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Why I'm Getting One More Power PC PowerBook - Plus PowerBook Mystique Mailbag

by Charles W. Moore

I've finally made my system upgrade move -- ordering a refurbished 17-inch 1.33 GHz PowerBook from TechRestore in Concord, California. I had flirted with the idea of making the big leap to a MacBook Pro, but a constellation of factors and issues ultimately persuaded me that one more Power PC 'Book really was the sensible choice at this time. At least for me.

The clinchers are backwards compatibility and performance running my library of Power PC native applications, and Classic Mode support. It will be years before I'm completely switched over to Universal Binary or Intel-native software, and in the meantime, Rosetta emulation doesn't sound all that scintillating. Various benchmarks that I've scanned put it at maybe 70 percent of what you would get from a 1.5 GHz or 1.67 GHz PowerBook, or at the level of a 1.25 GHz G4 'Book, so the 1.33 GHz Big Al should give me about the same real-world punch, or probably a little better, than I would get running my legacy software on a MacBook Pro, for substantially less money.

I'm also not ready to happily give up on Classic Mode support (and I'm going to miss OS 9.2.2 dual-booting even on the AlBook), although that might have been possible to swallow had it been the only sticking point. I don't use Classic Mode intensely, but I do start it up pretty much every day, and there is no satisfactory text-only Web browser for OS X to take over from WannaBe, which is a lifesaver for doing research on a slow dial-up connection, which is what I am stuck with here.

Which segues me to the matter of the MacBook Pro having no internal modem. Apple will of course be happy to sell you one of their external USB modems, but that adds, in my case, another Can$60 plus tax to the price, and eats up another USB port. In my production setup, I already have the two USB ports on the computer plus all four in a hub occupied and am obliged to frequently do port juggling, so that's an issue for me.

Then there's the version 1.0 caveat. It is to be hoped that there will be no major reliability issues and problem areas with the MacBooks, but issues can be anticipated, and so far early adopters are experiencing ones like poor-quality sound output, and something that causes a loud hum or whine in some of the first machines delivered according to reports in reviews and on the forums. At least one MacBook Pro customer received his 2.16 gigabyte machine dead on arrival, and will have to wait nearly a month for a replacement. I can live without that sort of aggravation and hassle. I'm confident that the bugs will be ironed out, and that Intel-based Apple laptops will eventually be up to the reliability standard one is accustomed to expect, but it will probably take a generation or two of engineering and quality control development before that is realized.

In the meantime, I need a faster computer than me 700 MHz G3 iBook and 550 MHz G4 upgraded Pismo PowerBook that have served me so well for the past 4 1/2 years. Both machines have been superb tools and very reliable, but they are just too slow to handle my demands adequately anymore. Consequently, I decided that a 17-inch PowerBook would be just about right.

I've wanted one ever since Steve Jobs unveiled them in January, 2004. Having been a a longtime advocate of the "desktop laptop" for folks like me who use their books primarily in desktop substitute mode, the 17-inch PowerBook comes closer than anything Apple has built so far in that context. As I wrote in my initial report on the 17" PowerBook introduction:

"Apple's fantastic new 17" G4 PowerBook laptop has essentially eliminated any rationale other than lower cost for owning a desktop computer for most of Mac-users. With that big screen, more speed than any but the fastest desktop Macs, and an inventory of features undreamed of even in high-end desktops only a couple of years ago, this PowerBook can definitely be "the computer to have when you're only having one" with no excuses necessary."

The drawback was of course price. The original 17" PowerBook sold for Can$5,299.00, and the 1.33 GHz 17-inch PowerBook for Can$4,289.00 here in Canada, or about three times as much as a 12-inch G4 iBook, and I just could not rationalize spending that much for a computer.

However, TechRestore is offering refurbished 1.33 GHz 17-inchers for US$1499.00, with a six-month warranty and a 30-day, no-questions-asked return policy. That's still 50 percent more than a brand new G4 iBook with the same processor speed, so I don't see it as a slam-dunk, no-brainer in practical, economic considerations, but it seemed like an opportunity to get my hands on on other top of the line PowerBook (my Pismo was also a high- end model purchased used) at a relatively affordable price. A friend of mine just got back from a trip to the US with a new 1.33 GHz iBook, so it will be interesting to compare notes on our respective experiences.

I found Shannon Jean and his staff at TechRestore friendly, efficient, and prompt at answering my questions, and they got the machine out the door within hours of my placing the order, after which it made it from California to Halifax, Canada (about 150 miles from here) in approximately 21 hours by DRG, for a modest shipping charge of US$20. Clearing Canadian customs will take somewhat longer than that, but TechRestore's service has been nothing short of excellent.

I also decided to splurge a bit and order an extra 1 GB RAM upgrade, bringing the total memory up to 1.5 GB. The 640 MB I have in both the Pismo and iBook is simply inadequate for my usage in OS X, and I'm really looking forward to finally having adequate RAM capacity.

Other than that, the 1.33 GHz BigAl's standard configuration should be more than adequate for my needs - 60 gigabyte hard drive, SuperDrive, RADEON 9600 video card with 64 megabytes of video RAM, gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth, integrated Airport wireless, USB 2.0, that big, glorious 17-inch 1440-by-900 display, backlit keyboard, and yes, an internal 56k modem.

At 1.33 GHz, this machine is only twenty percent slower than the current new 17-inchers Apple is selling, and should be faster than a new iBook thanks to its 167 MHz system bus and twice as much video RAM, representing a quantum leap compared with my 700 MHz G3.

According to the rumoristas, Apple is likely to release a 17-inch MacBook Pro in June, or perhaps even earlier, and it should be an awesome piece of equipment, but priced accordingly of course. For me, I'm anticipating that 1.33 GHz machine will be awesome enough to satisfy me for a while without breaking the bank. I await its arrival impatiently.

PowerBook Mystique Mailbag

Pismo USB 2.0 support

From Nancy

Hello, Charles,

I read your article about upgrading your Pismo laptop with great interest since I own a Pismo too.

Thanks for all of the information and good advice.

But I have a question for you. I'd like to upgrade from USB 1.1 to USB 2.0 but have not found a way to do that. I ordered an IOGear PCMCIA card which offers USB 2.0 ports but it didn't show up in my menu bar or profiler, so I can't unmount my x-drive properly when using it. Therefore I returned it. They had no driver for OS 10.2.8 and I'm sure they won't be making one. Do you know of any other card that offers USB 2.0 for Pismo (apres OS 10.2) that will show connected devices? I have a burner and an x-drive that connect by USB and would be nice to have that USB 2.0 power.

Thanks for any info, if you will.

Sincerely,

Nancy

Hope this helps,
Charles

CM