Korin Hasegawa-John
- 2001.08.06
If you are looking to buy a PowerBook, there are a lot of
tradeoffs involved. Ultimate performance or size and weight? Cost
or features? There are a lot of options. If you have money to
spend, get an iBook or TiBook. However, if you want a portable to
compliment your desktop machine or as a desktop replacement, there
are several decent deals out there on older 'Books.
Desktop Replacement
For this you probably want a Lombard, a.k.a. Bronze Keyboard. Get the
400 MHz model because it has the DVD drive. 
Don't pay more than about $1,500 on eBay.
To the best of my knowledge you can't add a DVD drive to the 333
MHz model if it didn't ship with one.
Lombard already has SCSI and USB, so you may want to add a
FireWire card. You can find new FireWire2Go cards from Newer Tech
(out of business) for about $40.
The Lombard also shipped with a relatively small 6 GB hard
drive, which you should probably replace. You can get a standard
issue IBM TravelStar 20 GB hard drive for about $100.
While you have the case open to install the hard drive, add at
least 256 MB RAM, for a total of 320 or more. That should cost
about $50.
What else do you need? Well, a second battery is good. Add
another one (for $130) and get about 6-8 hours of run time using
both batteries! And since you have the advantage of the expansion
bay, why not use it? Add an Xcaret expansion bay CD-RW for $300. It
isn't the fastest, but it is definitely a cool gadget. Burn CDs
internally with a PowerBook? Yeah!
While you are at MCE's website, get a Xcaret expansion bay hard
drive carrier, so you can use your old 6 GB drive as an
internal removable drive for backup. And what's a PowerBook without
wireless networking? Add an AirPort compatible Lucent Orinoco
Silver card for about $120.
Now you have a PowerBook G3/400 MHz that can potentially be
upgraded to 667 MHz (if such is an upgrade is ever released), with
320 MB+ of RAM, a DVD-ROM drive, 20 GB internal hard drive,
6 GB expansion bay hard drive, expansion bay CD-RW drive, two
batteries, SCSI, USB, FireWire, and AirPort for the nifty price of
about $2,360. That's less than a 400 MHz TiBook. Granted, you don't
get a G4 processor, 100 MHz system bus, 1"-slim-ness and light
weight, and 15" screen, but you do get better battery life (with
the dual setup), SCSI, CD-RW, AirPort and a handy backup hard
drive.
Want to spend less? Just cut some things out, like the AirPort
card and CD-RW.
Portability With Less Cost
Buy a PowerBook 2400. I own one of
these, and I suggest you try the keyboard before investing. It has
a nice touch, but the keys are a little small and some keys are
placed differently or shaped differently. I don't have a problem
with it.
The 2400 is a 603e-based portable running at 180 or 240 MHz. It
has a maximum of 80 MB RAM and shipped with a 1.3 GB hard drive.
They weigh 4.4 pounds and have a 10.4" active matrix screen.
I advise getting one with the full 80 MB RAM. A 2400 of that
configuration will costs about $400-500. Next, replace the hard
drive with a 6 GB hard drive for about $50. 2400s are hard to
take apart; I recommend you get instructions or take it to an Apple
Authorized Service Center (AASC).
Next is the hard part - finding a G3 upgrade. Check eBay.
Newer Tech made 200 and 240 MHz upgrades, while Vimage made 240
MHz, 320 MHz, and a 400 MHz ones. Don't pay more than about
$250-300 for a Newer 240 MHz card. Again, if you don't have
instructions, take it to an AASC.
Try to get ahold of a second battery; they cost over $250 when
they are sold new! Check for used ones. For a used battery with a
guarantee, $100 is a good price.
Once everything is installed, you have a PowerBook G3/240
weighing 4.4 pounds with 80 MB RAM, a 6 GB hard drive, and two
batteries (about 3-4 hours run time) - all for about $800. The
performance is nothing like an iBook, but it has legacy ports and
PC Card slots and can be upgraded to CardBus. If it's just a
portable for use when you go on the road, performance is not that
big of a deal.
There you have it. There are alternatives to the new iBook and
TiBook if you look around.
