Going to buy a mac

sproutpunx

sproutpunx

sproutpunx

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I'm going to buy a cheapo mac cause I want to learn more about macs. Thing is I currently know nothing about them (never ever used one!) so have found one but would like to be able to check its specs before I pay for it.

Its an imac G3, I'm paying £45 so I don't think I'm being ripped off. Can someone please tell me the way to find out what size the hard drive is, how fast the processor is and how much ram it has under the bonnet. I am not expecting it to be amazing, merely a good test machine. Also video card? How does that work?

Sorry for the randomness of this, I really shouldn't write from the hip!
 
Do you what OS it has on it? 9 or 10?

edit: Go to System Profiler it should tell you what hardware it has.
 
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Yeah, but it could be
* PowerPC G3 Processor 333mhz (66mhz bus)
* Tray loading 24x CD-ROM
* 6gb IDE Hard Disk Drive
* 32mb of RAM (expandable to 384mb)
* 6mb of VRAM
* Not compatible with AirPort cards
* Ports: Ethernet, USB 1.1, 56k Modem, Stereo Audio In and Out
Click to expand...

As stated further down. Is there any way to look on the actual machine itself to see this?
 
"About this Mac" should tell you the processor and RAM. I bought myself a cheap G3 to dabble on, don't regret it :)
 
gumbald said:
"About this Mac" should tell you the processor and RAM. I bought myself a cheap G3 to dabble on, don't regret it :)
Click to expand...
Excellent. Thanks for this advice, its what I'm hoping! Is "About this Mac" easy to find?
 
It's on the Apple menu thingy, don't know the technical term for it. Need a Mac user or an effort in the Mac forum might be useful :)
 
As others have stated. Top left of screen to the brightly coloured Apple Menu depicted by the Multi Coloured Apple shaped icon. Then there is either a menu item "System Profiler" or a follow through link called Utilities and it will be in there.

Failing that, double click the HD icon on the Desktop and go into the Applications folder then inside that the Utilities folder. System Profiler should be in there. It will tell you everything you need to know about the Mac.

If you are serious about testing the Mac platform, that machine really is your bottom limit. Get OS 10.4.x as a must.

Let me know what you want to learn on the OS, I'll try and tailor my responses to that.

Good luck.
 
Not sure if you can 10.4 on a Mac like that unless you mess around, 10.3 would be a better bet perhaps. Plus it would be cheaper.
 
Hi, yes OS 10.4.x is definitely installable on the G3. There is a question mark over whether the newer OS 10.4.7 Universal is supported on the G3. But I've had 10.4.x running on G3s. Not much fun at all, but running as a workstation. As an admin machine, it was just about acceptable. Doing anything interesting, not really a day to day option.

Keep in mind OS 10.5 will be released this year, and G3 support is expected to be entirely dropped. If keeping up to date is where you want to learn, then this machine may be a little too old.
 
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