iBook G4 - Upgradeable? ( 3 Views )

no kitty!

Hi all, I've been thinking about picking up a Mac laptop lately, and I really like the 12" iBook G4. However, it seems to me that the 4200 rpm HD is going to be a bit of a bottleneck. So first of all, do you think it would be noticeably slower than a 5400 rpm hd? Also, how difficult would it be/is it even possible to upgrade the hd to a faster one?

(ece, Palestinian Territory, Occupied)

the iBook g4s use standard laptop harddrives so you can put however fast of a harddrive in them that you can find. And yes, it makes a nice speed improvement when you go from a 4200 rpm HD w/ 2meg cache to a 5400 rpm drive with 8 or 16meg cache or a 7200 rpm drive.

/edit: replacing them is sort of a pain in the butt, but not too hard. Just follow the guide here:
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/83.0.0.html

(emirhan, Cameroon)

two things to say;
1: the 12" ibook has long been known as the hardest laptop apple makes to take apart and put back together correctly. Even if you have good instructions, it's by no means easy.
2: upgrading the hard drive yourself will void any warranty the computer has and apple will not work on your computer if there is a non standard drive in it.

(kimola, Malaysia)

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigBadBiologist

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/83.0.0.html

Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick! :eek:

(sunay, Marshall Islands)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black Morty Rackham

Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick! :eek:

heh. Yeah, the snaps around the edge are a little scary. But they do come apart.

(saden, Netherlands)

That website is pretty kickass. The thing is, the only other 12" laptop they're offering right now is $1500, and I really don't have that kind of budget for this. I know it will void my warrantee if I crack it open, so I'll probably wait until the warrantee is up. I'm just worried that I'll buy the thing, and then notice a lot of lag when it's accessing the hd.

My cousin works tech support for apple, and he said I might be able to get an authorized repair place to upgrade the hd for me, but i imagine that would cost a pretty penny.

(eren , Peru)

Wish I knew about ifixit.com before I upgraded the hard drive on my powerbook. :mad:

All I had was a few pictures to follow... thanks for the link! :D :D :D

(tarýk, Namibia)

solution: Buy a 12" ibook with a faulty drive that is still under warrantee. Have them upgrade the drive during replacement and pay the difference :)

(Veysel, Andorra)

that's a very viable option BUT the replacement drive has to be one of the models that was originally spec'd with said ibook (which means no 7200rpm/16mb goodness) if you want the warranty to stay.

(ozan, Vanuatu)

how much of a battery life hit would it take? I use mine for school and i can barely get by sometimes...

i just picked up the 1gb crucial stick from newegg, it's much faster with it.

i'm using a powerbook g4 however, but i would imagine battery life is similar

(besim, Sri Lanka)

Quote:

Originally Posted by blank

how much of a battery life hit would it take? I use mine for school and i can barely get by sometimes...

i just picked up the 1gb crucial stick from newegg, it's much faster with it.

i'm using a powerbook g4 however, but i would imagine battery life is similar

Battery life is definitely a concern. I've never owned a relevant notebook (in 02 I bought a 486/25 laptop for $20, lasted about a year) or a mac, so this definitely looks to be an adventure...

edit: I just read through the whole HD replacement guide :eek: :eek: :eek:

I don't think I would be up for doing that until the warrantee had expired...

(ýþýlsu, Taiwan, Province of China)

I had a 12" iBook 1GHz with a 5400RPM drive and the battery life was about 5 hours. I never tried it with a 4200 RPM drive.

(mehmet, Antarctica)

Quote:

Originally Posted by BigBadBiologist

I had a 12" iBook 1GHz with a 5400RPM drive and the battery life was about 5 hours. I never tried it with a 4200 RPM drive.

That's pretty good life. The problem is, the 12" with the 5400rpm hd is ~$500 more :(

(kardelen, Croatia)

Ok there is a simple way to do this. The apple store should be able to do this too but I know compusas pricing so I'll go with them for this. Compusa is apple certified and has an apple tech at each location(well they are suspose too). Buy a hd online and bring it to them with the ibook. Keep the hard drive sealed in the packing. Compusa charges 30 bucks for a hd install. They will prob try to charge flat labor of like 140 or 150 but the specs say they will install a drive for 30. They just will not do anything elce(like reload the os). The apple warranty will still be in effect(although they will not warranty the new drive) and you saved yourself the hassell for 30 bucks of doing it yourself. I think the apple store will do it for like 50 as well but I could be wrong. This is coming from someone that use to be a laptop tech too. If you did want to do it yourself just take your time and keep track of all the screws and stuff.

(ferhat, Thailand)

Quote:

Originally Posted by swatbat

Ok there is a simple way to do this. The apple store should be able to do this too but I know compusas pricing so I'll go with them for this. Compusa is apple certified and has an apple tech at each location(well they are suspose too). Buy a hd online and bring it to them with the ibook. Keep the hard drive sealed in the packing. Compusa charges 30 bucks for a hd install. They will prob try to charge flat labor of like 140 or 150 but the specs say they will install a drive for 30. They just will not do anything elce(like reload the os). The apple warranty will still be in effect(although they will not warranty the new drive) and you saved yourself the hassell for 30 bucks of doing it yourself. I think the apple store will do it for like 50 as well but I could be wrong. This is coming from someone that use to be a laptop tech too. If you did want to do it yourself just take your time and keep track of all the screws and stuff.

