Video Editing

PDD

Hi Guys, Im thinking of picking up an old G3 Mac (300Mhz 512Mb) for use of video editing a friend has offered to put OS X on it when I get it. Would you recommned the hardware or is it too slow? Dave

Heinrich

Slow! How much ram has it got? Will it run OSX Hard disk etc?

simp

OS X will run on that, but you'd be advised to get more RAM, or even a processor upgrade. For a couple of hundred extra quid you can put together a very decent system. I upgraded my old 1998 vintage G4 tower with a 1.4ghz Sonnet card, and 1Gb of RAM and I have no complaints.

Cheap RAM here:-
http://www.memory-configurator.com/

Processor Upgrades here:-
http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/

babypink

simp wrote:

but you'd be advised to get more RAM, or even a processor upgrade.

something i'd consider very strongly! the processor upgrade makes a world of a difference!

though you might be better off going for a G4 right off the bat

SouperComputer

TBH you would be wasting any money you throw at it.

With a 300Mhz G3 CPU, 1Gb if RAM is not going to be of much use. Perhaps with large (actually HUGE) photoshop images it would be nice otherwise, the CPU is the major bottleneck, as are the FSB and RAM busses.

Take it as is with the G3 CPU, dont spend a penny on it, its only money down the drain. Even if you upgrade the CPU, you are stuck on an old\slow FSB and RAM bus.

In cases where you have an rig that you MUST upgrade, rather than replace, then go with an upgrade card. Even then I would think hard about it,

The money would be better spent on a mac mini. On the G3 with OS 9 video editing and processing will be slow, with X it will be even slower, but it will get there.

[edit] also, im guessing you might plan burning DVD's. In which case you can use OS X's built in support with prettymuch any drive using this:


http://www.versiontracker.com/php/search.php?str=patch+n+burn&plt%5B%5D=macosx&tfBasis=&afterYear=&afterMonth=&afterDay=&beforeYear=&beforeMonth=&beforeDay=&rtfBasis=&rAfterYear=&rAfterMonth=&rAfterDay=&rBeforeYear=&rBeforeMonth=&rBeforeDay=&ptfBasis=&pAfterYear=&pAfterMonth=&pAfterDay=&pBeforeYear=&pBeforeMonth=&pBeforeDay=&action=search&srchGuid=c7540a5a1c322a59%3A961bac%3A1090c9613a9%3A-8000961bac%3A1092733b5f7%3A-4805&by=name&dir=ascending&pg=1&perPage=20

or of course Toast! [/edit]

PDD

Cheers for the advice Souper :-)