Life Expectancy: 2002 G3

I have a G3 Powerbook? that I purchased new in 2002 and have upgraded the software to the latest and greatest (thank you iPod) and replaced the hard drive once. Now it appears my hard drive is on the verge of failing again and the battery has given up the ghost. In short, I am looking at $400 to fix everything replete with migration of data or I will be forced to buy a new Macbook with a smaller screen.

My question is...what is the life expectancy of a 2002 G3? Am I throwing good money after bad if I fix what I have or should I bite the bullet and get a new Macbook - the Pro is out of the budget. The dealer tells me that the logic board is the next to go and then I am done.

Thanks everyone!

I think you should give the G3 a nice ceremonial backup, trot over to the Apple store and hand it over for a new MacBook. Getting five years of use off of a laptop is above average. The number of components that can fail next is quite large. Sort of like replacing the transmission on a car that is burning oil.
Nevermind the huge techno advances of the last five years!

Five years is pretty good, certainly for a portable.

I'd say it's a write off; I doubt, even when you've spent $400 on the G3 it would be worth even that (I can't even get more than $100 for my G4 PowerMac at the moment, even with recent upgrades that cost more than that and a flat screen monitor).

I'd say you're best leaving it and just buying a new MacBook.

I'd chance things. Not the MacBook - save and later buy the MPB.

When did you last replace the HDD? HDDs should last more than a couple of years and if you've replaced it since 2002, then it should still be ok.

As for battery, yeah they die after 2 - 3 years, not much can be done about that. But a new battery and a 100gig HDD should cost little more than $200 - if Apple are trying to charge $400, then that's unreasonable.

There is no knowing when things like CPU or Logic board might fail... could last another 5 years, or die in a week. It's impossible to tell. I'd back up very regularly, at least every couple of days, if you're storing dynamic and precious data. Or get an external HDD and keep your important stuff there.

I honestly think the life of G3 machines is rapidly approaching autumn anyway. I sold a G3 last October, because it was struggling to play any web video content, hated complex flash and seemed to struggle with iPhoto libraries - not to mention you'll miss out of Leopard. A MacBook will seem very fast compared to your old machine and faced with expenses, whether $200 or $400, you might be better off putting this towards a new machine.

You can get entirely new PowerBooks for waaayyyyy less than $400. I would recommend just getting a MacBook instead.

One guy said you should save for a MacBook Pro, but if you have been doing fine a PowerBook G3 all these years then a MacBook will meet your needs.

Your PowerBook picked a good time to die - right after iLife '08 came out