On 2002-11-25 19:08, "Victor Nazarian" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> OK, forgetting about the CD-RW potentials of a SCSI capable PowerBook, > What else can I do to a 1400 to bring it into the 21st C.? The first thing you'll want to do is upgrade the CPU with a Sonnet Crescendo-PB unit. At the moment, they come in 466 MHz/1 MB, 400 MHz/1 MB and 333 MHz/512 kB versions. Due to the 1400's anaemic bus bandwidth, I'd recommend getting one with a large (1 MB) cache. <http://www.sonnettech.com/product/crescendo_pb.html> > What is the Max. RAM I can get and where? 64 MB is the maximum, provided you have 16 MB Apple-installed RAM. Else it's 60 MB, or you'll have to find an 8 MB card for the "manufacturer slot". A total of two RAM expansion cards can be installed in the PowerBook 1400, on on top of the other (piggybacking), although piggybacking RAM cards involves quite a bit of voodoo. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes two cards that work in one machine, don't work in another. Sometimes two cards of the same brand work fine together, sometimes they don't, etc. Apart from the voodoo, stacked RAM prohibits the use of certain expansion cards, most notably NewerTECH's 16-bit cards. You can buy PB1400 RAM from Other World Computing: <http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Page.cfm?Parent=25&Title=Non%20G3%20Power Books&Template=> > Is there a perfered modem or > ethernet card for this unit? Just about any PCMCIA modem should work, really. External modems, too. As for Ethernet, I would recommend an internal Ethernet card if you use Ethernet a lot, PCMCIA Ethernet cards use fragile dongles that are not really suited for intensive use. Internal cards are a rare find these days, though. PCMCIA Ethernet cards are abundant on eBay, 3Com 3C589 cards are dirt cheap and can work with patched Farallon drivers (they're the exact same card as the Farallons, which were OEMed by 3Com). > External Video? Also possible, there is an internal expansion slot that can take a video or Ethernet card. I don't know if any other cards were ever made for it. As for video, you have a choice between Apple's 8-bit card, and NewerTECH's 16-bit card. As indicated, the 16-bit card won't fit if you have more than one RAM expansion module fitted. They're pretty rare and go for pretty high prices, too. Personally, I have upgraded my PowerBook 1400c/166 as follows: - Sonnet G3/333/1MB CPU - 64 MB RAM (single NewerRAM 48 MB module) - Internal Farallon 10Mb Ethernet - Internal VST ZIP100 drive Once I get my hands on a clamshell iBook SE, the 1400 will get its 10 GB hard drive, and I've been meaning to get a 24x CD-ROM replacement for the broken 12x unit I have on my desk as a paperweight, but I don't really use my 1400 much anymore since I have this lovely iBook/600. It'll probably be set up as a browser testing machine at work soon. That said, I wouldn't recommend spending much money on upgrading a PowerBook 1400 nowadays. There are some severe limitations on this model, like the 64 MB RAM ceiling, the NuBus architecture that prevents it from running Mac OS X (or anything other than Mac OS 7.5-9.2, really), the PCMCIA card slots that keep it from accessing USB or FireWire peripherals, ... Really, the iBook is the new 1400, if you want to be 21st century, get an iBook. Even the low-end ones are faster than any PowerBook Apple ever made, bar the TiBooks, of course. ,xtG .tsooJ -- Joost van de Griek http://www.jvdg.net/ -- PowerBooks is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Enter To Win A | -- Canon PowerShot Digital Cameras start at $299 | Free iBook! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PowerBooks list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/powerbooks.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/powerbooks%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
