Macopinion

Hotrodding The 12” PowerBook

A question I frequently get asked by readers is what's a good bet in a low-priced Mac 'Book. It's really a buyers' market. There are still plenty of Pismos being offered long-time the bargain 'Book champ,, a vast selection of G3 and G4 iBooks, likewise 15" PowerBooks and a fair few 17-inchers as well. However, there seems to be Is growing consensus that the 12" G4 Aluminum PowerBook is the "new Pismo" - that is: the best choice in terms of price, value, performance, and reliability.

Now, I still love the Pismo. I have two of them, and I don't anticipate that I'll be retiring them any time soon. Suitably hotrodded with 550 MHz G4 processor upgrades, FastMac SuperDrive modules, RAM upgrades, extended life batteries, and so forth, the Pismo is still an impressive machine, but the handwriting is on the wall, so to speak. The Pismo will not be supported by OS 10.5 Leopard, even with the maximum 550 MHz G4 processor upgrade installed, and while it runs very nicely under OS 10.4 Tiger, I'm noticing lately that mine are struggling a bit when multitasking with a lot of applications open. I guess my work habits have evolved after two years of using a faster 17" PowerBook as my primary production computer.

The Pismo's greatest shortcoming, however, and one that has never been hotroddable, is its mediocre graphics support - a puny by today's standards ATI RAGE 128 Mobility gpu with just 8MB of video RAM. It manages Tiger's demands fairly satisfactorily so long as your software doesn't demand Quartz Extreme support, but I don't think I would really want to run Leopard on it, even if it turns out to be possible to hack an install. The Pismos are also not getting any younger, with the newest examples now closer to their eighth than their seventh birthday.

Consequently, while I still recommend the Pismo as a good choice in a cheap PowerBook, and I anticipate using my Pismos for a good long time yet, it's with those caveats attached, and it's coming time to pass the king of the low end Mac laptops baton to a newer machine.

To my way of thinking, the most logical successor is the 12" PowerBook, which like the Pismo has a reputation for better-than-average reliability, and is a fantastic little package. Other G4 Aluminum PowerBooks (like my 17" unit for instance) can also be a great choice for a low end Mac notebook, but in general, I think the 12-incher has the edge, and at a lower price.

The 12" PowerBook was on the market for nearly 3 1/2 years, so there is a pretty good selection available used and refurbished, and they are my first-choice recommendation for anyone looking for an inexpensive Mac laptop who can’t quite pony up the $1,100 for a new MacBook (although refurb, MacBooks should also be considered). Prices for the early, 867 MHz 12-inchers have been pushed down to the $500 range, and not much more for a 1 GHz DVI unit, which is what I would recommend for the minimum spec. machine to look for. Happily, all 12" PowerBooks satisfy (just) the expected minimum Leopard requirement of an 867 MHz G4 CPU.

Compared with a Pismo, 12" PowerBooks in addition to the faster G4 processors, have a much better video card, and four to eight times the video RAM, and the screen on the 12-inch model is superb - brighter and sharper than the Pismo's display while offering the same resolution of 1024 x 768.

For a bit more money, the 1.33 GHz and 1.5 GHz G4 12" PowerBooks are especially well-equipped. Along with with USB 2 that was added with the 1 GHz model and at least a combo drive, the faster models come with 64 megabytes of video RAM, Apple’s Sudden Motion Sensor and Scrolling Trackpad technology, larger capacity hard drives, and a NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 graphics cards with 64MB of VRAM.

The 12" PowerBook has some shortcomings to be sure. The 1024 x 768 display will feel cramped to widescreen addicts, although I don't find it a major hardship. There is no PC Card slot, which won’t bother a lot of users, but its absence is a pain if you need it for feature expansion. Another drawback is that even the final 1.5 GHz models (which were incidentally the last PowerPC Mac of any sort to be sold) have just 256MB of RAM soldered to their motherboard, which means that these machines are limited to a RAM ceiling of 1.254 GHz, and thanks to having just one RAM expansion slot it will likely be necessary to remove and discard a lower capacity card if you're upgrading.

Compared with the Pismo, the 12" PowerBook is a lot less amenable to hotrodding, so it's a big plus that it came so well-equipped out of the box. However, you definitely can hot rod a 12-incher.

The first phase should definitely be RAM, and I recommend maxing it out with a 1 GB expansion module from the get-go, especially if you plan on installing Leopard, for which 1.254 GHz of system memory will be no more than adequate.

For available PowerBook RAM upgrades, a convenient place to check out availability and compare prices is at RAMSeeker:
http://www.ramseeker.com/

Other World Computing also has a comprehensive selection of PowerBook RAM here:
http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/Models.cfm?stype=Memory&0509

OWCs' one gigabyte RAM modules for the 12" PowerBook start as low as $72.99.

A lot of the G3 iBook models and even some of the early revision G4s came with plain-vanilla CD-ROM drives, which is a nuisance if you need to install software (such as OS 10.4 Tiger) that ships on DVD media, or just want to watch DVD movies or access archived files stored on burned DVDs. Or perhaps you have a Combo drive equipped iBook and would like to be able to burn DVDs.

Happily, several vendors supply SuperDrive upgrades for the 12" PowerBook:

Fastmac offers an 8x dual-layer unit for $179.95. I have FastMac SuperDrive upgrades in both of my Pismos, and they've been excellent performers.

http://store.fastmac.com/product_info.php?products_id=76

MCE Technologies also offers 8X DVD±R/RW SuperDrive upgrades with both Double Layer AND Dual Layer support for the 12" PowerBook G4 that allows users to author professional-quality DVDs as well as create, store, and share their collections of videos, music and photography, priced at $99.00 or $149.00 depending upon your machine's optical drive configuration.

