Hi All,
I have an older PPC G5 17 inch 1.8Ghz iMac.
'm thinking of replacing the hard drive.
The spec sheet says serial ATA which I assume means SATA... I understand there are variations of SATA drives SATA1, 2, 3.
Will any of them work in my iMac or just the SATA1?
It looks like it originally came with a 80GB drive, can I put a 250 or 500GB drive in it?
Thanks in advance.
P
will this work:
WD Blue 250GB Hard Drive: 3.5 Inch, SATA 6 Gb/s, 7200 RPM, 16MB Cache (WD2500AAKX) (Old Model)
I don't have experience with that iMac model, but OWC has a find compatible upgrades tool at
http://eshop.macsales.com/MyOWC/
Select your Mac model, and the type of upgrade, and it shows a list of compatible products they sell. You don't necessarily need to buy it from OWC, but you'll get a better idea of what's compatible.
You can also use a 2.5-inch SATA hard drive. The advantages with the smaller size drive are it runs very quietly, produces less heat, and uses lower energy. With less heat (and lower energy), your iMac's fans may run more quietly with less overall stress on the aging hardware (like the power supply). Modern 2.5-inch SATA hard drives are more than fast enough for a PowerPC Mac, and even 1TB size is quite affordable these days. SATA connector is the same for 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drive; you just need a simple bracket that secures a 2.5-inch drive in place of a 3.5-inch drive.
You can consider SSD, especially if you find a good deal on an older one. I put one in my Power Mac G5. It's a "factory re-certified" 2.5-inch SSD from Crucial. No need to get the latest model. However, not all current SSDs are backward compatible to the earliest SATA standard. I got an Intel SSD for my Mac mini. Out of curiosity, I tried it with my Power Mac G5 (before putting it in my Mac mini) and it did not work.
When you buy a hard drive, be sure it is able to downstep its SATA interface to 1.5 Gbps, and that settings for that are either preset by the jumper setting it ships with or the settings to make it accept that speed are clearly indicated. That particular model is very sensitive to temperatures. So be sure to follow where the sensors are connected with the old drive before replacing it with the new drive.
what hard drive can i put in my PPC G5 iMac 1.8Ghz?
