What Can You Do W/ A Power Mac G3 8100/110, Too slow for audio? Options

[gorillacake]

I can get one for free at work. It's got 110mghz processor and about 80mb of memory. I use reason a lot and they say the minimum processor speed is 128mghz. I know I can put more memory in but how bout' updating the processor. Does anyone out there use a computer this slow for anything audio? Anyone have price estimates on getting this thing up to snuff. Is it worth it?

[aladinsane]

NEVER, never try to upgrade a machine as old as that. there are people out there who will try to sell you upgrade cards and tell you everything to make you by them. don't do it. you would be better of with a windows machine then with a 110mghz upgraded mac. and you can't even consider OS X for somthing less then a G3.
as for prices and compatibility of out-dated machines, go to www.everymac.com. it's all there, even old power computing and umax mac clones.

[Djedjjj]

i have a powermac 8100/100 and no problem with protools 3.4(a free version)to record and edit .if you find PTIII Nubus with interface 442 it was good to make simple mix.and reason 1.0 is ok too.
but I have 1Mo cache.

[Synthetic]

I suggest just using the free computer for midi sequencing only and then get yourself a new mac that is as fast as you can afford and use it for audio. As mentioned before... its really not worth the cost of upgrading that machine. If you did upgrade it (ram is more expensive for older computers because not in demand as much plus the cost of a hard drive and CPU really add up)... it would have only cost you a few hundred more to get new computer that would be more reliable and up to date with technology such as USB.

[gorillacake]

Hey thanks for the input guys. I have an Imac g4 now running reason 2 and cubase 5.0 so I don't really need the 8100. Just thought that since it's free, it might be fun to mess around with. Well maybe I'll just give it to my parents to mess around with. Should be alright for internet use right? Is 80mb of memory good enough for flash player?

[damann]

it's not even good enough for the internet these days, really.
it will cope with non "flash" sites, but should be considered as more of a "word processor" these days.
maybe your parents have that much time to spare...

[Synthetik]

I uused that machine in my Recording classes years back, running protools. Again I wouldn't use an upgrade card for that michine, but If its free take it anyway, you can use older audio programs. and better yet, use it for midi sequencing, especialy if you use protools, you can do all sequencing on the old machine and record the audio into protools.