I bought a B&W G3 a week and a half ago. It's one of these:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g3/stats/powermac_g3_350_bl.html
The sticker on the back says it had 64MB originally (it had 256MB when I bought and I've since boosted it to 512) leading me to believe it's the M7556LL/A model. I didn't originally want a G3, I have a 512MB SDRAM DIMM that won't work at full capacity in anything less than a Sawtooth G4 and I was fed the same line about OSX not running terribly well on them. However, I saw this advertised in the Sunday newspaper for AUD$50 and thought it was too good an oppurtunity to pass up.
It was quite a surprise, on all sorts of levels. Firstly, it was more than I was expecting. It was advertised just as a "G3 Tower" and for the price I thought I'd wind up with either a beige or the earlier 300Mhz B&W (more on that later). It was quite a suprise to find out it was not only a 350Mhz model, but also had a Revison 2 motherboard. Secondly OSX performance wasn't that bad, even with the 256MB it had originally. Adding an extra 256 improved things a hell of a lot and I would certainly recommend it but it was still usable enough with 256.
A few tips I can give you if you're looking for a B&W (a G4 would be a better bet but if all you're looking for is a cheap way into OSX then one of these B&Ws is a good place to start) are for starters, avoid the 300Mhz model. Not only are they always on the revision 1 logic board, they only have half (512K) the L2 cache of their faster brethren leading to them apparently being able to be outperformed byt the earlier beige models. Secondly, look for one with a revision 2 logic board which, among other things, has an improved IDE controller that corrects a couple of nasty issues with the older one. 450Mhz systems will always have the newer board while 350Mhz and 400Mhz machines can have either so it helps to be able to verify the board in person (easiest way to tell is the newer boards have "402" on the CMD IDE chips whichj is at the rear of the board, near the PCI slots). Thankfully the case design on the B&Ws makes this ridiculously easy: all you have to do is pull a lever on the side up and the whole side of the case will come down.
hth.
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g3/stats/powermac_g3_350_bl.html
The sticker on the back says it had 64MB originally (it had 256MB when I bought and I've since boosted it to 512) leading me to believe it's the M7556LL/A model. I didn't originally want a G3, I have a 512MB SDRAM DIMM that won't work at full capacity in anything less than a Sawtooth G4 and I was fed the same line about OSX not running terribly well on them. However, I saw this advertised in the Sunday newspaper for AUD$50 and thought it was too good an oppurtunity to pass up.
It was quite a surprise, on all sorts of levels. Firstly, it was more than I was expecting. It was advertised just as a "G3 Tower" and for the price I thought I'd wind up with either a beige or the earlier 300Mhz B&W (more on that later). It was quite a suprise to find out it was not only a 350Mhz model, but also had a Revison 2 motherboard. Secondly OSX performance wasn't that bad, even with the 256MB it had originally. Adding an extra 256 improved things a hell of a lot and I would certainly recommend it but it was still usable enough with 256.
A few tips I can give you if you're looking for a B&W (a G4 would be a better bet but if all you're looking for is a cheap way into OSX then one of these B&Ws is a good place to start) are for starters, avoid the 300Mhz model. Not only are they always on the revision 1 logic board, they only have half (512K) the L2 cache of their faster brethren leading to them apparently being able to be outperformed byt the earlier beige models. Secondly, look for one with a revision 2 logic board which, among other things, has an improved IDE controller that corrects a couple of nasty issues with the older one. 450Mhz systems will always have the newer board while 350Mhz and 400Mhz machines can have either so it helps to be able to verify the board in person (easiest way to tell is the newer boards have "402" on the CMD IDE chips whichj is at the rear of the board, near the PCI slots). Thankfully the case design on the B&Ws makes this ridiculously easy: all you have to do is pull a lever on the side up and the whole side of the case will come down.
hth.