Last year I scanned over a 1,100 slides and negatives on a Nikon 9000. Took about a month nearly full-time. Before I did it, I had a shootout between the Nikon and an Epson v700. The Nikon won hands down. Not even close. I could boot my Mac into a virtual machine that would run the execrable NikonScan software and had a shootout between that and VueScan. VueScan won. (And NikonScan remains a primary reason why I won't consider a Nikon camera to this day.) There is a long, long learning curve to VueScan, and even once you know it, it will surprise you, and not in a good way. But, once you get it dialed, you can get scans from it that rival drum scans. Your biggest problem is going to be that usb to firewire connection and that tube Mac, so good luck with that.
My only tips? Get cotton gloves, a can of air, a nice brush, a rocket blower, and some Edwal cleaner, if you can still find it. (Amazing stuff; it was taken off the shelves in California.) Profile the scanner if you can and lock in the color settings in VueScan and use the profile to color-correct the scans in Photoshop post scan, otherwise you spend a lot of time tweaking each scan in a UI that isn't really suited for it. Scan at the highest machine resolution (which I think is 4000 dpi for that scanner) and 16 bit. You're making archival scans. Trust me, you don't want to do this twice. Set up VueScan to focus on preview and on final scan. Try some multi-sampling and multi-pass; after you've grown old waiting, you'll probably decide that one pass is good enough. Have two stations so you can prep the next slide while the machine is scanning. You can also work on and assess scans while waiting for the next scan. I don't know about the 4000, but the 9000 was slow boating, especially on 120. I created my folder structure for the archive on my desktop while I was working on the project and eventually just ingested the whole folder structure into LR. VueScan has a pretty good auto naming facility, but it isn't the most intuitive in the world. Actually you'll wind up saying that a lot. VueScan--great program, wretched UI. I skipped ICE and GEM. ICE will slow the process and soften the scan a little, and I'm so fast in Photoshop that I can do a better job in about the time a scan takes. Also, ICE doesn't work on a regular B&W and that was the bulk of my task.
When done, sell the scanner for more than you paid for it. Unless you're a film freak...