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Seen A Good Book Lately?
The Complete and Utter Guide to G3 and G4 PowerBooks
by Remy Davison
Is your PowerBook OS X ready? Don't know which 'Book did what? Wanna get down
and talk dirty about whether that 'Book you saw on ebay is a dog, a turkey or a lemon?
Look no further; you've come to the right place. And we cover iBooks here too, naturally.
One of the most frequently-asked questions in the world of PowerBooks is: what model
is this? What's a Pismo? What's a Kanga? And how the hell do you tell? Over here
at IGM, we're as guilty as anyone, as far as using code names are concerned. But
here, for the first time, is your complete guide to the G3s and G4s. Plus what to
look for and avoid when you're bargain hunting for that perfect 'Book? Ready? Let's
start with the...
PowerBook G3 (Kanga)
A wolf in sheep's clothing, easy to spot. It's got a 250MHz/512K G3 CPU in a
PowerBook 3400 casing. The Kanga has 4 speakers (two above the keyboard, two located
on the top of the display lid. The ADB port is behind a small door on the left. The
G3 is externally distinguishable from the 3400 by the 'G3' moniker on the lower screen
bezel. It's possible a crook could swap a Kanga screen onto a 3400, so check the
model designation on the underneath of the 'Book first. Not completely trusting that,
run Apple's System Profiler to check the CPU and speed.
In 1997, this was Apple's top-spec PowerBook and it comes with all the fruit: internal
modem, 10bT ethernet, 4Mbps IrDA, ADB, serial/LocalTalk, good, large (for the time)
screen, supporting 24-bit color (an industry first, I think, with the 3400), 5.0GB
hard drive (huge for the time) and a decent - in 1997 terms - 160MB RAM limit. Plus
VGA external monitor support, two PC card slots (upgradeable to CardBus) and Zoomed
Video support. All this for only $5,700. A steal. At least, it is now. Good examples
go for $800 - if you can find an owner who'll part with one.
Best OS: 8.6. Not enough RAM to run 9.0.
The Good: Still fast enough G3; decent active matrix screen; full set
of legacy ports; upgradeable to USB and FireWire; expansion bay; batteries cheap-ish.
The Bad: No upgrade (CPU is soldered); not OS X ready; 33k modem; some
users find keyboard klunky; heavy.
The Ugly: Clicker button can break; supports only 800x600; relatively
slow graphics by contemporary standards; very expensive RAM.
Rating: 3.5 Trackpads out of 5
PowerBook G3 Series (Wallstreet/PDQ)
The first of the three-phase 'G3 Series' PowerBooks - its basic design lasted
almost three years. Which, in my opinion, shows how good it was in the first place.
More variants of the Wallstreet were built than any other series. The first were
introduced in May 1998 and provided a choice of three displays and three CPUs. The
Apple Store build-to-order programme meant that you can find virtually endless variations
on the same theme. The first series had 233 (no L2 cache), 250 and 292MHz G3s available.
The two higher-end models had 1MB backside caches for very high performance. The
250 and 292 also ran on an 83MHz system bus - faster than any Mac desktop at the
time. The displays were 12.1", 13.3" or 14.1" active matrix, with
the exception of the 12.1", which was a dual scan. The 12.1" is SVGA and
the 13.3/14.1" models support XGA resolution.
The revised Wallstreets - sometimes called 'PDQ' - were introduced in September 1998
and featured several design refinements. First, the ATI Rage Pro LT replaced the
inferior Rage II, although system VRAM remained at 4MB. Second, the 233MHz model
gained a 512K backside cache for dramatically improved performance. Third, the high-end
models got 266 and 300MHz processors, with all three variants riding on a standardised
66MHz system bus. Finally, a DVD-ROM kit was made available, which can be retro-fitted
to any Wallstreet, including the 12.1" models. Overall, the second series is
a better buy and ROM revisions and detail improvements mean that the 266MHz model
(slightly faster in clock speed but running on a slower bus) launches applications
faster and is generally a bit snappier. A number of examples have been upgraded with
458/466MHz Newer Technology CPU upgrades or 500MHz PowerLogix daughtercard replacements.
