[omar96]

I'm back with more silly questions:

Just got a clamshell iBook SE 366 with 64MB RAM and a 6GB HDD. It's the 4MB VRAM version, so it's a Rage mobility AGP2x. I'm planning on doing pretty much everything in OS 9, as it's just a road machine that'll keep me company for web surfing and play the occasional round of Diablo and StarCraft. I looked around lowendmac.com and can't get a definitive answer on the largest HDD available that will work in the system (or what the max supported is, at least)...I'd like to get a ~20-30GB hard drive and another 128-256MB of RAM...I'm pretty sure the RAM is standard 144-pin SO-DIMM (and it'll hold one of them), so that's no biggies, but this hard drive thing has me curious what I can buy. The reasoning behind the 20-30GB HDD is so I can rip ISO's of StarCraft or Diablo so I can save on battery life. Any suggestions, or a reassuring "it'll support that size HDD" will help. TIA!

omar96

[Zaurus]

why not buy a new iBook instead
only $999 USD

[omar96]

Cos I already have hte $245 iBook in my possession. Besides, it's going to get somewhat limited use (I only travel 5-6 days a month right now, more in the summer) and I can't see dropping a grand on the machine, especially since by the time I buy the extra 256MB RAM and 30GB HDD, I'll still be spending under $500. I bought what fits my needs...the RAM is basically a guaranteed thing and the HDD is just icing.

[tooki]

Any notebook hard drive on the market today will work in it. The iBook requires a drive no taller than 9.5mm, which happens to be the size that all current notebook drives are made. Furthermore it must be an IDE drive -- another universal characteristic of current models. The drive controller in the iBook won't be able to handle drives larger than 137GB, but since the largest on the market now is 100GB, that is a non-issue.

Beware that upgrading the hard drive in any iBook is a daunting task, and I will hazard a guess that if you had to ask what fits in it, you aren't up to the task of working on an iBook's innards. (It really is horrifically unfriendly to work on.) So keep in mind that you will likely want to hire someone to do the install for you -- or buy from a place that will do the install.

tooki

[omar96]

Yeah, after researching what all it takes, I think I'm about to change my mind...I figured it was at least a serviceable part, but not with the 2-dozen screws and RF shield removal and all that...

[iREZ]

Chuck that sucker on ebay and find another machine that is spec'd the way you want it like a G3 700MHz iBook or something. They're only a lil more expensive than all those upgrades you were planning to put in your machine anyway, and you'd have a much better machine. Clamshell's only use nowadays is for nostalgia.

[omar96]

Thinking about it, especially since I'd probably get more out of it than I paid.

[finboy]

I'll warn you, though, that the newer iBooks are 10x more fragile than the one you have. And they're a lot more buggy, too.

I'm eventually going to upgrade the HD in mine -- there are good tutorials out there with step by step instructions. I've also contemplated sending it to MCE and having them do it. (powerbook1.com)

[Kyros]

Where the heck did you find it that cheap? I've been trying to get one, and even the old 300 models cost almost 300 dollars.

[omar96]

I got it locally...a friend of a friend bought a new 12" iBook G4 and was just looking to sell it cheap. I'm going to end up sticking with the original HDD, did get a 128MB to upgrade the RAM (it was in the other iBook I picked up, and THAT one got replaced with a 512MB DIMM), and it's happily chugging along in OS 9...my wife's playing with it right now, but when she gets bored with it, it'll probably be off to ebay, because it really is slower than I'd like for travelling, and a single USB port is pretty limiting.