Pimping out my iBook

[ChrisFromCanada]

Alright my iBook G4 is really beginning to look slow next to my PM G5 so it is time to pimp it out. What I am looking at doing:

-Swapping the HD for an 80GB 5400RPM HD
-Swapping my 512MB RAM Stick for a 1GB Stick
-Swapping my Combo Drive for a Superdrive (Panasonic UJ-845)

I will be using this guide:
PB Fix It

Anyone have any comments or suggestions for me. Any of the components I am looking at available cheaper anywhere? I will be visiting the US shortly so I will have the parts sent there first. I know the RAM is not guaranteed to work in macs but does anyone see anything wrong with it on paper?

 

[ChrisBrightwell]

Only suggestion is to meticulously note where each screw goes. The last thing you want to do is leave a screw out and have to disassemble the entire project to get back to where it goes.

Good luck.

 

[wdlove]

I would recommend Crucial that is listed above in the shop area. It's best to purchase the exact RAM made to fir in your iBook. Good luck with the project.

 

[shadowmoses]

Good luck its not going to be easy but your PimPED iBook will be worth it!!! get back to us with how it went once you are finished...

ShadOW

 

[thehuncamunca]

as long as you have it all apart, do both the superdrive and the HD

 

[ldburroughs]

I did this a few months ago to my ibook. To get to everything there are essentially five screws on the bottom that need to come out before the top can be lifted off without breaking it. You'll need a set of computer screwdrivers, especially three on the bottom. Once you get to the top portion, just segregate your screws by section and it should help you remember where things go. In other words, start with the outer case screws on the top and put those aside. Then as you get to the inner plate, place those apart from the others. Doing this will help you find a home for all of the screws when you are finished.

The only tricky part is applying just the right amount of pressure to the top plate to pry it off without breaking it. You should have everything done in about two hours or so depending on how fast you are once inside the machine. It's really not that difficult, but well worth it in terms of the performance increase. My only wish is that the graphics component could be upgraded. It's the only real downside to these machines. You'll really like the faster, larger harddrive and extra memory.

Good luck!

 

[longwood]

the only thing that i would suggest is going with a 80GB 7200 RPM hard drive. if you are going to be in the computer why not go for the highest quality that is out there right now?

Alright my iBook G4 is really beginning to look slow next to my PM G5 so it is time to pimp it out. What I am looking at doing:

-Swapping the HD for an 80GB 5400RPM HD
-Swapping my 512MB RAM Stick for a 1GB Stick
-Swapping my Combo Drive for a Superdrive (Panasonic UJ-845)

I will be using this guide:
PB Fix It

Anyone have any comments or suggestions for me. Any of the components I am looking at available cheaper anywhere? I will be visiting the US shortly so I will have the parts sent there first. I know the RAM is not guaranteed to work in macs but does anyone see anything wrong with it on paper?

 

[hhlee]

the only thing that i would suggest is going with a 80GB 7200 RPM hard drive. if you are going to be in the computer why not go for the highest quality that is out there right now?

seagate came out with a few new 7200rpm notebook drives going up to 120gb i think. i'm thinking about getting the 80gb 7200 version for my 15'' pb but they seem to be sold out!

btw, a lot of sites i read say that hard drive speed is the limiting factor after a proper amount of ram (1gig). not sure how true that is but... after throwing in a 7200 drive w/2gig o ram, what else can i do to pimpify

 

[ham_man]

Hopefully this all works out for you. My suggestion would be to maybe take a few pictures of the computer before you start unscrewing and putting stuff in. In case you forget or you can't recall which went where, it will help you. Just a suggestion though. Good luck!!!

 

[Eniregnat]

Here is a journal of my HD replacement expierence on my 12" PB.

I would suggest using good tools, to help keep the screws in order, I would use plastic paint pallets, like the onle pictured below. Above all, have patinece.

An iSkin keyboard cover will also protect the LCD and it looks cool. Or something like this will protect the screen. This is actually applied to the screen.

Perhaps a dye mod. or some paint work while you have the thing apart. Another link. I like these mods the best. I don't know why the Tronbook is pimp, perhaps it is because of the Tron Guy Add some EL stripping and get some pimp matching clothes.

Cool color and no work They also allow you to mod your trackpad to make it look cool.

As you decide to pimp your ride this thread answers the popular question for the most popular pimp mod- If I cover my new iBook in eletricians tape will it affect the signal strength of the airport reception? Aha -

- No insult here- it was just the only Canadian thread on moding iBook I could find.

Put screws in tray, in order of removal. Pimp mods- just search the net:

 

[Eniregnat]

the only thing that i would suggest is going with a 80GB 7200 RPM hard drive. if you are going to be in the computer why not go for the highest quality that is out there right now?

7200 RPM will eat power. I would get a 5400 100Gb drive (I think it will work) with a 16Mb buffer. That's what I did. See the journal link above. You will want an extra battery if you plan to be mobile.

Oh and if you really want it to be pimp, knock off the rubber feet and it will be like a low-rider. Wassapponing?

 

[ChrisFromCanada]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far!