Some users have reported RAM timing problems with the PowerLogix upgrades, where
RAM is not recognized if the RAM runs at two different speeds (say, 3-2-2 and 2-2-2).
With the Apple factory CPU installed, this is never a problem, but increasing the
CPU's clock speed may (I stress may) cause problems. If your RAM is
the same speed, you're unlikely to have this problem (way back, both Macs and PCs
had this problem regularly if SIMMs were different speeds or one SIMM was 2-chip
and the other was 4-chip).
A retrograde step was the availability of a 12.1" passive display for the special
233MHz 'economy' model and the floppy module was optional. All other models came
with the superb 14.1" active-matrix screen. The 13.3" display was dropped
from the line-up. All 14.1" models have an S-video for output to a TV or projector.
The Wallstreet can be distinguished externally from its Lombard/Pismo brothers by
checking the ports: Wallstreets all have an HDI-30 SCSI port and legacy ADB and serial/LocalTalk
ports. The Wallstreet also has two CardBus slots. Like the Kanga, Wallstreet can
communicate with any IR-equipped PowerBook or iMac using either the IRTalk or IrDA
protocol.
That said, it's not hard to 'fake' a Wallstreet. The processor daughtercard is removable,
so someone could swap in a lower-powered CPU. TattleTech won't lie to you though.
There's nothing inherently wrong with swapping a processor over, but I've seen 266MHz
models with 300MHz CPUs in them. Theoretically, that's OK, but some people argue
that motherboards are tested to a certain speed and faster CPUs may not necessarily
work reliably with them. The second point here is that let's say you see a 300MHz
model advertised with a 4.0GB hard drive. This might have been the build-to-order
spec, but it's much more likely that a 300MHz Wallstreet left the factory with an
8.0GB hard drive. So negotiate the price down accordingly. If this 300 you're looking
at has only 64MB in the slot, it's a fair bet a 64MB DIMM has been pulled. Don't
get ripped.
Best OS: 8.6 for 233s. 9.1 for the rest.
Good: Dual expansion bays; big screens on most models; upgradeable CPUs;
OS X ready; healthy RAM capacity; legacy connectivity plus support for CardBus FireWire
and CardBus.
Bad: CD-ROM doesn't read CDRW; 12.1" passive is lousy; cacheless G3 not
worth the money unless you're upgrading the CPU.
Ugly: Power connector can work loose from motherboard also damaging sound
card (expensive fix); screen hinge clutches can break (expensive fix; sometimes Apple
fixes it for free, but this appears to be indiscriminately applied and at Apple's
option); 13.3" screen cables suspect (but easily fixable and a lot have been).
Rating: 3 Trackpads out of 5 for cacheless 233; 3.5 for the 12" models.
4 for the rest.
PowerBook G3 Series Bronze (Lombard)
This model loses almost two pounds and is a lot thinner than Wallstreet, so it's
easy to tell the two apart. Take a walk around the back, pop open the port door and
if you see two USB ports and a SCSI port, it's a Lombard all right. There are no
ADB or serial ports. Detail changes include an external Apple logo on the display
lid which lights up, and a white Apple logo on the upper screen bezel instead of
the traditional six-color Apple trademark.
Two variants of the Lombard exist, neither of which you can tell apart merely by
looking. The first runs at 333MHz, has a 512K L2 cache anda CD ROM drive. The premium
model spins at 400MHz/1MB and a DVD-ROM drive replaces the CD ROM. It also has an
MPEG-2 decoder on the motherboard so you can watch DVD movies. All Lombards have
14.1" active-matrix displays (supporting XGA, but also lower resolutions, such
as 800x600 and 640x480), S-video out, 8MB VRAM on an ATI Rage Pro LT graphics card
(the same card as the Wallstreet II with double the VRAM). This better version of
the ATI card also lets you run Lombard attached to an external monitor with the lid
closed, as well as supporting multiple resolutions on internal/external monitors
simultaneously. It also reintroduces 'virtual desktops' - something not seen since
the PowerBook 5300 (Wallstreet can do mirror mode only) Lombard also introduced the
'bronze' keyboard, with bronze highlights also present in the mouse clicker, power
button, display latch and expansion bays. The keyboard is identical to the iBook's
(which is white) and the Pismo's. It cannot be swapped for a Wallstreet keyboard.
