My old iBook G3...Hard drive speed?
I have a 500mhz iBook G3 and am going to be replacing the measly 30gb hard drive with something larger. (I am going to replace the optical drive while I'm at it because it doesn't always work.) I believe that the hard drive in my iBook is a 4200 RPM drive. Should I get a 5400 RPM drive with more space or a 7200 RPM drive that's faster? I use CS2, so I think the extra HDD speed might help.
And yes I know how old (and SLOW) this computer is - I am buying a 24" Intel iMac soon...c'mon updates! But this computer is nice for portability (like school) and runs my school-related apps perfectly under Tiger: Safari, Mail, Office, and iTunes (OK, so iTunes isn't directly school-related...
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And yes I know how old (and SLOW) this computer is - I am buying a 24" Intel iMac soon...c'mon updates! But this computer is nice for portability (like school) and runs my school-related apps perfectly under Tiger: Safari, Mail, Office, and iTunes (OK, so iTunes isn't directly school-related...
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Comments
Does the power adapter connect snugly enough? The reason I ask is that almost all of these (including mine) get a loose connector there after a while, and if you are going to have the machine taken apart, you might as well pop in a new "DC IN" board, which you can get for $10-$15 bucks either on eBay or at the iFixit type sites.
BTW, go to iFixit and download the instructions as well as a paper template you can print out that has labeled sections for where all the different screws go. Put double-stick tape on the template and it will hold all the screws as you remove them.
Watch out for the two greased springs popping out when you unhook the bottom case from its tab inside the battery compartment. The springs are located above the battery terminals inside the battery compartment.
Most reports say that the 7200 drives aren't really that different from the 5400s.
I've heard that as well, and that speed is mostly based on brand. Does anyone know which brand(s) is(are) best? I was going to buy a Seagate because I like how quiet and durable they have been for me in the past.
Does the power adapter connect snugly enough? The reason I ask is that almost all of these (including mine) get a loose connector there after a while, and if you are going to have the machine taken apart, you might as well pop in a new "DC IN" board, which you can get for $10-$15 bucks either on eBay or at the iFixit type sites.
Yes, it does fit snugly enough, although that may be contributed to my third-party charger (a Kensington car/home/plane charger, that also works with my friends' laptops via interchangeable tips
BTW, go to iFixit and download the instructions as well as a paper template you can print out that has labeled sections for where all the different screws go. Put double-stick tape on the template and it will hold all the screws as you remove them.
Watch out for the two greased springs popping out when you unhook the bottom case from its tab inside the battery compartment. The springs are located above the battery terminals inside the battery compartment.
Already went to iFixit and bookmarked the page (yes I will print it before disassembly
5400 with more space... you can necer have too much space on your HD
While that is true, I can use every bit of speed that I can get on this 500mhz G3 (well, within reason, aka if it doesn't actually make that much of a difference, I will go for more space).
Most reports say that the 7200 drives aren't really that different from the 5400s.
So, I did some Google research and found that two main factors affect a hard drive's performance: rotational speed and density. Rotational speed is obvious: the faster a drive's spindle spins, the quicker the heads can get to the data. Now, density is where it becomes interesting. Density is simply how many gigabytes are stuffed into a certain space (are there 20 or 200 gigabytes stuffed into that 2.5" drive?). A denser hard drive will be faster because the heads have to travel less distance to get to where they need to go. For example, if you have two 2.5" laptop drives that are both 5400 rpm, one is a 20gb and one is a 160gb, the heads in the 20gb hard drive will need to move farther to get to that often-used OS X data than the 160gb one will, resulting in the 160gb hard drive being much faster.
What does this mean for me? If I choose say a 5400 rpm 100gb hard drive and a 7200 rpm 80gb hard drive, they will be about the same speed for normal tasks. Now, when performing relatively linear hard drive intensive tasks (such as recording a video to a large free space), the 7200 rpm drive will be faster.
So, I think I'd be better off going with a larger, 5400 rpm drive. Unless anyone has something else to comment?
P.S. Another important factor that I found is the size of the buffer. A drive with an 8mb buffer will kick the pants off of a drive with a 2mb buffer. This doesn't matter as much to my comparison because nearly all of the drives that I am looking at have an 8mb buffer. It does matter in comparing a new hard drive to my old one, because my old one likely has a 2mb buffer.
Tonight I bought a 100gb Seagate 5400rpm drive with enclosure. I'll put my old 30gb drive in the case when I install this one tomorrow (or sometime soon).
Wow...that's the last time I buy a hard drive that is preinstalled in a case. What a pain in the butt to get the drive out. I ended up drilling off the heads of the four screws that held the case together because they were some weird proprietary screw head.
- Don't be afraid to take apart your laptop. It's not that difficult if you follow the directions (thanks to iFixit).
- Unless you're a performance freak, 7200rpm isn't worth it. While there definitely is a difference between 4200rpm and 5400rpm, don't expect your computer to gain a massive amount of speed. That's why I'd recommend 5400 over 7200 to most users.
- If something breaks on one of your computers, don't throw it out - fix it. If you're using it as an excuse to buy a new computer, sell your old one on eBay and use the proceeds towards the new computer.
- Don't buy a drive that comes in a case if you're planning to take out the drive - you'll regret it.
I suppose there really isn't a reason to continue this thread, so I'm going to stop paying attention to it.