Hi all

I like to upgrade some of the hardware on my PM MDD 1.25. I'll try and keep this as simple as possible.

*wireless
can I put a stock standard pc card instead of an airport express card? if so which one?

*memory 512mb single stick
which is the brand to go for which works well on the machine that i can get from MSY? (currently 768mb and two slots free, pc2600U-25330)

*USB2
would any of the pc cards with usb2 work on this mac? if so should i get it with power or without?

*hard drive
what is the maximum capacity drive that this mac can take on board? also any personal experience with brands. (currently 80g)

This seems pretty straight forward but also really confusing since i havent had to upgrade before. I know that hard drive and ram is pretty much easy. and there are plenty of options available. With the wireless and usb2 cards could be a bit tricky! Yet again nothing is impossible.

Many thanks

Heya Chocho

I've got a MDD 867 - yes, there pci cards for wireless - there's actually a thread in here somewhere about them. I've got the standard appletalk card in mine, but recently bought a linksys card off pipsqeek which worked fine, but wasn't happy under 10.4.2 - apparently dropping the 10.4.1 kext files over the top fixes the problem.

USB2 cards - also have one of these installed - generic PC one and have had no problems. These are incredibly cheap these days.

MSY is ultra cheap - I'm a regular there myself. I think that the ram 'could' be OK, but I would think that it's worth the extra $ and getting better quality ram. I know some appletalkers think http://www.cheapmemory.com.au/ is OK. Cheap RAM = Kernal Panics (from my experience)

I've got a 120gig Hard-drive and it's fine. Not sure what the maximum is for these macs... info is sure to be out there somewhere... hopefully another AppleTalker can help you there.

Hope this is a help

napes is right on everything,

i have a broadcom chipset wireless card (belkin) and it works perfectly and the mac thinks a airport extreme card is in it. cost me $30

i also have a USB 2.0, 4 + 1 port PCI card generic (go for a NEC chipset model they work best) cost me $30

in MDD the ATA bus is at 32bit so it can handle physical hard drive space up to 300gb i think.

RAM: anything just make sure its lifetime warranty. look for some at www.staticice.com.au

I think you mean 48-bit addressing ipod_man, in which the maximum disk capacity is 144000000 gigabytes In other words, it'll work with any size PATA disk you can throw at it.

JB