Replacing the hard drive in a iMac G4

[chibiterasu]

Hi all

Im about to do some much needed maintenance on my much loved iMac G4 (in sig) on which I'm posting this. Right firstly since I brought this imac G4 there have been three things I've wanted to do on the inside:

1, upgrade ram internally so it has 1.5 gb in total
2, replace broken disc drive
3, replace the hard drive which I think is the original 80gb
(oh a clean the inside)

I have the stuff I need for 1 and 2

I am well aware about the pitfalls of opening up a imac G4, thats not my question, I was wondering what is the best thing to put in the hdd slot, I don't think I have enough money for a ssd but I'm wary of buying a second hand ide HDD and was wondering whether a adaptor to sata is best or just a new ide hdd. Im not too worried about space or speed as its a secondary pc but anything over 80gb is best.

Pic attached as to why I need to replace the HDD, but I think its done well for a 10 year old iMac

So what should I do?
Thanks in advance

 

[ihuman:D]

Check Amazon or OWC for HDD. I got a Western Digital for my PB and it runs great, I got it of Amazon.

 

[chibiterasu]

Check Amazon or OWC for HDD. I got a Western Digital for my PB and it runs great, I got it of Amazon.

I never thought to check amazon as IDE is such an old standard but there are possibilities on there for 3.5 IDE hdd at good prices with a warrenty so we like that, any ideas for a sata conversion?

 

[Swampus]

...any ideas for a sata conversion?

I've had good luck with generic adapters such as this one.

You'd definitely get more bang for your buck in terms of storage capacity with a SATA drive & adapter. However, you indicate that storage space isn't really a concern for this particular machine?

Maybe the determining factor should be whether or not you would like to easily move this drive to a newer computer at some point in the future? If not, I'd probably just go with another PATA.

Also, since capacity isn't an issue, keep in mind that OWC has legacy 60GB SSDs for under $120.

 

[Bear]

Knowing how tight the space in an iMac G4 is, you may need to stick to an IDE drive instead of trying to use a SATA drive with a converter.

 

[chibiterasu]

The reason I mentioned sata is mainly for availability of drives and bang for buck is important too, I forgot to mention that I have a 160gb 2.5 inch sata kicking around which I've owned since new from a now dead netbook. A ssd at that price sound great I just can't find anything in that price range in the uk on ebay or amazon. Yes storage space isn't really an issue because I have 1tb in my Mbp a USB seagate go flex 500gb and a WD 1tb mybook nas.

So I have ordered an equivent of what you said http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...ails_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1#productDetails so for £1.77 I'm taking a punt if it doesn't work then I probably will just 3.5 IDE drive. Your quite right that there is not much room in the iMac which is why I'm going to fit my 2.5 inch drive with the adaptor.

Thanks for the help everyone, I may post back when it's all done.

 

[Swampus]

I suspect that will work out fine for you. Here is an old thread, including pictures, where someone did the same thing with a 2.5 inch SSD.

The adapter adds just a hair under 2cm in length as measured from the edge of the drive to the top of the electrolytic capacitors facing the other side, but only about 15mm difference in the point at which the IDE ribbon attaches.

 

[Aameiel]

I thought about installing a WD VelociRaptor into my imac g4

 

[chibiterasu]

I suspect that will work out fine for you. Here is an old thread, including pictures, where someone did the same thing with a 2.5 inch SSD.

The adapter adds just a hair under 2cm in length as measured from the edge of the drive to the top of the electrolytic capacitors facing the other side, but only about 15mm difference in the point at which the IDE ribbon attaches.

That old thread was very useful I haven't seen that before, and thanks for the physical sizes.

I thought about installing a WD VelociRaptor into my imac g4

What an awesome hard drive shame about the £118 price tag here on amazon in the uk, but the good thing about putting a sata converter in now is in the future it will give me flexibility on what will go in next when my 160gb 2.5 inch starts to die. Whether that be on of those WD things or an ssd.

 

[tom vilsack]

Don't forget to get some thermal paste...you will want to clean both sides of medal heat sink,then apply grain size on both ends...

 

[chibiterasu]

Don't forget to get some thermal paste...you will want to clean both sides of medal heat sink,then apply grain size on both ends...

Indeed I haven't forgotten about that, it's one of the reasons I want to do everything in one hit so I don't have to buy a ton of thermal compound also the iMac while beautiful on the outside on the inside its all a bit of a pain but it will be good fun to do for a day.