After giving it careful thought, and with the help of some very good ideas from the comments on my earlier post, I decided that I would buy a new hard drive for my TiBook. I'll put off fixing the motherboard until the bottom DIMM slot actually does fail, at which point I'll send it to PowerBookResQ for a new motherboard.
It was a close thing, and I thought the surprisingly large number of people who read my earlier post might be interested in my reasoning. After talking to the co-worker who sold me the TiBook, I learned that it had lasted for two years before the top DIMM slot wore out. The cost of a motherboard replacement from PowerBookResQ is twice what I've paid Apple in the past for my Pismo repairs. If the replacement motherboard lasts as long as the current one, that means the repair costs will be about equal--except that the TiBook also needs that new hard drive.
Based on this, it seemed at first like it would be marginally more economical to write off the TiBook. But then I got to thinking about Apple's response to the TiBook's DIMM slot failure. Apple refused to repair it for their usual flat rate because they didn't consider it a manufacturing defect--and they're right. The use of flimsy plastic is not a manufacturing defect, it's a design defect (which Apple apparently doesn't feel any responsibility for).
The problem is, the Pismo's yearly motherboard replacement is also the result of a design defect, not a manufacturing defect. I hadn't used the Pismo in the eight months since I got the TiBook, so it's good for roughly another five months before it needs a new motherboard--and how do I know that Apple won't say, "Sorry, it's not a manufacturing defect, pay $945?" So, taking that possibility into account, I decided to go ahead and repair the TiBook, in the hope that two years is the minimum time it takes the DIMM slot problem to manifest. Of course I still don't know how long it takes both DIMM slots to fail.
11:17:21 PM 
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