Q. Thanks for your Low End Mac website. The information you put
there has proved really useful.
I own a strawberry
iMac (333, 6 GB). Do you know if it can be upgraded to have
FireWire?
Also, right now it only has CD-ROM. Can is be upgraded to play
DVDs?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
A. Yes, there is a way to add FireWire to
Rev. A-D iMacs, the Sonnet Harmoni
card, which also includes a 600 MHz G3 processor. However, at US$349 it
might be more cost-effective to buy a used iMac 400 and sell your iMac
333 for $200-300.
There is a list of four CD-RW options for the tray-loading iMac on
our Upgrade Guide for
the Tray-Loading iMacs, and prices for them currently range from
$135 to $179. There are no DVD-ROM drives as far as I know.
Even if you could install a DVD-ROM drive, I don't think the
tray-loading iMacs have the processing horsepower or video support to
handle DVD, although it might be possible with the Harmoni upgrade.
You could add an external FireWire DVD drive to a Harmoni-upgraded
tray-loading iMac, but I think that goes beyond making economic
sense.
Our latest G3 iMac price
tracker includes an iMac 450 DVD for $400. That
includes a FireWire port.
No G3 iMac was offered with a Combo drive. However, you can add a
CD-RW, CD-RW/DVD, or even a CD-RW/DVD-RW drive to the slot-loading
models. If you plan on doing that, just pick a 400 MHz or faster model
(the 350 MHz didn't have FireWire) and add one of the drives listed on
our Upgrade Guide for the Slot-Loading
iMacs.
I personally thing buying that iMac 450 DVD for $400 and then
turning your old iMac 333 around for $250 or so makes the most sense.
Or for the same power as your iMac plus the Harmoni upgrade, an iMac
600 CD-ROM at $479 plus as little as $39 for a Combo drive.
Either way, you get much better video, easier and greater memory
expansion, a faster system bus, and a larger drive in a slightly
smaller, lighter, quieter case with the slot-loading models. Further,
if you run OS X, there's no need to partition hard drives larger
than 8 GB like there is on the tray-loading models.
Q. Thanks so much, Dan, for the in-depth answer.
We are leaving the country for a couple months Monday, but when we
get back, I think I will take your advice to sell the 333 and get a
faster iMac with DVD and FireWire capability.
I am new to your site. Can we buy and sell Macs through your
website? If so, is there an explanation on how to do that on the site?
Or should we go to one of the used Mac sites listed on your
website?
A. We run the Low End Mac Swap List,
where subscribers can buy and sell their used Mac and Mac-related gear.
It's a free email-based service that we're hoping to move to our
website soon. That might get you the best price for your iMac 333.
As for buying, it's always a bit of a crap shoot buying sight
unseen. When you buy from an individual, you'll usually get a better
deal, but you won't have any warranty to back things up. Macs are
usually pretty reliable, but you usually gain a 30-day to 90-day
warranty on used equipment sold by dealers.
Which is the better choice? We've had great results both ways, so
whatever you're most comfortable with should work for you.
UPDATE: The Sonnet HARMONi card was incompatible with early versions
of Mac OS X 10.4. The FireWire port would tie up 100% of CPU resources.
This problem was fixed in version 10.4.7 (if not earlier). If you have
a HARMONi card that's had this issue, be aware that updating to 10.4.7
or newer should fix it.