Not going with the 80GB 7200RPM or 120GB 5400RPM drives due to high costs and low availability. Also scattered reports of lots of heat and noise produced by those particular seagate drives.

As for the RAM Crucial wants $151 for 1GB and it is only PC2100 so in the future if I buy a powerbook I can't keep the RAM (new egg is PC2700 and is $105). Also on neweggs site there have been lots of reports of this RAM working fine in pb's.

I am not sure if I want to paint my iBook just kinda focused on performance parts at this point.

Can anyone comment on wether this will void my warranty? If I have a problem and swap the old parts back in or I say that an apple certified tech did it for me then how can they tell?

 

[kant]

-Swapping the HD for an 80GB 5400RPM HD

-Swapping my Combo Drive for a Superdrive (Panasonic UJ-845)

Have you considered another option? Sell your ibook and get a refurbished powerbook.

"PowerBook G4 1.33GHz/ 256MB/ 60GB/ SuperDrive/ AP Extreme Card/ E/ 12-inch/ Aluminum - Apple Certified Refurbished
Learn More
• Save 28% off the original price
Original price: $1,799.00
Your price: $1,299.00

Estimated Ship:
5-7 business days
Free Shipping"

So that's $1300 plus tax.

minus $120 for the hard drive and $130 for the superdrive == $1050 plus tax (but minus the shipping for the drives).

You can get at least $900 out of your ibook on ebay:

http://search-completed.ebay.com/_W...pfmodeZ1QQreqtypeZ2QQsacatZQ2d100QQsofocusZso
(you have to sign in to see completed options - bah.)

you can maximize your profit by including a very good description, photos, start your auction very low with little or no reserve, and set the auction to end on a Sunday-Thursday evenings. Fri & Sat auctions seem to garner lower prices.

You'd still have to buy the memory but that cost is irrelevant to this option - it's an incurred cost either way.

You could easily end up with a somewhat faster 12" PB for the same or little more cost than pimping your ibook.

That's if you would want a PB. Some people prefer iBooks over PBs, which is what makes this option possible in the first place.

 

[loneAzdgari]

I'm planning on doing pretty much identical upgrades to my 867MHz TiBook.

Currently I'm at 768MB RAM, 40GB 4200RPM HD, 8xCombo Drive. In fact I'd pretty much chosen the same upgrades:

1GB RAM
80GB 5200RPM (Best ratio of performance to cost. 60GB 7200 too expensive, 100GB 4200 too slow)
8xDL Superdrive

Added to this I was going to find a replacement trackpad since my one is very worn out. However this part seems to be more expensive than any of the above individually. TiBook paint problems are very widespread.

Alternatively I could just upgrade the HD and sell it when Apple announces new Powerbooks. I just get pissed off at excessive game loading performance. Particularly CoD.

 

[law guy]

Alternative RAM suggestion

Thanks for all the suggestions so far!

Not going with the 80GB 7200RPM or 120GB 5400RPM drives due to high costs and low availability. Also scattered reports of lots of heat and noise produced by those particular seagate drives.

As for the RAM Crucial wants $151 for 1GB and it is only PC2100 so in the future if I buy a powerbook I can't keep the RAM (new egg is PC2700 and is $105). Also on neweggs site there have been lots of reports of this RAM working fine in pb's.

/QUOTE]

I've had good luck ordering from ramjet (2 gigs for my PM) - http://www.ramjet.com/pbg4.asp (link on the made4mac on Apple's site as well). While often much cheaper than Apple - they appear to be much more expensive than newegg - recommending a 2700 dimm for $249 - ALTHOUGH - this could account for the price difference:

"Stacked v. non-stacked chips:
A module built from stacked chips takes two RAM wafers and stacks them on top of each other. This makes it possible to build a large module (like a 512mb or 1Gig SO-DIMM) using cheap low density parts. Stacked chip modules are bad because they draw more power, and have heat build-up problems. Ramjet only uses Lower Power Consumption non-stacked IC chips."

So I suppose as long as the newegg part is the lower quality type described in the ramjet blurb, it sounds like its a better deal.

 

[MacHarne]

Crucial has a promo code right now for 1GB iBook G4 RAM "EOLPROMO". I think it is either 4% or 5% off, but a discount nonetheles.

I would certainly stick to the 5400 rpm drives. Your 12" iBook is very compact and putting in a 7200 rpm drive will cause heat issues. Since heat is released via the keyboard and the LCD hinge area, you'll be typing on a hot plate with a 7200 rpm drive in there.

Good luck with the mods.

 

[ChrisBrightwell]

Can anyone comment on wether this will void my warranty?

It absolutely will.

If I have a problem and swap the old parts back in or I say that an apple certified tech did it for me then how can they tell?

I suspect Apple keeps a database of Apple Certified Tech repairs that they can do a lookup on.

 

[Eniregnat]

I am not sure if I want to paint my iBook just kinda focused on performance parts at this point.

Can anyone comment on wether this will void my warranty? If I have a problem and swap the old parts back in or I say that an apple certified tech did it for me then how can they tell?

Yes- You will damage screws, and they can see that. There are seals that can be broken, so take care. In short, if your worried about your warrenty, I would just sell the thing and get a new one. I am a good tech, and have good tools, and even I stripped a screw. But that was for a PB.

