[P1] upgrade original clamshell

[Jason Bennett]

On Tuesday, May 5, 2003, Jill Whenmouth wrote:

> Really???You are doing this on an original clamshell?  300mhz???
> honest to goodness, I can truly put OSX on my original300 mzh
> clamshell???!!!!!

Jill, you sure can, and it's a lot of fun, too. You can use iTunes 4 
and browse that new iTunes Music Store to your heart's content -- no 
need for a new computer! Or use iPhoto to organize that collection of 
digital photos. Heck, I even edited a small movie on the iBook with OS 
X & iMovie , and I pulled it off!

> Wow!
> I had been under the impression that 300mhz was too slow... likewise 
> that 3
> gigs was too small, especially if you wanted to have anything but OSX 
> on it?

I think the 300MHz being too slow for Mac OS X is more about your 
personal frame of reference ie. what you are used to, and willing to 
put up with.

There  is no doubt that OS 9 is faster on an iBook than OS X, but I can 
say with 10.2.5, I'm satisfied with its performance. Again, if you have 
access to a PowerBook G4 every day, you may feel different, but on its 
own accord, yes, it's fun.

> What size harddrive do you have? and how much memory??

In terms of drive and memory, max out the RAM, but that is recommended 
for any OS X system. A 3GB HD is small, and your iBook would really 
benefit from an upgrade in that department. For me, 3GB almost felt too 
small immediately after I bought the iBook, and I was still using OS 9 
at the time. If you want to put a collection of MP3s or photos on your 
computer, as I did, upgrading was really a necessity.

If you happen to live in Victoria, BC, I'd be happy to help out with 
the "surgery" of an upgrade -- I've taken my machine apart twice, and 
am quite comfortable with it. My success, however, was the result of 
great guides that more adventurous users provided for folks like me. If 
you like to see them, e-mail me and I'll pass the links.

There are also a few on-line merchants that provide a iBook upgrade 
service -- the prices seemed reasonable last time I checked, and I 
believe a few people on this list used them with success.

Best,

Jason