Need help upgrading a B/W G3

Question

I haven't done a thing to upgrade my computer since I bought it in 1999. It is a 350mhz blue and white G3 with 192 mb RAM, 6 GB hard drive and Mac OS 8.6. I can't afford to buy a new computer yet and would like to get a little more mileage from this one. I'm pretty sure I could safely upgrade to 9.2, but I don't know if I should venture into OS X (or what version I should stop at if I do).
I'm considering buying more RAM, an external hard drive for more storage and Mac OS 9.2.
I would like to upgrade so I can use Adobe Type Manager to organize my fonts, Photoshop 7. I have both, but have not installed them as I believe they need at least OS 9. I also would like to have a newer internet browser, like safari, but I think I have to be at OS X to use that. More and more web sites I encounter are not fully supporting Internet Explorer or older versions of Flash, Shockwave etc and I have trouble accessing their websites.
Here is what I have attached to the system:
• Yamaha CD/RW drive (SCSI 2)
• Epson Expression 636 Scanner (SCSI 1 daisy chained to the CD burner)
• Epson Sylus Color 900G printer (USB)
• Iomega external zip 100 drive (USB)
• 4 port USB Hub
• Keyboard and mouse that came with system (USB)
As for software, I use Adobe's Pagemaker 7, Illustrator 8 and Photoshop 5, Internet Explorer 5.1.
Has anyone upgraded their systems to OS X with any of these devices? If so what problems did you encounter? Any advice would be appreciated.
Power Mac G3 350 Mhz   Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier   192 Mb Ram
Power Mac G3 350 Mhz   Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier   192 Mb Ram

Answer 1

What's the production date printed on the back of your B&W? Your G3 may have the first revision motherboard that doesn't support large capacity internal hard drives connected to the onboard IDE controller. Larger/faster IDE/EIDE hard drives will require an ATA controller card. You'd be able to get a 120 GB drive and a controller card for less than $120. As for running a newer OS - like OS X (Panther or Tiger), you'll need to have more memory (at least 384-512 MBs). A 256 MB PC-100 memory DIMM costs about $25, so you'd need to add at least one to your existing 192 MBs of memory. The retail cost of Tiger (10.4.x) is $129, but you can undoubtedly find it online for less, and the previous OS X "Panther" (10.3.x) can be purchased for about ½ of Tiger's current price. An upgrade to the OEM ATI Rage 128 PCI graphics card would also be desirable, but by the time that you add the individual costs of these upgrades, you will have spent more than the cost of a newer, used Mac (like a Quicksilver G4). With its improved hardware design, the Quicksilver series would be noticeably faster than the B&W, and can run OS X and OS 9.2.2 for your older programs. You could transfer your SCSI PCI card to the G4 for continued use of your SCSI peripherals under OS 9.2.2. Support for your specific SCSI peripherals may or may not be a problem under OS X.
At some point, you must decide when a computer is past the point of beginning to invest in hardware upgrades for it, given its market value. Had you been upgrading it through the years, then it would be harder to resist the urge to tweak it some more. If you have yet to spend money on upgrading, it's sometimes better to consider looking for something that's more hardware-forward. There are many hardware upgrades available for a B&W, such as a faster G3 or G4 processor, larger hard drive, DVD±RW optical drive, better graphics card, PCI controller cards, etc. Unfortunately, there are also inherent design limitations, like the system bus speed or lack of an AGP bus for improved graphics, that can't be changed or added. As the owner of two B&W G3s, I wouldn't recommend spending too much to modernize one, as we approach 2007. As to how much is too much, consider that 7 year-old B&Ws like your 350 MHz model now sell for under $100 at eBay.