[XCSSA] iMac

[xcssa@xcssa.org]

On Apr 28, 2007, at 2:36 AM, xcssa-admin@xcssa.org wrote:

> I just bought my wife an older iMac G3 500MHz computer and it has  
> 9.2 installed. I will be maxing out the memory. According to  
> Apple's website, it is good enough to run OS X (10.4 even) but I  
> don't know if it will be useable. She simply wants to learn how to  
> use Mac and I want her to be able to use the Mac - having 9.2 means  
> no real useable browser and unable to get much software.
>
> I understand it will be slow, but do you think it'd be good enough?  
> Will it simply get totally bogged down and not run a thing?
>
> Thanks!
> Tom King

Unless you are putting at least 512 megs of RAM into it, I would  
recommend you stick with 10.3. Some of the older iMacs were very  
limited in max memory, supporting as little as 384MB. This is the  
good news:

http://lowendmac.com/imacs/2001-500.html

The 500MHz model can apparently take a pair of 512MB PC100 DIMMs. And  
these are regular 168-pin DIMMs, not laptop memory. So if you fill it  
with 1GB of RAM, 10.4 should be fine. (it has Firewire, so it's  
supported) About the only remaining issue is that 10.4 is normally  
shipped on DVD-ROM, so a Firewire DVD drive (or an internal drive  
upgrade) would be necessary.

  - Bruce -