[Anilan]

I have an iMac 1,25GHz running OS X.4.6.

I was thinking of upgrading the HDD to a Seagate Barracuda SATA2 7200.10 320GB.

So my question is, how fast will it actually run in my iMac? What I mean is that I currently have the stock 80GB ATA100 drive inside. I'm not sure if it will run at SATA speeds let alone running at SATA2 speeds. Don't I need some sort of special connector for SATA drives too?

This is not my main concern with the upgrade, I just wanted to know whether it will run faster with this drive.

Thanks.

[iMacfan]

That definitely won't work. You'll have an ATA100 controller in the G4 iMac, which will not talk at all to an SATA drive. The different ATA versions and SATA versions will work with each other, but not ATA with SATA.

You also need to know that opening up a 'sunflower' iMac is not trivial - it involves removing the processor heatsink, and so the thermal compound will need to be replaced as well.

David.

[Anilan]

So as I understand it, the SATA/SATA2 harddrives are not backwards compatible with IDE ATA100 controllers?

[harrisjamieh]

Correct

[Anilan]

I see, thanks!

[mduell]

You can convert an SATA drive to IDE with a $10 adapter, which is often less than the price difference between SATA (cheaper) and IDE (more expensive). I'm not sure if there is enough internal room in the iMac for the adapter.