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andrewh · Feb 11, 2007, 04:54 AM

how easy is it to upgrade these and what size of hard drive can i tuck inside?

tinkered · Feb 11, 2007, 06:23 AM

check out OWC: OWC: Apple Mac G4 upgrades, Laptop Batteries, Memory, Drives
Max out your ram as a first step, it will make the biggest difference.

mduell · Feb 11, 2007, 04:40 PM

Max out the RAM (which is probably 640MB) and install a faster hard drive (up to 120GB).

druber · Feb 12, 2007, 04:41 PM

Before buying more RAM and upgrading the hard drive, crunch the numbers first. How much will they cost? Not that RAM wouldn't help speed up your machine a bit, but it can only do so much. If your upgrades would cost $200 (I'm just grabbing a number for example), and your machine is worth ~$250 on eBay (does it have an Airport card?), that's about halfway towards funding a refurb Core Duo Macbook that would far outstrip your iBook.

I took a 500mhz iBook to Kenya with me to teach, and it was a great little machine. Sometimes small upgrades can be a big help, but big upgrades aren't always very cost effective unless you anticipate keeping the same machine for years to come. Just my two cents.

andrewh · Feb 12, 2007, 06:43 PM

thanks for the advice!

i just picked it up yesterday for $220 canadian from a local seller. i'm considering parting it out and selling it on ebay. i'd like to see if i can get a little more for it than i paid and put it towards an imac or mbp or possibly keep it and use it until after leopard comes out so i can get one of them nice new intel chips that will be out.

its a great machine and it runs tiger so well even with 320 megs of ram. it smokes my imac 333mhz which ive been using for over a year now.

specs are 500mhz, 320m, 10gb, airport card and it has a minor trackpad issue, any idea if i would be able to make anything of it on ebay?

shifuimam · Feb 13, 2007, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by andrewh

thanks for the advice!

i just picked it up yesterday for $220 canadian from a local seller. i'm considering parting it out and selling it on ebay. i'd like to see if i can get a little more for it than i paid and put it towards an imac or mbp or possibly keep it and use it until after leopard comes out so i can get one of them nice new intel chips that will be out.

its a great machine and it runs tiger so well even with 320 megs of ram. it smokes my imac 333mhz which ive been using for over a year now.

specs are 500mhz, 320m, 10gb, airport card and it has a minor trackpad issue, any idea if i would be able to make anything of it on ebay?

Looks like you could probably get at least $325C on eBay.ca. The fact that it has an Airport card is a major selling point, since Airport cards go for $75USD+ on the open market. It also depends on what the "minor trackpad issue" really is, as well as what condition the iBook is in.

Search on eBay for auctions similar to what you want to sell. Look in the lefthand column and check the box that says "Completed listings", then click the "Show Items" button below that. It will give you an idea of what other, similar auctions have finished or sold at.

CheesePuff · Feb 13, 2007, 02:43 PM

Like others said, if you are going to keep it, the RAM will be the first upgrade then definitely the hard drive since 10 GB with Mac OS X will kill chances of multi-tasking with virtual memory.

CheesePuff · Feb 13, 2007, 02:44 PM

Originally Posted by shifuimam

Looks like you could probably get at least $325C on eBay.ca. The fact that it has an Airport card is a major selling point, since Airport cards go for $75USD+ on the open market. It also depends on what the "minor trackpad issue" really is, as well as what condition the iBook is in.

I got really excited when you said AirPort cards were selling for $75 on the open market, but when I looked I saw them selling now at $1 + shipping?

mduell · Feb 13, 2007, 03:16 PM

Did you look at completed auctions? http://search-completed.ebay.com/sea...ftrv=1&guest=1

Going for $60-120.