iMac 4,1 needs new HD, suggestions?

[somebody else]

I was trying to install SL onto this iMac but it kept spitting out the disc after rebooting. Has 1.83 GHz intel core duo, 1.5 GB ram and plenty of space on the hard drive. Several tricks and attempts later, brought it to store and hard drive is failing. They wanted $217 for a 500GB replacement, it's way out of warranty so I'm pretty sure I should just get a replacement and put it in myself.

Would like to spend less than $100, what hard drive should I get? 500 GB is fine but will I be able to just hook it up and put the install disc in and be good to go? Don't want to have to spend a lot of time on this...


Thanks

 

[lon-rac]

Try to look at OWC www.macsales.com
Good luck
;D

Enviado desde Flyer with tapatalk

 

[Big-TDI-Guy]

Do you know what a Torx driver is, and do you have any on hand?

If you answered "no" to either of those questions, I'd strongly advise having Apple do it at $200 dollars. Likely worth it, unless you're up for opening that iMac up (which will need a couple different Torx drivers to accomplish), then you have remove your connectors, EMI tape, LCD, HD temp sensor, and finally the HD itself.

I've had good luck with WD drives, namely the Black series.

Not knocking your aptitude, but generally speaking, iMacs are far less friendly to HD swaps then your typical tower or laptop.

Best of luck to you.

Edit: Yes you can just swap them out, providing you have your OS install disc on hand.

 

[dwarnecke11]

The WD Caviar Black in my 2010 iMac i7 tends to run hot. My room is on the warm side, usually 79-82°F, and the HD temp eventually works its way up as high as 135°F doing light browsing and YouTube. The fan speed stays at 1100 rpm until 132°F, then it increases to 1300. At 135°F, it increases to 1500. My iMac is also placed in a corner of the room where it doesn't get much ventilation.

I'm moving to a cooler one-story house in two weeks. Hopefully this will help.

 

[robgendreau]

Do you know what a Torx driver is, and do you have any on hand?

If you answered "no" to either of those questions, I'd strongly advise having Apple do it at $200 dollars. Likely worth it, unless you're up for opening that iMac up (which will need a couple different Torx drivers to accomplish), then you have remove your connectors, EMI tape, LCD, HD temp sensor, and finally the HD itself.

I've had good luck with WD drives, namely the Black series.

Not knocking your aptitude, but generally speaking, iMacs are far less friendly to HD swaps then your typical tower or laptop.

Best of luck to you.

Edit: Yes you can just swap them out, providing you have your OS install disc on hand.

Check ifixit.com for a replacement tutorial and decide for yourself if you can do it. If you are careful, you probably can. And you'll save major bucks, and be proud of your new-found skills as well! They can sell you a whole kit, and their drives are pretty reasonably priced. Macsales too. 500GB isn't that big these days, but YMMV. The RAM probably is a little low for SL, but again it depends on what you do on that machine.

I would think you could also boot from an external via firewire; kinda clunky, but cheap.