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kmarketing · Aug 20, 2004, 10:12 PM

Hi,

Back with the pismo again... My sister help me get a mint condition pismo 400 for $300. I have put in (which I already had) a 60gb 5400 drive, airport card, and 512 mb memory. My main goal right now is to keep the cheapest laptop possible. I have several 512mb memory modules that I could put into the pismo, or I can sell.

Currently I have 576mb in the pismo. Is that enough, or would the 1gb memory mae a big difference? It would be nice to get as much as possible from all the parts I have lying around.

Also, let me know what you are doing with your pismos today, and what upgrades you are planning for the future.

It's nice to be back to the pismo again, it is a beautiful machine. And now I have one in mint condition!!!

Thanks for your opinions!!

SEkker · Aug 20, 2004, 10:42 PM

I just put a 4x DVD-R burner upgrade in my wife's Pismo. Cost $135 including shipping.

I am considering an 80GB HD, to get some more elbow room for all the photos and MP3s.

A G4 upgrade still runs ~$300, something we may consider later on.

As for memory, you can do a lot with 500MB, I'd not immediately go to 1GB unless you have an itch to spend the cash!

kmarketing · Aug 20, 2004, 10:51 PM

Hi,

Nice move on the dvd burner!! How does it work on the pismo? Does it overheat? Have you been able to burn dvd's yet? Have you been able to backup movies? Does the processor speed affect the performance of burning cd's and dvd's?

80gb on a Pismo sounds great. The 5400 speed on my 60gb runs beautifully, but I do notice a little loss of battery power. So I'll be looking for that extra battery

The memory won't cost a thing, since I have 4 of those modules, and I got them at no cost. But according to ebay and other sites, I could get a nice chunck of change for them.

What type of programs are you normally running on your pismo?

Thanks!!

SEkker · Aug 21, 2004, 12:05 AM

Add the RAM, 1 GB will help for some work.

We use standard web apps, mail, photoshop, iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, and a set of older (OS9) apps.

I'm often amazed at the speed, it really does not feel all that much slower than my G4 PB17 1GHz unless I use apps that are G4 aware (itunes ripping is slower in iTunes, iMovie conversion can be slow).

It's a great machine for many people, and it seems to be indestructible.

kmarketing · Aug 21, 2004, 12:20 AM

Hi,

Which Photoshop/imovie are you using - are they the latest versions?

Actually I had the 17" Powerbook, and traded it for our cuurent g5. That's why I went for the pismo, I just wasn't using the powerbook for anything besides the internet really. And since enjoy taking things apart, I figured a pismo was a better machine for me than a g3 ibook. I just never thought I would be able to get one in new condition.

Let me know about dvd burning. How is it to backup dvd movies?

Thanks!!

iBorg · Aug 21, 2004, 12:21 AM

Originally posted by SEkker:
I just put a 4x DVD-R burner upgrade in my wife's Pismo. Cost $135 including shipping.

What type/brand of DVD-R did you put in? I've seen some ready-to-go DVD-R bays (MCE?), and other forum posts whereby you had to remove the plastic exterior of the "old" bay, and glue it to the "new" DVD-R bay to match up.

How has DVD burning worked for you? Any problems with coasters? Any software problems?

I'm thinking of upgrading my old Pismo, which I handed down to my wife, to get my Titanium ...

iBorg

Bomeyer · Aug 21, 2004, 06:29 PM

I put in 1gb of RAM and it makes a difference. I'd do it. I'm running 10.3.5.

kmarketing · Aug 21, 2004, 08:22 PM

Hi,

I think I may just keep the 1gb in there like some of you have already mentioned.

Have any of you added a usb 2.0 card to the pc card slot?
How about the airport card; have any of you switched to a pc card one (wireless g instead of b). Are there major improvements with that? Does that do a major job on the battery?

It would be cool though to make some cash by selling the airport card and memory module. Tough calls!

And could you update us on the dvd drive?

Thanks!!

finboy · Aug 22, 2004, 03:01 PM

Originally posted by iBorg:
What type/brand of DVD-R did you put in? I've seen some ready-to-go DVD-R bays (MCE?), and other forum posts whereby you had to remove the plastic exterior of the "old" bay, and glue it to the "new" DVD-R bay to match up.

How has DVD burning worked for you? Any problems with coasters? Any software problems?

I'm thinking of upgrading my old Pismo, which I handed down to my wife, to get my Titanium ...

iBorg

I'm interested in what type of DVD-R you put in too, and how. Please report.

SEkker · Aug 22, 2004, 06:54 PM

I added a Toshiba 4x DVD-R to my wife's Pismo, based on postings from here and from the xlr8yourmac.com upgrade database. I purchased it from ultradrives.com

Toshiba SD-R6372 4x Slim DVD�RW Drive now $119 plus ~$15 shipping

It has a grey bezel that is not as large as the original, but it works unmodified. I think they sell some black ones, which would be better color matched (but run an additional $10). I've looked at both the LG and other original bezels, they are different and not so easily adapted.

Added Apple iTunes, etc compatibility with patchburnII available free at xlr8yourmac.com.

My wife said the color does not matter to her -- she cannot see it when she uses the computer anyway -- and it sure is nice to have a 4x superdrive in the machine! I just burned a 3.3 GB archive disk from files stored on an external HD, took ~1/3 the time to burn and verify as my 1GHz G4 PB17 revA (1x/2x superdrive). Sweet.

Once again, I am amazed at the versatility of the Pismo. This is one of those 'no brainer' upgrades that really makes the machine a more useful computer. If I buy a G4 CPU upgrade, the machine could even run iDVD!

kmarketing · Aug 22, 2004, 08:12 PM

Hi,

Definitely sounds nice!!

Are there any heat concerns with burning a dvd?
Have you tried backing up dvd movies? How does that work?

Thanks for your help in adding more life in this beautiful machine!!

rjt1000 · Aug 22, 2004, 10:03 PM

Hi SEkker

Thanks for the tip on the Toshiba SD-R6372 4x DVD burner for the Pismo.

My question: are you able to boot with it using startup disk prefs, or must you hold option or command-C on startup?

Best wishes,

Rich

Pismo G3 500
Powerbook G4 12 Rev C

bmhome1 · Aug 22, 2004, 11:26 PM

I posted the original tip for the SDR6372. The black bezel is a waste of $10, it doesn't even fit properly (not worth sending back either).

It burns DVD movies with Toast 6.0.7 fine, better than iDVD by not requiring writing the whole 4.3GB to disk first.

It is bootable, but must have a solder bridge to make the drive master to ASP. Xrl8yourmac.com has archive instructions, its just a dot of solder on two tiny contacts. It will then boot from the C key.

There is no heat burning DVD's unless you are doing continuos burns all day long. Its also exceptionally quiet, barely audible.

kmarketing · Aug 23, 2004, 08:38 PM

Hi,

How about backing up movies? Is that manageable with a pismo? I have no idea if a g3 processor is capable to do that.

How much time does it take for the whole process on a pismo?

Also, do you pismo owners use an internal airport card, or an external card like a wireless g?

How about usb 2.0, is that easily done with a pc card?

Thanks!

SEkker · Aug 23, 2004, 10:09 PM

I use an internal airport card, I have not found the original airport to be limiting in internet access capabilities (for many, it takes 15+ links onto a single hub to notice a big slowdown -- like in a classroom).

As for USB 2, USB 1.1 is adequate for printing and digital camera connections. There are very few instances where firewire does not do a better job than USB 2. And the Pismo has 2 firewire ports.

I have not backed up any movies, with my Pismo or otherwise, so I cannot say. But when I recently backed up 3.3 GB of data from an external FW HD, the 400 MHz G3 processor was well able to keep up with the 4x DVD-R burner. I would think it would work well. For many things, a 400 MHz G3 processor is NOT the bottleneck.

[APi]TheMan · Aug 24, 2004, 10:07 AM

Awesome to hear so much talk about Pismos. I just gave mine to my sister a few months ago and upgraded to a 15" Aluminum. I had put a 900 mhz G3 upgrade in it (~ 350 bucks I think), a 30 gig drive ($100 bucks back in the day), and 768 megs of RAM over the few years that I owned it.

The processor upgrade was awesome. That puppy screamed. I burned DVDs off of that little guy quite often, though I was always scared to burn at more than 2x for fear of buffer underruns (even though Toast is bufferunderrun-savvy and I had seemingly more than enough processor power).

Pismo == good machine. Aluminum powerbook == good machine, but it's so pretty that I never take it out of the house.

Don Pickett · Aug 24, 2004, 12:37 PM

1 GB of RAM definitely makes a difference.

Lateralus · Aug 24, 2004, 01:15 PM

Pop in the PowerLogix 900MHz 750GX upgrade and you'll have a great Pismo.

Don Pickett · Aug 24, 2004, 03:12 PM

Originally posted by PowerMacMan:
Pop in the PowerLogix 900MHz 750GX upgrade and you'll have a great Pismo.

Careful � the first card I got from Powerlogix won't boot into OS X (runs 9.2.2 without problem). been Waiting for a replacement for three weeks. Have two more weeks of waiting to go.