iBook G4 12" 1.33GHz upgrade questions

[darxide23]

Hello all. I know next to nothing about Macs but since my girlfriend and her entire family are Mac addicts I'm trying to learn how to work on them (although I'll never give up my PC). I've been repairing PCs for nearly two decades now so I know my way around computer hardware regardless of where it comes from.

I already did some repairs to another iBook G4 of hers and it works flawlessly so I know I'm capable of disassembly and reassembly.

This one that I'll be doing next just needs some upgrades and I have a few questions.

First, I'll be upgrading the hard drive. I'm pretty sure the drive doesn't have to be mac specific, so my question is if I bought it from Newegg what am I looking for to insure the drive is compatible? The same question goes for RAM. It's got 512MB internal and I'm looking to drop another 512MB in it for a nice 1 Gig.

Finally, I need to replace the optical drive since the one in there is dead. Where would be the best place online to find a CD burner / DVD combo drive for this computer?

Thanks!

 

[MagicBoy]

Assuming the 12" is similar to the 14"....

Hard Drive - is a right pain to get access to. Any 2.5" IDE drive will work.

RAM - is simple to replace. Spare slot is under the keyboard. 512MB is soldered onto the logic board, you can install up to 1Gb in the slot for a total of 1.5GB. You need a standard PC2700 DDR SO-DIMM.

Optical drive - you will need to replace with the correct Apple Superdrive. Non Apple-shipping drives can cause issues in OS X.

Have a look at ifixit.com for walkthroughs on pulling it apart and replacing parts.

 

[darxide23]

I've already had it completely disassembled, it's no big deal.

The only question I still have at this point is where do I get an optical combo drive? The couple places I've looked at online don't sell them or they are sold out or they only sell the super drives (which I don't need).

 

[MagicBoy]

To be fair it's 6 year old machine and optical drives being one of the few moving parts are more likely to fail. I'd try eBay.

 

[darxide23]

Thanks for the help! I should be good to go now.