# What to do with an old G3?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-old-g3/645386>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 28, 2012, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-old-g3/645386 "2012-12-28T15:05:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-old-g3/645386/1 "2012-12-28T15:05:08Z")

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I’ve mentioned I have a 2001 iMac G3 Indigo PowerPC. I had it in the guest room as a ‘guest computer’, and I installed a wireless card and the highest level of Safari it would run. I used it as by backup computer when the PowerBook G4’s keyboard failed. I hold onto it because its iconic looks are cool.

I bought this house from my best **fiend** , who asked that I keep his G3 desktop computer for him while he moved to South America. He’s finally moved back to the States, and asked me to send him some of the stuff he left here; but he doesn’t know what to do with the computer. He wrote:

> [@Johnny L.A.'s FIEND](#):
>
> I did put another processor in there to boost the speed which worked well. Of course it worked fine for normal video editing but i highly doubt it will work for HD editing…if it even works anymore.
> 
> Of course the bad thing about it is that there are two 10k rpm drives in it with all kinds of files for [film] and assorted commercials i worked on which I don’t think i’d just like to give to someone, otherwise it would probably be good for ebay for some mac collector.

I’ve suggested he use the computer as a backup Internet browser (slow, but what the heck), or pull the hard drives and use them as external storage for his files and sell the rest to a vintage computer collector. His is a ‘beige box’, so it doesn’t have the ‘cool design’ appeal of my iMac.

Aside from those suggestions, what else can he do with his ancient G3?

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**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-old-g3/645386/2 "2012-12-28T15:49:59Z")

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> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> Aside from those suggestions, what else can he do with his ancient G3?

[This.](http://www.mmug.net/images/aquarium1.jpg)

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**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\
**Post date:** [December 28, 2012, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-an-old-g3/645386/3 "2012-12-28T15:51:15Z")

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Recycle it.

Seriously. I have a 933 Mhz PM G4 still hanging around, and with the typical modern web page (e.g. Javascript-heavy) even that is irritatingly slow to use for anything substantial. a G3/400 is as worthless as a Celeron of the same speed.