Need for speed: Cracking open a PowerBook 17

By Ken Mingis

February 17, 2004 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - OK, I admit it. When it comes to computers, I'm pretty much all about speed. If I can get the latest and fastest (insert Apple product here), I will. A year ago, that meant snagging one of the first 1-GHz PowerBook G4 17-in. models. These days, it means buying the updated 1.33-GHz PowerBook 17. Price: $2,999.
I was lucky enough to get one of the first of the first-generation 1-GHz models last March, gladly picking it up at a local Apple store when they finally hit the market (see story). It was and remains an excellent, trouble-free laptop. But after Apple Computer Inc. bumped the processor speed on the PowerBook to 1.33 GHz last fall, it was no longer king of the laptop hill.
So just before Thanksgiving, I moved to the newer model, ordering a stock configuration with the 4,200-rpm 80GB hard drive. Although Apple offers a faster hard drive on its PowerBook (a 60GB 5,400-rpm version), I was already eyeing an even faster 7,200-rpm alternative from Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, better known as the Travelstar 7K60. I'd read reports online from owners who had cracked open their PowerBooks and, with the precision of surgeons, replaced the stock hard drive with the faster one from Hitachi. All reported notable speed increases, solid performance, little if any increase in heat and silent performance.
It meant giving up 20GB of storage space, a trade I was willing to make.
Those helpful PowerBook owners pointed to Kodawarisan's Web site (in Japanese), where step-by-step instructions (with pictures) lay out how to do the exchange. Since the operation is no longer considered a user-replaceable move by Apple, you risk voiding your warranty if you cause any damage to the inner workings of your PowerBook while you're under the hood.
Do I read Japanese? No. But you can use AltaVista.com's Babel Fish service to translate the text, and the pictures themselves give you a good idea of what's in store. Most said the job could be done, if you're patient and careful, in 45 minutes to an hour.
To be on the safe side, I also found a service manual online detailing how to open up the PowerBook 17. It came in very handy, since it offered a slightly different method for doing the job. And it had pictures.


The Powerbook 17 before the hard drive replacement. That's the new drive sitting above where the old one is.

Having replaced a couple of hard drives in Apple's previous-generation Titanium PowerBooks, I figured I could handle

Recommend Digg Twitter ShareThis

Email Print Send Feedback Reprints

Additional Resources

POLL RESULTS

Leading IT Pros Weigh In on Top IT Issues

Accelerate your knowledge of the IT world you inhabit by viewing the results of a series of polls taken by your IT peers. These polls of 100+ IT professionals each are available for full viewing. They cover key topics such as virtualization, processor performance, green IT, cloud computing and many others. Be a part of the buzz.

WHITE PAPER

For Best Results, Think Beyond the Box

Technology is complex. Keeping it running productively shouldn't be. To that end, you want to minimize the number of solutions needed in-house to simplify operations, maintenance, and support. Kodak offers a best-practices model. One company provides support for both scanner and software, for fast problem resolution without vendor finger-pointing. Download now!

WHITE PAPER

Accelerating the Path to Demand Intelligence with a Demand Signal Repository

Utilizing demand intelligence improves the precision of pricing, product assortments, channel/store placement, and promotion, which are all essential for sustainable revenue management performance. Learn more, download this free whitepaper today.

White Papers & Webcasts

Ponemon Study: The Business Risk of Lost Laptops
Employees can access and store enormous amounts of confidential data on your organization's laptops, leaving your company vulnerable to substantial business risk when...

How Computrace Tracks and Secures Laptops
(Source: Absolute Software) View this flash demo to see Absolute in action. No matter where computers are connected, you can monitor installed software/hardware,...

Airport Insecurity: The Case of Lost Laptops
(Source: Dell) Business travelers lose more than 12,000 laptops each week in U.S. airports, yet most admit they don't take steps to protect...

Managing Laptops Outside the Office
(Source: Absolute Software) In this webinar, learn how you can reduce costs by tracking mobile computers no matter where they are located. Featuring...

Success Story: Allina Hospitals & Clinics
(Source: Absolute Software) With an electronic health record system spanning 11 hospitals, Allina required a way to protect 2,700 laptops. Using Computrace, Allina...

Strategic ECM Webinar
Learn what new strategic business benefits can be realized through ECM!...

Success Story: Grant Thornton LLP
(Source: Absolute Software) Grant Thornton needed to reduce computer loss rates and streamline IT asset management across 49 offices. The company used Computrace...

Managing And Protecting Your Ever Increasing Mobile Assets
Learn best practices for desktop and application virtualization, computer security, and computer life-cycle management....

Secure Mobility with Absolute Software
(Source: Absolute Software) Absolute Software allows you to centrally manage computers and mobile devices via any internet connection. In this product overview, learn...

5 Architecture Issues that Impact BES performance
This Live webinar will identify critical log file errors, performance counters, and configurations to pay close attention to when optimizing BES server performance....

All White Papers | All Webcasts