iMac AL 24" Hard Drive Swap - Pics/Procedure inside

[Sirmausalot]

I thought I read that apple was using a perpendicular drive for the 750. Does anyone know. And for those of you on the fence, don't attempt an upgrade like this on an all in one computer. If you need the speed, get mac pro.

 

[cajuncheese]

I thought I read that apple was using a perpendicular drive for the 750. Does anyone know. And for those of you on the fence, don't attempt an upgrade like this on an all in one computer. If you need the speed, get mac pro.

I agree. I thought the upgrade was "moderately challenging." when one takes into account that you don't want to drop or scratch the LCD screen or pull out any of the wires inside, etc. Anything on a Mac Pro would be "very easy" .. you'd have to be very unlucky to screw it up.

 

[TBi]

I thought I read that apple was using a perpendicular drive for the 750. Does anyone know.

Well since you can't get a non-perpendicular 750GB drive... then i'd guess no!

 

[Tom Sawyer]

New Xbench Results - WD WD7500AAKS 750gb Drive

Not sure what this says about Xbench, but relative to the other benchmark results, the WD 750gb is IMPRESSIVE. This is even higher than the raptor score cajun had me post... Had the opportunity to do an even trade for this bad boy and with all the comments and reviews on these drives, it was a no brainer.

So to those thinking of upgrading your drive... the WD is the one to pick up. I will say that it is NO QUIETER than the 7200.10 Seagate that was in my iMac before. But it certainly is faster and that is what counts! 😀

 

[RevToTheRedline]

From what you could tell, is the power supply in the new iMac at the top left of the unit? (top left when looking at the iMac from straight on, sitting on a desk)

If so that would explain why that area gets really hot, compared to the rest of it.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

From what you could tell, is the power supply in the new iMac at the top left of the unit? (top left when looking at the iMac from straight on, sitting on a desk)

If so that would explain why that area gets really hot, compared to the rest of it.

I believe that is the case... the board that the LCD ribbon cable plugs into looks like a powerboard from what I could see peeking under it. The plug (AC) being where it is, I would have thought the PSU would be right there (like the previous iMacs, G5 at least), but it looks like the power circuit is not directly behind/around the AC plug. Would have to pull the logic board to confirm that 100%.

 

[baummer]

Not sure what this says about Xbench, but relative to the other benchmark results, the WD 750gb is IMPRESSIVE. This is even higher than the raptor score cajun had me post... Had the opportunity to do an even trade for this bad boy and with all the comments and reviews on these drives, it was a no brainer.

So to those thinking of upgrading your drive... the WD is the one to pick up. I will say that it is NO QUIETER than the 7200.10 Seagate that was in my iMac before. But it certainly is faster and that is what counts! 😀

Apologies for digging up an old thread, but what is the model number of that WD drive?

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Apologies for digging up an old thread, but what is the model number of that WD drive?

No problem at all... it is a WD7500AAKS

 

[baummer]

No problem at all... it is a WD7500AAKS

Thanks. And can you confirm this drive works well? Reason I ask is, Western Digital's web site says that all of their internal SATA drives are not compatible with Mac OS X (see here: http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/resources/DriveCompatibilityguide.asp). Does this mean they don't *officially* support them, or...? Also, how did you install OS X and your other files onto the new drive?

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Thanks. And can you confirm this drive works well? Reason I ask is, Western Digital's web site says that all of their internal SATA drives are not compatible with Mac OS X (see here: http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/resources/DriveCompatibilityguide.asp). Does this mean they don't *officially* support them, or...? Also, how did you install OS X and your other files onto the new drive?

That is VERY strange... most definitely the drive works perfectly. My iMac originally came with a WD drive so not sure why they would say it's not compatible. Tiger installed with ease as did Leopard.... Full size reported properly, etc etc. Installed via the original install DVD's, boot off of drive (hold down C), nothing out of the ordinary. Would be interesting to see what drive is put in the iMacs with 750gb from the factory... I would not be surprised if it is this drive... Anyway, Hope that helps!

 

[Mindflux]

Did you replace the pad bit seen on the top of the 320GB drive onto your new one? Good work!

 

[Mindflux]

Seen here.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Did you replace the pad bit seen on the top of the 320GB drive onto your new one? Good work!

Thanks, I appreciate that! I did, yes.. I think that was to perhaps damper vibration to the case... pealed off with no problem.

 

[Leon Kowalski]

That is VERY strange... most definitely the drive works perfectly.

Even MORE STRANGE, that same WD compatibility guide says you shoulda used an EIDE drive.

...BWAHAHAHAHA!

LK

 

[morphodone]

imac hard drive

I bought my imac back in late September. The drive in my
machine has this model number "ST3250820AS Q" according to
About This Mac.

From the seagate website...

The Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 desktop hard drive features innovative perpendicular recording technology and is the first drive on the market to provide capacities up to 750 GB. Barracuda 7200.10 hard drives deliver superb performance, efficiency, speed and durability for all your application needs.

