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Granite's iBook G3 Clamshells

Been a while!

As of today I sold my Tangerine iBook. I managed to get $200 for it ($170 if you take off what I had to pay for shipping to the new owner)

I just couldn't justify keeping it. After installing VCL player on both the Tangerine one and my 466mhz Graphite one, I could watch fairly high bitrate video files in standard definition on the 466, but the 300 couldnt even touch the video playback that the 466 could do.
Good example being a 185Mb .avi episode of Seinfeld (22mins long.) Steaming from ether usb or the hard drive, it had near perfect playback on my 466mhz Graphite one. The Tangerine 300mhz iBook was mostly a black video screen, maybe a frame here or there with choppy audio!

I might also be using a portion of the money I sold the Tangerine one for to buy a PATA ssd for the Graphite ibook. Squeeze every last bit of speed out of it.

Those of you wanting to buy an old clamshell one of these days. Do yourself a favor and buy a 366 or 466mhz model. The 366 and 466 models have onboard cpu cache. The 300mhz model has external cpu cache from what I have read. It makes a pretty big difference! :p
 
Sorry to see the Tangerine go; you've got some very nice pictures of it!

I'm not surprised the external cache makes the 300MHz so much slower; cache is a lot more important to performance than some people realize. I have 2 Athlon 64 x2 systems, one uses DDR RAM, the other has a faster clock speed and uses DDR2, but has half the cache... the DDR2 system is very noticeably slower, despite its other advantages. Cache makes a huge difference.

If you get an SSD for it, watch out for the low-end Kingspec SSDs. There's a specific version of them that has a weird issue with the iBook's ATA bus. I explained it a bit here, but basically watch out for ones with "PA25.6" in the model number.

Edit: I should add that the difference in sound an SSD makes in these things is downright hilarious. My iBook went from being almost the loudest laptop I'd ever heard (thanks to that awful 10GB hard drive), to emitting literally zero noise. It's really something.
 
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CapnCrunch53 said:
If you get an SSD for it, watch out for the low-end Kingspec SSDs. There's a specific version of them that has a weird issue with the iBook's ATA bus. I explained it a bit here, but basically watch out for ones with "PA25.6" in the model number.
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Oh, thank you for shareing that bit of info. I was actually planning on getting the 32Gb KingSpec SSD. This one actually: http://www.ebay.com/itm/261534334935?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

Looks like its a PA25.6 model.

I want a cheap SSD because I know even a cheap one will easily be able to max out the ata bus. I also dont do heavy writing to the old clamshell beyond putting the little bit of stuff I want on it and calling it a day so im not worried about it degrading the ssd or anything either.

I just want a 32gb pata SSD that is as close to $40 as I can get. Or a larger one if possible, ive set the budget to $40.

Other options appear to be Zheino: http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-5-PATA-ID...?pt=US_Solid_State_Drives&hash=item2335f749af (US seller too)
 
Yeah, I feel the same way; I use the iBook so rarely and when I do, I do very little writing, so I'm not worried at all about the SSD. And in the end, it was like $40.

The issue with those Kingspec SSDs is really unfortunate; I realize that makes it way harder to find a cheap candidate as those SSDs are everywhere. For the record, I did get OS9 to work with it. But not OSX. Disk Utility just wasn't having it. So I'm not really sure what the exact issues are with the SM2236 controller are, but with all the issues other people had and me only getting OS9 to install on it, I'd steer clear.

I can't find any info about that Zheino, let alone what controller it uses, so you might be charting new territory as far as putting it in an iBook. But at that price it's probably worth it; worst-case scenario it doesn't work, and you return it or throw it in a different machine.
 
Just do the mSATA > IDE mod like I did. Costs the same, performance will be a tad better and no worrying about firmware versions. Opening one of these things is not something you will want to do often.
 
weckart said:
Just do the mSATA > IDE mod like I did. Costs the same, performance will be a tad better and no worrying about firmware versions. Opening one of these things is not something you will want to do often.
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Can you link me to the same adapter and msata ssd that you used?
 
I've used a couple of these(MODS:NOT MY AUCTION)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321612695170?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I also bought mSATA SSDs from this source

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321620111917?_trksid=p2059210.m2748.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I like these enclosures since they mimic the form factor of a 2.5" IDE drive so are-quite literally-a drop in replacement.

For $60, you have something that's just as easy to handle and use as the Kingspec IDE SSDs, but is faster, larger, and about the same price.

