somewhat pricey but if you really want a decent beige and its 100 bux, then go for it. But if you spend 100 bux for the beige and then spend another 100 for the video card and another 100 for the usb/firewire/ide card, you are up to 300 dollars which is b/w terrority (and i think even some low low end g4 terrority).

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Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
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beige

I just noticed that the auction includes the actual cd's for OS X and 9. That adds value too since those cd's are worth something by themeselves. I'm not sure of the value, but someone else here might be able to give you an idea.

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Could be a good value

The included OS X CD is Jaguar/10.2, which is a perfectly nice OS, and which is the last "officially" supported OS on the beige G3s (though XPostFacto will happily install Panther onto a beige G3).

The value of Jaguar is about $25-$35 these days, and that may drop once Tiger is demo'd by Steve later this month at WWDC. It definitely will drop when Tiger's actual release date (probably September, though perhaps not until January) is near. In general, the value of outdated OS X CDs is low because there's no upgrade policy from Apple -- owning Jag gets you exactly zero dollars off the price of Panther (or Tiger).

Ironically, because that OS 9 CD seems to be a universal installer (it looks like it came from the same retail package that contained the OS X CD), it could be worth more on eBay than the Jaguar CD -- up to $50, maybe even a little more.

But unless you're absolutely sure it's a universal installer, and unless you're definitely going to resell it, I would recommend that you NOT factor the value of the OS 9 CD into the equation.

All that said, it's going to be pretty unlikely that this unit will go for less than $50 -- and not too likely it'll stay below $75 -- given that there are still three days left in the auction. But you never know -- lots of folks are going on vacation this time of year, and a lot of AF members won't bid on this (out of courtesy). So who knows, you might get a bargain.

If I were in the market for a beige G3 and I didn't already own Panther, I'd probably pay up to $100 for this unit. But I would also email the seller and ask him how much the package will weigh and what shipping methods he will use. You don't want to be stuck with a $50 shipping and "handling" charge.

Finally, as to the 350MHz CPU, it could be all the things others have said, but it could also just be that the seller is mistaken. You could email the seller and ask for details.

Happy hunting!
Matt

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