Changing iBook housing into Macbook Pro? Possible?

[cartoongeorge96]

Call me a cheapy but is it possible?

I have been searching ebay for macs, i really want one but cannot afford one, iBooks keep popping up. You can get a g4 with leopard thrown in for £120/$140. Im thinking about buying a macbook pro case (housing) and throwing in the components. Then ill have a macbook pro, maybe ill add abit more ram?
Pros Cons? I really want to do it and i wouldnt mind keeping the project on here

Cheers
BTW Im In The UK!

 

[AdrianK]

...No.

 

[cartoongeorge96]

....Why!?

 

[AdrianK]

The dimensions of the parts. Anyway, you'd need to the rest of the MBPs internals to hook the iBook's motherboard to, which would be expensive.

Your idea just isn't feasible.

The plastic iBook's look pretty nice anyway imo.

 

[WGoins88]

It will never work.

Nearly 100% of laptops made are proprietary, meaning that almost everything is custom manufactured for that laptop, except for HDs, memory and some optical drives.

 

[AdrianK]

Yup. They design the case to fit the mobo and the ports on it. The mobo from an iBook probably wont fit; and the ports wont match up, so you can't plug anything in (like say, the power cord). Also the other parts from the ibook wont fit (LCD, keyboard etc), so you'll need parts from a real MBP, which probably wont connect to the iBook mobo.

How you ever thought this was feasible is beyond me.

btw, '96 wouldn't happen to be your year of birth would it?

 

[MacHamster68]

the iBooks look great ,
just try to get one of the latest 1.33 or even the 1.42 models
or a PowerBook 1.33 and above
if you want to use it as main computer , otherwise lower spec are no problem at all even iBook G3's are still usable for general browsing and emailing and word processing and such or to listen to itunes

and watch out for problems , best get one which has a good battery and is charging , as a new battery is another £30 for you to invest straight away ,the bad solder on the graphic chip is not the big problem as it can easy be solved with the very fine tip of a soldering iron and a tiny tiny bit solder , same for worn unreadable keys , some permanent marker helps to make the letters visible again until you got cash for a new keyboard

 

[old-wiz]

An iBook G4 with a 1.33 processor is a decent machine if you max the memory to 1.25GB. My wife uses it for web browsing, e-mail, and writing. I would much rather have a functioning iBook in its own case rather than wreck one trying to stuff it into a MBP case, which is a different thickness, different size, different screen connectors, and god knows what else.

Even if you somehow managed to stuff the iBook inndards into a MBP case, you are still stuck with PPC and you can't run Snow Leopard or Intel only apps like Chrome, and you can't do any RAM upgrades beyond 1.25gb.

 

[cartoongeorge96]

Thanks for the replies, i clearly didnt think things over. I would like a mac for my web design course, it would need to run i web, dreamweaver ect. I think i need to dish out £1000+, any ideas on the older models, the powerbooks do look pretty nice?
Thanks again

 

[cartoongeorge96]

Also what do you think about the mac minis, i want to keep the price to a minimum?

 

[NZed]

Thanks for the replies, i clearly didnt think things over. I would like a mac for my web design course, it would need to run i web, dreamweaver ect. I think i need to dish out £1000+, any ideas on the older models, the powerbooks do look pretty nice?
Thanks again

By web design , you mean using programs such as Adobe Suite too right?
I dont think that a PowerPC would handle web design and dreamweaver that well(it could but lag, or slow).
And if you are using adobe suites too, you need to find the old one. CS5 wont work. neither CS4

Edit: actually CS3 works, but according to this post, its "dog slow"
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/69996

Also what do you think about the mac minis, i want to keep the price to a minimum?

The current production of mac mini is fine, the older PPC one, maybe not.

You said you want to keep the price at the minimum but do you have any limitations with fundings? If you do, i would recommend that you buy the 2010 i5 or i7 model(second hand or refurbished). If not, go with the current gen MBP.

 

[iPhoneCollector]

its like saying " can i buy a dacia logan and but a rolls royce body on it?"

 

[cartoongeorge96]

By web design , you mean using programs such as Adobe Suite too right?
I dont think that a PowerPC would handle web design and dreamweaver that well(it could but lag, or slow).
And if you are using adobe suites too, you need to find the old one. CS5 wont work. neither CS4

Edit: actually CS3 works, but according to this post, its "dog slow"
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/69996



The current production of mac mini is fine, the older PPC one, maybe not.

You said you want to keep the price at the minimum but do you have any limitations with fundings? If you do, i would recommend that you buy the 2010 i5 or i7 model(second hand or refurbished). If not, go with the current gen MBP.

