The optical drive on my iBook G4 is shot. That doesn’t render it unusable, but it does render it annoying.

So I went internet-hunting for a quote and discovered this nifty site. iFixit will not only sell you the parts (and tools) you need to fix your ailing out-of-warranty Mac hardware, but also provides guides for gutting said ailing Mac so you can install the part. Very niiiice. Especially considering how far I had to dig to find the guide the last time I needed to replace something.

On the other hand, Apple just quoted me $99 to replace the drive, and considering that the part is running at least that on most 3rd party websites and this includes labor, I’m tending toward that. I’m not sure the guy I was talking to really understood what I was asking though, because the price seems REALLY low. But $99 sure as heck beats not having a laptop.

We’ll see….