Quieter, Less Powerful - The new power supply is rated at only 360 watts, compared to 400 watts for the original. As long as you keep the various screws separate, and refer back to the disassembly steps, though, it’s easy to figure out when to replace which screws. They do fine at telling you which screws to remove, but they’re silent about when to reinstall those screws until the very end, when they remind you to check that all the screws you removed were in fact reinstalled. Speaking of screws, that’s the one place the instructions fall down completely. The instructions aren’t kidding about needing a Phillips screwdriver with a magnetized tip my normal Wiha screwdrivers lack magnetized tips, and removing and reinstalling the screw that secures the back hard drive carrier would have been extremely tricky if I hadn’t found another screwdriver with a magnetized tip. Overall, the instructions worked well, and I had no significant troubles, although convincing the new power supply to slot into the tabs in the case took several tries.
An expert repair person could probably do it in 20 minutes if you’ve never opened a Mac before, it probably makes more sense to pay a dealer to install the new power supply for you. I’m comfortable taking Macs apart, but I was working methodically. The entire installation process took me about an hour.
The photos in the PDF version that you can download from the page linked above are higher quality, and you might find it worthwhile to download and print them on a color printer, if available. Installation Process - Apple’s instructions are detailed and accurate, though the photos are a bit fuzzy. Luckily, I didn’t, and I now have a quieter Mac.
Since installation involves removing numerous cables and drive carriers as well as the actual fan and power supply, I wanted to make sure I could afford some downtime if I screwed something up. I received my replacement power supply several weeks ago, but I didn’t find the time to install it in my dual-processor 1 GHz Power Mac G4 until recently. The program runs through 30-Jun-03, so there’s still time to order if you haven’t yet done so. For $20 shipping and handling, Apple will ship you a new power supply and fan along with installation instructions.