Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Miscellaneous Ramblings

PowerBook 1400: A Very Likable Legacy 'Book

Charles Moore - 2002.05.20 - Tip Jar

I spent much of last weekend setting up my daughter's "new" PowerBook 1400cs/117, which we picked up for the friendly price of Can$225 (about US$120), complete with CD-ROM and floppy drive modules, a Megahertz YJA3288 28.8 Kbps PC Card modem, and 36 MB of RAM.

Deirdre has been wanting a color PowerBook to replace her faithful, but ancient and slow. PowerBook 5300, and a bit more speed isn't unwelcome either, although 17 MHz is not a major jump in that category. What she would really like to have is a dual-USB iBook, but for now, the 1400 fits her budget better.

I've been enjoying playing with the 1400. I'm a PowerBook 5300 fan, and the 1400 is a lot like the 5300, only more robust and without the 5300s sometimes flakiness and bad habits. It has a much better keyboard, and the bigger, a 11.3" color screen is nice, too. I don't mind passive matrix LCD screens, and find them restful on the eyes. This is as good a one as I have used, even better, I think, than the 12.1" dual scan screen in the MainStreet G3 PowerBook that I used for several months back 1998-'99.

I partitioned the 1 GB hard drive in Deirdre's 1400 and have installed both OS 8.1 and OS 9.1 on two of the PowerBook 1400 three partitions. Both systems work okay, but OS 8.1 is definitely livelier on the 117 MHz machine - and probably the more sensible choice for production work. With a leaned-down (but by no means Spartan) system heap selected in the Extensions Manager, OS 9.1 wants 14.4 MB of RAM (virtual memory on), which still leaves more RAM free than the total (24 MB) Deirdre has in her 5300.

I'm impressed by how robust (and heavy!) these old PowerBooks are. Our Lombard and Pismo G3 PowerBooks, and even my big WallStreet, feel a bit flimsy compared with this solid old 1400. I guess there's no substitute for "road-hugging weight" in imparting the impression of ruggedness, and I would say that the 1400 has the highest weight to physical size ratio of any PowerBook I've used. The only problem I discovered on this old machine is that the Caps Lock LED doesn't work - not a big deal.

Of course, a 117 MHz 603e isn't up to much speed-wise by today's standards, and indeed it was no barn-burner even when this model was introduced back in late 1996. The later 133 MHz and 166 MHz 1400s, which have a 256K L2 cache, are more attractive performers.

You can also swap in a 333 MHz or 466 MHz Sonnet Crescendo G3/PB processor upgrade card and give your 1400 are real shot of rabbit elixir. Sonnet's Crescendo G3/PB upgrades replace the PowerBook 1400's original 603e processor card with a G3 card running at 333 MHz with a 512K or 1 MB backside cache, or 466 MHz/1MB. The Sonnet cards use a specially configured, low-power copper IBM G3 processor which can extend the PowerBook 1400's battery life of the by up to 30%.

The Crescendo/PB G3 is compatible with your existing hardware, software, RAM, and peripherals, and supports up to Mac OS 9.1. Prices:

Crescendo/PB G3-333-512: G3/333 MHz 512K/167 MHz - $199.95
Crescendo/PB G3 -333-1M: G3/333 MHz 1MB/167 MHz - $219.95
Crescendo/PB G3 -466-1M: G3/466 MHz 1MB/186 MHz - $299.95

However, an upgraded 1400 is still not going to be equivalent of a 333 MHz Lombard. The big bottlenecks are a slow 32-bit system bus, and mediocre, non-upgradable video. The 1400 also needs a PC Card modem and ethernet support. An internal expansion slot can accommodate video-out or ethernet, but not both. The 1400 only supports a maximum of 64 MB of RAM, so there is no hope of OS X support, which is a moot point since the 1400 is technically a NuBus machine.

