Ken Mingus replaced his Powerbook 17″ 4200RPM harddrive with a faster 7200RPM harddrive and got some impressive results without seriously affecting battery life.
So, was it worth cracking open my PowerBook for the sake of a little more horsepower? For me, it was indeed. After spending several days using a new Power Mac G5 (the dual 1.8-GHz model), I sat down with my souped-up PowerBook and found it to be surprisingly close in terms of perceived speed. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying it’s as fast by any stretch. The Power Macs are in a class of their own. All I’m saying is that when I flipped open the PowerBook, launched Mail and Safari and iChat and started surfing, I didn’t notice any major slowdown in comparison with the Power Mac.
