[vvedge]

My iMac DV has been on its replacement 60 gig hard drive for pretty close to 4 years now, and it's due for dying out.

I'd love to keep this iMac around for another year or two, perhaps with a much quieter hard drive. That's the only loud part of this machine, and I'd love it if I could come into a room and not notice it was on.

So what kind of hard drive could I put in there, considering, capacity (at least 60 gigs), heat, and noise.

Thank in advance.

[tooki]

Seagate. 120GB and less.

And then do a search, people have studied this topic about a gajillion times in the iMac and Power Mac forums.

tooki

[Kissargi]

seagate barracuda is the way to go

[indigoimac]

Another vote for the barracuda

[bradoesch]

Here's a vote against the WD Special Edition drives. Many people (including myself) can't sleep their Macs with this drive. It keeps spinning up and down while the computer is sleeping. Funny it happens only when booted from the internal drive. My iMac sleeps fine when booted from a FireWire drive. :/
There are many threads at Apple's forums, reader reports at XlR8YourMac and I started one here. You've been warned.

[stuffedmonkey]

I vote against the WD - just because they get noisy after a while. i love my seagate.

[Madison]

Seagate Barracuda, absolutely!

[buffalolee]

Seagate. It's not the fastest hard drive, but it is the quietest. Imaging your computer running at silent noise levels. It's sweet.

[vvedge]

New question... best place to get a Seagate? Good deals? price?

[ethical_paul]

Originally posted by vvedge:
New question... best place to get a Seagate? Good deals? price?

If only there were a worldwide network, possibly running on computers, where someone could look up prices and reviews of products from around the world. One can only dream that such a network will someday exist!

[bradoesch]

Originally posted by ethical_paul:
If only there were a worldwide network, possibly running on computers, where someone could look up prices and reviews of products from around the world. One can only dream that such a network will someday exist!

[marc1]

is it safe to put in a 7200 RPM drive in a slot loading iMac? or does it produce too much heat?

[indigoimac]

Originally posted by marc1:
is it safe to put in a 7200 RPM drive in a slot loading iMac? or does it produce too much heat?

I don't know how this rumor got started but either way you shouldn't have any problems.

[P]

Originally posted by marc1:
is it safe to put in a 7200 RPM drive in a slot loading iMac? or does it produce too much heat?

Once again, search the forums. Anyway, the heat developed by a 7200 rpm drive is not significantly larger that that of 5400 rpm drive, that's a mistake in logic that unfortunately a lot of people have made. What does make a difference is the cache size. 8 MB caches are hotter, generally too hot for the fanless iMac. 2MB caches are OK, so get a 7200 rpm drive with a 2 MB cache. Also, keep the drive at 120 gigs or below - that model of iMacs does not support drives over 128 gigs (=137 billion bytes, what harddrive makers call 137 gigs). My old iMac DV has a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 with a 2 meg cache - that's what I consider optimal.

[Geezus_Aach]

About a month ago, I installed a brand new Maxtor 7200rpm 60GB drive in my iMac DV 400. So far, I've ran it for hours and hours without any heat problems. And I never hear it spin...it's practically silent!

FWIW, I have always been a huge fan of the Seagate Barracuda (V and IV) drives...Ive been using them in my PCs for the past 3 years...completely silent...highly recommended. But for $30 (CompUSA), I am 100% satified with the Maxtor in my iMac. Check with www.pricewatch.com for the good deal.

[marc1]

I got a 80Gig Seagate Barracuda 7 yesterday for $49 (with rebates) from Best Buy. They are also selling the 120Gig for $79 (after rebates).

Already installed it in my iMac.