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Upgrading Titanium G4 Powerbook

suraj

suraj

macrumors member
Original poster
I love my TiBook.

G4 400mhz, 384MB, 10GB HD.

Is it possible to up both the CPU and HD? Ideally I would like to have a 30-40GB HD and a 1ghz G4 cpu.

Any suggestions?
 
suraj said:
I love my TiBook.

G4 400mhz, 384MB, 10GB HD.

Is it possible to up both the CPU and HD? Ideally I would like to have a 30-40GB HD and a 1ghz G4 cpu.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

You can up the HD with a much faster modern drive without much difficulty and get a nice speed improvement. MCE Technologies ( http://www.mcetech.com ) can replace the internal DVD-ROM with a combo drive for $200 or a superdrive for around $300 (they also do harddrive upgrades if you're not comfortable doing it yourself). The RAM can be boosted to 1 GB, which would also improve perfomance.

It's not possible to up the CPU to 1 GHz, though if you're comfortable with a soldering iron, you can overclock it to 500 MHz or even 550 MHz if you're lucky. See http://www.voelker.com/service/void_powerbookg4/powerbookg4.php

There's a high capacity battery available for TiBooks here: http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=7095&Item=NWTBAPT4800LI

Finally, you should be running Mac OS X 10.3 (aka Panther) for best performance.

Those are pretty much all your upgrade options. Hope this helps.

-vga4life
 
I have the same computer. I chickened out on putting in a 7200 rpm hard drive because of supposed heat issues and just dropped in a 40 gig 5400 Travelstar. (I will be putting a larger 7200 hd in it soon.) Put the old 10 gig hd in an usb enclosure as backup. Bumped ram to 768mb. FASTER. QUIETER. BETTER and runs Panther like it was made for it -- better than Jaguar btw. PS I had Applecare until August and they have sent me a new keyboard, new hard drive (the 10gig) and new case for it so this is why I was so reluctant to upgrade now -- felt like I had a new computer. With faster hard drive and more RAM -- it IS a new computer and I LOVE MINE TOO.

I would not up the speed on the CPU by tweeking it that weird way. I heard if you do that, btw, your RAM all has to be 133 -- and our computers run both pc100 and pc133 so if you do, make sure your ram is 133.
 
You should upgrade the RAM first (max it out if possible). Then the HD (up to 100 GB now for notebooks). Then the battery (the new high capacity ones are great).

I don't think most people realize how much better performance they can acheive by upping the RAM in their computer. This allows more apps to be open at once, working with larger files more easily, less use of the HD as a scratch disc, better battery life, less heat, less niose.
 
California said:
I would not up the speed on the CPU by tweeking it that weird way. I heard if you do that, btw, your RAM all has to be 133 -- and our computers run both pc100 and pc133 so if you do, make sure your ram is 133.
Click to expand...

No - this isn't the same as some of the PowerMac G4 overclocks - it does not increase the bus speed, just the processor multiplier. The bus remains at 100 MHz so PC100 ram still works.

It's still not an operation for those of the faint of heart, but if you're geeky enough to own a soldering iron, it's not difficult at all.

-vga4life
 
Mian Thanks so much. It is a bit steep for a modest upgrade but worth it for my machine. Do they replace the logic board in these upgrades? Because I forgot to say that Apple also replaced my logic board a few months ago. I know Daystar has a good rep, so again thanks for the heads up.
 
I would caution against spending too much money upgrading a rev1 TIbook. Remember, you can sell a 400 MHz tibook for $500 and take the $500 you might have spent on an upgrade and get a brand new ibook that outperforms it in every way and doesn't lose much in screen resolution - those older tibooks were only 1152x768 and current ibooks are 1024x768.

Granted, they're not as sexy, but they're inarguably faster, more functional and durable.

-vga4life
 
vga4life said:
I would caution against spending too much money upgrading a rev1 TIbook. Remember, you can sell a 400 MHz tibook for $500 and take the $500 you might have spent on an upgrade and get a brand new ibook that outperforms it in every way and doesn't lose much in screen resolution - those older tibooks were only 1152x768 and current ibooks are 1024x768.

Granted, they're not as sexy, but they're inarguably faster, more functional and durable.

-vga4life
Click to expand...

hes/shes got a good point, if i were you then thats what i'd do.
 
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