Upgrading an iBook

diablojota

diablojota

Doctoral Student
Okay, I know that if I search for all of these seperately I could find them, however, i think it may help to have this in one section. I am in the process of upgrading to Panther. (A question to Panther, does it come with iLife or is that a seperate purchase?)
I have a G3 500 Dual USB iceBook. Here is what I am looking to do to it. What would be great from you guys is to tell me the best places/practices to acquire or do these tasks.

Upgrade Hardrive: What do I need? How big (GBs) can I put in there?

Memory: Where can I get a cheap 512mb chip to upgrade to the max of 640mb

Upgrade CD-RW to DVD-RW or DVD-CD-RW: Where?

Bluetooth module

Any other suggestions?

I thank you in advance for all your help. I know this is a lot, however I find the Mac community so much more helpful when it comes to these things.
 
If you buy a new Mac, you get Panther with iLife '04, otherwise they are seperate items. Personally, you might want to consider buying a new Mac rather than upgrading.
 
I considered getting a new one, but I know I can get a 40gig HD for about $135, memory for about the same...
The item that I am least interested in upgrading is the CD-Rw drive.
I am also trying to do this step by step, so I can spread the payments out over time.
 
hardisc: any 2.5inch ide will do. But I am not sure if you are willing to open the case for it. It might be really painful..
However, as for the ram: I found it for 85Euro for noname and 98 for Infineon (excluding delivery).
The specs you should go for (I believe you know all this, Diablo, but I will repeat): PC100/PC133 SODimm 144pins
Currently I have noname 512mb in my ibook and it works just fine.
 
Hi diablojota!

I agree with the Randman, it makes best economic sense to trade up.

It is notoriously difficult and expensive to upgrade the internal components of any 'Book, whereas their resale value remains high. And you certainly don't want to go with "cheap" RAM; RAM that actually works is a much better investment. But seeing as you already have firewire, you can probably save money with external, slim-size components.

That said, the following three sites can probably provide you with the best information:

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/

http://www.macsales.com/

http://www.mcetech.com/

I have purchased every conceivable upgrade from these guys and have found their quality and service rock solid. Now whether they ship internationally I'm not sure...

Hope you find what you need!
 
It took me almost 5 hours to replace the hard drive on an iBook/500. It was one of the most painful hardware experiences I've had (beating out the clamshell iBook hard drive replacement and Pismo monitor replacement). Cracking open the back case alone was a nightmare... and then there was the inside arrangement after that.

And to think, I can swap out hard drives on any PowerBook G3 model (other than the one based on the 3400 form factor) inside of 30 minutes.

And that is not counting the data transfer from the old drive to the new one.

iBooks aren't that expensive, trade up to get what you want.
 
You may be best off selling the ice yourself on ebay or something, rather than doing a strict trade-in, as dealers are not likely to give you as much in credit. Just saw one like yours with a $700 asking price on ebay. If you add to that the minimum cost of your desired upgrades, it may come out to the same as that for a decent new 'Book. You do the math, I'm too lazy this morning...

BTW, just remembered your query regarding iLife. You won't be able to use most, or any, of its packages other than iTunes with your current processor and video card.

Not trying to twist your arm, just wanna help you calculate your best options. Understand that you may not be able to come up with the requisite cash right away, as the resale value of your iceBook gently descends...

Incidentally, as you may have noted, MCE does the CD/DVD & HD installation themselves, but the price for the former is quite high.

Hope this has been some help
 
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