Like Wallstreets, Lombards can be 'faked'. A 400MHz CPU can be placed in a 333MHz
model and build-to-order 400s could have their DVD drives exchanged for a CD-ROM
unit (rare, but possible). Test playing a DVD disc in a 400 is one way to tell. All
Lombards also read CDRWs. Most 333s and 400s came with 4.0 or 6.0GB drives, although
a 12GB hard disc was an option. Late production 333 Lombards came with 4.6GB drives.
It'll also take 512MB RAM.
Some Lombards have had the short-lived 466MHz/1MB Newer Technology G3 CPU upgrade
installed, but these are very scarce since Newer has gone to the wall. While it's
not particularly likely to happen, note there's no warranty on the work done on this
item any longer. Look for the forthcoming Powerlogix upgrades for the Lombard (up
to 500MHz).
Unlike the Wallstreet, the Lombard sports only one CardBus slot, but this means you
can add FireWire, Zoomed Video or an Ultra SCSI card. The 400MHz model still holds
its value today and its speed is roughly comparable with the 400MHz Pismo and Titanium
400 when using general-purpose applications.
Some revisions were also made to the expansion bays. First, Wallstreet modules won't
work as the newer bays are much thinner. The left bay can only take a battery; unlike
the Wallstreet, there is no device connector for a 3.5" module. Speaking of
batteries, the Lombards run 5 hour LiIONs versus 3.5 hour on the Wallstreet.
Connectivity is improved by adding 100bT ethernet to the motherboard, while the IR
port talks 4Mbps IrDA exclusively. Internal drive controller performance is improved
considerably, incorporating UATA-33 and supporting PIO-4 mode (16.6MBps data transfer).
Faster replacement drives will see significant performance gains with this controller
- something you won't see with a Wallstreet.
Some isolated instances of the Lombard display clutch problem have emerged, although
it's unclear whether this is an issue as it is on Wallstreet. My personal experience
is that the problem is certainly not endemic to either the Wallstreet or Lombard.
Best OS: 9.1
Good: Hardware DVD on 400; pretty thin and light; good battery life;
improved video support; on-board USB; 100bT ethernet; 14.1" TFT standard; supports
myriad of expansion bay modules; still fast enough for most tasks.
Bad: FireWire requires CardBus card; only one CardBus slot; one storage bay
only.
Ugly: More fragile design than Wallstreet; 333 model requires expensive kit
for DVD.
Rating: 4 Trackpads out of 5 for the 333; 4.5 for the 400.
PowerBook G3 Series FireWire (Pismo)
Externally, the Pismo is almost identical to the Lombard. If you're sharp-eyed, you'll
notice the monikor now just reads 'PowerBook'. Look a bit more closely and you'll
see the two FireWire ports out the back. Other than pulling off the keyboard or loading
up some graphics applications, you'd never know the difference.
Like the Lombard, the Pismo comes in two models, although the Pismo was revised
in September 2000. Both revisions came in 400 and 500MHz flavors, both of which were
equipped with 1MB L2 caches. The February-September 'Books came with 6 and 12GB hard
drives (18GB Built-to-Order), while the last production run featured 10 and 20GB
(30 BTO) HDs and iMovie 2.0 was bundled into the software package
The guts of the Pismo, while superficially similar to those of the Lombard, are
revised considerably to accommodate fairly significant performance improvements.
Number one is the system bus, which is boosted to 100MHz (up from 66MHz), which means
you must use PC-100 SO-DIMMs in the Pismo (luckily, these are practically all everyone
sells now) It maxes out at 1.0GB. Second, Pismo gets a Rage 128 graphics card, giving
you better frame rates with 3D games and generally better system-wide video performance.
The third major refinement was the addition of two 400Mbps FireWire ports, replacing
the venerable HDI-30 SCSI port. The FireWire ports support FireWire Target Mode,
allowing you to make very fast data transfers between G3/G4 desktops, iMac/iBook
(FireWire) and other FireWire PowerBooks. Cool, hey?
