Help with new iBook

[Garrett]

Hey Guys-

Well, I am going to pick up my new iBook this Friday, and I am very excited, this is the first Mac I will have ever owned. Let me give you the specs, and and then get your opinionis and share with you what I want to do.

12.1" iBook
G3 700Mhz
192Mb or RAM
20 Gb HDD
24xCD-ROM
OS 10.3.7
Firewire
External 52x48x52 Firewire burner
AirPort card built in

Now, first thing I want to do is add more RAM. How much is soldered on the board, and how much can I top out at? I was thinkin about buyin a 512 MB stick from crucial and popping it in there.

I definatley want to swap for a combo drive, can I swap it out myself? Also, does the combo drive have to be from a MAC? A few PC's used the EXACT same drive, and I could just swap black -> white face plate.

Can I upgrade the CPU? If I can, what is the cap? If I can't, thats cool. A friend of mine who is a real Mac buff says some can be upgraded.

My primary uses for it are going to be Word, IE, AIM, and thats about it. Just lookin for something protable and small.

Now, the guy says the screen is a little loose on the right side, is there a way I could tighten it, or do I need to take it to an Apple store to get it tightened?

How hard would it be to plug into my current PC based network? Just plug and play? There are MP3's I want to put on the Mac.

I am very excited, my first Mac, and hopefully, many more.

--Garrett

 

[caribiner23]

Garrett, Congrats on your new iBook! I just joined the family a few weeks ago with a brand-new 12" iBook and so far it's been great.

In answer to a couple of your questions:

For memory, go to crucial.com and use their memory configurator-- that will tell you what you currently have and what you can upgrade to. I did this and saved a bunch over what Apple would have charged me.

Sharing on a Windows network is very easy. I have an XP machine with 15+ years worth of stuff on it and I was able to transfer (and where I didn't transfer) access without a problem.

I've been told the CD/DVD drives and hard drives on iBooks are very difficult to swap out. You would certainly void any warranty that's left on the machine.

Good luck!

 

[Garrett]

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, memory I don't think will be a big deal.

I am one of those people who can't leave something stock, thats just not me. I've got a couple ideas I'd like to run by you guys just to see if I could do something like this.

Swap the white keyboard out with a black one? Did the iBook ever come with a black keyboard, if so how easy would swapping one be? Also, the Apple logo on the outside of the iBook, I was thinking about tinting it via Nite-Shades. Anyone ever done this before? Is there a high res pic of the bottom side of an iBook I could look at, I have searched the web, and havn't found one.

I was thinkin about swapping HDD's as well. My dad owns a mom and pop computer shop and I could pick up a 80Gb Laptop Hdd pretty cheap, how about install? Anyone else got pointers, or is there a how to, to do on this?

--Garrett

 

[xthisisRomancex]

Also, the Apple logo on the outside of the iBook, I was thinking about tinting it via Nite-Shades. Anyone ever done this before? Is there a high res pic of the bottom side of an iBook I could look at, I have searched the web, and havn't found one.

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12158

that is the lik to a prior topic on this subject.

 

[Garrett]

Thanks for the link man. Any links on how to take aparpt the screen or get the logo off so I can put the blue behind it.

--Garrett

 

[Echo_]

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12158