This Retro Mac Laptop CPU Upgrade is CRAZY Fast!

Usually when people need a faster laptop, they just buy a new one. But in the late 90s, some Apple PowerBook owners took a different approach.

Sources:
"PowerBook 1400/117," Macworld, January 1997.
"Apple's Next-Generation Systems," Macworld, January 1998.
"G3 Upgrades for PowerBooks," Macworld, March 1999.
"X Arrives," Macworld, November 2000.
"Vimage Drops Mac Upgrade Business," Macworld, November 1999.
"What's Hot," Macworld, May 2001.

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[motomike]

The 1400 is arguably the laptop that kept Apple afloat during the late ‘90s “beleaguered” years before Jobs’s iMac.

[starbase]

Man, this brings me back to far more interesting times. I never had an Apple computer back then, but just you saying that ripping CDs was often the most computationally intensive thing a computer would do, brings me back to those days. Today, by comparison, it's all too easy, with Spotify and noise-cancelling bluetooth earbuds.

[graealex]

Props for sourcing both versions, in original packaging.

[joegee]

The 90s were upgrade heaven to someone who worked on computers as a hobby. I was a PC hobbyist but it was a similar experience, mostly on desktops. Every couple years was a new thing. The computer I'm using now is 4 years old and showing no signs of needing an upgrade. My laptop is even older but switching to Linux gave it new legs and will last for a few more years easily.

[Choralone]

Cool video! I still have a real fondness for laptops of the 90's and for upgrades like this one!
The the late 90's & early 2000's saw a number of laptop upgrade companies go bust on the PC side as well. The laptop repair depot I worked for in the late 90's through most of the 2000's did a rather robust business selling CPU, HDD & RAM upgrades for 386 & 486 laptops in the early to mid 90's but by 2000 that business had all but completely dried up. With the price of laptops in steep decline as a whole by the turn of the century it increasingly didn't make nearly as much sense to spend several hundred dollars upgrading an old laptop or fixing one that was out of warranty unless it was something relatively low cost like a keyboard, stick of RAM or a HDD.

[juanignacioaschura]

Gotta love the colourful but comprehensive Japanese packaging of the era. Quite a striking difference from the overlaid, Y2K, Hopeful graphic design that was mostly seen in the West.

The PowerPC Wild West era was fascinating, you could procure chips to upgrade Macs and also Amigas. I miss how competitors would one up each other in innovation and performance. Computing has gotten boring, aside from some fringe cases here and there.

[BluewindsLegacy]

Clever marking strategy they had, I’m sure someone just bought it for the Box art instead of the actual G3 card in it.

[EvilTurkeySlices]

Sonnet still hosts drivers for all their old upgrade cards, and even for cards for companies they bought out. That's top tier support.

[xBruceLeex]

That SS7 K6 clip at the start made me smile.

[squeeeb]

The Mac CPU upgrade market was pretty cool. Hopefully you backed up the drivers from that floppy!

[allanau]

G3 was an overall a game changer for Apple. I probably wouldn’t gotten into digital video editing without it to be honest.

[StreamlneJMoose]

Ah the footage of old computer magazine backpage ads takes me back. Computer Shopper ftw!

[jonglass]

I had a PB1400 back from about late '98-2000. I put in a G3 card, but I don't remember which one. My problem was that my computer crashed constantly. I put up with it, but I eventually ended up with a G3 "Pismo" PowerBook. Dropped a G4 into that, when it became available, and used it until 2008 as my main computer. The 1400 was a cool machine. It's interchangeable lid and inserts was fun, if frivolous. But, IMO, it was a wonky machine.

[dany]

1:54 That's some cultured packaging

[keithsweat]

I had the clear sleeve installed on mine with a few different "colorful" Tektronix prints I put under it.... (and a fabric swatch too) I was stylin'

[ViewTube_Dan]

Imagine going from 5Ghz to 13Ghz.. the gains back in those days were insane.. I remember upgrading a good old slot cpu in those days long long ago..the first one did not have a cooling solution (just a small passive heatsink) the second one I added a fan manually so I could overclock the cpu.. I upgraded from 133mhz to I think it was 450mhz.. I remember I had to change the FSB which was quite the hassle as a 13 year old fingering around in bios. I think I upgraded from a Celeron to a Cyrix 3 with a socket to slot adapter.. I wish I still had the hardware man..

[kylek]

Love the video Colin, like all your others too this brought waves of happy memories of this, the true and awesome Apple. I'm saddened that they traded their army of dedicated friends of which I was one, for as many mere consumers they can squeeze as many dollars as possible from. RIP Jobs and the true Apple we knew and loved.

[markharrisllb]

I never touched Mac until Windows 10 came out. There was a all world of technology out there that I missed because for 35 years I was an admitted Windows fanboy. Now my main computer is my 27” iMac (so obviously not a M1) and my most used laptop is my Manjaro KDE.

[onigvd]

i still have my original 1400 which i upgraded using the Sonnet version of this card, i did the full 64mb of RAM as well but took out the video out card as i thought it would not fit well with the cpu upgrade, maybe i will try to fit it in one day after all :) thanks Colin :)
I have done the CF swap for the hd and that works quite well, also gets rid of the noise :)

[pscustomgamer]

You should consider an aluminium ifixit driver. I think the control of the easier to turn handle is necessary with increasingly complex repairs.