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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Installing memory & HDD for iBook G3

sigita - Jun 1, 2006 - 2:27 pm

I have bought my fist Mac! It is used - iBook laptop PowerPC G3, Memory 256 MB, it has a small hard drive 20GB and Mac OS X 10.4.
I would like to install more memory and a bigger hard drive (60-100GB).
My question is - what would be efficient/sufficient amount of RAM and HDD for my laptop so it wold run fast? If buying on eBay what brands - technical spec. should I pay attention at?

Thanks,

Sigita

frozendice - Jun 1, 2006 - 3:30 pm

You might want to be carefull when buyign on ebay, you don't know where the hardware came from, or if it's good quality. I personally recomend newegg.com i've always had good experiences with them.

On to your question.
A 100GB hard drive will be pretty expensive. An 80 gig will probably ben enough if you are on a laptop. A good hard drive can really speed up your system like a memory or cpu upgrade can. If your hard drive is slow it doesn't matter how fast everythign else is, if it can't get the data it needs. You want to stick with something with stats near

Average Latency: 4.2ms
Average Seek Time: 10ms
Average Write Time: 11ms
Cache: 8MB

This one looks to be a good deal http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822146047

I'm actually thinking of getting it for myself, I only have a 30gb drive.

For memory it depends on if the iBook already has a extra memory module installed. In the iBooks, I think there's only space for 1 memory chip. Your iBook probably comes with a 256 soddered on to the motherboard, you should consider upgrading by installing either a 512mb or 1024mb stick of memory.

- Hope this helps.

sigita - Jun 1, 2006 - 5:10 pm

Thanks for such a quick response. That HDD looks very good! Do you think I could change HDD on my own - maybe there is a visual guide - or should I take it to the store?

Thank you,

Sigita

frozendice - Jun 1, 2006 - 9:51 pm

It's advisable that you take it into the apple store to have them install it, but if you're a starving student like I am you'll probably prefer to follow this online guide for FREE http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/50.12.0.html

sigita - Jun 2, 2006 - 4:50 am

An excellent guide - looks very well explained! To tell you the truth, I am not sure if I have the guts to do it by myself.

When buying HDD how do you find out that it will fit/work into iBook 12'?

Thank you, Daniel.

frozendice - Jun 2, 2006 - 4:44 pm

Like standard hard drived for normal computers all laptop hard drives are a standard size and interface. Pretty much any drive that is for a laptop should work.