iMac G3 Slot Loader Upgrades

Apple revamped the iMac in late 1999. Both the internal and external components changed greatly. It became a very popular range of machines which sold in the millions.

Internally they went for a whole new logic board with FireWire and Airport sockets on all except the earliest revisions. The motherboard changed to a 100MHz board which accepted the cheaper and larger SDRAM DIMM memory, instead of SODIMMs as used on the tray-loading iMac.

The CD-ROM was replaced with a slot loading version (which became a DVD-ROM and CD-RW on later models).

Later machines were announced with speed bumped processors, more VRAM and some interesting choices of colours.

It was the iMacs distinctive colouration that set it apart from the rest, and is still being imitated today. However some of the outrageous colours, including "Blue Dalmatian" and "Flower Power", did not go down as well as others!

The iMac G3 Slot Loader is distinctive in its appearance. There were three types made, all with different processors, RAM and colouration.

The G3 iMac series can be distinguished by their optical drives. These G3 iMacs have a slot loading optical drive. The earlier machines have a tray loading CD optical drive.

The vast majority of the slot-loading iMacs had a FireWire port. However the first model, the 350MHz version, does not have FireWire.

Although this page covers a number of versions, all the upgrades available are the same.

If you are still unsure you can contact us on 01223 833 412, or by email, for confirmation. If you want to upgrade but aren't happy to install your upgrades then we can help. Simply ask our engineers for further details.

The iMac G3 slot loader has 2 memory socket available for upgrade. It can accept up to 1GB of RAM in 2 x 512MB chips.

The iMac G3 Slot Loaders came equipped with either a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or CD-RW optical drive on the front of the machine. At present we don't stock internal CD or DVD writers for this machine, but it is possible to use an external device via USB or FireWire (FireWire is better if your iMac has it).

This range of drives will work in your iMac G3 Slot loader, although user installation is difficult (see below). Please note that internal hard drives larger than 120GB will not work in this machine.

If you don't want to fit a new hard drive yourself, you can take advantage of the MacUpgrades Installation Service. Add the installation service from the list below to your cart along with your chosen hard drive. We can also clone your existing hard drive onto the new one, simply add the Clone Original Hard Drive service below to your cart.

Once you have booked the service, send your machine to us, we will carry out the work and return it to you. Alternatively, we do offer a Collection Service with our courier, please see here for details.

The graphics card in your iMac G3 Slot Loader is part of the main logic board. Unfortunately therefore it is not possible to increase or change the graphics card. It may be worth expanding your memory to its maximum to try and compensate, although this will have a limited effect at best on your iMac's 3D capabilities.

Your iMac G3 Slot Loader has no available PCMCIA or PCI sockets for connectivity expansion.

The following keyboards and mice are compatible with this Mac.

Listed below are power supplies, batteries and related products we supply for this Mac.

Listed below are power cables, tools and related products we supply for this Mac.

Versions of this Mac which have FireWire can use any of the following external hard drives. If you don't have FireWire then unfortunately your only option is to use normal USB - this is a very slow connection for data storage, and is not generally recommended.

Any complete machines of this type or similar that we have for sale are listed here. Please note that these are refurbished models with a 3 month warranty, and that delivery is likely to take 3 - 5 working days. These can be purchased online with the standard website courier delivery charge for the mainland UK only. Please contact us for a quote on shipping to other areas.

Here are the various repair services we offer for this Mac. You can have us take the machine in for evaluation, or book a fixed-price repair if you already know what the fault is and the service is listed below (for services without parts, please see the relevant tab on this page for compatible parts that we sell). If you know what the fault is, but we don't have a fixed-price repair listed below, please contact us for a quote.