You can check it out at:
http://www.mcetech.com/products.html

TechRestore offers 8x Dual Layer Superdrive Self-Service Upgrade For PowerBook G4 Aluminum 12", 15" and 17" Series at $119.99.

For more information, visit:
http://www.techrestore.com/xcart/home.php?cat=256

A higher capacity, faster hard drive can also give your 12" PowerBook a new lease on life. The three vendors mentioned above all offer hard drive upgrades for the 12-incher.

See:
http://www.mcetech.com/products.html
http://eshop.macsales.com/
http://store.fastmac.com/product_info.php?products_id=76

The downside of that is that getting at the LittleAl's hard drive (unlike with the Pismo in which it's a 10-15 minute easy job) involves substantial disassembly of the computer. If you think you have the skill and patience to tackle the job yourself, or want more information to help determine whether you do or not, check out iFixIt.com’s free illustrated teardown guide for the 12" PowerBook here:
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/

IFixIt also has a selection of parts and upgrade items for the PowerBook here:
http://www.ifixit.com/cart/catalog/

The 12" PowerBook had an advertised battery life of up to six hours, but you can do better than that these days with a high-capacity battery replacement.

FastMac offers extended life batteries for the 12" PowerBook for $99.00:
http://fastmac.com/laptop.php

Newer Technologies' has two different extended life batteries for the 12" PowerBook at $119.99 and $149.95.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/powerbook/battery/g4-12inch-aluminum/

The ultimate hot rod tweak for the 12" PowerBook will be a processor upgrade. Daystar Technology's latest PowerBook upgrade offering of the XLR8 MAChSpeed G4 Aluminum upgrade for some Aluminum PowerBook G4 systems can take you up to 1.67 GHz delivering up to 40% faster performance.

According to Daystar's Gary Dailey, the 12" PowerBook is a long-time favorite of Photographers (a large proportion of their upgrade customers), due to its power and portability. Daystar have upgraded a few hundred 12" PowerBook CPUs now with excellent success, Dailey says. Most customers also opt to get a larger 7200 RPM drive at the same time. The CPU used in this upgrade is an underclocked 1700 MHz G4, resulting in a relatively cool-running upgrade that's fast as well.

This is a factory installed upgrade only. The Daystar XLR8 MAChSpeed G4 Aluminum CPU upgrade is available worldwide. The base price of $359.00 includes all parts and labor.

Daystar PowerBook 12" Upgrades Available include:
• PowerBook G4 12”: 867 MHz, is upgraded to 1.4 GHz (MP7455 CPU)
• PowerBook G4 12”: 1.0, upgraded to 1.67 GHz
• PowerBook G4 12”: 1.33 upgraded to 1.67 GHz
• PowerBook G4 12”: 1.5 is upgraded to 1.67 GHz

Software Compatibility:
Apple Mac OS 9.2.2 Classic Mode
Mac OS X Panther and Tiger
Standard Mac Software.

Includes:
Complete installation and testing.
Fully CPU / Cache Upgrade.
30 Days of Daystar ProTech Support.
Custom thermal and electrical modifications.
Custom shipping container.
XLR8 MAChSpeed Control.
Daystar 21 point test and diagnostic.
Overnight burn-in and thermal testing.
3-way US ground shipping + options.

For more information, visit:
http://daystar-store.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=640

The 12" PowerBooks are going to be around for quite a while yet providing excellent service to their owners. The 12" form factor pretty much hits the sweet spot between “big enough for serious work” and portability, and with a bit of upgrading, they should still be able to hold their own quite nicely, even running OS 10.5 Leopard.

12" PowerBook Models In A Nutshell

The PowerBook G4 (12") Aluminum was first introduced in January, 2003, and continued in production through four distinct models until May, 2006. The 12-incher's motherboard design included Double Data Rate (DDR) RAM, internal Bluetooth, and support for Airport Extreme, Apple's implementation of the 54 Mbps 802.11g wireless standard.

PowerBook G4
Original

* CPU: PowerPC 7455 - 867 MHz
* RAM: 1 - PC2100 for a maximum RAM of 1152 MB
* Hard Drive: 40 or 60 GB
* Optical: Combo Drive or DVD-R/CD-RW SuperDrive
* Optional Airport Extreme Card, Integrated Bluetooth


PowerBook G4 (DVI)
DVI

* CPU: PowerPC 7447 - 1.0 GHz
* RAM: 1 - PC2100 for a maximum RAM of 1.25 GB
* Hard Drive: 40 GB
* Optical: Combo Drive or DVD-R/CD-RW SuperDrive
* Optional AirPort Extreme card, Integrated Bluetooth


PowerBook G4 12-inch (1.33 GHz)
1.33 GHz

* CPU: PowerPC 7447 - 1.33 GHz
* RAM: 1 - PC2700 for a maximum RAM of 1.25 GB
* Hard Drive: 60 or 80 GB
* Optical: Combo Drive or DVD-R/CD-RW SuperDrive
* Included AirPort Extreme card as standard, Integrated Bluetooth


PowerBook G4 12-inch (1.5 GHz)
1.5 GHz

* CPU: PowerPC 7447A - 1.5 GHz
* RAM: 1 - PC2700 for a maximum RAM of 1.25 GB
* Hard Drive: 60, 80, or 100 GB (with Sudden Motion Sensor)
* Optical: Combo Drive or DVD±RW/CD-RW SuperDrive (SuperDrive became standard equipment at the base price in October, 2005)
* Included AirPort Extreme card, Integrated Bluetooth




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cmoore@macopinion.com


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