Best OS for b&w G3?

Hello,
I am considering upgrading the OS on my G3. I am currently using OS9.
Which is the most suitable OS for a b&w G3 350 MHz rev 1.?

I would like to use Tiger however I am wondering if Panther might run any better on it.

I have a 250 GIG hard drive (will be reformatting it fort clean instal) and 768 RAM on my b&w G3. I also have an internal DVD reader/writer installed.

Could anyone offer any suggestions for an OS?

My applications are mostly some of Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator), word processing (MS Office) and internet surfing.

Thanks

g3 b&w, Mac OS 9.2.x

Posted on Jan 27, 2006 2:27 PM

20 replies

rainforest Author

Level 2

180 points

Feb 26, 2006 1:04 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

very interesting.

Apr 16, 2006 10:58 PM in response to rainforest

Where is this Barefeats advice to put the HDD controller in the 66MHZ PCI slot? I've read a bunch of posts, including this one, that refer to it. I did an exhaustive search of their website and failed to locate it. If the write speed of the 33MHZ PCI slot is limited to 53MB/s, then what is the read speed of the 33MHZ PCI slot?

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Apr 17, 2006 7:59 AM in response to Scott Cook

There are very very few drive controllers that can run in the fixed 66MHz slot. SeriTek would be one. You do take a hit in video performance by about 10-15%. The other controllers are Adaptec 39160 (SCSI and not well supported but works in B&W) or ATTO UL3S-66 (you can damage an ATTO card if it isn't designed for that slot) or ATTO UL4S ($249-299).

I recall tim_s on xlr8yourmac told me about the 53MB/sec and 39160 yrs ago (there is probably something in
www.xlr8yourmac.com/g3-zone on this).

The B&W has a very crippled PCI bus and amount of bandwidth on the lower PCI slots. But so do the low end G5s from 2003-4 which are limited to 75MB/sec off any PCI slots.

I didn't know about any of this either ~7 yrs ago when I bought my rev 2 and had to learn the hard way, and from working with a SeriTek card (a 10K Raptor will definitely breath life into your system, too).

rainforest Author

Level 2

180 points

May 4, 2006 11:58 AM in response to Scott Cook

Sorry, it might have been the macgurus website (not the xlr8yourmac website)

From a mac gurus newsgroup:

If you want performance, you could sacrifice 10-15% video performance and use the 66 MHz PCI slot for 64-bit/66MHz Serial ATA card in its place. Otherwise, the B&W is only able to achieve a max of 53MB/sec (write). Something to keep in mind.

I have been working with a Seritek (1S2- two internal sata connectors) in the video slot for a few months. Seems to work great. I don't really notice the slower video (it is 10-15% slower but I don't notice it.) Hard drive and controller work perfectly.

rainforest Author

Level 2

180 points

May 4, 2006 11:59 AM in response to rainforest

Here too:

http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/firmtek/

If you are installing the SeriTek/1S2 Host Adapter in a PowerMac G3 or G4 any of the PCI slots will work. However, in the "Yosemite" (Mac G3 "Blue & White") or "Yikes!" (G4 with PCI rather AGP graphics), the SeriTek/1S2 card works best in the 66 MHz PCI slot. (Note: move the graphics card into a 33 MHz slot and the SeriTek/1S2 in the 66 MHz slot. SeriTek/1S2 will utilize the 66MHz PCI slot much better than the ATI graphics cards.) The thin cables provided with this SATA interface are really nice for increasing airflow in a PowerMac with three to four drives installed. When you setup a RAID 0 configuration, the SeriTek/1S2 controller provides significantly increased drive performance on the "Sawtooth" (Original G4 AGP), and the G4 Gigabit Ethernet PowerMac.

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Best OS for b&w G3?