Building a NEW PowerBook 20 years later (with new old stock parts!) 

I don't think I would be able to resist putting a SSD (if possible) into the 'New' 20 year old laptop. The HDD is one part of a computer that would certainly have undergone some considerable wear and tear over the past 20 years. Also, the battery could probably do with replacing.

Apple switched from ADB to USB internally during this time. That may account for the different keyboard and trackpad connectors. The USB version of the trackpad supported scrolling.

Oh sweet! That’s what you meant. You restored one and it looks amazing!

I got my PowerBook G4 from 2004 that is in the same shape as this refurbished one. Not a dent, not any scratches, no marks what so ever, all 4 feets intact and not worn. Original battery has 65% soh, but it last a little under 2 hours. I love that machine, I retired it in 2006 when I bough the MacBook Pro (yes I have that one too lol). PowerBook is in it original Box in my closet, and will be there for the rest of my life. I start it every Friday so it doesn't get broken just by sitting there. Opened it up for the first time this summer and replaced the thermal paste and pad, and mounted a mSata SSD in a IDE adapter. It's so much faster then the 60GB HDD lol. Just as new now :)

Nice! I used to work on these back when I started as a technician in 2007. Pro tip: stick a spudger in the optical drive directly below each clip, and press on the keyboard assembly to get these clips clipped in. Not using the spudger makes it harder to get them to clip, and can actually damage/bend the optical drive resulting in discs not sliding smoothly in there.

This is awesome! I love these machines. One note - your new keyboard looks a bit wavy, yeah? Like it's higher on the left than it is on the right? Either way, great project. Having dug into one of these myself, I know it takes a lot of patience and organization.

It's a shame the clips above the DVD drive aren't clipping in correctly.

Awesome, you did forget to clip in the topcase correctly. Also, maybe upgrade to an IDE SSD? I would love to see a video on the usability and performance. I have a 17 inch, upgraded it tot the max ram and an SSD and it is an amazing retro machine. The screen also holds up really well.

Your retro Mac videos are freaking awesome, love this project it looks phenomenal

This made me so much happier than I thought it would - awesome work!

Looks like you left the old spinning disk in there. Idk if I could have stopped myself from installing an SSD and seeing how that worked unless the HDD had an IDE connection or something

Man ! I just love a Macbook with a internal DVD drive, watching movie and playing or importing CD on this thing makes me happy

Next week: PowerBook M3 upgrade. That would be a hoot. The G4 is great for legacy software that was never ported to Intel, some of which is still great or just fun to play with. I keep one around for some media apps that just can’t seem to be replaced. 15:09 explains your enthusiasm. The unibodies are really nice but the build of these was really nice, which is probably why they kept the design up to the MacBook Pro C2D, which are still around and can even run a recent (current?) OS.

Loved the video Luke! My favorite part of the build was the end seeing how the thing literally looks like a modern MacBook just 2 - 3 years old maybe! Please upload more often, you’re the GOAT!

These are the types of videos I love to see from you! Amazing work!

Amazing video Luke! My favourite part was seeing the complexity of swapping the lcd panel. Keep up the vintage stuff, so good.

Excellent video, Luke. was a lot of fun to see this be restored to brand new condition

It’s beautiful, very well done Luke, love it!

It's a great pleasure to look back at the good old power book. Truly appreciate the tremendous amount of work you had to do to put together this video.

Love seeing things about the older MacBooks. Great video yet again Luke.

I think I was lucky, I bought a powerbook 1.67 for a bargain, single owner and absolutely new. The owner bought it for work after reading the announcement about the launch of the macbook pro, he went to the store and bought a powerbook instead of a macbook pro. When he discovered that the powerbook wouldn't run the applications he needed, it was too late. He kept it, bought a Dell Precision workstation and the powerbook was stored all these years in its original box. I sold it a while ago and was able to build a new rig with the money. Today I have 2 other 17-inch powerbooks, but not as new as that one.

simply wonderful work!

This is my favorite video on RU-vid. There won’t be a better one. Ever. Super awesome.

This is a great video, you are lucky to get brand new parts!

RIP my Powerbook G4 12" - the only Computer ever i felt in love with... Back in the days i could disassemble these and the first Intel machines nearly blind, because of the many repairs and upgrades i did...

I really love to see people care about older technology I hate this throwaway society awesome video Luke ❤

Nice work, thanks

This is just amazing. If that G4 can talk, he’ll be really grateful. 😁

Missed snapping the clips above the SuperDrive, try inserting a knife into the drive for leverage and press the palm rest part down

I see your bro relaxing on the sofa as you struggle with the display lol.