An important but little-known fact about the Pismo is that it was fitted out with
two variants of the DVD-ROM drive. If you work with DVD-RAM disks on your G4, this
is important. One of the drives reads DVD-RAM; the other can't. If you want a Pismo
that does, you need one with DVD-ROM model SR-8174. You'll need Apple System Profiler
to figure this one out: under the 'Devices and Volumes' tab under the 'Expansion
Bay' bit, you'll see 'Matshita' and 'Product ID: DVD-ROM SR-8174'. This is the one
you want.
Best OS: 9.1
Good: On-board FireWire; DVD standard; fast memory bus; better graphics
card; huge RAM capacity; media bay modules and batteries swappable with Lombard
Bad: Still may be slightly fragile; still only 1 CardBus slot; no support
for display resolutions larger than 1024x768; screen may be limited for color-critical
work; iBook power adapter is awkwardly large.
Ugly: Nothing really ugly about this one.
Rating: 5 Trackpads out of 5. No kidding.
PowerBook G4 (Titanium)
Ah, the latest and greatest. No prizes for figuring which PowerBook's the Titanium.
If you've never heard of a Titanium, where've you been living since January? In Redmond?
Apple's flagship received a dramatic makeover at MacWorld San Franscisco: a stunning
Titanium skin wrapped around a spectacular 15.2" display. But that's not all.
Titanium finally gets the long-awaited G4 CPU, running at 400 or 500MHz. It's also
easily distinguished (if you haven't figured it out already) by its slot-loading
DVD drive. Titanium also comes with a 10 or 20GB hard drive, 128 or 256MB of RAM
and a real, live 5 hour battery.
To be brutally honest though, other than these features, it's all very familiar Pismo
territory when you delve into its guts. Same video card. Same basic motherboard design.
Same USB and FireWire controllers. Still takes 1.0GB of RAM. Actually, the speakers
are a step backward though; the Titanium case, being only 1" thick, can't quite
accommodate speakers the same height as the Lombard/Pismo. As a result, there's a
minor degradation in sound quality. The keyboard's probably an improvement, but keyboard
feel's such a subjective thing that I never really comment on it (case in point:
sometimes I like typing on the Wallstreet; other days I prefer the Lombard.
OK. Yes, there are other new ingredients in the Titanium mix. The really important
bits are underneath. Battery case, access to internals, Airport card and so on. The
absence of media bay latches, à la iBook (a genuine Steve-ism), means no more
snagging it on your clothes and accidentally ejecting a DVD drive or a battery.
In fact, you'll never eject a DVD drive again. Or a DVD disc, if you're really creative.
Yes, Version 1.0 of the Pismo has had some issues, but this is never entirely unexpected
with the first model in a series. Some documented problems have cropped up: battery
not fitted tightly enough; DVD-ROMs scraping or proving difficult to eject; Airport
signal not as strong as it's tougher to pierce Titanium; screen lid possibly fragile;
paint may scratch easily.
Let me stress these are potential issues; most users experience none
of these problems. 12 and 24 months ago, everyone complained that Pismo and Lombard
keyboards left marks on the screens. True, but no one I've heard of has suffered
component failure because of it. Keycaps came off these two models (and iBooks too
- mainly the 'Dubya', for some reason), but these are easily replaceable. So don't
pass on a Titan because of teething troubles; that's what the warranty's for.
The big plus is that the Titanium's G4 will take advantage of AltiVec-aware applications
- and there'll be more and more of these as applications move rapidly to OS X. For
those not using Final Cut Pro, iMovie or Photoshop, you won't find huge performance
gains if you've made the leap from Pismo to Titanium. But you will enjoy a
Cinema-display quality screen and a slightly lighter 'Book (5.3lbs).
My big beef is the lack of removable media bays on the Titanium. But last week, MCE went a long way towards solving that problem
by releasing their FireWire bay. Yes, all your Lombard/Pismo expansion bay modules
(CDRW, Zip, SuperDisk, hard drives) can now slot neatly into an external drive bay
which hot plugs into your Titan's FireWire port. Great idea. They deserve to sell
a boatload of them.
Best OS: 9.1/OS X.
The Good: Superb large display; light; thin; excellent battery life; G4 CPU;
casing gathers a crowd.
