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Outfitting Your G3-Powered PowerBook 1400
August 28, 2000
by Stephen Hildreth
Editor-in-Chief
A G3-powered PowerBook 1400 is a nice alternative to the current PowerBook G3's and iBook's for those on a budget or for those who simply want a more portable portable. Before its introduction, it was hoped, or even assumed, that the iBook would fill the needs for those who needed something equally powerful, but more portable, than a PowerBook G3. As it turned out, the iBook was unique in its design, but why Apple chose to make a consumer laptop with a 12.1" display slightly larger than their professional laptops is a mystery to me. For under $1000 (see our previous editorial, "How to get a G3 PowerBook for under $1000"), you can set yourself up with a PowerBook 1400 with a 333MHz or 400MHz G3 processor and a laptop which is nearly as powerful and much more portable than Apple's current offerings. On the downside, you'll have to sacrifice such goodies as abundant RAM (the 1400 tops out at 64MB), CardBus PC card slots, and USB & Firewire ports. Let's take a look at some of the things you can do to remedy those problems and outfit your 1400 so that it competes on nearly equal ground to the iBook or low-end PowerBook G3.
The very first thing you should do with a 1400, unless you're in dire need of hard drive space, is max out the RAM. The 1400 has two RAM slots which can accomodate a total of 64MB of RAM. Unfortunately, that's all it'll take, and this is the most glaring fault with the 1400. Your only options to increase the amount of available RAM beyond 64MB are through the use of virtual memory (in the memory control panel) or Connectix's RAM Doubler. RAM Doubler is an acceptable solution if you don't plan on using hard-hitting, memory-intensive applications like Photoshop 5. It effectively triples the amount of available memory without using hard drive space or battery juice. A quick scan of Ramseeker and The PowerBook Source reveals that it shouldn't cost you more than about $150 to max out your memory, depending on the original amount, and Connectix recently dropped the price on RAM Doubler 9 to $29.
The PowerBook 1400 shipped from the factory with 750MB, 1.0GB, 1.3GB, or 2.0GB 2.5" ATA hard drives. In today's world, that space will fill up pretty quickly. The hard drive in the 1400 is nearly as easy to replace as adding more RAM, thanks to its design. MCE PowerBook Products offers three sizes of MobileStor hard drives to replace the original one in your 1400. They come in 6GB, 12GB, and 18GB sizes with prices that range from $189 to $349. MCE does a great job providing support in the form of detailed instructions, mounting brackets, a grounding wrist strap, essential tools, and more. If you get stuck part way through the installation, they're happy to answer your questions on the phone.
An internal slot accepts video-out upgrade cards as well as Ethernet cards. Apple offered an 8-bit video-out card capable of displaying 800x600 resolution on an external monitor, while Newer Technology produced a 16-bit card. Both products have been discontinued, but you may be able to find a used one on the market, as well as a used Ethernet card.
Without a CardBus PC card slot, the PowerBook 1400 is not able to use 32-bit enabled PC cards, such as the current Firewire, USB, Ultra-SCSI, and video PC cards. If you know of a SCSI or serial adapter that will allow the use of USB or Firewire with a PowerBook 1400, please let us know. The PC card slots do, however, accept current Ethernet and 56k modem PC cards.
On the aesthetics side of things, several bookcovers are still available for the PowerBook 1400. BookWares sells leather and redwoord burl covers in prices that range from $30 to $125. Keep It Simple Systems (now Powerexperts) made a solar panel bookcover which extended the life of the battery by about 20%.
Apple will not officially support Mac OS X on the PowerBook 1400. However, that doesn't mean that some folks won't figure out how to install it. But with only 64MB of available RAM, it probably won't make a lot of sense to run OS X on a 1400. At the very least, it'll probably be very slow. Perhaps the ideal OS for the 1400 is Mac OS 8.6 - it's stable and doesn't use a tremendous amount of RAM. Mac OS 9 will run on a 1400, but it uses more RAM, and unless you really need some of its features, it isn't worth the upgrade from 8.6.
Will we see a G4 processor upgrade for the 1400? Probably. Companies like Sonnet continue to hammer out G3 upgrades for the 1400, and we see no reason why they wouldn't continue with a G4 upgrade when it becomes available. There will undoubtedly be a market. The 1400's lack of support for RAM and its slower 32-bit, 33MHz bus, internal architecture are really the only two reasons to question the economics of purchasing such an upgrade. However, until Apple decides to produce a portable, the dimensions and weight of which fall closer to that of the old 2400c, many folks will continue to rely upon their PowerBook 1400's.
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Stephen Hildreth has been the Editor-in-Chief of PowerBook Central since its inception in 1996. When not working on his Mac, he shares his love of the outdoors with his family and can be found biking, snow skiing, or educating students on the internal & external processes of our planet.
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