[bighead]

Well, this morning I got my new 1.5 GHz PowerBook, except I have had work and school all day. A clean install was pretty much out of the question time-wise, but also not really needed. Here's how moved the data from my old 1.25 GHz 15" to the new one (including the hiccups):

1. Erase and partition new hard disk from included OS DVD.
2. Find out that included OS DVD isn't liking the "Restore" tab in Disk Utility. Gotta run it from another hard drive.
3. Install custom 10.3.3 version on LaCie portable drive to boot new PB
4. Boot new PB from drive, and connect old PB through target disk mode.
5. Use Disk Utility to restore from old PB main partition to new PB main partition.
6. Disk Utility errors out with code -20.
7. I scream like a little girl that my new PowerBook might be dead.
8. I proceed to zero the internal HD on the new PB. Zero is A-OK.
9. Try restoring to new PB in Disk Utility, same result.
10. Use Carbon Copy Cloner to mirror the main partition, A-OK.
11. Drag copy the rest of the junk from my data partition, A-OK.
12. Boot new PB from OS DVD, run an update install (not archive install)
13. Disable junk not needed, like extra fonts and foreign language packs (ended up being about 5 MB of data for the whole update install)
14. Sit and wait.
15. Restart new PB.
16. Giggle with joy that everything is working just fine.

Yes, there were a few hiccups along the way. I could have done without the LaCie, and I could have booted the OTHER PowerBook and blah blah blah. It ended up working OK in the end.

The key to a successful transition is to install the updated OS over the current OS. Both are 10.3.3, but the version that comes on the DVD for the 1.5 GHz 15" is build 7G43, definitely newer than the non-machine specific build Apple has made public.

I'm quite happy with the speed improvements with the faster processor and the 128 MB of VRAM. Believe it or not, it is noticeably faster at common tasks, and even more speedy with the CPU intensive work like in Photoshop.

For my final note, I have found that the 1.5 GHz PowerBook G4 to be the fastest single-processor computer system in terms of crunching RC5-72 in the distributed.net contest. Not even the G5 is faster than this PowerBook, though that is because the program is not built for the G5 specifically. It beats out every Intel, AMD, and even G5 processor in the list (for RC5-72 at least.) It's funny to have so much power burning a hole in my lap.

[MrForgetable]

Awesome! Now you've got to post the pics, tell us about your battery life, and all that thigh muscle burning power!!

[Mike656]

Thats how my Al book feels while crunching RC5-72, gotta put a towel on my legs it gets so hot . How many keys a second does yours crunch? My 1.25 does about 13.15 Mkeys/s.

Mike

[Toyin]

I duplicated my 12"PB as follows.

Before I say how I did it there are 3 key things. 1) My users on the 12"PB and the 15"PB have identical usernames, shortnames, and passwords. 2) I have a folder called "Restore" that I keep all my drivers in. 3) The default applications that are installed on both laptops are labeled grey so I know what is original and what's installed.

So this is how I did it.
-Zeroed drive on my new 15" PB.
-Reinstalled OS from the DVD.
-Performed whatever updates were necessary.
-Booted 12" PB into firewire mode.
-Copied over the contents of my user directories (ie Documents, Movies, Music, Library) onto my 15"PB (Contents of the library are easier to copy if you trash all the contents in the current library)
-Copied over the contents I wanted in Library/Application support.
-Installed drivers from my restore folder
-Log out and taadaa exactly the same as my 12"PB

Took less than 2 hours total.

This gives me the benefit of whittling out all of the accumulated crap that I've installed on the 12".

Now the jump from 867mhz to 1.5ghz is significant to say the least.

[bighead]

Originally posted by Mike656:
Thats how my Al book feels while crunching RC5-72, gotta put a towel on my legs it gets so hot . How many keys a second does yours crunch? My 1.25 does about 13.15 Mkeys/s.

Mike

That's about what my 1.25 got. I've submitted the only speed test to distributed.net for the 1500 MHz 74x7 processor, and my rough average was 15,834,689 keys per second. Note that I was running in console mode to keep the UI from hogging CPU. Running for long lengths of time evens the performance out to about 15.75 Mkeys/second. Running Temperature Monitor in the GUI with dnetc going shows junction temperature anywhere between 140 and 146 degrees F.

I use a podium pad.