g3 ibook upgrades

allright I have now 4yr old relationship with my 500mhz g3, it's let me down a couple times to the tune of a new logic board 2 years ago and a new hard drive a year ago (both installed by apple) and here is what I am trying to do, I can't part ways with my beloved and i love the clear plastic instead of the colored **** way easier for a lot of fun mods. but I have a few issues, I want to add another firewire port in the side, I can handle the mechanical part just not sure about electrical but I am not an idiot sooo...I have a big scratch in my screen, think I can buff it out or am I going to need to just rely on a cinema display? if I am relying on the latter I am going to need to be able to plug into that display, and I want it to be a g4, and have a better graphics and sound card and a 60 gig hard drive....can I do it for less than $800???

ian

ok, pretty much no. you can update the graphics. currently you can run the 23-inch cinema display. sound-card, kind of. you could buy an amp, just like one that you would use for headphones because the output is a the same as something like the ipod. if you are not going to be moving the ibook around, and only using it with another screen, meaning stationary, you can buy an external hd. also, you could buy a hub with many firewire ports. you could not go to a g4 without a new logic board, which im not sure would fit. honestly, i really don't think its worth it. you should just buy a new ibook, especially if they are going to coming out with new ibook tomorrow. or, in-fact, if you are planning on just using it with a really nice display, you could go for an mac mini or imac. best of luck.

Ibooks are a nightmare to upgrade. The processors (and one of the ram chips) are soldered onto the logic board and therefore not upgradable. There are companies which upgrade the optical drives (I think you could get a combo drive installed, but probably not a superdrive) and harddrives and replace the screens and stuff like that. Try www.4daystar.com www.fastmac.com www.wgenermedia.com or google ibook repair. My wife has one of the G3 500 ibooks and I found that its really easy to mess up the case when you take them apart. OOPS!