Man, congratulations for your efforts! Lot of work doing it! Amazing! But the amount of adhesive tape inside this thing is amazing! Hehehe.

Beautiful build!

I like the videos where you are rebuilding an old Mac! Keep them going!

I'm not a "lingo" guy but for lack of a better turn of phrase that serves the desire to communicate my delight and satisfaction with your idea for a video here... "Dude! This is brilliant!!? " great idea... My saturation point with apple happened a long time ago and then I decided I was tired of the Applesphere ... the constant marketing and smoke and mirrors in an effort to distract us from our common sense and perhaps tech lust and decided to explore the Googlesphere buying a pixel XL. Would love to see you do a little Giigle stuff too. You have really taken the smoke and mirrors out of Apples cheesy " I'm incredible" tone. I hope the raspberry pie people are exploring the idea of making a raspberry mac with all this cool stuff like that antistatic tape. And what is really cool is that the enjoyment you clearly derived from doing this has improved your delivery! It's all about doing things you believe in dude!! Godspeed. Bet no one ever said that to you. LOL This was seriously a very cool idea that I might add your persistence and hard work has rightfully earned you the chance to share with us . Awesome!!! Steady she goes... Reacting to a comment about the lack of security with an older Mac: this Miami video peels back all the stuff that is so clearly meant to make us beholden to Appall. It really highlights the übercunning approach to making money. A Wosniak version of today's finest Apple products wouldn't be anything like their current products. Tech is so much further ahead than it was but left behind is a faith in humanity. Stuff gets approved/built/changed for many reasons - sometimes it’s about superiority of performance, a lot of time it’s about the effect on the success of all the products and sometimes it’s exclusivity and appearance but Wozniak's style of wanting to build the best thing he could to not only share what he discovered but give everyone a chance to do the same- is long gone but precisely what we need. I can only imagine that if Wozniak were the major force behind the designs today that we would be blown away by the incredible things he could come up with. Apple should bring him on board to fix things

Wonderful project! I love these Powerbook G4s.

Dream machine, back in the day.

I love this video. It's nice seeing old tech get its time to shine again. I know this is one of those "holy Grail" laptops for me when i was in college.

loved it you need to do more of this

You are the man! Love it and your efforts.

In love. Gorgeous machine.

thats a beautiful project right there

These videos were the reason I subscribed. I’ve a very sketchy 2003 17” PowerBook. Runs hot, DVD doesn’t work but good fun to play with occasionally.

My second Mac AND my first laptop. Looking great!

It's lego for mac nerds... Thanks so much! I really enjoyed your videos. Keep up your great work 😊

Awesome idea ❤

Love your videos, you actually do stuff.

I have one too. Works still.

Imagine that Apple was still so repair friendly haha

I love the theme and icons from than generation. So cool looking.

Excellent video! I have next model MacBook Pro of this and I always loved the squishiness of the keyboard. I hope you or Dosdude1 can find a way to get an M series chip running on old hardware.

Cool vid!

Can’t believe it’s actually so old! It looks quite modern, despite having an optical drive (and hard drive) squeezed in there. Good job keeping track of all those tiny screws 😉

Ok that was just 100% Fun!!!

Have a good one, midnight crew

Excellent really enjoyed watching.

Nice walk down memory lane.

my dad had one of these back in the day.... I remember it being an absolute unit. Especially compared to the iBook G4 I had at the time.

That was my first Mac! Loved the silver keyboard, was so disappointed when they started making them black.

that music while making the screen assambly is a real banger on 2x speed 🤩

I love these videos so much

What's that cool music in the background - it fits the video soooo well😎

hi hope you do some more like this.. it wos we good to see

My PowerBook G4 I bought 20 years ago still looks like new and still works fine. The design holds up well to my new MacBook Pro M3 too.

I can really see and hear that Luke is definitely enjoying re-building this. And super interesting to see how things needs to be assembled. I would be so clueless….😂

Love to see these old MacBooks in great condition. I have a 17 inch 2009 MPB that has the original battery from 2009 with around 20 cycles on it. It looks absolutely pristine and I love it. I love using it as well. The screen is better than my brand new 2023 budget Lenovo.

