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I have an 14.1" ibook G3 800MHz, 32Mb vram, duel USB from late 2002. It did have the infamus logic board problem, but one warrenty swap fixed it and it's stayed so far. It's been good but it's reaching the limits of its usefulness, and now I need more power. As it stands, I don't think think the new ibook G4's are a significant enough performance boost to justify the cost of one($1,300). However, if the logic board could be swaped out for one of the new G4 boards, like a 1.2GHz or even the really new 1.42 GHz boards, it would be worth it. I've looked at pictures of both boards, and there not identical but very close. The connections seem to be in the same spot, and the component locations are about the same. Of course pictures don't say anything about DC voltages, connection type and so forth, so I was wondering if anyone here had any thoughts. I'm not above trimming some plastic and I've got friends who can fix solder runs on printed cards, the kind you need a microscope and dental tools to fix.
You'd have to chop the frame up a bit(ie a lot, enough that you might not end up with a fan) and then you'd have a creaky floppy iBook which could be very unreliable... plus the heatsinks are VERY different between the two, same with everything, really... good luck.
Much better idea to just sell the iBook G3 and the G4 logic board and buy a new one with what you get.
It'd be cheaper for you to sell your iBook G3 and put the money towards a new one. Some Apple dealers will take trade ins, so that may be an option for you. For the money it'll cost to change things over. Hmmm, $1299 for a brand new 1.42 ghz Superdrive iBook with 802.11g or (all prices are estimates) $700 for a logic board (1.07 ghz) + $70 for a frame + $70 for a new airport card + $100 for a new ram chip because the 256 won't cut it + $200 for a new optical drive because your existing tray load won't really do + $200 approx for various plastics and cables. Bear in mind that this is a rough guesstimate of minimums. Chances are good that I have forgotten parts that would need to be replaced. On the upside, you will be able to reuse the keyboard that came with your iBook G3. Though, if you find a broken 14" iBook G4 on eBay for not much money, you may be able to reuse parts, or buy the replacement parts as necessary. (the screen, lcd plastics, and hinge/brace assembly are really the only shared parts between the g3 and g4 iBook, well, your hard drive technically is too.
new 14" iBook G4 1.42ghz/512/60/superdrive - 1299 w/ 1 year warranty and tech support
frankensteined iBook - 1340 w/o any warranties at all
Decisions, decisions ...
(all prices in U.S. Dollars)
- iantm