well, i'm still considering a new laptop, and i'm leaning toward the pismo because of how cheap it is and how easy it is to upgrade compared to a tibook dvi. i'm looking at the powerlogix g3 900 and 1ghz processors right now and am wondering how practical these are. i'm assuming that they work normally with little modification to the heatsink and won't overheat ofen. correct?
i'm also thinking of a 60gb hard drive. preferably something that's really fast since i've noticed that the slow hard drives in my ibook and wallstreet just aren't enough for me. anyone know a good pismo-compatible drive that won't affect the sleep switch in the keyboard?
...but those PowerLogix processor upgrades were short lived. Lot's of issues. I believe a 550MHz 7410 is the best you can do these days.
you're going to spend, the performance you'll end up with out of a dvi tibook will smoke an upgraded pismo all day long. Yeah, the tibooks are more fragile and less upgradable, but they are faster computers hands down. Couple that with the fact that it will hold its value longer than an upgraded 6 year old machine, and the argument for a pismo seems a bit dated. The only thing the pismo really has going for it these days is battery life, if you can find good batteries or spend the money on new or refurbs.
i agree in the fact that the pismo is dated. i do think, however, that with teh right upgrades, the pismo will do what i need it to do which is to just be able to run ichat, safari, and itunes at once witht the possibility of another application or two going at once. fast hard drive and more ram seem sufficient for me since my 933 ibook freezes all the time from lack of memory. i think my major reason for getting a pismo is the fact that i will destroy any laptop that comes my way. two parts already broke on my wallstreet but it still works thank god. as for my ibook.....well the case is destroyed and the hinge is going fast. battery's already long gone after just two years compared to the 7 year old batteries in my wallstreet just now starting to go. i thought the pismo would be better for the sake of toughness, and i'm not interested in lugging around a 15" computer all day. the 14" ibook is enough for me if not too much already.
edit: i asked about the processor upgrades since i wanted to know what people thought of them. i wasn't sure if they'd be too hot or unstable. so that question is answered.
i will chime in here about speed. my lombard is basically a pismo with out a firewire port and i have to say, its painfully slow doing anything except OS 9. i think it would be a good idea to start with somthing a little newer. i mean yea, the minimum specs for OS X are there but you wouldnt be happy with it if your remotly impatient as i am.
i dont want to buy a $90 bottom case for the albook that was offered to me and then dismantle the entire machine to fix it. i dont know what to get if not the pismo. my budget is rather limited and id be very lucky to find a tibook within it, but knowing me id probably snap the hinges the first week owning it.
I'm a bit confused as to why you'd want a Pismo if you already have a 933Mhz iBook. That's a G4, isn't it? In which case you can expand it to 1.1gb of RAM, which is more then a Pismo will take, so if RAM is your reason for switching that's out the window. (Apple only "rated" the iBook G4 for 512MB DDR-SODIMMs, but there's copious documentation of the fact they work fine with 1GB DIMMs, and you can buy one from many a vendor listed on ramseeker.com for about $100.) Your iBook will *smoke* an upgraded Pismo in every respect speedwise.
(Remember that the video card in Pismo's doesn't support Quartz Extreme. And you'll *also* lose USB 2.0. And Airport Extreme, for that matter. I suppose you can buy a PCMCIA card for one or the other, but none the less...)
As for getting a Pismo for "toughness", don't go there. They're tougher then Titaniums, but everything is tougher then Titaniums. They blow their screen hinges just like every other Mac laptop, and their bodies (except possibly their keyboards) are weaker in most respect then an iBook's as well.
--Peace
Replacing the bottom case on a 15" AiBook isn't too bad if you've ever worked on a PowerBook's innards before. If you need help, I'll be more than happy to assist. My job is repairing iBook G4's and PowerBook G4 Ai 15 inchers. I used to have an iBook, then migrated to the 15" AiBook after seeing how nice they were to work on.
well for my ibook....i despise the machine. the battery has since died though it's only two years old, and just tapping the screen turns off the backlight since the cable is ripped or something. this is from regular use on my part! i also desperately need to get a computer that isn't white since i'm a designer by nature and sketch all the time. the keyboard and wrist rests have become gray from this.
i've never worked the innards of a mac before except for having popped the hard drive out of my wallstreet once. i'm just not interested in taking off so many screws from the albook to do what i need to. so if the pismo is too slow, and the tibook too weak, what can i get that performs well (with hard drive & ram upgrades since i do movies in music) and won't tear apart in a month for $500 or less? available processor upgrade would be nice, but i think the hard drive and ram will be the first to go. i need lots of memory for what i do with computers.
Durable, cheap, high-performance. I'd say you're going to have to pick two of those requirements to satisfy, because you're not getting all of them.
durable, cheap: Pismo
(reasonably) cheap, (decent) performance: (550Mhz or better) Titanium
durable, high-performance: A 15" or better Aluminum powerbook
Perhaps you should consider a used Dell D600. They're fast, light, can take 2GB of RAM, the hard disk slides out with one screw, are a nice neutral bronze color, and I've seen one survive a four-foot bounce off a server room floor with just a benzel popping off.
Wait, that's not a Macintosh. Never mind. Apple doesn't make computers like that.
--Peace
i'm about ready to switch to pc. x86 came to ming, but finding supported systems is too much a headache. i'm leaning to tibook for performance if i'm lucky with price. i know how to keep the hinges from snapping too. pismo is stronger though. both are easy to upgrade so i think i'll go with the tibook if i find one for a good price. that'll take a lot of luck though.