Apple must have moved to this drive at some point.

 

[keirnna]

Your warranty isn't affected by this unless you break something.

Questionable, Your warranty can be voided by replacing components that are not designed to be or are not deemed user replaceable. Now there is also a consumer protection law that says a warranty is only void if the manufacture can prove that the changes you made caused the failure.

 

[Mindflux]

Questionable, Your warranty can be voided by replacing components that are not designed to be or are not deemed user replaceable. Now there is also a consumer protection law that says a warranty is only void if the manufacture can prove that the changes you made caused the failure.

If this is anything like the Magnussun-Moss act (car modifications/warranty) same thing we're talking about here with Mac's is the burden of proof is on the consumer not the corporation. Do you have the resources and time to have the proof established by a professional and then fight it out with Apple in court?

I've seen this happen a few times on some car forums I am on. It's really sad to see someone go through this because they put a K&N filter in their car and their motor seized up some 10s of thousands of miles later, but while still in warranty.

 

[keirnna]

If this is anything like the Magnussun-Moss act (car modifications/warranty) same thing we're talking about here with Mac's is the burden of proof is on the consumer not the corporation. Do you have the resources and time to have the proof established by a professional and then fight it out with Apple in court?

I've seen this happen a few times on some car forums I am on. It's really sad to see someone go through this because they put a K&N filter in their car and their motor seized up some 10s of thousands of miles later, but while still in warranty.

Right Apple will win in the end. I just had a major issues with my Macbook that was very upgraded. Apple didn't care about the upgrades and worked with me. It took telling them they better stop treating me like a jackass and I didn't get an ACSA and work in IT for the last 7 years to be treated like a freaking retard by their phone support techs that have experience measured in months.

I plan to upgrade my 24" iMac over the weekend to a 1TB drive. I just bought two of the new WD GP 1TB drives last weekend for my Time Machine backup. They are great, but I am not sure if I want anything but the fastest biggest drive internal to my iMac. The low heat of the WD GPs is a benefit, but I am not sure if it is enough to convince me to install it in the iMac. What do you guys think?

 

[keirnna]

Well I am definitely going for one of the new Seagate 1TB drives after reading what Tom's Hardware had to say. I just have to decide if I want to pay an extra $30 for the enterprise version of the drive. I had some disturbing results today. I have a brand new 24" Aluminum iMac and these are the 3 xBench scores I got for my drives:

Internal SATA stock 320 GB drive:

External FW800 drive with 2 500 GB WD AAKS drives:

External USB2 drive with 2 1TB WD GP drives:

I was working on my sister-in-law's Macbook and compared to my iMac it screams. It must boot twice as fast. I am not super stoked. Sorry to post off topic.

 

[psonice]

I'd put the 1TB drives in the firewire 800 box to properly test it - usb is pretty slow, and that will sway your results a lot. Can't see why the macbook would be faster though, the imac disk should be a lot faster. If you've got anything that loads at login time that will affect it, and it's always slow booting after applying an update.

 

[Mindflux]

How does that thermistor clip attach to the drive? Did you just use a bit of adhesive or something?

 

[TBi]

From what you could tell, is the power supply in the new iMac at the top left of the unit? (top left when looking at the iMac from straight on, sitting on a desk)

If so that would explain why that area gets really hot, compared to the rest of it.

This is above the main CPU/GPU heatsink so the heat is probably coming from there.

 

[bluedoggiant]

tow sawyer...

its time for you to do this again, and this time, take out the video card and replace it with a different one, inspect the LCD name, and everything, we need to get to the bottom of these freezes!!!

 

[TBi]

its time for you to do this again, and this time, take out the video card and replace it with a different one, inspect the LCD name, and everything, we need to get to the bottom of these freezes!!!

Yes i'm sure he has a different card lying around. As you do. I mean i have like 20 iMac graphics cards lying around for no particular reason. I'm also sure that he wants to risk damaging his perfectly working iMac just for you as well.

I wonder what will happen 🙂

 

[proc]

Right Apple will win in the end. I just had a major issues with my Macbook that was very upgraded. Apple didn't care about the upgrades and worked with me. It took telling them they better stop treating me like a jackass and I didn't get an ACSA and work in IT for the last 7 years to be treated like a freaking retard by their phone support techs that have experience measured in months.

I plan to upgrade my 24" iMac over the weekend to a 1TB drive. I just bought two of the new WD GP 1TB drives last weekend for my Time Machine backup. They are great, but I am not sure if I want anything but the fastest biggest drive internal to my iMac. The low heat of the WD GPs is a benefit, but I am not sure if it is enough to convince me to install it in the iMac. What do you guys think?

I'd recommend a Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 with 32MB cache. I have upgraded my white iMac 24" with this drive and I am very pleased with its performance, heat output and generated noise.