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wuzup101 · Jul 2, 2004, 03:22 AM

Okay so I need a new laptop this year for school (my desktop PC is great... but I need the portability). Anyway, I am considering both PB and iBook but am leaning towards the ibook because I'm fairly certain it will do what I need for the least amount of money. I've always liked running machines w/ fast drives and lots of ram (current machine has 1gig of ram and 2 120gb 7.2k drives in it). Anyway, I'd like to know how I would go about adding a 60gb internal 7.2k drive to my ibook. I'm assuming this would give me a very nice boost in load/search times (which is what I want). I also plan on going for a 1gb stick of ram in addition to the base 256mb right from the start.

I remember reading a while back that the ibooks were harder to upgrade HD wise than the PB line. I did a search and couldn't find the right post. Anyway I'm fairly tech savy and have been building/repairing desktop PC's for years now. Will I encounter any problems in swapping these drives?

ccsccs7 · Jul 2, 2004, 03:32 AM

Maximum drive size for an iBook (or 12" Powerbook, I reckon) is 9.5mm. There might be some stuff you could break without knowledge of. Tubes and such.

wataru · Jul 2, 2004, 10:21 AM

Replacing the hard drive on an iBook is difficult and will break your warranty.

wuzup101 · Jul 2, 2004, 11:39 AM

Is there anyway I can purchase a drive and have a local apple store install it for me? Maybe I should just go for the PB for a few extra bucks.

wataru · Jul 2, 2004, 12:50 PM

Originally posted by wuzup101:
Is there anyway I can purchase a drive and have a local apple store install it for me?

I don't think so.

wuzup101 · Jul 2, 2004, 02:44 PM

Okay well how hard are we talking to install ram and HD drive? I'm fairly confident I can do it, but I don't want to destroy anything that would void my warrenty. Is it a lot easier to upgrade these things on the Powerbooks, and does it void their warranty? BTW... it's just the HDD that voids it right... not the ram???

The current 12" ibooks use 4200rpm drives correct? I just think it would be a heck of a lot snappier with atleast a 5400 if not a 7200 drive in there!

Will C · Jul 2, 2004, 05:19 PM

Here is a guide to show you how tricky it is. I have done it twice and I would suggest allow yourself 2 hours with no deadlines.

If you are mechanically sympathetic* you should be OK, but I think it voids the entire iBook's warranty if you open it up. When my iBook failed - I had to put the original 10GB drive back in before I returned it for repair.

*mechanically sympatheic is the exact opposite of clumsy and heavy handed or the sort of people who break things by touching them.

HTH

Will

macaddict0001 · Jul 2, 2004, 05:45 PM

I think you can have apple stores install things but I don't know you can for sure at authourized repair centers try going to one of those fi not their is always built to order.

no installing ram doesn't void your warrenty but the hd does.

Rev-O · Jul 2, 2004, 08:07 PM

Originally posted by wuzup101:
Is there anyway I can purchase a drive and have a local apple store install it for me? Maybe I should just go for the PB for a few extra bucks.

This is a interesting question, and one I actually started pondering last week. I've been thinking about and external bus-powered firewire drive (like a 5400rpm 60 or 80 gigger) and then I started wondering if I could have Apple replace my stock HD with a bigger one (which, of course, you'd have to buy from the Apple store at Apple store prices, and it wouldn't be a 7200 rpm HD, of course) and then slap my stock 30 gig HD in an enclosure, or make a Christmas tree ornament out of it.

Of course, I haven't gotten off my lazy ass to go to the Apple store to ask 'em.

macaddict0001 · 10:25 PM

Originally posted by Rev-O:
This is a interesting question, and one I actually started pondering last week. I've been thinking about and external bus-powered firewire drive (like a 5400rpm 60 or 80 gigger) and then I started wondering if I could have Apple replace my stock HD with a bigger one (which, of course, you'd have to buy from the Apple store at Apple store prices, and it wouldn't be a 7200 rpm HD, of course) and then slap my stock 30 gig HD in an enclosure, or make a Christmas tree ornament out of it.

Of course, I haven't gotten off my lazy ass to go to the Apple store to ask 'em.

you could just customize it at the apple online store as shown here that is for the us though if you want a store for another country go to apple page select your country from the list on the bottom that says choose then click on store.

forgot you own it sorry.

Robbo · Jul 3, 2004, 05:29 PM

Originally posted by macaddict0001:
you could just customize it at the apple online store as shown here that is for the us though if you want a store for another country go to apple page select your country from the list on the bottom that says choose then click on store.

I think you've not read his post properly - he already HAS one with a 30GB HD. You can't CTO a product you already own......

henrytaylor · Jul 9, 2004, 01:21 PM

"Okay so I need a new laptop this year for school (my desktop PC is great... but I need the portability). Anyway, I am considering both PB and iBook but am leaning towards the ibook because I'm fairly certain it will do what I need for the least amount of money. I've always liked running machines w/ fast drives and lots of ram (current machine has 1gig of ram and 2 120gb 7.2k drives in it). Anyway, I'd like to know how I would go about adding a 60gb internal 7.2k drive to my ibook. I'm assuming this would give me a very nice boost in load/search times (which is what I want). I also plan on going for a 1gb stick of ram in addition to the base 256mb right from the start."

You can order a new iBook (12") and add optional 60g drive. Also ram, but as all will tell you, get it from Crucial or somrwhere else. Adding ram will not affect your warrenty, a HDD will. Any mod to your iBook will void the warrenty, except ram and/or airport card. This is true if you do the mod, or an Apple authorized repair center does the mod. I personally use an external firewire HD (60g). Is bootable and will do all you can want. The same options also apply to the Powerbook (come with 60g HDD std.).
Good luck on the purchase, people here will help with whatever problem you find, I know they've helped me a lot.

Henry

wuzup101 · Jul 10, 2004, 01:29 AM

Hey guys thanks for the advice. It turns out my parents were willing to throw up some cash towards my new purchase. That being said, I'll be purchasing a new 15" 1.5ghz PB this weekend w/ 128mb vid ram, 5400rpm drive, and a combo drive. I have an ADC membership so I will be paying a bit under 2k. I plan to hook up my current DVD+/-RW to an external enclosure soon enough and then go for an extra 1gb stick of ram ASAP.

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions... wish apple made BTO books with the 7200rpm drives installed... that would be killer...

makrell · Aug 3, 2004, 08:09 AM

I made a search on this forum for upgrading hard drive on iBook and found many helpful sites. But we have a new 800 MHz, 12", G4 iBook, and the upgrade guides show older G3 models with tray loading drives. Have anyone done this with the 12" G4 iBook? Is the procedure different with the new ones?
Thank you