Back in the plus column are a full set of legacy PowerBook ports (ADB, SCSI, serial), built-in infrared, a flip-up keyboard for convenient internal access, and two piggy-backable RAM expansion slots. The expansion bay is nice, too, although devices to fit it are a bit thin on the ground.

What doesn't show up in any list of specs, though, is how likable this little PowerBook is. I can understand why people will spend the money for those Sonnet G3 upgrade cards to get more usable life out of these machines.

Charles Moore has been a freelance journalist since 1987 and began writing for Mac websites in May 1998. His The Road Warrior column is a regular feature on MacOpinion, and he is a news editor and columnist at Applelinks.com. If you find his articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

Recent Miscellaneous Ramblings

Do We Really Need Another Mac Email Client?, 02.08. Mac users have a host of free and low-cost email clients to choose from. Does Brent Simmons' 'Letters' project make any sense at all?
iPad Should Support a Stylus, CoolBook Quiets MacBooks, Puppy Linux for PowerPC Macs, and More, 02.03. Also the iPad as a genie in a bottle, Eudora Classic 6.2, notebook battery life, and more uses for 'obsolete' technology.
Waiting for WindowShade X before Going Snow Leopard, 02.01. For anyone used to windowshading, nothing else will do. Unsanity is working on WindowShade X for Mac OS X 10.6.
Search for a Quieter MacBook, AC Adapter for Lombard PowerBook, Apple Magic Tablet, and More, 01.27. Also Logitech Unifying Receiver and diNovo keyboard, and is everything ultimately political?
More in the Miscellaneous Ramblings index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: 'WallStreet' PowerBook G3, May 1998 - WallStreet offered 3 screen sizes and CPU speeds from 233 to 292 MHz.
Group of the Day: Mac UK is for Mac users in the United Kingdom.
February 9 in LEM history: 00: Think choices - Promoting the Macintosh - 01: Apple vs. Mac clones - 05: Apple and the $100 laptop - Yojimbo - Core Duo vs. G5 - 07: The story behind After Dark - Microsoft Office 2007
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 02.02. Used 2 GHz, $700; 2.4, $999; refurb 2.53, $1,449; 2.8, $1,699; 3.06, $2,199; new 2.53, $1,610; 2.66, $1,839; 2.8, $2,109; 3.06, $2,550; more.
Best G3 iMac Deals, 02.02. 500 MHz CD-ROM, $40; 450 MHz DVD-ROM, $60; 600 MHz CD-ROM, $230 shipped; 700 MHz CD-RW, $300 shipped.
Best eMac Deals, 02.02. 1 GHz SuperDrive, $269; 1.25 Combo, $100; SD, $360; 1.42 GHz Combo, $299; SD, $439.
Best Mac mini Deals, 02.01. Used 1.25 GHz G4 Combo, $369; 1.5, $399; Core Solo, $399; 1.83 GHz Core Duo SD, $439; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $759; Server, $985.
Best iBook G4 Deals, 02.01. 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $200; 1.33 GHz, $259; 14" 1.42 GHz SuperDrive, $399.
Best Titanium PowerBook G4 Deals, 02.01. 800 MHz Combo, $285; 867 MHz SuperDrive, $400; 1 GHz Combo, $549.
Best 13" MacBook & MacBook Pro Deals, 01.29. Used 1.83 GHz, $570; 2.0, $599; 2.4 GHz, $800; 2.26 MB, $849; new, $925 after rebate; Pro, $1,108, 2.53, $1,399 a/r.
Best Power Mac G5 Deals, 01.29. 1.8 GHz single, $399; dual, $479; 2.0, $549; 2.5, $609; 2.7, $799; 2.3 GHz dual-core, $709; 2.5 GHz Quad, $939.
Best Mac OS X 10.0-10.3 Deals, 01.29. Mac OS X 10.0, $30; 10.1, $20; 10.2, $50; 10.3, $50; 10.3 Server, unlimited users, $130.
More deals in our archive.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Miscellaneous Ramblings ©1999-2010 by Charles W. Moore. Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2010 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.