Fun video... watched all the way. My love for the 2012 era unibody macbooks is only underscored by watching this... what a royal pain taking that thing apart and putting it back together! I wonder if folks run Linux on those? Can't imagine it as a production machine these days. Oh, and that thin bezel around the screen... wish Apple had maintained that on their 2012 era machines.

SA-sweet project Luke :D Gotta love the old apple products. They LAST forever…

Hey Luke really enjoy your videos man. I’ve seen you tear apart and rebuild so many of these different Mac’s, and clean them up over the years. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen you make a video with what you do with all of them afterwards? Maybe a good future video idea? Do you resell them? Do you collect them?

Honestly still a cool looking design.

For me, your best videos are like this one, where you upgrade or refurbish an old Mac. Following your videos I upgraded a mid-2012 MBP 13 and a Mac Pro "trash can", both of which I really liked and used until the M series Macs were released.

Oh hey, lol I think I bought a keyboard for my G4 powerbook from this seller. Pure magic to type on, honestly.

this is amazing

The top case just needs to be clipped in above the superdrive. Best to use a spudger for support to get that done.

We need a mac collection video!

Apple sillicon mac in this case would be awesome.

I’m still using a g4 1.67 ghz machine running panther. It runs some old audio software and pci hardware through the cardbus slot. I bought it second hand in 2007. I have a spare as well. The only mods I’ve done is replace the dvd drive with a second HD.

Sunshine express on ebay? I bought from them an used Quadro FX 3600M for a Dell Precision M6300 (very rare GPU). The thermal paste was from 2008 lol

This was my first laptop in 2005. I made a record there, in Nuendo 3.0. Great memories. I still own it, and it still works. One day I'll swap the HD to an SSD.

i had 17 inch one it looked so nice comparing to any windows laptops

Great idea for a video

How cool!!

On the general topic of Mac laptops, is putting a shell case on one good or bad? I finally saw one for my 2012 MBP at a Salvation Army (new for $3), and wondered if they make it run hotter or stress out the top hinge.

I wish you could bake an M1 chip into this chassis. Would be amazing. I love this design.

A few years ago I bought a 12" Powerbook (the last release), and it was fine except for a dent on the left front corner. Maybe I should look for an OEM case part.

The videos I really love. Some years ago, Apple built wonderful machines.

Nice! Your G4 has an expansion bay on the side… I wonder if you can find any modules for it?

nice :) i have a beat up 12inch that needs the same treatment, hope i can get the new parts for it too. it would have been cool if u also put in an SSD and made the SuperDrive external and used a data doubler to add another SSD :)

I had the 1ghz titanium, nice computer, it was sad to see those computers become obsolete so quickly. In contrast I am still using my macbook pro 13inch from 2012.

I still own my 17” PowerBook G4. Those guts looked awfully familiar, as I had to do a complete disassembly and cleaning after spilling a liter of Coke directly into the keyboard.

Hey could you try something for me? Could you see if you could get the FaceTime feature from the Apple TV 4K to work on a Thunderbolt 27?

I have three, bought second hand and they do have wear and tear, but I only use them for nostalgia. I might eventually have to get rid of them since they are not gonna be working much long.

A computer almost old enough to drink.

This is an excellent video and what a "Blast from the Past", a 15-inch G4 PowerBook. In my collection there is a 12-inch G4 Powerbook. Would love to see you, upgrade one of these 12-inch models next. However, hope you also replace its Hard Drive with a SSD (smile...smile).

the only lucky guy on the planet! finding parts for my old macs cost so much it's not even the worth it! I througn away a G3 laptop since the motherboard cost the price of new laptop!!!!

That’s absolutely wild. After I started following your channel back in late 2019, I ended up rebuilding a late PowerBoom G4 DLSD/HR and ended up cutting my fingertips open trying to replace the video cable and back shell and ended up just buying a whole display assembly off eBay. Major props for pulling it off!

Thanks for the amazing video!!! 🔥🔥🔥 How about putting a Mac mini with an Apple silicon chip into a similar laptop body? 🤔🤔🤔

Very nice! I still have my mom’s 15” 1.5ghz G4 that’s in pretty decent shape.

The Powerbook of Theseus, eh? It would be great to see a total cost of investment. Next do a rundown of specs on the native hardware then max out cpu, ram and put in a ssd and compare. Also it would be great to see how new the OS it could handle with a patcher. Maybe take the beat up parts and put in a M1 motherboard with adapters and see if it runs! This video definitely needs a part two.

Big up Luke!

Which OS did you install? I loved the feel of those keyboards; I could really fly on them.