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cdhostage · Mar 11, 2003, 08:03 PM

I've looked through the fora here and around various Mac shopping sites, but I just want to see, as of March 2003, what sort of success owners of convection-only old-style Macs have had with new hard disks.

My iMac is a 500 MHz Special Edition Graphite one, from '98 I think. The HD in there is starting to get louder and louder and making occasional buzzes, and that seems to be the warning sign when a HD is going to fail (odd noises). I don't do any games more complex than those of http://www.spidweb.com/ and I'm happy writing in AppleWorks, so I don't need a new computer until this one gives up the ghost.

I'd rather not buy an old-style 5400 rpm HD when the price difference is negligible (and I'm not buying a used one), but I've got to wonder how the fanless environment of my iMac will deal with heat generated by a 7200 rpm drive. I've heard good things about Seagate's Barracuda . It says that the power supply handles 13 watts, so that's the most heat it can disssipate - I have no idea what my iMac's dissipates.

I've had two Maxtor external HDs fail on me, so I'm leery of going with a recent suggestion of an $80 Maxtor HD. http://dealmac.com/articles/48526.html

So, what's my question exactly? Could anyone who's upgraded his old-style iMac tell me a story? Just a little one, about EIDE and ATA and setting drives as master and so on and so forth? Or even better, whether the damn thing melts after a few minutes...

gumby5647 · Mar 11, 2003, 09:25 PM

I recommend sticking with a 5200RPM drive. Yes you can put a 7200 one in there but you really need a well ventalated area. I put a 7200RPM drive in my 400MHz Machine about a year ago and now it has GLOD. I have a hunch that the extra heat generated by the 7200RPM drive slowly (but surely) deteriorates the analog board. Its just my hypothesis mind you....

plus, the speed increase between 7200 and 5200 aren't that noticable. Start up times may drop a few seconds but that's it. Not really worth it....

OldManMac · Mar 11, 2003, 09:34 PM

Unless you're doing video editing and really intensive tasks, you're not going to need a 7200 drive.

nbnz · Mar 11, 2003, 10:09 PM

Definitely check out xlr8yourmac. It has an excellent searchable database of comments/compatability of HD upgrades in Macs.

boardsurfer · Mar 12, 2003, 11:01 AM

I put an 7200rpm drive in my iMac DVSE 500 (Graphite). ITs a Western Digital 80GB. I do some video editing in iMovie. The process was easy as pie for me - even having never opened my iMac before. Definately check out xlr8yourmac.com for a tutorial on replacing the HD. Its been about a year since then and no heat issues or otherwise.

tooki · Mar 12, 2003, 08:36 PM

Your iMac is from 1999. In any case, you can put a modern 7200 RPM drive in it without hesitation. Modern 7200 RPM drives create less heat than the 5400 RPM drives from 1999.

Just keep in mind that your ATA controller won't recognize more than 127GB of space, so a 120GB drive is the biggest you can use. Larger-than-120GB FireWire drives work fine.

tooki

DBursey · Mar 13, 2003, 11:01 AM

Following the failure of the original 13Gb 5400 RPM hard drive, I installed an 80Gb 7200 RPM Maxtor in my convection-cooled iMac DV/SE 400. I initially entertained the same concerns RE: cooling that you've expressed here.

The maxtor drive has been in practically continuous operation since its installation back in June 2002. I use Gauge Pro to monitor the processor temperature (at least I did initially, when I was still concerned) and noticed no change in the average temperature following installation of the 7200 RPM Maxtor.

There were benefits to my drive upgrade other than increased storage. The Maxtor 7200 is far quieter than my old 5400. Disk access times seem noticably faster.

From my own experience, as well as from the anectotal info I've read here on the boards, the issue of increased heating in the iMac from 7200RPM HD upgrades should not be a concern for you.