what is the newest operating system that will work with old imac g3?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mark J
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Mark J

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specs;
6gb hard drive
64mb ram (will be upgrading eventually)
333mhz
i just bought my first apple for 20 bucks and like it so much im going to sell my dell optiplex. but the os on this apple is outdated, also if anyone could tell me how to install an os on a imac g3 it would sure help alot ;-)
 
That iMac is limited to OS X 10.2
It will not accept the newer versions, because it has no firewire, the CPU speed is too slow and the hard drive does not have enough space to load 10.3 or newer.

You can add an larger, up to 20GB, external USB drive but it will be slow., and can up the memory to 128MB max, which the later is the best idea.
You can upgrade the video ram from 2MB to 6MB.
10.2 is you limit, and that means no iTunes, as this model probably does not have a CD burner, either.
Apple's website can really help learn the limits.
But, OS 9 is great. I still use it almost every day.

$20...what a steal.
 
Hi Mark, I thank you for your question. I understand the needs of the old iMac g3, i have a similar model. The first thing you'll need to do is upgrade that RAM. Then you can upgrade to OS X 10.3 Panther, at least. That 64 MB RAM can be augmented. PC100 or PC133 should work when you remove the "logic board / mass storage chassis" and find that "CPU shield" which protects a 64MB chip. The "other" RAM slot is open for upgrade. That iMac probably won't support Tiger because there's no Firewire port on it, (a requirement for running Tiger).
 
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