One caveat I will offer is that I've never been able to get these to work in an external enclosure, although they work fine installed in the computer. Depending on how you generally migrate to a new hard drive, you may need to rethink your strategy with this in mind.
 
bunnspecial said:
I've used a couple of these(MODS:NOT MY AUCTION)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321612695170?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I also bought mSATA SSDs from this source

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321620111917?_trksid=p2059210.m2748.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I like these enclosures since they mimic the form factor of a 2.5" IDE drive so are-quite literally-a drop in replacement.

For $60, you have something that's just as easy to handle and use as the Kingspec IDE SSDs, but is faster, larger, and about the same price.

One caveat I will offer is that I've never been able to get these to work in an external enclosure, although they work fine installed in the computer. Depending on how you generally migrate to a new hard drive, you may need to rethink your strategy with this in mind.
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I have no data on my Clamshell to migrate. I planned to copy what i want off it onto my 16gb usb stick, and then put in the new ssd and do a fresh Tiger install, reinstall all my applications one at a time too.

This looks great to me, and since you have used these in other clamshells with success I wont have to worry about getting an SSD that may not work in my clamshell.
 
GraniteTheWolf said:
I have no data on my Clamshell to migrate. I planned to Copy what i want off it onto my 16gb usb stick, and then put in the new ssd and do a fresh Tiger install, reinstall all my applications one at a time too.

This looks great to me, and since you have used these in other clamshells with success I wont have to worry about getting an SSD that may not work in my clamshell.
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I will add the caveat that I've not used one in a Clamshell(I don't own a Clamshell).

I've used them in a couple of Powerbooks, however, and am in the process of migrating data onto one for use in a Cube. I've also temporarily installed them in G4 towers several times(using a desktop to laptop IDE adapter) for data migration purposes.
 
I went ahead and ordered the enclosure for the mSATA ssd early since its cheap and it will take a month to get here from China.

Going to wait a couple weeks to order the 128gb SSD. (Damn thats going to be a lot of space for Tiger on the old clamshell. May as well put my whole music collection on it when its all set up :rolleyes:)
 
GraniteTheWolf said:
I went ahead and ordered the enclosure for the mSATA ssd early since its cheap and it will take a month to get here from China.

Going to wait a couple weeks to order the 128gb SSD. (Damn thats going to be a lot of space for Tiger on the old clamshell. May as well put my whole music collection on it when its all set up :rolleyes:)
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The last one of those enclosures actually took 8 days to get here-I was quite pleasantly surprised. I ordered it on January 21 and it arrived on January 29.

The previous order took 10 days-ordered January 3 and arrived January 13.

I've been pleasantly surprised at how quickly things from China have been arriving recently.

BTW, I feel the same way with the SSD I just put in one of my Cubes-it feels huge!
 
GraniteTheWolf said:
I'm in a very small town, in fact someone close enough to me is broadcasting a fully unencrypted signal with the genius name of "**** OFF" as its SSID. Ive connected to it before and its got full internet access and everything lol.
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Just cerious does the 4 stars stand the the F word or "Piss" off? LOL

And hey your lucky! With my Long Range Wifi card I can't pick up any Networks that are open. I get my Wifi from the neighbors LOL hey way i see it if that network is still in use use it Free's Free :D

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Altemose said:
Network analyzer tools and sniffers can spot hidden networks.
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got any for Linux i can try? or perhaps Windows Mobile 6 or even OS X?

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Intell said:
If someone can get onto the WEP network, they can see everything that happens on his internal network unless he isolates if with a VLAN.
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You can do that? All I can see with the neighbor's Wifi connection is a few PCs, a couple of iMacs and like 3 or 4 TimeMachine Backups drives and 2 TVs. NONE of which, I can get into as they all require passwords and usernames (Nor would i want too. What Data they have on their network's none of my business.
 
GraniteTheWolf said:
I just changed the security to WPA. Turns out the original airport card in my clamshell can do WPA (just not wpa2)

I'm sure plain WPA is much more secure then WEP.

My setup is my modem feeding my modern wifi router which has 4 Ethernet ports on the back, one of those ports feeds to the airport router.
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Sounds like my Situation. My Xbox can access WPA 2 so can my laptop and any other computer i add to the network, However, My ASUS A626 PocketPC can't seem to work with WPA2 (atleast i cant get it too) It connects it just dont work for internet so i have to set my Wireless N Router to WPA which sucks cuz then it falls back to Wireless G
 
GraniteTheWolf said:
I just changed the security to WPA. Turns out the original airport card in my clamshell can do WPA (just not wpa2)

I'm sure plain WPA is much more secure then WEP.

