Modifying Powerbooks? RAM, Hard drive? Worth it?

Question

Hi everyone!!
Basically I have a Powerbook G4, 12" that I bought new when it came out. So is about 3-4 years old i'd say, can't remember exactly - and I've had to previously replace the CD-RW/DVD drive a year after the warranty ran out.
My dilemma is that I want a faster mac, but don't really have the cash to buy a new one. I was wondering how you go about improving things like speed, i'm presuming thats RAM? And also increasing my hard drive,as my mac is infuriatingly slow at times. So is it worth the time, effort and money changing all these things, like how would it cost? Or should a buy a new one either macbook or pro?
I hope i've explained it! Plus the **** keys are coming off it argh - to date i've lost Q,O,G,H, you don't realise how many words have an 'O' until you lose it!! haha
Thanks in advance for your help
Tday - mac goddess

Answer 1

Wow - you're running CS and Tiger in 256mb - no wonder you see things slow down. Looking at your page ins/outs, if page outs are greater than 3163 (10% of page ins), you can use more memory for what you run. In your case, page outs are greater than 3163, so you can use more memory.
Apple says the max memory capacity in your system is 640MB, which you'd get by adding 512MB (128MB are already on the logic board). So, for example, adding 512MB of memory would cost, from Crucial £30 with VAT. Crucial's UK web site is at http://www.crucial.com/uk/ . To see how to change the memory, see http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/PowerBook-G4-Al-12-Inch/RAM/53/2 .
Replacing the internal hard drive is not difficult, but it is technically tedious. You can also view how to do that at the ifixit.com site. You'd probably want to pay someone to do that. You can find an Apple Authorized Service Provider at http://www.apple.com/uk/buy/locator/ . I'd recommend not having an Apple store do the upgrade, as they typically keep your old hard drive. An Apple Authorized Service Provider could do the upgrade for you, instead of an Apple store. In this case, you could have a faster drive installed internally, then put your existing hard drive in an external case and use it to backup files.
Another option would be to not upgrade your internal drive, rather, buy a fast external drive, and use that as your primary drive. It would have to have a firewire 400 connection, so you could boot your system from it. An example of what you could use can be seen at http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go where a 60GB to 80GB 7200rpm drive costs around $135-$140 (about £70). Doesn't have to be physically larger, and some external drives are larger (especially if they use a 3.5" drive inside). If you go this route, your existing internal drive could then become your backup drive.
Many vendors offer external drives, so you can find something locally (OWC does ship worldwide, if you ordered from them). While there are various chipsets in the external drives, if they use any of the Oxford chipsets, they'll work fine with your mac. When you buy an external drive from one of the hard drive vendors, like Western Digital or Seagate, they don't specify a chipset, however, they do say they work with a mac.
So you can spend £30 on memory and £70 on an external hard drive (or around £40 for an internal hard drive and perhaps another £40? for someone to install it) to spruce up your system. I haven't seen Leopard specs yet, however, as Network 23 pointed out, if the 867Mhz CPU is gating your system performance, the fix is a new system, and you probably already know that Macbooks start at £699.
Oh, and on the keys, have you contacted your local Apple store to see if they can replace them?
A bit of a lengthy response - please post back with any other questions.