Pismo (yep G3 PB) question on HD?

[nph]

I just managed to start my old Pismo after finding it in the closet and it was dead. However thanks to these forums I got it back up and running.
While having it opened I noticed it has an old Hitachi TravelStar 20Gig 4200 RPM hard drive in it.

Since I can not put in more memory or replace the CPU, not really worth it even if I could find one of the CPU upgrade kits that someone sold a couple of years back, so that leaves the hard drive.
I noticed before in other laptops that second to the CPU hard drive can really influence speed and since the PB is in great shape I was thinking if it would be worth it to replace the HD?
Maybe even with a SSD Drive? What do you think, anyone who has replaced their hard drive in the Pismo?

 

[joelypolly]

You'll need to find an 2.5" IDE based drive

 

[sappho]

wrong mac community!

nph, you need the folks who keep old machines running, not the ones speculating on futures!

Go to lowendmac.com, search on pismo, you will be inundated with accolades (for pismo) and all kinds of upgrade info. There are also forums with people who will tell you how to do nearly anything with old macs.

But the very short answer is yes, you can replace the hard drive, that machine will run forever and it's way way easier to upgrade than any of the new ones.

 

[yamabushi]

I miss my old Powerbook 145B. I managed to upgrade mine way past the original specs but eventually it had to go.

 

[skinniezinho]

you have some options to get it "speedy"
Big capacity 5200rpm hdd ide 2.5
not so "big" 7200rpm hdd ide 2.5
IDE to dual CF Card adapter (cheap on ebay) + Fast CF card (maybe 333x or more) with limited space (4 or 8gb,or even less if you are running os9) and
+ not so fast cf card for storage (like 16gb 133x or something)..

the latest one is the closest to an "ssd" and will make you "earn" come minutes in battery I think...

 

[nph]

What about memory, would 756 make a difference vs the 512 I have today

I have Panther but am considering upgrading to Tiger to be able to use some of the more modern programs.

I have a 20 GIg 4200 drive that I plan to upgrade to 60Gig 7200 so with that I think Tiger would be possible and the question is if 756 instead of 512 would be worth it to make a speed difference?

I have looked at CPU upgrades but that is too expensive to make it worth while.

Thanks

 

[Macdctr]

While having it opened I noticed it has an old Hitachi TravelStar 20Gig 4200 RPM hard drive in it.

Since I can not put in more memory or replace the CPU, not really worth it even if I could find one of the CPU upgrade kits that someone sold a couple of years back, so that leaves the hard drive.

I noticed before in other laptops that second to the CPU hard drive can really influence speed and since the PB is in great shape I was thinking if it would be worth it to replace the HD?

The max size you can put into a Pismo is a 120GB IDE 2.5" hard drive. This is what I have in my "upgraded" G4/550Mhz Pismo. I am currently running Tiger and it performs adequately for internet surfing and email...

Maybe even with a SSD Drive? What do you think, anyone who has replaced their hard drive in the Pismo?

The Pismo can't support SSD drives. Wrong technology and architecture.

 

[dmmcintyre3]

756 instead of 512 would be worth it to make a speed difference?

You can go up to 1 GB ram on the pismo.

 

[4JNA]

SSD and more memory = fast pismo

The Pismo can't support SSD drives. Wrong technology and architecture.

not true, there are lots of SSDs with the PATA/IDE interface around, they are just not as fast as the sata versions usually with the reads/writes, and are still lots more expensive than traditional drives. Newegg for example.

You can go up to 1 GB ram on the pismo.

correct. and yes, moving from 512 to 768 (or 1gb) would help a lot with running 10.4. it will run with 512 if you only use 1 program at a time, and 1 tab at a time and so on.

 

[Macdctr]

not true, there are lots of SSDs with the PATA/IDE interface around, they are just not as fast as the sata versions usually with the reads/writes, and are still lots more expensive than traditional drives. Newegg for example.

I stand corrected, thanks I never knew that you could use SSDs on the Pismo...

 

[840quadra]

nph, you need the folks who keep old machines running, not the ones speculating on futures!

Judging by the quantity and quality of responses you appear to be wrong .

I think MacRumors has one of the best classic Mac communities on the Net, and appears to be growing.

 

[polotska]

I still miss my Pismo.

 

[dmr727]

I stand corrected, thanks I never knew that you could use SSDs on the Pismo...

Heh - I used to have an SSD on my Powerbook 150. It's actually great technology for vintage computers, given that the older hard drives are beginning to fail. There are even adapters that go from SCSI straight to CF, so you can get an SSD attached to something even as early as a Mac Plus. The SCSI ones that are known to work with older Macs are pretty pricey, though.

 

[WardC]

Heh - I used to have an SSD on my Powerbook 150. It's actually great technology for vintage computers, given that the older hard drives are beginning to fail. There are even adapters that go from SCSI straight to CF, so you can get an SSD attached to something even as early as a Mac Plus. The SCSI ones that are known to work with older Macs are pretty pricey, though.

Pretty cool. I'd like an SSD on my JLPGA PowerBook 170

 

[Stinkysteve]

I still miss my Pismo.

Me too, I just pulled it from the closet and will try to get it running. It did have the distortion on the display and I remember seeing someplace that said they can replace it in the sub four hundred dollar range. On an external monitor it's fine.