As for the paint- you used the word 'pimp' and I thought you knew you were voiding you warrenty and doing a lot of work. If I were going to do all that work and spend the money, I would do an in expensive color mod, just so it is pimp.

Good luck, nad

 

[Astral Cars]

This doesn't really deserve it's own topic, but I thought I'd throw it out there in case someone has an easy solution.
I just got a 15" PB and I ordered another 512GB stick from crucial. It came today and me being excited as I was I didn't really take the time to find the exact right screw driver. With a bit of fiddling I found one that worked and took off the screws to the RAM door however one of the screws was stuck. It will not budge and the screw has gotten pretty stripped in the process. So is there a good way to get it out? At this point I think I'll just bring it into the Apple store; I assume they have the tool for the job. Other suggestions are welcome.

 

[ChrisBrightwell]

At this point I think I'll just bring it into the Apple store; I assume they have the tool for the job. Other suggestions are welcome.

That's the safest bet. They can probably drill out the screw and replace it for you.

 

[Eniregnat]

This doesn't really deserve it's own topic, but I thought I'd throw it out there in case someone has an easy solution.
I just got a 15" PB and I ordered another 512GB stick from crucial. It came today and me being excited as I was I didn't really take the time to find the exact right screw driver. With a bit of fiddling I found one that worked and took off the screws to the RAM door however one of the screws was stuck. It will not budge and the screw has gotten pretty stripped in the process. So is there a good way to get it out? At this point I think I'll just bring it into the Apple store; I assume they have the tool for the job. Other suggestions are welcome.

How to remove a stripped screw Big or small this advice is good. I just removed a stripped screw from a 250lb acoustic door. Perhaps somebody has a better idea. Shoot for a screwextractor bit.

Good luck and be careful.

You can get spare screws and a door at PBfixit.com.

 

[erova]

not to hijack this thread, but i've had a helluva time finding a 7200 rpm hard drive for my 1.5 powerbook. i use it as a desktop most of the time anyway, so if there's some power drain i could live with that if it's noticeably faster than my 5400 that's in there now. i've also got an external fw800 drive so even if it's only 80 gb or so it seems like a worthwhile upgrade.

anyone here upgrade their ibook/pb to a 7200? notice a good increase in performance? just curious...

 

[ChrisFromCanada]

Have you considered another option? Sell your ibook and get a refurbished powerbook.

"PowerBook G4 1.33GHz/ 256MB/ 60GB/ SuperDrive/ AP Extreme Card/ E/ 12-inch/ Aluminum - Apple Certified Refurbished
Learn More
• Save 28% off the original price
Original price: $1,799.00
Your price: $1,299.00

Estimated Ship:
5-7 business days
Free Shipping"

So that's $1300 plus tax.

minus $120 for the hard drive and $130 for the superdrive == $1050 plus tax (but minus the shipping for the drives).

You can get at least $900 out of your ibook on ebay:

http://search-completed.ebay.com/_W...pfmodeZ1QQreqtypeZ2QQsacatZQ2d100QQsofocusZso
(you have to sign in to see completed options - bah.)

you can maximize your profit by including a very good description, photos, start your auction very low with little or no reserve, and set the auction to end on a Sunday-Thursday evenings. Fri & Sat auctions seem to garner lower prices.

You'd still have to buy the memory but that cost is irrelevant to this option - it's an incurred cost either way.

You could easily end up with a somewhat faster 12" PB for the same or little more cost than pimping your ibook.

That's if you would want a PB. Some people prefer iBooks over PBs, which is what makes this option possible in the first place.

I am strongly considering this option at this point. I am also looking at the PowerBook 12-inch 1.5GHz SuperDrive - Apple Certified Refurbished for $1499. Are all of the HDs in these powerbooks 5400RPM?

 

[hhlee]

haven't done it but i'm looking to do it - using froogle some stores show that they sell the momentus 7200rpm 80gb drives but they're currently out of stock. i think you can buy one from gateway for something like $302...which is kind of steep.

if you look at barefeats.com they did some performance tests (speed,power drain) of 4200vs5400vs7200... no noticeable power consumption between 5400 vs 7200 but the actual performance boost from 7200 was not so noticeable from the 5400....

other people have claimed to dramatically notice an increase in speed with 7200. personally, i think you should take the performance portion of barefeats with a grain of salt. sure, with low hd read/write operations like web based stuff (email, browsing, etc) you probably won't notice much of a diff. but if you're using your laptop as a desktop with lots of disk i/o, faster rpm has to matter. as for power consumption, that's debatable. the 7200 spins faster so reads data faster but then does so for a shorter amount of time, might it be something close to the power consumption of the 5400 which spins slower but for longer?

not to hijack this thread, but i've had a helluva time finding a 7200 rpm hard drive for my 1.5 powerbook. i use it as a desktop most of the time anyway, so if there's some power drain i could live with that if it's noticeably faster than my 5400 that's in there now. i've also got an external fw800 drive so even if it's only 80 gb or so it seems like a worthwhile upgrade.

anyone here upgrade their ibook/pb to a 7200? notice a good increase in performance? just curious...