[Ti] Advice/Help On a Refurb/Used Powerbook

[Kynan Shook]

This message isn't from me, but rather our dear friend ~flipper who is 
currently having problems posting.  In the meantime, he's looking for 
some help:

At 11:11 PM -0400 4/11/05, ~flipper wrote:
> Greetings all, it's me, Brian, back in the swim as it were, after
> some nasty medical bs, etc.
>
> Without digging up too much redundant detail, my Ti 667 is past its
> last legs, OS-wise (w/zero chance, locally, of a NetBoot to
> re-install/upgrade), and real shaky (what with whining noises, etc)
> hardware-wise.
>
> But, in a bit of an eleventh-hour shocker, an old client (from my
> investment analysis past) has offered to pick up a used Powerbook
> for me. The proviso being that I should stay under $2k (meaning
> 16-18 hun US, I think.)
>
> I've looked around at the usual spots, even eBay, and with the more
> brick-and-mortar spots (specifically, Powermax) I sense that the
> middlemen are stripping out super drives, subbing combos, and doing
> other things that make it hard to be sure a machine conforms to my
> 'target' specs.
>
> What I was initially after was a Ti 15" book with 128 MB of Video
> RAM. I can scavenge regular RAM from mine. But I can't tell if they
> shipped any Titaniums with that much vram. Did they? Or was that a
> 17" Aluminum-only deal (and a build-to-order option on the 15s) ?
>
> The problem with the aluminums is I can't use any of my current 1 GB
> of RAM in them. Originally i wanted to stick with a dual-boot book,
> hence the other half of my rationale for the Titanium.
>
> Over the last year and 3 months I've had no way to reboot from a CD,
> so having the dual-boot ability has saved me where it comes to
> de-fragging, and using DiskWarrior, etc. But, I suppose i could pop
> a slimmed-down (no BSD sub-system, no Dev tools) OS on a samll
> partition and have that 'backdoor' available on an Aluminum book.
>
> So, what I'd like to hear about, if possible, is a 15" Powerbook, in
> the price range I mentioned above, with 128 MB of video RAM. I'm not
> as narrow-minded as i might have been, so a 15" Ti with 64 MB of
> video would serve my purposes, I suppose. But a single-boot Aluminum
> w/out the 128 MB is a no-go proposition.
>
> In time I will slowly rebuild the 667. I see it as a Linux box, or
> maybe a dual-boot Linux/OS 9 machine. (all it needs is a combo
> drive, a keyboard, and a mother board swap <laughs>).
>
> Any help or advice (not to mention cllarification re: what's
> actually out there, or likely to be found) would be greatly
> appreciated. Thanks.
>
> Brian S.