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buying an internal drive online

N

NoMoreWhispers

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 25, 2008
25
0
NYC
Hey there,

I have an iMac G5, and since the internal hard drive fried, I need to purchase a new one.
I'm having a little difficulty finding where to purchase a new one online, so I just wanted to know if anyone can recommend what site to go to that sells good internal drives for iMacs, or just recommend what internal drive I should get for my G5.

Thank you ;)

EDIT: Actually, would the 2nd product on this page be ok to purchase for my iMac G5? It seems ok for an iMac but I just want to be sure and I know you guys on this site are super sweet and smart : )

http://www.pcpartsohio.com/Books.aspx?category_id=6
 
Hi-

Since your iMac is a G5 the easiest way to put it is that virtually any 3.5" SATA interface drive will work fine, including the one in your link. You are not limited to the 320Gb it was either- larger drives will work fine and currently the 500Gb size seems to be about the best bang for the buck, size vs. pricewise with many of them selling for $60 or so. Personally I would be hesitant to purchase from the source you linked, as I notice they only offer 90 days warranty on the drives and note that they are OEM surplus, which often means they have been pulled from systems when upgrades have been done, etc. A brand new drive from a reputable dealer with a full manufacturer's warranty (3 or 5 years depending on manufacturer) sure seems be a better deal for only a few more dollars- literally. The 500Gb drive they list for $47 can be had brand new (link below) for $63 from one well known source (with free shipping) and will carry the full factory warranty for example.

I would suggest purchasing from one of the well known companies that have get a lot of support from Mac people- either OWC (Other World Computing) which is great to deal with or perhaps newegg.com which has a LOT of deals going on al the time.

OWC's 3.5" SATA drives can be seen at this page, and the newegg.com drives can be seen at this page. Any well known hard drive name will work fine- Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung (my personal favorites) or Hitachi. A good example of a current good 500Gb drive for $62.99 with free shipping might be this Samsung drive.

If you need it, Apple has a good guide with pictures for replacing the hard drive in G5 iMacs-

For 20" G5 iMacs without an EyeSight camera: http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/imacg5_20inch_HardDrive.pdf

For 17" G5 iMacs without an Eyesight camera: http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/imacG5_17inch_harddrive.pdf

Hard drive replacement articles for other models of the G5 iMac can be found by looking through the list of Apple Do-It Yourself manuals those came from here.
 
With Amazon or Newegg you cant go wrong, check the reviews of the hard drives you are interested in. I will stay away from Maxtor, had three separate hard drives from that brand all die within a month.

:apple:
 
Newegg is great but some have complained about neweggs improper packaging of hd's creating doa drives but I've ordered MANY drives and had no problems thus far.

I like seagate becuase of the 5 year warranty. The 1TB drive is around $110 or so now at newegg.

Zack
 
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