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MultiFinder17

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jan 8, 2008
2,719
2,037
Tampa, Florida
Hello all! I was just wondering how many of you out there had experience installing SSDs in our PowerPC Macs? I recently purchased an older 64GB SSD to install in my iMac G5, primarily to try reducing the amount of heat in the case as much as possible; I realize that the HDD doesn't make *that* much of a difference, but it's pretty much the only major hot part that can be swapped out. I wasn't expecting much out of it, seeing as how it's an old SSD hooked into a SATA I bus. However, just as in every other computer I've upgraded to an SSD, the difference is astounding! This big fella is so much snappier now; Xbench reports the new HDD running at least 3x faster than the old (I hooked the old one up via FireWire to bench it), and I'd believe it! It's not so much that it boots or launches apps significantly faster (although those are noticeably faster!), but it's much better about multitasking than it ever was before. This drive gave my trusty old iMac yet another lease on life; if you've been on the edge about SSDs in an old Power Mac, and you have a SATA bus to spare, go for it!
 

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Intell

macrumors P6
Jan 24, 2010
18,955
509
Inside
If less heat is your goal, a SSD may not do it. Depending on the age, brand, and type of SSD it can make just as much or more heat than a regular 7200 ramp hard drive.
 

MultiFinder17

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jan 8, 2008
2,719
2,037
Tampa, Florida
If less heat is your goal, a SSD may not do it. Depending on the age, brand, and type of SSD it can make just as much or more heat than a regular 7200 ramp hard drive.

Probing it with a temp gun after running for a while seems to show it running a bit cooler than the old HDD, which got very warm. I've never had any heat issues with this iMac, but it's always better safe than sorry, especially with an aging G5 system.

Plus, even if it's an equivalent amount of heat being generated, it's still significantly faster :)
 

noodle654

macrumors 68020
Jun 2, 2005
2,070
22
Never Ender
If less heat is your goal, a SSD may not do it. Depending on the age, brand, and type of SSD it can make just as much or more heat than a regular 7200 ramp hard drive.

If it was the original stock drive I think the SSD would be running cooler (between 80-90F). I had the stock drive in my G5 from 2005 and it ran well over 105F at idle. Those old hard drives really have some serious heat output. I would agree with you if the drive was more recent; those WD Green and Red drives run really cool.

OP if you want to really reduce the heat, might I suggest reapplying the thermal paste on the CPU/GPU?
 

MultiFinder17

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Jan 8, 2008
2,719
2,037
Tampa, Florida
OP if you want to really reduce the heat, might I suggest reapplying the thermal paste on the CPU/GPU?

I did a while back as part of my regular maintenance of my older machines.

I'll be honest, lowering heat inside the box was more a handy excuse for myself to invest in an SSD for a 9-year-old iMac :p
 

charlieroberts

macrumors 6502a
Feb 5, 2007
595
111
I did a while back as part of my regular maintenance of my older machines.

I'll be honest, lowering heat inside the box was more a handy excuse for myself to invest in an SSD for a 9-year-old iMac :p

I have an SSD in my powerbook G4. Increased battery life and decreased heat, so totally worth it. And ohsosanppy
 

grockk

macrumors 6502
Mar 16, 2006
365
5
I put an SSD in a powerbook and saw tremendous decrease in heat. The fans hardly ever come on anymore.

I used one of the micro sata drives with adapter which also gave less air restriction so when fans do come on, they cool quickly and turn back off.

What's almost better than the speedup is less noise from hard drive and fans.
 

tigerintank

macrumors 6502
Jun 16, 2013
271
47
i tried a borrowed ssd in my iMac G5 a few years back and i don't remember noticing any significant difference at all.

iirc i timed the boot and it was slightly faster but nowhere near what i expected.

i think it was a sata 2 drive - may have been a crucial but tbh i don't remember. maybe i need to give it try again!
 

wobegong

Guest
May 29, 2012
418
1
Much cooler, much faster (as Nameci's post above shows) - Its not bandwidth its latency! Bootup is less than half the time on my machine against a 2Tb WD Black... Use an OCZ Agility 3 250Gb.
 
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