The PowerBook G3/500 (Firewire/Pismo) -- formally a member of the "PowerBook Firewire" series (note the lack of official "G3" designation) as dubbed by Apple, but often referred to by its codename of "Pismo" -- features a 500 MHz PowerPC 750 (G3) processor with 1 MB of "backside" level 2 cache, 128 MB of RAM, a 12.0 GB or 20.0 GB hard drive, a tray-loading 6X DVD-ROM drive, and ATI Rage Mobility 128 graphics with 8 MB of SDRAM in a sleek black portable case with a 14.1" TFT active-matrix color display.

Although each shares a case that is quite similar to the "Bronze Keyboard/Lombard" PowerBook G3 models that came before them, the "Firewire/Pismo" systems use a faster logic board design with a faster bus (100 MHz), faster hard drive standard (Ultra ATA/66), faster graphics (Rage Mobility 128), support for optional AirPort (802.11b), and dual Firewire ports (dropping SCSI).

There are two slightly different configurations of this model. It originallly shipped with a 12.0 GB hard drive (M7633LL/A), and on September 13, 2000, this was increased to a 20.0 GB hard drive (M7712LL/A). The price for each configuration was US$3499.

To purchase or upgrade a PowerPC Mac -- as well as newer Macs -- see site sponsor Operator Headgap Systems. OHS has low prices, a warranty, and personal support.

Despite the age of this system, site sponsor Other World Computing has RAM, hard drives, SSDs, and other upgrades available for this specific Mac while supplies last.