I am limited to funds, but its worth saving for the latest mini, right? Seen these on ebay , dont think it would cut it, also i love the look of the new mini Being limited to funds and it being my first mac, the monitor im thinking is a HP pavilion lcd. PIC, Looks slightly appley. If you have any other look-a-like monitors, please tell.

Thanks Everyone

 

[0007776]

I am limited to funds, but its worth saving for the latest mini, right? Seen these on ebay , dont think it would cut it, also i love the look of the new mini Being limited to funds and it being my first mac, the monitor im thinking is a HP pavilion lcd. PIC, Looks slightly appley. If you have any other look-a-like monitors, please tell.

Thanks Everyone

If you have to buy a monitor then save for the iMac, it's not that much more that a mac mini plus a monitor. if you've already got a monitor then go with the mini, and go with a newer model, apple's refurb site generally has good deals.

 

[MacHamster68]

i dont know how soon you would like to start or how long it takes you to save up , if it takes you a while you could always buy a iBook running leopard (i know tiger runs better) but just to get used to OSX , so you could buy one now and sell it again as soon as you got enough funds buy a iMac or MacBook
..most buy the G4 Mac's to get used to OSX , and most keep them as its always handy to have something for backup if anything with the new Mac goes wrong
and for that matter ..a eMac 1.42 ghz model would be even cheaper then any iBook and faster as the eMac 1.42 takes 2 gb ram and has a 64mb ati radeon 9600 GPU ,and a 7200 rpm HDD so even watching online tv is no problem as long as its not HD of course

 

[cartoongeorge96]

Being a student, not really earning a wage, i would rather not buy old macs (Now i have thought about it).

You say buying a monitor would be the same as a referb iMac.
I think you've swayed me over to the iMac, the specs are nearly
double what the mini is. Heres the apple referb i have found

Tell me what you think?

 

[0007776]

Tell me what you think?

I think if you can afford it that it would work great and last a long time. With any Mac it's probably a good idea to invest in AppleCare too. But you don't have to do that right away you can add it anytime during the first year you own the computer.

 

[cartoongeorge96]

I think if you can afford it that it would work great and last a long time. With any Mac it's probably a good idea to invest in AppleCare too. But you don't have to do that right away you can add it anytime during the first year you own the computer.

Yeah i'll save, i didn't realise apple had such good refurbs. Apple care? Whats likley to die first, i tend to replace parts on my pc my self. Are macs a different story?

 

[itickings]

Whats likley to die first, i tend to replace parts on my pc my self. Are macs a different story?

It would be on par with replacing broken components of a PC laptop, i.e. forget it. You can change RAM quite easily, that's about it. If you're really crazy perhaps the hard drive.

I bought apple care for my iMac which in my case was a waste of money (hindsight is 20/20). The computer is still working perfectly after 4.5 years... But it is nice to know that the computer will work for at least the time covered by AC...

 

[NZed]

Yeah i'll save, i didn't realise apple had such good refurbs. Apple care? Whats likley to die first, i tend to replace parts on my pc my self. Are macs a different story?

on an iMac, RAMs and HD
On a MBP, RAMs Harddrive and secondary harddrive replacing the SuperDrive(DVD Drive)

the iMac refurb actually looks good. Go for it

 

[cartoongeorge96]

Yeah i think im going to, so if i buy apple care, they dont charge you a penny when it comes to repairs?

 

[zen.state]

so if i buy apple care, they dont charge you a penny when it comes to repairs?

Correct. Every new Mac comes with a standard 1 year warrantee but if you buy Apple Care it extends that 1 year to 3 years.

 

[cartoongeorge96]

Correct. Every new Mac comes with a standard 1 year warrantee but if you buy Apple Care it extends that 1 year to 3 years.

Sorry if im being dumb and i know i could talk to a apple genuis about these things but after the 3 years is up can you extend it further and is that it. Sorry about the questions, im looking forward to my new mac

 

[old-wiz]

Sorry if im being dumb and i know i could talk to a apple genuis about these things but after the 3 years is up can you extend it further and is that it. Sorry about the questions, im looking forward to my new mac

There is no way to extend the warranty beyond 3 years. The original warranty covers one year and the AppleCare covers an additional 2 years. After that you are out of warranty and coverage.

 

[itickings]

Sorry if im being dumb and i know i could talk to a apple genuis about these things but after the 3 years is up can you extend it further and is that it.:

Nope, that's it. No extensions.

Edit: Darn, beaten by old-wiz. No replies for hours, and then two virtually at the same time. Just my luck