Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

mmmdreg

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 14, 2002
1,393
0
Sydney, Australia
I'm looking for a replacement harddrive for my iMac 600 G3 because it's fluffing around being a bit of a tool. It's gayness can be seen in its xbench scores here..

So yeah.. if you were to get a new HD, what brand would you opt for? or are they all pretty much the same..
 

neonart

macrumors 65816
Sep 4, 2002
1,066
67
Near a Mac since 1993.
mmmdreg said:
I'm looking for a replacement harddrive for my iMac 600 G3 because it's fluffing around being a bit of a tool. It's gayness can be seen in its xbench scores here..

So yeah.. if you were to get a new HD, what brand would you opt for? or are they all pretty much the same..

I think there was a time when Maxtor or IBM where kings, but those days are long gone. Most manufacturers are about the same. I would do a google search for ATA Hard Drive Tests and see if you find some info on what drives are faster and have a better warranty.
I personally have been using Samsung drives for some time now and love them. Nothing fancy, just reliable, with a good warranty, at a good price.
 

UKMacBod

macrumors member
Feb 27, 2004
55
0
neonart said:
... Most manufacturers are about the same ...
I would have to disagree with you on that...

I've seen various tests on different hard drives, and I totally swear by Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 (formally IBM DeskStar 180GXP) models. They're very inexpensive, and are very fast and reliable...

Obviously the 'TravelStar' models would apply to you if you're using a laptop.


http://www.cclcomputers.biz/specs/drives/ibm/7k250/spec.htm
 

sonofslim

macrumors 6502a
Jun 6, 2003
742
0
do a forum search, there's been lots of discussion on this topic. i recommend samsung or seagate and would advise against Western Digital, but people's experience with brands and opinions thereof differ.
 

blue&whiteman

macrumors 65816
Nov 30, 2003
1,210
0
sonofslim said:
do a forum search, there's been lots of discussion on this topic. i recommend samsung or seagate and would advise against Western Digital, but people's experience with brands and opinions thereof differ.

western digital can be sketchy at times but man are they fast. I have seen benchmarks where their ata 100 7200rpm caviar jumbo drives have beaten 10,000 rpm sata.

I have a maxtor drive from 99 that isn't very fast at only 5400rpm but its rock solid.

everyones experience is different I guess. is quantum still around? I have not heard of them in a long time.
 

IJ Reilly

macrumors P6
Jul 16, 2002
17,909
1,496
Palookaville
Personally, I'd stay away from Western Digital. They've become probably the leading OEM drive-maker, because they're cheap. I recently installed a Seagate Barracuda in my Cube. If you'd appreciate a fast and quiet drive, I'd recommend the Seagate. Reliability? I'll let you know in a couple of years...
 

krimson

macrumors 65816
i have 6 SCSI Barracuda's that are over 7 years old now (ran for 4 years 24/7), 2 years out of warranty. Only one has failed and was replaced. I can't say much about the current Cuda's, but the old SCSI ones were the best i've ever had.

Right now, WD's are working good for me, and i'd stay away from the Deskstars (Aka Deathstar), i've had 2 fail on me.
 

MoparShaha

Contributor
May 15, 2003
1,646
38
San Francisco
Get a Seagate. I put one into my iMac DV SE, and I'm astonished at how quiet it is. The computer is essentially silent. The stock drive in the iMac is sooo loud! Aside from the quietness, it seems like a very well built, high quality drive. But that's just a subjective observation.
 

thedoc1111

macrumors regular
Aug 13, 2003
123
0
BEWARE - WD HARD DRIVES

Western Digital Hard Drives tend to stop iMacs from going to sleep! Just iMac G3s btw

So stay out of the way of those.

If I were you, I would get a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 Plus (With 8MB Cache)

The Seagate because it is quiet (very) and quite low heat.
Performance is a little behind Maxtor, but the CD Device on the IDE same channel will half the speed of your hard drive anyway, so no matter.

The 7200rpm because it seems like you can't get slower hard drives these days.

The 8MB Cache so it spins up, seeks and reads less often and so pours less heat into the fanless interior of your computer.

When you've got the hard drive, boot into OS 9 and run this file:

http://cubeowner.com/kbase/admin/attach/136-macaam12.sit

It will make the hard drive quieter (with a minimal loss in performance)

Yours

doc

PS And don't get one over 120GB (Your iMac will only support Hard Drives up to that amount, buy a bigger hard drive and the extra space is wasted!)
 

FuzzyBallz

macrumors 6502a
May 2, 2003
977
0
Home of Al-Qaida
Look up Storagereview.com and you'll find out who the king is. Hitachi for 7200 RPM or WD Raptor for 10K RPM. That's what I have on my PC. On the dual G4, I took out the IBM 120GB and put in a WDSE 40GB/8MB.
 

cr2sh

macrumors 68030
May 28, 2002
2,554
3
downtown
MoparShaha said:
Get a Seagate.

Mopar, ever hear the old Plymouth commercial where the guy goes "Ba-ba-ra-ra-cu-cu-da-da!"

My 80gb Seagate Barracuda is very quiet... my 250gb + 8mb Western Digital spins up with gale-force-winds loudness. I couldn't agree more.. get a Seagate.
 

blue&whiteman

macrumors 65816
Nov 30, 2003
1,210
0
cr2sh said:
My 80gb Seagate Barracuda is very quiet... my 250gb + 8mb Western Digital spins up with gale-force-winds loudness.

my 120GB western digital 8mb is very quiet. much more quiet than my maxtor. I have to really listen to hear the WD.
 

bousozoku

Moderator emeritus
Jun 25, 2002
15,673
1,836
Lard
I've currently got a Western Digital in my dual G4/800 that came standard, a Quantum and an IBM in the G3/800, and a Maxtor external drive.

The Quantum is quite reliable and the only other brand I would recommend without reservation would be Seagate.

I've been lucky with this certain IBM model, though many others haven't, the Maxtor used to have major periods where it wouldn't work, and Western Digital are generally junk. That is not to say that WD's Caviar line hasn't come a long way--they used to have a 75 percent failure rate in the early days. :D :eek:
 

bradz_id

macrumors member
Nov 16, 2002
68
0
Tasmania, Australia
All 7200RPM hard drive perform almost identically. The cheapest, most popular and quietest is the Seagate 7200.7 series. They are used in the G5. I have used 5 of them in PCs and they have all been great!
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.