[Fyre4ce]

Hey,

My folks have a 500 MHz slot-loading iMac (summer 2001), and they complain that it's sluggish when browsing the web and doing other basic tasks. This doesn't surprise me since it's running on its original system folder (it's running 9) and hasn't been cleaned out in two years. I'm sure the HD is fragmented. I could just wipe the HD and do a clean reinstall of the system, and that would help some. They could also replace it with an eMac, which would be a net cost of around $500-600.

But I am thinking of a middle of the road solution: upgrade the HD. For most of what they do, I don't think the CPU is the bottleneck. If I were to put in a Western Digital Jumbo Buffer drive or a 180 GXP I think it would really make the computer feel a LOT faster. I have only one concern: heat. The machine is not cooled with a fan, only by convection. And the drive I would put in there would be 7200 RPM and would probably put out more heat than the stock drive. So I guess I have a few questions:

1) Where can I find power consumption (heat output) data for the stock drive? I already have those numbers for the WD drive.

2) What would happen if the computer overheats? Would it melt? Would it shut off? Would it crack a head gasket?

3) Does anyone have any experience putting in a 7200 RPM drive into one of these fan-less iMacs?

Thanks!

[Fyre4ce]

What the ****? Is this forum dead or something? I posted this yesterday and it's gotten no replies and is still like 5th on the list.

[jedi]

Hey Dude ,
I had a long night , yesterday my HD finaly S2Bed, and I had already bought a replacement , so no big deal changing it out, just strange how the old one died.
I just sort-of disapeared right before me eyes
I tried Norton Utilites and nothin` then I tried booting from my old apple care CD and there was no HD on the desk-top.
So I restarted and used "control-z" to get to the firmware , usless so there I am 9:30 at night and a busted iMac , so with screw driver in hand I put another Maxtor in (now i`m on my 3rd HD)
It`s a 7200 / 30 gig , ya they do get hot , good for cooking bacon and eggs after a long night LOL
Some folks notice a big dif in speed , not me , but only working with a 66 MgZ bus and a 400 CPU so it is`nt going to be fast maybe faster but not by much.
It`s real easy , I mean easy , to change out .
I think it only took about 15 min from back off to back on.
Have fun , just don`t forget the fry pan LOL
jedi

[Link]

weird jedi.. usually hard drives die only after they've been spun down (never seen a motor die in action)..

[BrunoBruin]

Running 9, it should not feel sluggish. Can you confirm what it is that they're doing? I've had people complain to me that their computer is slow when what they mean is their dial-up Internet connection is slow.

Definitely try a clean install before replacing the drive. Or there may even be a mechanical problem with the drive. Try DiskWarrior if you have it, or at least run disk utility and reinstall.

I put a 7200-rpm drive in a 500MHz iMac and I did notice an improvement in boot times and app launching, as you'd expect. I still maintain that the reason Apple went with 5400-rpm drives was to save a few pennies; lots of people have installed 7200s with no problems. But others will tell you they're too hot. So proceed at your own risk. If the computer gets too hot, it should just shut down, but constant high heat could damage other components.

[THE MAC GOD]

I have a 233 ... it's not fanless, but I was worried about heat, so I bought an large internal computer fan and spliced the wires of that to a dc power supply and affixed the fan onto the circle vents on top of the iMac (put straightened paperclips through the mount holes on the fan into the holes on top)... It would suck the air right through and keep the oc'ed processor and 40gb 7200rpm drive cool (about 32C)

[bradoesch]

I put a 7200 rpm WD SE drive in my iMac recently. I read up on it first and some people claim today's 7200 rpm drives are cooler than the stock 5400 that shipped with the iMac. I've found that if you can properly cool the iMac (keeping it's backside hanging off the back of a desk) it'll be fine.
The only problem I've had is with this new hard drive the iMac won't sleep. It hard drive keeps spinning up and down over and over while it's sleeping. WD says this is Apple fault, so I don't know what to do. There's threads about this on Apple's discussions, I've started a thread here in the OS X forum and there are many reader reports at www.xlr8yourmac.com with the same problem.



Brad

[scottiB]

Avoid the WD Jumbo drives. Like brad, above, mine won't sleep all the time.

Actually, I'd pop in any 2MB 7200 drive (I like Seagates, myself) and max the memory. One gig (or at least one 512MB chip) would help speed more, I'd think.

If OS 9 is the main OS, make sure you increase memory allocation to their most-used programs.

[tooki]

I agree, add RAM, turn off VM (it makes OS 9 feel sluggish), and if you still want, put in a bigger drive.

Modern 7200 RPM drives create no more heat than 5400 RPM drives, so don't worry about it.

tooki

[Fyre4ce]

Originally posted by tooki:
I agree, add RAM, turn off VM (it makes OS 9 feel sluggish), and if you still want, put in a bigger drive.

Modern 7200 RPM drives create no more heat than 5400 RPM drives, so don't worry about it.

tooki

I think they have 256 MB, which should be plenty for OS 9, and I'm pretty sure VM is off.

I dunno, I was convinced the drive was the bottleneck. Most of what they do is web browsing and I can hear the HD churning away writing to cache.

[vmarks]

I'd be careful with the higher heat drives. People who've done that say they're fine...
But others who've done it have reported a higher incidence of cooking the analog/video/power supply, which is right above the drive.

[tooki]

Again, any recent 7200 RPM drive doesn't create any more heat than the couple-of-years-old 5400 RPM drive the iMac shipped with.

Also, the analog board is not right above the hard drive -- it's the optical drive, and then the CRT. The analog board is above the logic board, around the sides of the CRT's neck.

tooki

[CaseCom]

I've had a 7200 rpm HD (30 GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus) in my fanless 400 MHz iMac DV since July 2000 ... still going strong. Only "problem" I've noticed is that CDs come out noticeably warmer to the touch; newer 7200 drives are probably cooler.

[Stogieman]

I've had three 7200 rpm drives installed in my iMac DVSE 400 and never had a problem with over heating. The first was a 75gb IBM deskstar (One of the few models IBM produced that turned out to be lemons). When that died just 3 months after purchase, I replaced it with an 80gb Maxtor. That drive was too loud for my tastes so I gave it to my brother and replaced it with a 60gb Hitachi. Haven't had any problems since.

[vsurfer]

Originally posted by bradoesch:
I put a 7200 rpm WD SE drive in my iMac recently. ...I've started a thread here in the OS X forum and there are many reader reports at www.xlr8yourmac.com with the same problem.
Brad

After my iMac 400 DV p.o.s. o.e.m drive failed within a year and a quarter (like quite a few others), I installed a WD 7200 rpm drive. It has performed just fine, if not at least (subjectively perhaps) a little faster than the o.e.m. drive.



-------
( The iMac DV is still in daily action keeping the rest of the family online, crunching SETI, while my current rig is a 1ghz Ti Book )

[Thomas_MacFreak]

I have an iMac DV SE 500MHz, and I have replaced my old 30GB 5400rpm HD with a new 7200rpm 120GB HD.

My iMac is more quiet now, because I bought one of the most quiet hard disk drive ever made. Buy Seagate Barracuda!!! I can barely hear my iMac now.