New Hard Drive in LCD iMac?

toadie

Hey all- I'm tempted to take out the slow hard drive in my new iMac and replace it with a larger 7200 rpm drive. I just wanted to get folks' opinions on this: Is it doable? Would I see some speed improvements, or is the system bus too slow for it to make any difference anyway (I don't even know if the two are related- that's why I'm askin here...)? Would it void my warrantee?



Alternatively, if I got a firewire 7200 rpm disk would that be faster than the internal thing, or does the firewire slow down transfers? Also, what about booting from firewire hard drives- faster or no big difference?



Thanks, any advice would be appreciated, or if you just want to tell me to be happy with what I have, do that.

spart

Yes, it would void your warrantee. Doing anything beyond the user-accessable slots for airport/ram will void it, you should have a certified mac tech do anything of the kind...requires know-how and some specialized thermal pads/paste, plus a torx screwdriver.



However, you CAN replace it. It IS doable. I have a PDF detailing the dissasembly/reassembly of the iMac and it is quite a task. Don't know about the 7200 RPM thing though...

applenut

[quote]Originally posted by Toadie:

<strong>Hey all- I'm tempted to take out the slow hard drive in my new iMac and replace it with a larger 7200 rpm drive. I just wanted to get folks' opinions on this: Is it doable? Would I see some speed improvements, or is the system bus too slow for it to make any difference anyway (I don't even know if the two are related- that's why I'm askin here...)? Would it void my warrantee?



Alternatively, if I got a firewire 7200 rpm disk would that be faster than the internal thing, or does the firewire slow down transfers? Also, what about booting from firewire hard drives- faster or no big difference?



Thanks, any advice would be appreciated, or if you just want to tell me to be happy with what I have, do that.</strong><hr></blockquote>





if you do decide to go forward with it get an apple certified technician to do it. not worth losing your warranty over.



as for if you will see a difference. yes, the imac is more than fast enough to handle a 7200 RPM HD. My G4/400 has a 7200 RPM HD and a 5400RPM hard drive in it. the 7200 is clearly faster.



not too sure whether you would see as big a difference if you went external though. I think the latest oxford bridgechip for the firewire drives gets good throuput so its likely you would see a difference.

jeremiah rich

I have a 7200 RPM harddrive in my iMac 450, and it runs great, noticeably faster than the old 5200...