11-13-2005, 05:25 AM

I thought this was an interesting article from Le Macbidouille aka Hardmac in English: Put your iBook on steroids

11-13-2005, 06:21 AM

Not quite sure how it makes it a PowerBook beater, but the iBook 12" is a great laptop.

For me the mini DVI out, more video RAM and better keyboard is what decided it for me between an iBook and the PowerBook.

That said, it's a bummer this can only take 1.25GB RAM whereas the current iBooks can take 1.5GB!

Vicky

11-13-2005, 08:01 PM

Money-wise is what I think they meant. You can add 1gb for $100, a Pioneer DVD burner for $85 and a 80gb hard disk for another $100.

11-13-2005, 09:09 PM

Originally Posted by DanielNTX

Money-wise is what I think they meant. You can add 1gb for $100, a Pioneer DVD burner for $85 and a 80gb hard disk for another $100.

I agree, I think they are sayng that the price is what makes it beat the powerbook, if I hadn't just got applecare for my ibook, I would do this.

11-13-2005, 09:20 PM

well, if you had the spare cash why didnt you just go for a powerbook?

11-13-2005, 10:19 PM

Originally Posted by iWonder

well, if you had the spare cash why didnt you just go for a powerbook?

I prefer the looks of the ibook to the powerbook. Once my applecare runs out, I plan to upgrade this laptop, I just don't want to do it now, because it will void the applecare

11-13-2005, 10:33 PM

how does upgrading void applecare? Im gonna be doing some upgrading soon and would like to know.

11-13-2005, 10:42 PM

Originally Posted by iWonder

how does upgrading void applecare? Im gonna be doing some upgrading soon and would like to know.

I would think it is just like any other type of product, if you open it up, you void the warranty. The memory, is the only thing I believe you are allowed to replace, without voiding the warranty. I could be wrong though, I am only guessing that it would void the warranty.

11-13-2005, 11:16 PM

There is a guy that does those mods on iBooks then sells them on eBay for like $2000 USD.

If I got an iBook I would max out the ram and consider a 7200RPM HD.

11-14-2005, 05:42 AM

On price - good point :flower:

I still wouldn't want to forfeit the extra VRAM and DVI output the PowerBook has though, and the built in line iine in jack is handy; however - this isn't to rubbish the iBook 12" - I personally think it's a wonderful laptop and haven't got a bad word to say about it.

Oh the keyboard, the keyboard - that really made me want a PowerBook :flower:

(I type a lot - as if you didn't know, so it's important!)

Vicky

11-14-2005, 06:06 AM

is it true that upgrading will void applecare? Also how much does an 80GB 7200rpm hard drive cost? And a pioneer 8x superdrive? I might just do this, if it doesn't void my warranty.

11-14-2005, 09:09 AM

The only thing you can upgrade without voiding your warranty is the memory

11-14-2005, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by trpnmonkey41

The only thing you can upgrade without voiding your warranty is the memory

thanks for the answer, thats what i thought

11-14-2005, 06:07 PM

So I went out and did it. I purchased a current stock iBook 12" and cracked it open. They are definitely not user friendly for upgrades compared to the likes of Dell/IBM/HP where everything is modular and can be accessed from the outside easily. I removed about 30 to 40 screws to access everything.

I put in 1 gig of Crucial PC2700 ram, a Pioneer DVR-K05 8x8 Slim DVD Rewritable Drive (recognized as Apple installed/supported in OS X 10.4), and a FUJITSU MHV2080AH 80GB 5400RPM 8MB Cache hard disk.

The notebook cost me $900, the memory $109, the DVD drive $85 ad the hard disk was $110 for a total of $1204 shipped & no taxes.

For the Pioneer burner to fit, I had to modify the slot bezel from the combo drive by breaking out my dremmel tool and sanding off two small nipples that prevented the bezel from sitting flush with the new drive.

I also made a boo-boo when removing the top casing from the iBook... I accidently ripped of the connector jack off the system board for the right speaker. I was being over zealous removing the cables that were connected to the system board. I should have been more careful using needle nose pliers to detach the cables instead of my fingers. Anyways, after being pissed and getting over my stupidity, I broke out the soldering iron (with micro fine tip) and heated it up and then soldered the jack back in place. I did a quick test by booting the system up with the top casing and keyboard back together to see if the speaker would work again and luckily it did. Then I removed everything and installed the DVD drive and then the hard disk.

I would say the whole thing took me about 4 hours including reinstalling OS X. The hardest two things besides my mistake is removing the bottom casing (I used an old credit card) and keeping track of where all the screws go because they are different sizes and lengths.

Overclocking a Mac mini is much easier then these upgrades. As a comparison, I rate the difficulty of oc'ing a Mac mini 3 or 4 out of 10 and the upgrading of an iBook a 6 or 7 out of 10 (make that a 7 or 8 if you accidently rip off a connector jack from a system board).

Good luck to anyone who attempts this.

I was almost tempted to figure out how to change the bus speed from 133 to 142MHz, but decided against it because I couldn't find any information on the resistor settings on the internet. The clock multiplier is alreadly locked at 10X which is pretty high, but I bet it would be pretty easy to bump the bus speed from 133 to 142MHz to be like it's bigger 14" brother.

11-14-2005, 09:52 PM

Originally Posted by DanielNTX

So I went out and did it. I purchased a current stock iBook 12" and cracked it open. They are definitely not user friendly for upgrades compared to the likes of Dell/IBM/HP where everything is modular and can be accessed from the outside easily. I removed about 30 to 40 screws to access everything.

I put in 1 gig of Crucial PC2700 ram, a Pioneer DVR-K05 8x8 Slim DVD Rewritable Drive (recognized as Apple installed/supported in OS X 10.4), and a FUJITSU MHV2080AH 80GB 5400RPM 8MB Cache hard disk.

The notebook cost me $900, the memory $109, the DVD drive $85 ad the hard disk was $110 for a total of $1204 shipped & no taxes.

For the Pioneer burner to fit, I had to modify the slot bezel from the combo drive by breaking out my dremmel tool and sanding off two small nipples that prevented the bezel from sitting flush with the new drive.

I also made a boo-boo when removing the top casing from the iBook... I accidently ripped of the connector jack off the system board for the right speaker. I was being over zealous removing the cables that were connected to the system board. I should have been more careful using needle nose pliers to detach the cables instead of my fingers. Anyways, after being pissed and getting over my stupidity, I broke out the soldering iron (with micro fine tip) and heated it up and then soldered the jack back in place. I did a quick test by booting the system up with the top casing and keyboard back together to see if the speaker would work again and luckily it did. Then I removed everything and installed the DVD drive and then the hard disk.

I would say the whole thing took me about 4 hours including reinstalling OS X. The hardest two things besides my mistake is removing the bottom casing (I used an old credit card) and keeping track of where all the screws go because they are different sizes and lengths.

Overclocking a Mac mini is much easier then these upgrades. As a comparison, I rate the difficulty of oc'ing a Mac mini 3 or 4 out of 10 and the upgrading of an iBook a 6 or 7 out of 10 (make that a 7 or 8 if you accidently rip off a connector jack from a system board).

Good luck to anyone who attempts this.

I was almost tempted to figure out how to change the bus speed from 133 to 142MHz, but decided against it because I couldn't find any information on the resistor settings on the internet. The clock multiplier is alreadly locked at 10X which is pretty high, but I bet it would be pretty easy to bump the bus speed from 133 to 142MHz to be like it's bigger 14" brother.

PICTURES??????