My setup is my modem feeding my modern wifi router which has 4 Ethernet ports on the back, one of those ports feeds to the airport router.
Click to expand...

Your Modern Wireless router (late Wireless G or Wireless N) should have the ability of broadcasting 2 or more SSIDs

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Altemose said:
Tools like inSSIDer and netsh command on Windows can show hidden networks. I am not sure if they will identify the SSID however.
Click to expand...

The Realtek chipset in my netis WF2120 Nano Wireless N USB's Mac OS X software shows Hidden Networks. It just doesn't show the SSID unfortunately.

Ralink does the same thing with it's OS X Drivers as well.
 
I always wanted one of these iBooks. I personally think they are the most attractive laptop ever made and I wonder why apple made the iBook G3 snows rather than just keep this design? Hell even the iBook G4s would be awesome looking like the Clamshells!

What use would these Clamshells provide in 2015? I would most likely get one for the "WOW" factor more than anything. Using it when i goto a public place that requires waiting and just browse the web.
 
MatthewLTL said:
I always wanted one of these iBooks. I personally think they are the most attractive laptop ever made and I wonder why apple made the iBook G3 snows rather than just keep this design? Hell even the iBook G4s would be awesome looking like the Clamshells!

What use would these Clamshells provide in 2015? I would most likely get one for the "WOW" factor more than anything. Using it when i goto a public place that requires waiting and just browse the web.
Click to expand...

First, although they have stellar battery life they weigh a ton - due to the long battery and thick plastics used, especially on the later models. Second, 800x600 was a step back from the Pismos and a lot of software at the time was optimised for 1024x768 as were web pages. Third, the Barbie's Toilet moniker did nothing for Apple's reputation at the time as it was positioning itself as the Pro's computer. Fourth, the Clamshells stopped at the ageing G3 and were fanless. The warmer G4s needed a fan so a case redesign was on the cards, anyway.
 
weckart said:
First, although they have stellar battery life they weigh a ton - due to the long battery and thick plastics used, especially on the later models. Second, 800x600 was a step back from the Pismos and a lot of software at the time was optimised for 1024x768 as were web pages. Third, the Barbie's Toilet moniker did nothing for Apple's reputation at the time as it was positioning itself as the Pro's computer. Fourth, the Clamshells stopped at the ageing G3 and were fanless. The warmer G4s needed a fan so a case redesign was on the cards, anyway.
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They couldn't do a Case redesign in the style of the clamshell? and if they needed a case redesign why redesign them as G3 "Snows"?
 
MatthewLTL said:
They couldn't do a Case redesign in the style of the clamshell? and if they needed a case redesign why redesign them as G3 "Snows"?
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The Clamshells are quite thin - particularly the tinfoil heatsink. Higher CPU speeds means heat dissipation issues, so the Clamshells would have got chunkier and more Toytowny. Plus the brickbats with the existing Clamshell design as I already mentioned in my third point above.

Apple has a roadmap further than the next model up. It was already stuffing G4s into its Titanium PBs so it knew where the consumer model was heading.
 
weckart said:
The Clamshells are quite thin - particularly the tinfoil heatsink. Higher CPU speeds means heat dissipation issues, so the Clamshells would have got chunkier and more Toytowny. Plus the brickbats with the existing Clamshell design as I already mentioned in my third point above.

Apple has a roadmap further than the next model up. It was already stuffing G4s into its Titanium PBs so it knew where the consumer model was heading.
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Not to mention the fact that-clock for clock-G4s run a fair bit hotter than G3s.

Although admittedly this was a desktop, I found this out first hand when I did a direct G3-to-G4 swap(and initially kept the clock speed the same) in a B&W. The big heatsink would barely get warm with a G3 even under load, while the G4 gets the heatsink quite toasty(or at least it did until I put a fan on it).
 
Works great for transferring to my firewire 400 ipods. I have a 2nd gen 20gb classic and a 3rd gen 15 gb classic shown here :D
 

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I decided to pop on this little SSD for the IDE adapter I have that I purchased after Bunnspecial recommended them to me.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/221710472881?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

I decided I didnt need a 128gb drive, or even a 64gb drive. This 32gb drive will do the job perfectly for my old clamshell. I just hope it all works when I get it in and put it together.

I'm going to put the ssd into the ide adapter, then I plan to put it in an external case to test it a bit before going through the long process of installing it.
 
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