Forums | MacLife

Mac_Addict58 · 2004-12-31 2:19 am

I have a 2 year old 12 inch aluminum powerbook g4 with VGA out. It has the 256 mb ram chip soddered to the logic board, and then I have a 512 in the second slot. I have the 40gb hard disk and then superdrive, blutetooth, but I havent gotten an airport extreme card yet.

I am pretty sure that I can put a 1gb low profile ddr266 dimm chip in the slot where I have the 512 chip. Is this possible, I am pretty darn sure it is.

Is it possible to desodder the 256mb chip from the logic board, and sodder in the 512 chip, or a second 1gb chip? I don't think it is worth the bother, but It seems like it shoudl be possible. It would probabley be real risky.

I think I am going to go for an 80gb 7200 rpm (I think it is 7200, eithr that or 7500 or something) 2.5 inch drive, and stick the 40 gb drive in a firewire enclosure.

I wish there were a way to upgrade the graphics card, Gforce4mx 32mb was good at one time, and is respectible but really doesn't stand out for games. Probabley a while after the G5 takes over the powerbooks, logic bord/proscessor upgrades might become availible. There are a few for the powerbook g3, but they are only worth it if you own one.

There is some paint oxidation on the palm rests, and some scratches on the lower case, I don't want to spen 500 bucks to replace the case, so I think I want to check out that Tipaint stuff, they have ALpaint for the aliminum powerbooks, Has anybody used that stuff? As long as it makes it look very close to the original, I am tired of PC trolls picking on the oxidation. But if this were a 2 year old dell laptop, I would be trashing it for a new one, just to run the latest version of XP, just got panther and my book is faster than ever!!!!

I plan to use my book as my primary computer for another 1-2 years, untill I scrape up enough cash to go for an imac, or powermac G5. I think the G5 is defenatley worth another few hundred because it has alot of potential for upgrades.

In the mean time I want to pick up a cube, prbabley as soon as I scratch up 600 bucks.

Miggs · 2005-01-06 11:07 pm

I dont' know if the RAM can be changed on the Logic board. But I wouldn't dare do it. Not worth it for the extra 256.

And yeah, you can get 1 GB dimm for the single slot. But it won't be cheap.

NightCougar_37 · 2005-01-07 12:53 am

Well, as far as upgrades go, start thinkin about a new laptop. Not going to get much more out of that. Last PowerBook that was processor upgradeable was the G3 Books.

rubrduk · 2005-01-25 4:42 pm

Miggs wrote:
I dont' know if the RAM can be changed on the Logic board. But I wouldn't dare do it. Not worth it for the extra 256.

And yeah, you can get 1 GB dimm for the single slot. But it won't be cheap.

the 1gb chips aren't that expensive - i have my 1.5 pb maxed at 2gb ram - i got it from macsales.com i think it was around $275 ish per chip

that sad part is this computer is still too slow...the g5's walk all over this thing...and i do alot of large format photoshop and Final Cut - my last Photoshop project had a working files size of 3.7gb

i'm thinking about getting a 10,000 rpm or faster hdd to use as an external (virtual memory) instead of my LaCie D2

macaddict0 · 2005-02-20 6:01 pm

Whoa sweet with the maxed ram, hmm could be that the reason that it is still slow is because of the hard drive but it could be many different things. How many programs are you running when you are doing extensive work. Oh and back to topic, as Miggs said, believe me I would mess around the logic board with the ram. You should be fine if you slapped 1Gb dimm card or a 512!

Mac_Addict58 · 2005-02-22 3:21 am

I might just go for a new book at this point, It runs fine except for Games ETC... The problem with that is the pathetic Geforce4mx 32mb about the worst card possible besides a Rage 128.

I think if I get a new book, I will at least go for the 15 inch, with the 128mb 9700-mobility. I have heard of some smoking frame-rates with that.

Forums | MacLife

#1 2004-12-31 2:19 am

Powerbook Upgrades

#2 2005-01-06 11:07 pm

Re: Powerbook Upgrades

#3 2005-01-07 12:53 am

Re: Powerbook Upgrades

#4 2005-01-25 4:42 pm

Re: Powerbook Upgrades

Miggs wrote:

#5 2005-02-20 6:01 pm

Re: Powerbook Upgrades

#6 2005-02-22 3:21 am

Re: Powerbook Upgrades

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