Upgrade this 2005 PowerBook or fork out for MacBook?
This is a refinement of an earlier Q.
My problems/desires are:
1. I'm fed up with being unable to avail myself of stuff that needs Tiger/Leopard.
2. My 80GB internal HD is constantly filling up.
3. I have no webcam and need (a good) one for work.
4. My G4 gets taxed by certain things, e.g. trimming clips in QuickTime.
5. My 160GB Freecom external drive for file backup isn't adequately powered by the G4 and needs an inconvenient mains powered hub.
All the above (not sure about 5.) would be fixed by getting a new/refurb MacBook (Pro), but cash is tight. So I'm considering this:
1. Buy Leopard.
2. Buy & install 2GB of RAM.
3. Buy & install 250GB internal drive.
4. Buy an iSight or something cheaper that's as good.
5. (recommended by an expert here) Buy another, bootable external drive to do a total system backup while I install Leopard (and for common sense protection thereafter).
All of that costs a fair chunk of the price of say a refurbished MB Pro, and is more trouble. Any comments? Specific Qs:
1. Macupgrades.co.uk advises against installing an internal HD, but could I do it? (I put one into a titanium G4 a while back.)
2. Any recommendations for a 250GB HD?
3. Any recommendations for good webcams cheaper than iSight?
4. Any recommendations for external drives that will be adequately powered by my PowerBook?
5. Would I regret doing all of this in a year's time because of my G4's ageing? E.g. the screen is still fine, but is it likely to deteriorate?
Many thanks for reading and replying.
1. Macupgrades.co.uk advises against installing an internal HD, but could I do it? (I put one into a titanium G4 a while back.)
Yes.
2. Any recommendations for a 250GB HD?
There's only one on the market that you can use:
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western%20Digital/WD2500BEVE/
It may be available elsewhere for up to $10 less.
3. Any recommendations for good webcams cheaper than iSight?
Nope — I don't know the first thing about 'em.
4. Any recommendations for external drives that will be adequately powered by my PowerBook?
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MS4U7250GB16/
Connect it via FireWire, not USB.
5. Would I regret doing all of this in a year's time because of my G4's ageing? E.g. the screen is still fine, but is it likely to deteriorate?
It has already deteriorated, as you'd see if you could compare it side-by-side with the way it used to look. That deterioration will continue. How long you'll continue to be happy with it, I can't guess.
To $230 for the two drives, add $100 for 2GB RAM, $130 for Leopard, and something more for a webcam. That's probably at least $500 invested in a 3-year-old Powerbook. It may keep you happy for another couple of years, or it may not. You'll have to decide whether that's preferable to spending 2x-3.5X as much for a refurbed MacBook or MacBook Pro, with a year's warranty and the assurance that it will run the next version of OSX.
Message was edited by: eww
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