Hmmm, but by the time I buy an HD and all the parts and labor I'll be reaching towards the 12" powerbook in terms of price. I may just get the iBook and deal with it. I really want the 12" over the 14" because I'm looking for something light and portable, not a desktop replacement.

(funda, Bhutan)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

Yea considering your looking at 130 bucks or so for a drive and install on top of it a powerbook may be better. Personaly I like the powerbooks metal shell better. Another option is you can wait would be to see what is comming out in the next few months as it is only a matter of time before apple releases more notebooks.

(hatice, Taiwan, Province of China)

Quote:

Originally Posted by swatbat

just to get all this correct; there is no way an apple store is going to install a hard drive other than one of the OE drives. They would be very hard pressed to service a laptop with an other-than-stock drive in it, especially if he problem seems hard drive related.

I've got to agree that the hard rive options on the ibooks kind of suck, so does not upgrading them...one of a few reason I got a powerbook instead. How urgent is your buying a laptop anyhow? It may be worth it to hang out for a bit and wait to see any possible new products.

(abuzer, Brazil)

Quote:

Originally Posted by bahula03

I've got to agree that the hard rive options on the ibooks kind of suck, so does not upgrading them...one of a few reason I got a powerbook instead. How urgent is your buying a laptop anyhow? It may be worth it to hang out for a bit and wait to see any possible new products.

Well, it might be really urgent and it might not. My cousin is currently employed at apple and can get me a hefty discount, but he has an interview with another company today, so if he's going to be leaving apple soon I need to buy soon.

(rahmi, Swaziland)

Why buy a 12" iBook anyway? It might be one of the cheaper 12" notebooks out there, but it is still slow by comparison to what you can get for a couple hundred more books, and you have to put up with that pathetically small screen. If you have used a 12" notebook for a long time before and understand what you are getting into I guess I understand, but really, portability and a few pounds lighter really isn't worth the things you will lose in comparison if you haven't,

15" is bare minimum for an enjoyable laptop experience, 17" is a lot better with the right resolution to go with it. Yeah, it weighs more in the bag, but think of it as mandatory exercise, it will do anyone good.

(koray2507, Guatemala)

Quote:

Originally Posted by NulloModo

Why buy a 12" iBook anyway? It might be one of the cheaper 12" notebooks out there, but it is still slow by comparison to what you can get for a couple hundred more books, and you have to put up with that pathetically small screen. If you have used a 12" notebook for a long time before and understand what you are getting into I guess I understand, but really, portability and a few pounds lighter really isn't worth the things you will lose in comparison if you haven't,

15" is bare minimum for an enjoyable laptop experience, 17" is a lot better with the right resolution to go with it. Yeah, it weighs more in the bag, but think of it as mandatory exercise, it will do anyone good.

A couple of reasons:

1.) I want something small and light - portability is a big deal here.

2.) Price.

3.) I know crap about macs, but want to learn them. I have need of a small, lightweight laptop, and an iBook would give me that along with the opportunity to learn how to use a mac. This ties in with #2, because not only can I not afford to spend a lot on this, but I also don't want to spend a ton on a system that I'm not going to be familiar with.

(***yýldýz***, Eritrea)

I've used a 12" iBook G4 as my main surfing/writing/"general use" machine since october, and I've been very pleased so far, both with performance and usability. Portability is terrific, and a big plus. If I want to bring it somewhere, I can easily do that, because it's fairly light-weight and small, and gets great battery time.

But I would definitely not buy a 12" Apple laptop at this time. There may be a new and improved model just around the corner. I know, I know, there will always be a better computer released just after you buy yours, but remember that the 12" iBook hasn't been upgraded since last summer, and the 12" PowerBook is even older.

(arda, Germany)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black Morty Rackham

I've used a 12" iBook G4 as my main surfing/writing/"general use" machine since october, and I've been very pleased so far, both with performance and usability. Portability is terrific, and a big plus. If I want to bring it somewhere, I can easily do that, because it's fairly light-weight and small, and gets great battery time.

But I would definitely not buy a 12" Apple laptop at this time. There may be a new and improved model just around the corner. I know, I know, there will always be a better computer released just after you buy yours, but remember that the 12" iBook hasn't been upgraded since last summer, and the 12" PowerBook is even older.

Do you have any idea as to the time frame for a potential new model? I've never followed apple before so I have no clue.

Thanks for all the input and info so far, guys :)

(veysel, Nicaragua)

May, supposedly. ASUS have started building them, apparently.

(ipek, Fiji)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black Morty Rackham

May, supposedly. ASUS have started building them, apparently.

Interesting. Well, if my cousin doesn't switch jobs I can definitely wait a month or two. If he is going to move, I'm def. going to jump on the ibook, after which point you can expect some posts from me along the lines of "guys, wtf am I doing??" :D

(Ferit, Reunion)

hold out for as long as your bro is working for apple, either you'll pick up a 12" g4 of some sort at a great price, or you'll get whatever the next revision is.

(Yücel, Liechtenstein)

iBook G4 - Upgradeable? ( 3 Views )

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