Mac OS X on old hardware

[Bryan]

So I'm now officially a "switcher" (sort of). Thanks the generosity of my friend, I've taken possession of a mint-condition Powerbook G3 "Wallstreet" with a 266 MHz G3 with 1 MB L2 cache, 192 MB RAM and 4 GB hard drive. Currently it's running OS 9.2 and is amazingly peppy. Keep in mind that I'm not expecting nor do I need blistering performance from the Powerbook... my current stable of machines includes a 500 MHz PIII desktop and a 700 MHz PIII Thinkpad. I just want it to run OS X and have it be usable for browsing, email, the standard stuff.

Does anyone have old hardware that they've installed OS X on? How was it in terms of speed compared with OS 9.2? I'm also not opposed to throwing another 256 MB of RAM in the Powerbook and upgrading the hard drive if I know OS X will not kill it. On the other hand, I don't want to sink $200 into RAM and a HD just to find out that OS X is still too sluggish. I'd love to be able to use this machine for something because it's in great shape, but I don't really like OS 9. Any suggestions?

[The Sheck]

According to apple.com you need a minimum 350 MHz processor and 128MB RAM. I don't think it's going to run on your Powerbook. Sorry. Even at 350 MHz, it's pretty slow. At 466 MHz, it runs great though. I'm using a clamshell ibook right now and I've had no problems.

[Bryan]

Well, I got it running (Jaguar 10.2). It's not blazingly fast but it's completely usable. I'm not going to be editing video on it, but for email and web browsing, the ol' Powerbook is doing just fine. Install was smooth and OS X is beyond my wildest expectations. With a little extra RAM and a larger hard drive, it'll hold me over until I get my new machine in September.

[daved]

Bryan,

I've got a 266 w/Jaguar running on it. The biggest problem I had was disk space and RAM. When I upgraded my Tibook I put the 30G HD into the Wallstreet, which the old hardware + Jaguar had some problems with: Jaguar can only install on one specific partition of a split drive, and I did my initial install on the wrong one). Memory is the key. For a little bit you should be able to upgrade your ram to 384M, which is about the minimum I'd recommend for X. It makes a HUGE difference, since X invisibly caches to hard disk when it lacks room. You'd be surprised at the difference.

If you can get by on the HD you have (don't know how, I couldn't fit my apps + OS on mine!), adding memory will make your life better until your new machine arrives.

-d-

[Bryan]

Well, I just ordered a 40 GB Fujitsu drive and a 256 MB RAM module, bringing the total RAM to 384. I did hear about the 8 GB partition issue... there must be two partitions with the first one no larger than 8 GB and OS X must be installed on that. I was thinking about maxing the RAM at 512 MB but that would mean chucking a perfectly good 128 MB stick and buying another 256 MB module to insert in its place. Thus is life with only 2 SO-DIMM slots.

I just wish Motorola would pull their heads out of their asses and start producing the new G4 chips in volume so Apple can bring out the new Powerbooks.

[daved]

Aren't they getting those chips from IBM? Moto's way off the curve, power consumption wise. I hear the ones they're putting in the towers use LESS power than current powerbook chips at half the clock speed.

Anyway... your mods sound fine. I've got a 20 or 30 G and 384M of ram in my wallstreet, and it's no worse than most 300 or 350 iMacs I've used under X. Those drives are actually faster than what you have too, so that will give you anther bump.

-d-

[Bryan]

Right now, the only chips Apple is getting from IBM are the G5's (PPC 970). The next generation Powerbooks are supposed to have revised G4's from Motorola (PPC 7457). The PPC 7457's use a new 0.13 micron process, versus the 0.18 used in the current PPC 7455 G4 chips. Motorola is apparently having issues producing them in quantity and the new 'books are rumored to have been ready to go for several months. Apple is just waiting on volume shipments of the chip.
http://appleinsider.com/article.php?id=121

[MarkH]

Chiming in pretty late here... but I installed 10.2 on an old beige G3 desktop. She's currently stylin' w/ 190mb of RAM and smoking the boards w/ 266mhz... ok, it's slow as balls, but for my bedroom stereo, it's not that bad. Safari browser looks nice too...

I refuse to think of it as 'switching'. It's more llike being multi-platform savvy... yeah, thats it.