[iBook] Any L.A. area Clamshell owners who successfully got upgrades done?

[Michelle Klein-Hass]

Yes, I know I'm fsckn nuts and I should just sell my Clamshell on eBay and 
save the money to start a Mac mini fund, but I absolutely have fallen in 
love/geek lust with the 300MHz Clamshell (Blueberry) my Aunt Karen gave me 
after she turned to the Dark Side of the Force and got a new VAIO laptop.

I know that upgrading a Clamshell is hell. I have heard the fear in the voices 
of techs I have spoken  to when I ask for quotes on upgrading. I have seen 
the tear apart/rebuild sites. I know it's not pretty. However, I want to have 
it done.

I have two known-good 2.5" hard drives that I can experiment with. One is 
currently installed in my Linux "porta-server" and is a 30GB Toshiba "GAS"; 
one was the original hard drive my ThinkPad came with. I also have a second 
Toshiba 30GB "GAS" drive which might or might not be working.

The trouble is this: the tear-apart/rebuild on an iBook Clamshell is so 
arduous, so hideous, that asking someone to experiment with drives would be 
asking way too much. Especially when you consider you can't run one partially 
dismantled like you can a new-world Minitower, a ThinkPad or even a PowerBook 
Wallstreet.

I'm probably going to have to bite the bullet and just buy a new drive for 
this thing. When you have been quoted $225 on labor alone on this upgrade, I 
suppose the (non-inflated) cost of a Seagate or Toshiba notebook drive is not 
out of the question.

The reason why I post here is this: has anyone in the Los Angeles, CA area on 
this list gone to a shop currently in existence and had a HD/RAM upgrade done 
on a Clamshell iBook? Was the techie good? Did they charge a fair amount for 
the job? Was it successful the first go or did it have to go back for 
"adjustments?" 

If all goes well this is the laptop I will be taking with me when I transfer 
to a four-year University (Woodbury in Burbank) to finish my BA in 
Psychology. I have already brought the lovely machine there and have been 
able to effortlessly enjoy their unrestricted 802.11b bandwidth...there is 
nothing so effortless than using wireless access points with AirPort and the 
AirPort software! :-)

Yeah, people are going to say "get a Mac mini" or "get a snow iBook"  but I 
really and truly love this blue and white wonder and want to give it the 
max-out job it craves. Any help appreciated.

Thanks,
Michelle
-- 
Michelle Klein-Hass
Box 2273, Van Nuys, CA 91404-2273
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