The Bad: No removable media bay; no support for dual batteries; still has
iBook adapter.
The Ugly: Possible quality control issues.
Rating: 4.5 Trackpads out of 5 (Go on - flame me. I dare you ;-)
iBook 300/366 (Rev.A)
It's easy to distinguish most iBooks from another - the color. Blueberry and
Tangerine denote the original iBook series launched in 1999. Both came with 300MHz
G3 processors, 512K cache and a single USB port. They also had paltry 3.2GB hard
drives and only 32MB RAM. These models fetch a lot less than the later ones. But
they're still a good buy for someone who wants a general purpose notebook. Of course,
their big-news feature was Airport. But they also sport a bright, good-quality 12.1"
active matrix screen. Plus an industry-leading six-hour battery.
Apple refreshed the line up in early 2000 with the release of the Graphite-only
iBook SE/366. All models got decent hard drives and base RAM (6.0GB; 64MB). Note
that early (32/3.2GB) original iBooks do not support more than 160MB of RAM.
Revised Rev.A iBooks accommodate up to 320MB. They also inherited Wallstreet's 4MB
ATI Rage Pro LT (a very good card for a consumer notebook at the time).
No real quality problems have emerged with the iBooks, as far as I know. Some keyboards
on early models had problems (some even broke), but these would've all been fixed
under warranty.
User serviceability on the iBooks is limited, unless you're very handy with the screwdriver.
You need to take the 'Book apart and remove 30 screws before you get within a bull's
roar of the hard drive. RAM and Airport cards are really the only user-replaceable
parts.
Don't expect to expand an original iBook much though. While a CD-ROM's standard,
there's only one USB port sitting alongside a 56K modem and a 10/100bT ethernet port.
So your only option is USB peripherals. No video out. No FireWire. But they're cheap.
And they're good value.
Best OS: 8.6-9.1 (note that original iBooks came with a special edition
of 8.6, sometimes known as 8.6.1).
Good: Very tough - can take a lot of abuse; good screen; outstanding battery
life; solid performer; adequate hard drive and RAM capacity; cheap way to go wireless
networking or surfing; comes in colors.
Bad: Limited expandability; no FireWire; heavy.
Ugly: Stuck with USB 1.1 for the rest of its life.
Rating: 3.5 Trackpads out of 5.
iBook 366/466 (Rev.B)
Ah, that's better. Take the original (good) iBook design, freshen up the colors
(Indigo and Lime, plus good old Graphite), add FireWire, video out and 10 gigs of
drive space and what've you got? A cheap portable video editing suite, that's
what. Or the iBook Rev.B. Take your pick.
That's not all. You also get decent speed bumps on both models and the SE 466 features
a DVD-ROM drive. Plus the base iBook's a hundred bucks cheaper. So what're you complaining
about? It also gets a much better video card - the 8MB ATI Rage 128, used on the
current Titanium (and the Pismo)
The FireWire port's the best way to distinguish the new models from the old. But,
more importantly, FireWire gives you a vast stack of peripheral options (CDRW, fast
Jaz or hard drives - see this
article for more). DV cameras plug right in. Scanners, webcams, printers with
FireWire are here and more will come.
The RAM capacity's still 320MB, but this is easily and cheaply done right now (and
probably more than you'll need). The display's good for most general-purpose tasks.
The video out port supports composite video (TVs and projectors only).
But it's a very good buy. The SE/466's nearly a thousand bucks less than the PowerBook
G4/400 and still offers plenty of performance. Not a Pro's portable by any means,
but I'm a PowerBook snob, so take that comment with a grain of salt.
Best OS: 9.1
Good: Healthy performance; excellent value for money; tough; FireWire; video
out support; OS X ready.
Bad: No VGA support, expansion bays, CardBus (what'd you expect?); display
can be limiting; not processor upgradeable.
Ugly: Absence of standard Pro features compared with low-end Wintel laptops.
Rating: 4 Trackpads out of 5 for the 366; 4.5 for the 466.
Now you know. So hit that on-line shopping mall and start trawling around for
the best 'Book in your budget. Bluff. Bargain. Haggle. At least now you won't buy
a turkey. Will you?
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