just bought blueberry iBook 300, questions.....

jonmichael23

jonmichael23

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I just purchased a iBook 300 mhz 256 mb ram 6 gb hd with jaguar on ebay for $300. I should be getting it in about a week. I was wondering- I definately want to update it all, but for not too much. I heard it can handle 512 mb ram, so I've found a 256 stick for 45. I want to know , are there any processor upgrades available? I wouldn't care if it was only even like a 366 mhz one, anything would do. Looking for like 466, 500 mhz in particulary, but if it was more and it wasn't too much (not more then $300) then that would be cool. Also hard drive, the guy didn't know if it was 6 or 3 ( he wasnt much of a mac guy ) if its 6 I won't upgrade that in a while, but if it's 3.2 I definately want to put in a new one. I'm looking for either a 10 or 20 gb hard drive with 7,200 rpm for it. And I know there will be definately some minor scratches on the outside and I think I'm going to get this - www.radtech.us/icecreme.html
Anyone know if it works good? Any help would be most appreciated :D


Thanks, Jonathan
 
First, you will have to get the iBook and start it up. You will then be able to find out how large the hard drive is. Now that book could be a 366 mHZ. And depending on that will depend on the max RAM you can install. 544 or 576 MB. You have one slot available to you - PC66 3.3 V 144 pin SO-DIMM.

That iBook may not be able to run the 7200 rpm drive. (Bob - where are you?)
 
You're out of luck with upgrading the processor, there are no companies that make iBook processor upgrades, of any iBook model. The laptop itself will have either 32 or 64MB of non-removable memory, most likely 32M. You can add up to a 512M pc66 SODIMM to it. It only has one memory slot you can access, so it most likely has 288MB ram (32MB onboard and 256M SODIMM), which means buying a 256MB dimm will do you no good, other then replacing the existing 256MB module. Your only option would be to buy a 512MB module to take it up to 544MB. As for the HD, any 2.5" IDE laptop drive that is less then 9.5mm tall should work if you want to upgrade it (see http://caslis.com/mac/ibook/ibdrive.html) for info on replacing it, it is a real bear to do. Also you do not want to put a 7200rpm drive in it, if you could even find one. Most likely the drive in it is 4200rpm (maybe 5400, but most likely 4200) due to heat issues, sticking a 7200rpm in there would make the laptop really hot, and would probably end up toasting the drive, or something else at some point. Also, the HD interface is only ATA33, so you won't get that good of performance with a newer drive then whats already in it.

Brian
 
As for heatissues with a 7200rpm drive, that´s not necessarily a problem. If you look around at different 2,5" drive manufacturers websites, you´ll see that difference in heat output in watts is very small between current 4200, 5400 and 7200 drives, in ther order of 0.3W-0.4W. It also seems reasonable to believe that an older 4200rpm drives is, if anything, hotter than a newer one due to better bearings, more effecient motors etc in the newer drives so I don´t think you´d have much problems heatwise. Of course, I haven´t done any tests so I can´t say for sure but it´s probably fine.

Also, if you decide to buy a 512 MB SO-DIMM, make sure that it´s a 3.3V one, all newer laptops use 2.8V DIMM:s and it´s not always clearly stated. I do think, however, that the 2.8V are DDR so it might no be so confusing after all. Just wanted to point it out though.
 
The 300MHz model came with 32MB of memory. You can go to 544MB of memory replacing the 256 chip in there now. The 32MB is soldered onto the board. One slot available.
PC-66 3.3V 144-pin SO-DIMM - 10ns

The 300MHz model most likely came with a 3.2GB hard drive. I wouldn't put anything more than a 5400RPM drive in because of the heat issues.
 
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