OWC SSD in PowerBook G4 12" 1.33MHz

[applehult]

Hi,

Just wanted to share som pics from my conversion to 120GB SSD disc from OWC. I also changed from Tiger to Leopard (OSX 10.4.11 to 10.5.8).

Change in performance:
BEFORE (OSX 10.4.11)
Startup until login: approx 1 min
Startup until I have opened Safari: approx 2:05 (incl login, and I start Safari as fast as I can)

AFTER (OSX 10.5.8)
Startup until login: ca 35-40s
Startup until I have opened Safari: approx 1 min (incl login, and I start Safari as fast as I can)

Apart from that programs start much faster and I have a lot more space on my hard drive ;-)

My brother thought it would be quicker than it became, but thought that the ATA-buses might be the neck of the bottle.

Is it worth the money? If money talks, then no. But I like my powerbook and it still satisfies many of my day to day needs. And, it's the best looking computer yet 😎

 

[doctormark77]

Nice! I'm tempted to do the same. I wonder how much of a boost you'll get battery life wise. How much ram do you have?

 

[pistooli]

very nice indeed. especialy good to see the success strory, that some other forum member had problem with the very same setup.

Upgraded PowerBook SSD reinstal

do you experience any extra heat because of the SSD?

 

[burnout8488]

I think you've probably reached the limit of how fast a PowerBook G4 can boot. It probably wouldn't be able to saturate the ATA bus in simply booting the computer, it's just the rest of the old architecture holding it back.

Still, a 30 second boot time is awesome and I'm sure the machine is much more responsive now. Every time I use my 12 or 15 I crave an SSD, even a 5400RPM 250GB drive leaves a lot to be desired speed-wise sometimes.

Remember, these 12s are still using DDR1. A 15" PB G4 1.67 with DDR2 might even boot under 30 seconds. I'm dying to run into some money so I can pamper my PowerBooks with some solid state action and find out.

Great pics! Let us know if it gets any hotter or gets better battery life.

 

[applehult]

Nice! I'm tempted to do the same. I wonder how much of a boost you'll get battery life wise. How much ram do you have?

I have 1.25 GB, which I guess is max, since the original 250MG is soldered onto the motherboard (?)

----------

I think you've probably reached the limit of how fast a PowerBook G4 can boot. It probably wouldn't be able to saturate the ATA bus in simply booting the computer, it's just the rest of the old architecture holding it back.

Still, a 30 second boot time is awesome and I'm sure the machine is much more responsive now. Every time I use my 12 or 15 I crave an SSD, even a 5400RPM 250GB drive leaves a lot to be desired speed-wise sometimes.

Remember, these 12s are still using DDR1. A 15" PB G4 1.67 with DDR2 might even boot under 30 seconds. I'm dying to run into some money so I can pamper my PowerBooks with some solid state action and find out.

Great pics! Let us know if it gets any hotter or gets better battery life.

I have not thought much about heat.. Its getting a bit hot, but not too hot. Cant remember if its hotter than before.

My battery sucks.... Its seen its best days, and the next best days as well.. So I cant really tell if battery life is extended. Im my 12" mostly at home, so its not much of a problem to me.

 

[skinniezinho]

Hi,

Just wanted to share som pics from my conversion to 120GB SSD disc from OWC. I also changed from Tiger to Leopard (OSX 10.4.11 to 10.5.8).

Change in performance:
BEFORE (OSX 10.4.11)
Startup until login: approx 1 min
Startup until I have opened Safari: approx 2:05 (incl login, and I start Safari as fast as I can)

AFTER (OSX 10.5.8)
Startup until login: ca 35-40s
Startup until I have opened Safari: approx 1 min (incl login, and I start Safari as fast as I can)

was 10.4.11 "used" or clean install?
The benchmarks are impressive.SSD can do wonders for any computer...

 

[TheNorthWaves]

props to you, this is a great mod and I have always been curious about it myself.

 

[jchase2057]

i just put the same drive in my 5,6 powerbook.

 

[Archduk3]

Hi,

Just wanted to share som pics from my conversion to 120GB SSD disc from OWC. I also changed from Tiger to Leopard (OSX 10.4.11 to 10.5.8).

Change in performance:
BEFORE (OSX 10.4.11)
Startup until login: approx 1 min
Startup until I have opened Safari: approx 2:05 (incl login, and I start Safari as fast as I can)

AFTER (OSX 10.5.8)
Startup until login: ca 35-40s
Startup until I have opened Safari: approx 1 min (incl login, and I start Safari as fast as I can)

Apart from that programs start much faster and I have a lot more space on my hard drive ;-)

My brother thought it would be quicker than it became, but thought that the ATA-buses might be the neck of the bottle.

Is it worth the money? If money talks, then no. But I like my powerbook and it still satisfies many of my day to day needs. And, it's the best looking computer yet 😎

So I am the one having problems like one of the threadfollowers are mentioning. Is there any "wrong" way to install it/formating the drive in the first place?

My superdrive is dead so I have to install it from a USB going through open firmware. But It works 100% doing it to a FW drive, but when I try doing it straight to the 40 gig OWC SSD it wont work. This is my second drive, and the people installing are from a licensed Apple repair center...

 

[Nameci]

Partition your SSD as an APM, "Apple Partition Map" in disk utility first before copying the files over thru CCC.

 

[xinu]

I have PowerBook G4 HighRes 1.67ghz model with 2gt DDR2 RAM and ATI 128mb GPU and I like it very much but HDD is slooooow :/ HDD is 4200rpm Toshiba 60gb. Very very slow.

I am considering SSD drive for it but will there be issues with sleep-wake for example? I have 10.5.8 Leopard on it now.

I really like that laptop, I have two batteries for it and I can surf 6hrs Wi-Fi with them. CPU temperature while surfing is around 45c and it is marvelous considering that new MacBooks hit around 100C temperatures and that tells me those Macbooks wont last as long, as G4 laptops.

CPU fans kick in when temperature goes over 55c so practically never 🙂

New SSD drive and one more battery, I can use this laptop in still in 2022

 

[pistooli]

I have PowerBook G4 HighRes 1.67ghz model with 2gt DDR2 RAM and ATI 128mb GPU and I like it very much but HDD is slooooow :/ HDD is 4200rpm Toshiba 60gb. Very very slow.

I am considering SSD drive for it but will there be issues with sleep-wake for example? I have 10.5.8 Leopard on it now.

I really like that laptop, I have two batteries for it and I can surf 6hrs Wi-Fi with them. CPU temperature while surfing is around 45c and it is marvelous considering that new MacBooks hit around 100C temperatures and that tells me those Macbooks wont last as long, as G4 laptops.

CPU fans kick in when temperature goes over 55c so practically never 🙂

New SSD drive and one more battery, I can use this laptop in still in 2022

Terve xinu,

Consider OWC Mercury Legacy SDD for you PowerBook. They are seeling it for iBooks and PowerBooks.

They have batteries too.

 

[Archduk3]

Partition your SSD as an APM, "Apple Partition Map" in disk utility first before copying the files over thru CCC.

Yeah, that kinda goes without saying. Wrong format and the drive is just transparent and can't install. Problem is that it starts install, then just crashes.