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Low End Mac's Best Deals

Best Power Mac G3 and PCI Video Card Deals

Also CPU Upgrades, ADB Mice, and ADB Keyboards

2010.01.27 - updated monthly

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Whether you're looking for a powerful, upgradable computer to use with the classic Mac OS or an inexpensive machine that supports Mac OS X (prior to version 10.5), a Blue & White Power Mac G3 can be just the ticket, especially with a 7200 rpm hard drive and lots of RAM (up to 1 GB). Power Mac G3s can be upgraded with G4 processors.

Beige Power Mac G3s, introduced in November 1997, are the oldest Macs supported under OS X. We consider the used beige G3 market to be on its last legs, as there's not much money to be made selling $25-50 computers. There are also some drawbacks to using OS X on beige G3s compared to the Blue & White G3. These are the most powerful Macs ever with an internal floppy drive (not supported by OS X), and they have built-in SCSI support, so they can be a great platform for working with floppies and SCSI drives.

You can buy a Blue & White Power Mac G3/350 for as little as $80, making it a decent, low cost way to own a Mac with FireWire (although it can't boot from FireWire). Boost RAM to at least 256 MB (512 MB or more is better), add a 7200 rpm hard drive, and replace the CD-ROM with a DVD-ROM or Combo drive, and you're ready to run Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" (a better PCI video card can further improve things).

An even better bet can be a Power Mac G4 with AGP graphics, and those are currently available for as little as $100.

blue and white G3We recommend at least 256 MB of RAM and 4 GB of free hard drive space if you want to use OS X. You'll be happier with more RAM and a fast, modern hard drive. Note that hard drives over 120 GB are not fully supported by the hard drive controller in G3 Macs - and you must have a hard drive or first partition of less than 8 GB if you wish to run OS X on a beige G3 (and you can run into problems with the Classic Mac OS as well if your boot partition is over 8 GB in size).

Apple does not support the beige G3 with Mac OS X 10.3 or later, but it is supported with 10.2.x and earlier. 10.3 can be installed on the beige G3 using XPostFacto 3.1, and 10.4 can be installed using XPostFacto 4. Note that 10.4 normally ships on DVD-ROM, so you will need a DVD-capable drive. (For another B&W G3 option, see Installing OS X 10.4 'Tiger' on DVD-challenged Macs using FireWire Target Disk Mode.)

Apple doesn't support the G3 Macs in OS X 10.5 "Leopard", not even with G4 CPU upgrades. See The Future of G3 Power Macs in the Age of Leopard for more on that subject.

Used Macs typically have a 90 day warranty. Prices limited to quantity on hand. Shipping can easily add $30 to $50 to your final purchase price. Not responsible for typos. Please email any corrections or additional sources with competitive prices to Dan Knight .

Best deals are in bold type in listings below.

Best Used Beige Power Macintosh G3 Prices

Best Used Blue & White G3 Prices

Best PCI Video Card Prices

Recent Memory Prices

Mac OS Prices

At these prices, there's no reason not to have at least one 256 MB module installed, 512-768 MB will help unleash OS X, and the B&W supports up to 1 GB of RAM.

Profiles

BetaMacs

Ground shipping can add $35 or more.

MacResource

Ground shipping may add $45 or more.

Operator Headgap

Prices include shipping. Operator Headgap thoroughly refurbishes and tests every Mac. When entering your shipping information, please let them know you heard about them on Low End Mac. Thanks!

Beige G3 Desktop

Beige G3 Tower

Blue & White G3

Wegener Media

Ground shipping may add $35 or more. 60 day warranty.

CPU Upgrades

Operator Headgap

Prices include shipping. Operator Headgap thoroughly refurbishes and tests every Mac they sell. When buying, please let them know you heard about them on Low End Mac when entering your shipping information. Thanks!

PCI Video Cards

The most poweful PCI video card for Macs is the ATI Radeon 9200.

Adopt a Mac

Applemacanix

These are PC video cards with their ROMs flashed for use on Macs. Add $7.50 for shipping. Applemacanix also has a 6-port USB 2.0 card for $13.50.

Mac-Pro

Operator Headgap

Operator Headgap thoroughly refurbishes and tests every Mac they sell. When buying, please let them know you heard about them on Low End Mac when entering your shipping information. Thanks!

Wegener Media

60 day warranty

We Love Macs

ADB Mice and Keyboards

Operator Headgap

Operator Headgap thoroughly refurbishes and tests every Mac they sell. When buying, please let them know you heard about them on Low End Mac when entering your shipping information. Thanks!

Shreve Systems

Prices reflect 3% cash discount.

We Love Macs

Need more horsepower? See our Best Power Mac G4 Deals. LEM

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