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PowerBook 15" and 12" Disassembly
questamor writes "The ever gadget-driven among us are at it again, with a Japanese site disassembling a brand new 15" PowerBook. Of interest is dual blowers. Quite a good deal packed into that sleek Al case. An older photo article on the same site details a 12" takeapart. That's stunning for barely an inch thick. Kudos to Apple's designers for a machine that looks as well designed in as out, and to the guys willing to unscrew the screws on a machine barely 5 days into warranty."
the down is that the keyboard isn't removable (for those that liked swapping it out for a touch sensitive board), it's to allow for the backlit keys which are fed light from the built in display.
I have had somewhere between 10 and 15 laptops. This is laptops I have had fore more then 2 weeks to try out and test. - And my 15" powerbook is by far the best laptop I have ever had and used. It is solid quality straight thru.
If you can afford it and all your apps are availible to you, get a powerbook. It is almost the perfect laptop for everyday use. Currently I have a powerbook G4 1GHz, Compaq 12,1" and a Dell 8100. And the apple is the best of thoose three I currently use.
I would only use a powerbook with linux - if it wasn't that I have to use 3dsmax in my day-to-day work.
-L
- To understand recursion, we must first understand recursion -
I'm happy I own a 12" powerbook.
I bought it for when I'm working by the racks, I've also got a dell inspiron great machine/beautiful screen but is rather big and unwieldy in the tiny spaces I have to work.
The PB does a fine job all the basics ssh/telnet/VNC plus while I'm spending hours sitting on site waiting for the ok to pull the plug on some machine to upgrade it I'm happily watching a DVD or listening to some music.
Before I bought it I wasn't sure if it was a good idea but got all my various *nix programs runnning, good battery life and haven't had a single problem it's a great machine.
Nathen
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,57961,00.html
The keyboards for 15" TiBooks are replaceable. There was a rather odd shaped one out only a few months ago - in a shalsdot story even. I don't know of any others, but they're there.
The nonremovable keyboard in the new 15" is only nonremovable from the outside. Once you're in it's screwed down into the chassis and can be removed as easily as a screwdriver can be wielded. It's this screwing down that gives it its intense stiffness, which makes it a DREAM to type on compared to any other laptop I've used.
Not quite a nonremovable keyboard - just a harder-to-remove keyboards, and probably not a consumer-swappable part like it used to be.
Here's a quick translation of the Japanese captions on the four pages of pictures:
PAGE 1
* The smallest and easiest to obtain model, the PowerBook G4.
* Required tools: cross-slotted #00 screwdriver and 1/16" (1.5mm) hex wrench. An anti-static guard and a corner-beam (the small angled tool in the picture) are also good to have.
* First, remove the battery. It's the same as the iBook's battery.
* Unscrew the memory model's panel.
* Remove the memory card. Be careful of static electricity.
* Unscrew 8 screws from the side of the PowerBook.
* In order to remove the screws beneath the keyboard, remove the F1, F2, F11 and F12 keys. It's best to use tweezers to pry the keys out from the bottom.
* Peel off the seal concealing the screw.
* Unscrew the two screws holding the keyboard in place.
* The keyboard can now be removed, but be careful of the ribbon cable. The iBook and PowerBook G4/15 are the same in this regard.
PAGE 2
* Underneath the keyboard, top of case. The internals of the computer are still completely obscured, but there's an interesting magnet secured with electrical tape.
* Peel off the aluminum tape and remove the keyboard connector. As in previous models, the keyboard is not meant to be removed easily by the user.
* Remove the keyboard connector and the attached ribbon cable. Don't worry, the ribbon cable won't separate from the connector even if you do it wrong.
* Peel off aluminum tape from two places and remove three connectors. If you neglect to do this it's possible you might break some wires when removing the top of the case later.
* Remove screws in order: first, the 12 +-slotted hex screws. The screws are of different sizes, so be careful.
* The top and bottom sections of the case are fastened with claw latches on the front left and right corners. Slide a credit card through the gap between the top and bottom sections and carefully unfasten the latches.
* The latches securing the top and bottom sections. The picture shows the two places near the battery slot. The latches are made of resin and attached to the aluminum so they break easily.
* A picture with the top case removed. You can see something resembling the iBook DualUSB port apparatus. The tape securing the cables casts a bit of doubt on the product quality...
* Once disassembled to this point, it's possible to exchange the hard drive. It takes a while to get to this point, though.
* The hard disk is secured with two screws so exchanging it is easy. All you need to do is remove the left and right hard disk fasteners and you're done.
PAGE 3
* Made by Toshiba.
* The modem can be removed, but the cabling is a bit convoluted so just leave it as is.
* Remove the huge heatsink. The spring-loaded fastener screw makes it a bit of a struggle! Must have been a missed deadline in manufacturing...
* Heatsink and cooling fan. The cooling pipe is well-connected to the fan so the cooling efficiency should be really good.
* Now we've gotten to the motherboard. The wiring here is especially tricky and convoluted.
* Removing the frame from above the motherboard. Be careful of the differences in screw sizes.
* The frame is removed.
* The motherboard is attached to the bottom of the case by 3 screws.
* Remove the motherboard by pulling diagonally.
* Remove the cable coming from the back of the LCD from its connector.
PAGE 4
* The front of the motherboard.
* The back of the motherboard.
* The bottom of the case and the combo-drive. The construction here makes it very difficult to completely disassemble everything. Too bad...
* The power supply is on a separate circuit board. It fits the design of the motherboard well. One difference from the iBook is the four screws securing this board.
* The heatsink and fan are attached to the motherboard by five screws. The middle two are special spring-loaded screws.
* The power-saving mode circuit.
* The back of the top of the case. It's eas
Remember that the hottest part of the 12" is not where the processor is (top center, near the screen), but where the left palm rests and the underside of it. This is exactly where the HD is, and is usually the source of the heat. If they've started using cooler HD's, then I'd be asking if the thing ran cooler, not the proc.
BTW, I did price another i8500 bundle, and the best I could do was 2085 with the 2.6GHz and WUXGA option (I didn't see any WUXGA+ option either). Of course that was with 256MB of RAM, 30GB hard drive, DVD drive (no CD-RW, no DVD-R), no bluetooth, and a 32MB ATI Radeon 9000.
So have you really done the comparisons? Damn it, I think I've been trolled.
There is no trap so deadly as the trap you set for yourself
-Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye