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July 06, 2005

2-Drive RAID enclosures.

I bought a 500 GB LaCie Big Disk a couple of months ago, but I didn't do enough research: it's two 3.5" 250 GB IDE drives, inside a nice aluminum case with a circuit board that makes the appear as a single volume on my desktop. The problem? I haven't really solved my redundant data issue. I'll be able to store a bunch of information to it, but it'll still be just one copy of the data. Worse yet, since the drives are written to randomly, I now have two sets of drive hardware that can fail. I've basically made my system no less fault-tolerant, and twice as fault-prone. Back to the drawing board.

I'm now in the hunt for a cheap, true RAID case. At this point, I'm still open to software (OS-level) versus hardware (in-case circuit board) RAID control, and I've found a couple of options.

Link: MINI 3.5'' SATA Dual Drive Aluminum Enclosure with SATA Output.

Link: DUAL DRIVE FIREWIRE 800/400 OXFORD 912 ALUMINUM MINI RAID ENCLOSURE .

July 6, 2005 in RAID | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 05, 2005

Installing OSX on a Blue & White G3.

I went through the full gamut of installation strategies, in order to install Tiger on my mildly upgraded (DVD drive, 500MHz G4 JoeCard, 1GB RAM) Blue & White (Rev. A "Yosemite"). Apparently the Rev. A motherboards have all kinds of special needs, which are documented on a thoughtful page written by Bob at Headgap.com, a Mac resale store.

Link: Installing OSX on your Blue and White G3.

July 5, 2005 in Mac OS X | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 02, 2005

Specifications: Blue & White Power Macintosh G3 ("Yosemite")

Link: Blue & White Power Macintosh G3 specifications at LowEndMac.com

Details

  • models:
    • G3/300 introduced 1999.01.05 at US$1,599; discontinued 1999.06.
    • G3/350 introduced 1999.01.05 at US$1,999; discontinued 1999.08.31.
    • G3/400 introduced 1999.01.05 at US$2,999; discontinued 1999.08.31.
    • G3/450 introduced 1999.06 at $2,519; discontinued 1999.08.31.
  • requires Mac OS 8.5 or later; units that shipped with Mac OS 8.6 require 8.6 or later.
  • CPU: 300/350/400/450 MHz PPC 750
  • bus: 100 MHz
  • CPU performance
    • 300 MHz: 9.85 BYTEmark, 926 MacBench 5
    • 350 MHz: 11.51 BYTEmark, 1144 MacBench 5
    • 400 MHz: 13.31 BYTEmark, 1323 MacBench 5
    • 450 MHz: 1484 MacBench 5
  • RAM: 64 MB or 128 MB standard, expandable to 1 GB using PC100 SDRAM (3.3V,unbuffered, 64-bit, 168-pin, 100 MHz) in 4 DIMM slots
  • VRAM: 16 MB
  • Video: ATI Rage 128 on 66 MHz bus, supports resolutions to 1600x1200 with 32-bit support, VGA output (replaces older DB-15 port Apple has used since 1987). Rev. 1 runs as 75 MHz, while Rev. 2 uses faster 90-100 MHz clock.
  • Video: Some educational units came with a Rage Pro video card that supported video capture.
  • L2 cache: 1 MB 2:1 backside cache (512 KB on 300 MHz model)
  • hard drive: 6 GB or 12 GB Ultra ATA or 9 GB Ultra2 SCSI hard drive
  • CD-ROM: 24x maximum throughput, DVD and DVD-RAM optional internal Zip drive optional
  • 4 PCI slots (3 are 64-bit, one is 66 MHz; 66 MHz slot used for video card) optional internal 56k modem
  • two 400 Mbps FireWire ports
  • two 12 Mbps USB ports for keyboard, mouse, and peripherals one ADB port
  • 10/100Base-T ethernet connector on back of computer
  • size (HxWxD): 17.0" x 8.9" x 18.4"
  • weight: 30.0 lb.
  • Gestalt ID: n/a
  • battery: 3.6V lithium
  • upgrade path: ZIF CPU upgrades

July 2, 2005 in Desktop, PowerMac G3 Blue & White, Specifications | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Specifications: PowerBook G3 Series ("Wallstreet").

Link: PowerBook G3 Series specifications at LowEndMac.com

Details

  • introduced 1998.05.04; discontinued 1998.09.01
  • requires System 8.0 or later
  • CPU: 233, 250, or 292 MHz PPC 750 (G3)
  • bus: 66 or 83 MHz
  • performance: 445/881/1030 (233/250/292 MHz), MacBench 4; 686/967 (250/292), MacBench 5
  • ROM: 4 MB (2 MB on 12" model)
  • RAM: 32 or 64 MB, expandable to 512 MB using low profile DIMMs in both slots
  • Level 2 cache: 1 MB backside with 250 and 292 MHz models, none on 233 MHz model
  • Video: ATI 3D Rage LT
  • VRAM: 2 MB on 12.1" model, 4 MB on 1024 x 768 models
  • displays:
    • 12.1" 16-bit 800 x 600 color dual-scan passive matrix, 8- and 16-bit only
    • 13.3" 24-bit 1024 x 768 color active matrix (bad news); 8-, 16-, and 24-bit
    • 14.1" 24-bit 1024 x 768 color active matrix; 8-, 16-, and 24-bit
  • hard drive: 2, 4, or 8 GB EIDE
  • CD-ROM: 20x, removable
  • expansions bays: two
  • ADB port for keyboard and mouse
  • DIN-8 serial port on back of computer
  • PowerBook SCSI connector on back of computer
  • ethernet and modem standard
  • two PC Card slots
  • weight: 7.2-7.8 pounds with battery
  • family number: M4753

July 2, 2005 in Laptop, PowerBook G3 Series, Specifications | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack