The Complete and Utter Guide to G3 and G4 PowerBooks

In this two part series, Remy Davison takes an in depth look at Apples new generation powerbooks. The second part covering the new titanium G4 and iBooks will be in next months issue. ed

Is your PowerBook OS X ready? Don't know which 'Book did what? Wanna get down and talk dirty about whether that 'Book you saw on ebay is a dog, a turkey or a lemon? Look no further; you've come to the right place. And we cover iBooks here too, naturally.

One of the most frequently-asked questions in the world of PowerBooks is: what model is this? What's a Pismo? What's a Kanga? And how the hell do you tell? Over here at IGM, we're as guilty as anyone, as far as using code names are concerned. But here, for the first time, is your complete guide to the G3s and G4s. Plus what to look for and avoid when you're bargain hunting for that perfect 'Book? Ready? Let's start with the...

PowerBook G3 (Kanga)

A wolf in sheep's clothing, easy to spot. It's got a 250MHz/512K G3 CPU in a PowerBook 3400 casing. The Kanga has 4 speakers (two above the keyboard, two located on the top of the display lid. The ADB port is behind a small door on the left. The G3 is externally distinguishable from the 3400 by the 'G3' moniker on the lower screen bezel. It's possible a crook could swap a Kanga screen onto a 3400, so check the model designation on the underneath of the 'Book first. Not completely trusting that, run Apple's System Profiler to check the CPU and speed.

In 1997, this was Apple's top-spec PowerBook and it comes with all the fruit: internal modem, 10bT ethernet, 4Mbps IrDA, ADB, serial/LocalTalk, good, large (for the time) screen, supporting 24-bit color (an industry first, I think, with the 3400), 5.0GB hard drive (huge for the time) and a decent - in 1997 terms - 160MB RAM limit. Plus VGA external monitor support, two PC card slots (upgradeable to CardBus) and Zoomed Video support. All this for only $5,700. A steal. At least, it is now. Good examples go for $800 - if you can find an owner who'll part with one.

Best OS: 8.6. Not enough RAM to run 9.0.

The Good: Still fast enough G3; decent active matrix screen; full set of legacy ports; upgradeable to USB and FireWire; expansion bay; batteries cheap-ish.

The Bad: No upgrade (CPU is soldered); not OS X ready; 33k modem; some users find keyboard klunky; heavy.

The Ugly: Clicker button can break; supports only 800x600; relatively slow graphics by contemporary standards; very expensive RAM.

Rating: 3.5 Trackpads out of 5

PowerBook G3 Series (Wallstreet/PDQ)

The first of the three-phase 'G3 Series' PowerBooks - its basic design lasted almost three years. Which, in my opinion, shows how good it was in the first place. More variants of the Wallstreet were built than any other series. The first were introduced in May 1998 and provided a choice of three displays and three CPUs. The Apple Store build-to-order programme meant that you can find virtually endless variations on the same theme. The first series had 233 (no L2 cache), 250 and 292MHz G3s available. The two higher-end models had 1MB backside caches for very high performance. The 250 and 292 also ran on an 83MHz system bus - faster than any Mac desktop at the time. The displays were 12.1", 13.3" or 14.1" active matrix. The 12.1" is SVGA and the 13.3/14.1" models support XGA resolution.

The revised Wallstreets - sometimes called 'PDQ' - were introduced in September 1998 and featured several design refinements. First, the ATI Rage Pro LT replaced the inferior Rage II, although system VRAM remained at 4MB. Second, the 233MHz model gained a 512K backside cache for dramatically improved performance. Third, the high-end models got 266 and 300MHz processors, with all three variants riding on a standardised 66MHz system bus. Finally, a DVD-ROM kit was made available, which can be retro-fitted to any Wallstreet, including the 12.1" models. Overall, the second series is a better buy and ROM revisions and detail improvements mean that the 266MHz model (slightly faster in clock speed but running on a slower bus) launches applications faster and is generally a bit snappier. A number of examples have been upgraded with 458/466MHz Newer Technology CPU upgrades or 500MHz PowerLogix daughtercard replacements. Some users have reported RAM timing problems with the PowerLogix upgrades, where RAM is not recognized if the RAM runs at two different speeds (say, 3-2-2 and 2-2-2). With the Apple factory CPU installed, this is never a problem, but increasing the CPU's clock speed may (I stress may) cause problems. If your RAM is the same speed, you're unlikely to have this problem (way back, both Macs and PCs had this problem regularly if SIMMs were different speeds or one SIMM was 2-chip and the other was 4-chip).

A retrograde step was the availability of a 12.1" passive display for the special 233MHz 'economy' model and the floppy module was optional. All other models came with the superb 14.1" active-matrix screen. The 13.3" display was dropped from the line-up. All 14.1" models have an S-video for output to a TV or projector.

The Wallstreet can be distinguished externally from its Lombard/Pismo brothers by checking the ports: Wallstreets all have an HDI-30 SCSI port and legacy ADB and serial/LocalTalk ports. The Wallstreet also has two CardBus slots. Like the Kanga, Wallstreet can communicate with any IR-equipped PowerBook or iMac using either the IRTalk or IrDA protocol.

That said, it's not hard to 'fake' a Wallstreet. The processor daughtercard is removable, so someone could swap in a lower-powered CPU. TattleTech won't lie to you though. There's nothing inherently wrong with swapping a processor over, but I've seen 266MHz models with 300MHz CPUs in them. Theoretically, that's OK, but some people argue that motherboards are tested to a certain speed and faster CPUs may not necessarily work reliably with them. The second point here is that let's say you see a 300MHz model advertised with a 4.0GB hard drive. This might have been the build-to-order spec, but it's much more likely that a 300MHz Wallstreet left the factory with an 8.0GB hard drive. So negotiate the price down accordingly. If this 300 you're looking at has only 64MB in the slot, it's a fair bet a 64MB DIMM has been pulled. Don't get ripped.

Best OS: 8.6 for 233s. 9.1 for the rest.

Good: Dual expansion bays; big screens on most models; upgradeable CPUs; OS X ready; healthy RAM capacity; legacy connectivity plus support for CardBus FireWire and CardBus.

Bad: CD-ROM doesn't read CDRW; 12.1" passive is lousy; cacheless G3 not worth the money unless you're upgrading the CPU.

Ugly: Power connector can work loose from motherboard also damaging sound card (expensive fix); screen hinge clutches can break (expensive fix; sometimes Apple fixes it for free, but this appears to be indiscriminately applied and at Apple's option); 13.3" screen cables suspect (but easily fixable and a lot have been).

Rating: 3 Trackpads out of 5 for cacheless 233; 3.5 for the 12" models. 4 for the rest.

PowerBook G3 Series Bronze (Lombard)

This model loses almost two pounds and is a lot thinner than Wallstreet, so it's easy to tell the two apart. Take a walk around the back, pop open the port door and if you see two USB ports and a SCSI port, it's a Lombard all right. There are no ADB or serial ports. Detail changes include an external Apple logo on the display lid which lights up, and a white Apple logo on the upper screen bezel instead of the traditional six-color Apple trademark.

Two variants of the Lombard exist, neither of which you can tell apart merely by looking. The first runs at 333MHz, has a 512K L2 cache anda CD ROM drive. The premium model spins at 400MHz/1MB and a DVD-ROM drive replaces the CD ROM. It also has an MPEG-2 decoder on the motherboard so you can watch DVD movies. All Lombards have 14.1" active-matrix displays (supporting XGA, but also lower resolutions, such as 800x600 and 640x480), S-video out, 8MB VRAM on an ATI Rage Pro LT graphics card (the same card as the Wallstreet II with double the VRAM). This better version of the ATI card also lets you run Lombard attached to an external monitor with the lid closed, as well as supporting multiple resolutions on internal/external monitors simultaneously. It also reintroduces 'virtual desktops' - something not seen since the PowerBook 5300 (Wallstreet can do mirror mode only) Lombard also introduced the 'bronze' keyboard, with bronze highlights also present in the mouse clicker, power button, display latch and expansion bays. The keyboard is identical to the iBook's (which is white) and the Pismo's. It cannot be swapped for a Wallstreet keyboard.

Like Wallstreets, Lombards can be 'faked'. A 400MHz CPU can be placed in a 333MHz model and build-to-order 400s could have their DVD drives exchanged for a CD-ROM unit (rare, but possible). Test playing a DVD disc in a 400 is one way to tell. All Lombards also read CDRWs. Most 333s and 400s came with 4.0 or 6.0GB drives, although a 12GB hard disc was an option. Late production 333 Lombards came with 4.6GB drives. It'll also take 512MB RAM.

Some Lombards have had the short-lived 466MHz/1MB Newer Technology G3 CPU upgrade installed, but these are very scarce since Newer has gone to the wall. While it's not particularly likely to happen, note there's no warranty on the work done on this item any longer. Look for the forthcoming Powerlogix upgrades for the Lombard (up to 500MHz).

Unlike the Wallstreet, the Lombard sports only one CardBus slot, but this means you can add FireWire, Zoomed Video or an Ultra SCSI card. The 400MHz model still holds its value today and its speed is roughly comparable with the 400MHz Pismo and Titanium 400 when using general-purpose applications.

Some revisions were also made to the expansion bays. First, Wallstreet modules won't work as the newer bays are much thinner. The left bay can only take a battery; unlike the Wallstreet, there is no device connector for a 3.5" module. Speaking of batteries, the Lombards run 5 hour LiIONs versus 3.5 hour on the Wallstreet.

Connectivity is improved by adding 100bT ethernet to the motherboard, while the IR port talks 4Mbps IrDA exclusively. Internal drive controller performance is improved considerably, incorporating UATA-33 and supporting PIO-4 mode (16.6MBps data transfer). Faster replacement drives will see significant performance gains with this controller - something you won't see with a Wallstreet.

Some isolated instances of the Lombard display clutch problem have emerged, although it's unclear whether this is an issue as it is on Wallstreet. My personal experience is that the problem is certainly not endemic to either the Wallstreet or Lombard.Best OS: 9.1

Good: Hardware DVD on 400; pretty thin and light; good battery life; improved video support; on-board USB; 100bT ethernet; 14.1" TFT standard; supports myriad of expansion bay modules; still fast enough for most tasks.

Bad: FireWire requires CardBus card; only one CardBus slot; one storage bay only.

Ugly: More fragile design than Wallstreet; 333 model requires expensive kit for DVD.

Rating: 4 Trackpads out of 5 for the 333; 4.5 for the 400.

PowerBook G3 Series FireWire (Pismo)

Externally, the Pismo is almost identical to the Lombard. If you're sharp-eyed, you'll notice the monikor now just reads 'PowerBook'. Look a bit more closely and you'll see the two FireWire ports out the back. Other than pulling off the keyboard or loading up some graphics applications, you'd never know the difference.

Like the Lombard, the Pismo comes in two models, although the Pismo was revised in September 2000. Both revisions came in 400 and 500MHz flavors, both of which were equipped with 1MB L2 caches. The February-September 'Books came with 6 and 12GB hard drives (18GB Built-to-Order), while the last production run featured 10 and 20GB (30 BTO) HDs and iMovie 2.0 was bundled into the software package

The guts of the Pismo, while superficially similar to those of the Lombard, are revised considerably to accommodate fairly significant performance improvements. Number one is the system bus, which is boosted to 100MHz (up from 66MHz), which means you must use PC-100 SO-DIMMs in the Pismo (luckily, these are practically all everyone sells now) It maxes out at 1.0GB. Second, Pismo gets a Rage 128 graphics card, giving you better frame rates with 3D games and generally better system-wide video performance. The third major refinement was the addition of two 400Mbps FireWire ports, replacing the venerable HDI-30 SCSI port. The FireWire ports support FireWire Target Mode, allowing you to make very fast data transfers between G3/G4 desktops, iMac/iBook (FireWire) and other FireWire PowerBooks. Cool, hey?

An important but little-known fact about the Pismo is that it was fitted out with two variants of the DVD-ROM drive. If you work with DVD-RAM disks on your G4, this is important. One of the drives reads DVD-RAM; the other can't. If you want a Pismo that does, you need one with DVD-ROM model SR-8174. You'll need Apple System Profiler to figure this one out: under the 'Devices and Volumes' tab under the 'Expansion Bay' bit, you'll see 'Matshita' and 'Product ID: DVD-ROM SR-8174'. This is the one you want.

Best OS: 9.1 Good: On-board FireWire; DVD standard; fast memory bus; better graphics card; huge RAM capacity; media bay modules and batteries swappable with Lombard

Bad: Still may be slightly fragile; still only 1 CardBus slot; no support for display resolutions larger than 1024x768; screen may be limited for color-critical work; iBook power adapter is awkwardly large.

Ugly: Nothing really ugly about this one.

Rating: 5 Trackpads out of 5. No kidding.