Speed boosting a Powerbook G4...

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Speed boosting a Powerbook G4...

My trusty (but old) G4 1.33ghz powerbook is showing signs of its age...

Is there any real speed gains to be had if I was to upgrade the internal (stock) 4200rpm drive to a 5400rpm drive?

The only other option I have is to increase the ram from 1.5gb to 2gb.

HDD's are so cheap now it seems worthwhile, then the old one from the powerbook will be put into an external case for use as and when.

Or maybe I should just wipe my "silver machine" and re-install a clean Tiger and see what that does...its been a good year or two since I've done that!

Also, my display is noticeably darker (yellower) than it used to be (and compared to my MBP and Apple 17" LCD), is there any way to fix this in a DIY manner? I read something about this where a guy replaced the (bulbs? tubes? backlight (s)) in a PC laptop...?

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I'm assuming that you're usin

I'm assuming that you're using a 15" or a 17" PowerBook G4 based on going from 1.5 to 2gb of ram. Here are my recommendations for a speed boost - a 5400 rpm drive will produce a good performance improvement - especially if the drive currently in the computer is the original. If you can get a cheap 7200 rpm drive (won't be terribly large for the money), you'll see a good performance boost.

As for display yellowing - your backlight bulbs are beginning to show their age. You can replace the bulbs - but it is not something I would recommend (too many things can go wrong when an LCD panel is taken apart to replace backlight bulbs. The backlight bulbs used in Apple laptop lcd's are like miniature fluorescent light tubes, and are incredibly fragile.

You could probably snag yourself a 1.5 ghz logic board from an April 2004 revision PowerBook G4 (the jan 05 and later revisions will not work due to changes in the machine's internal structure and the fact that apple dropped internal adb). With that logic board, you'll also need the heatsink as well.

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cheers for the response. y

cheers for the response.

yes indeed the pb is a 15" version, and the drive is the original 4200rpm.

7200rpm HDD, am I wrong in thinking thats SATA only?

i'm interested in the possible swapping out of the 1.33 mobo for a 1.5 one...is it possible to use the 1.33 heatsink with the 1.5? But in some respects these seems like lunacy as the 1.33 isn't dead in any way!

in regards to the yellowing of the lcd, i have seen whole pb displays go on ebay (but they're expensive..). Do you know where to get the bulbs from?

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HDD...

I'm pretty sure you can get PATA 2.5 inch hard drives. I'd stick to 5400s myself, however. The 7200s are expensive and suck batteries down pretty fast.

As for changing the bulbs, well, good luck if you try. Getting the housing apart to do it is *not easy*. I've grown accustomed to the "sepia tone" look of old laptops myself. ;^)

--Peace

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i picked this up for cheap

Cheap 120GB PATA ATA/100 5400RPM Laptop drive
I got it in my iBook G4 1.2 and have seen a tremendous difference in the speed over the 60GB 4200 that was in it. Very fast, and will give you a boost, and it's cheap for the space/size combo!

I find it very reliable, and have had it for over 6 months, and it has been great!

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proc upgrade

15" PowerBook proc upgrade

price is not nice... but only path to a 1.92GHz G4

Once you take your thoughts down this road its easy to see it makes sense to commit to a new machine by putting aside $10 a day for ~6 months, then head to the Apple Store for the latest and greatest. The time will fly.

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Re: i picked this up for cheap

yeah... but its a Toshiba!

I'd watch this page for deals on 2.5" Seagates (I picked up an new 80GB Momentus PATA for $56, at the same time, they had a refurb 100GB for the same price with 1 year warranty, but I went with the new & 5 year warranty).
____
edit

That 100GB refurb seagate is still available for $60... but its a 180 day warranty... still, I'd take that 100gb/180days over Toshiba's 120gb/1 year warranty any day

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Actually

I have toshibas in all my laptops, and in some customer's, and they love them, and I can't find anything wrong with them. These days, they have become better.

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Re: Actually

don't worry, you still rule... a personal prejudice, but I wouldn't trust a Toshiba 1 day past its warranty.

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s'ok

i have my preferences. Maxtor is pretty much the only brand I have trouble with. I have had about 4 of those things die on my within the last 3 years. Absolute crap.

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maxtor... old school

I always had trouble with maxtors in the old machines (030s), and since then never bothered with them. But Seagate did buy Maxtor... so I was hoping they would spread their manufacturing goodness to the Maxtor lines, and we would know that they did when the warranties increased from 1 to 5 years... but afaik, that hasn't happened yet.

Jon
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The 80GB Momentus that came i

The 80GB Momentus that came in my mini is extremely quiet, easily one of the quietest drives I've owned. I'd buy one for that alone, but the 5 year warranty is great.

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Western Digital Drives

I've had good experiences with the Western Digital Drives - Here's a 5400 rpm 120gb that's selling for $74.99. It's a good drive for the money.

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i use seagates in all my comp

i use seagates in all my computers, and ones i fix up for people. never had a problem with them, and must have bought 30+ drives. had 2 western digitals fail on me, 1 toshiba, 2 ibm's and a hell of a lot of maxtors.

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