Having an external ssd only on imac g4

[o2sys]

Hi all, new here. Recently purchased an imac g4 20in and as I wait for it been looking here for mods and etc.

Already purchased 2gb worth of ram, a new fan and an owc ssd.

But instead of mounting the ssd internally I was wondering if I could keep it external via fw and completely remove the the internal hhd.

Would it run like this? Will the os run smoothly?

 

[thekev]

I don't really see the point in using firewire SSDs. Yeah they have lower seek times, but that limits it to roughly 40MB/s. If I recall correctly, G4s used Ultra ATA internally, so you're limited on max potential speed regardless.

 

[zen.state]

It would be like buying a Porsche and never taking it out of 1st gear.

 

[Hrududu]

The internal drive bus is ATA-6 which is much faster than Firewire. If it were me, I would try and find a way to install the HDD on that bus.

 

[tom vilsack]

adaptor

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0049D7PCU/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3/192-1305664-3601949?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_r=0M1EN2RCDBN56W20X8EA&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=1278548962&pf_rd_i=B0046XFA6G

taking apart imac G4 (not as hard as it looks...just rem when you put back togeather to reapply thermal paste to both ends of heat tube)

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/iMac_g4/imacg4_takeapart.html

 

[o2sys]

I don't really see the point in using firewire SSDs. Yeah they have lower seek times, but that limits it to roughly 40MB/s. If I recall correctly, G4s used Ultra ATA internally, so you're limited on max potential speed regardless.

I already bought the pata to sata adpter as well for internal use. I asked for external use so i could take the ssd on the go if i needed too (just in case). But if fw is slower than ide then guess is not worth it.

 

[Hrududu]

I already bought the pata to sata adpter as well for internal use. I asked for external use so i could take the ssd on the go if i needed too (just in case). But if fw is slower than ide then guess is not worth it.

Don't get me wrong, FireWire is still fast enough to boot from, but it'll be much slower than the internal bus. You'll never see any speed benefits from the SSD, but if you are wanting a drive thats good to travel with I guess the SSD should be much more resilient.

 

[DockMac]

SATA II/III > ATA > FireWire 400/800 > USB 2.0

Where does USB 3.0, DisplayPort, and Ethernet fit into all this?

 

[robvas]

It won't be that bad. Don't forget how slow the old hard drives were.

Firewire 800 would be pretty good. I've ran my MacBook Pro off an Intel SSD using USB 2.0, and it ran fine.

 

[zen.state]

Firewire 800 would be pretty good

Yes it would but an iMac G4 doesn't have FW800.

 

[thekev]

I already bought the pata to sata adpter as well for internal use. I asked for external use so i could take the ssd on the go if i needed too (just in case). But if fw is slower than ide then guess is not worth it.

Taking it on the go you could still experience a couple advantages of an SSD. Basically the lack of moving parts may make frequent transportation less stressful on the drive (this is just speculation as spinning down HDDs and packing them up/moving them while hot is definitely a bit stressful on the electronics). You'd still have some of the seek time advantage although I'm not sure if the slight latency with firewire (slight, not as bad as usb) might kill part of it. If you're in need of higher capacity on the go, a 3.5" HDD can be a better option. People buy SSDs primarily for speed, as both HDDs and SSDs do eventually fail, even if SSDs lack some of the mechanical wear issues. I think if you're paying for speed you don't want it on a slow connection.