Ok, so there are a few things I'm not to hip on regarding my 12" PB... namely the HD (kinda slow and a little smallish), the heat issues (it really gets my left palm warm after several hours of work), and the Apple on the lid isn't blue enough (ok, that's being nit-picky).
So, I figure... I hadn't taken my baby apart yet, which I suppose is odd for a service guy
not to take his machine apart during the first month of ownership.
but I usually follow the creed of "if it ain't broke don't fix it".
Today, though, I did the deed and made some changes.
Warning, although the PB 12 isn't the toughest notebook I've ever disassembled (that dubious honor goes to Gateway), I don't recommend it without some guidance and the proper tools. It is though, quite a bit easier than the iBook 12 and 14"ers (fewer screws). I do this for a living, and this is the 5th 12 that I've taken apart. Some people even say I know what I'm doing, even.
First, I upgraded the (IMO) small 40GB Fujitsu drive in it to an 80GB Travelstar monster (I purchased 2 of them). This was pretty easy. After removing the battery (always remove the battery when working on a notbook), KB, memory plate, and top case, the HD is easily taken out by removing a couple screws and disconnecting the IDE cable... be careful with these, I've accidentally torn more of these over the years than I care to admit. Remove the drive's rails and install them on the new drive, then it's a simple matter of reversing the previous procedure and out the system back together.
So, how does the new HD perform? Well, I can tell some difference in launching apps and during bootup, it feels "snappier". It probably has to do with the higher areial density and the larger cache, 8MB as opposed to 2MB. Though both drives are 4200RPM drives... this to me seemed to be fairly important so as to stay within Apple specs and not making the PB hotter by adding a hotter running 5400RPM drive (there don't seem to be any 5400 80GB 2.5" drives out now anyway, so it's a moot point). In my opinion it's a very worthwhile upgrade.
Second, I wanted even more space.
So I removed the teeny 20GB drive from my Smartdisk FireLite (this drive case is so awesome, I love the way it lights up and it's so damned small), and put in the 2nd of my 80GB Travelstars. No AC adapters and 160GB on the go, can't beat that.
Thirdly, I did a massively geeky thing that I normally wouldn't bother with... I tinkered with my display to change the Apple logo color.
I just removed the 2 hex screws on the bottom of the display (this CAN be done if you're very careful and have the right hex driver) and gently but firmly run a "black stick" or credit card along the front display seam that runs along 1/16th of an inch from the display edge. Then, with the cover in hand, I secured a deep indigo colored plastic film that I found in the shop to the inside of the cover over the apple using some epoxy. I used a section of film 3x3" in size and only applied a small amount of epoxy along the edge of the film so as not to make a mess, then let it dry. Now, when the cover is open it glows a much deeper and fuller blue, but looks "normal" when the display is closed. Very cool.
So, here's the specs for my 12" PB:
- 640MB RAM (will be going to 1.152GB if the new 1GB modules will work in the 12"ers, and they should).
- 80GB HD (and 80GB in my firewire FireLite)
- Superdrive
- Airport Extreme
- All the other basic goodness that comes standard with this little guy.
- Neat, deep blue logo. hehehe
Well, she's just about all tricked out and running better than ever. Damn that was fun.
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