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If I decide to change out the hd I am definitely going with the velociraptor. I would like my internal hd to be as fast as possible and 300gb of storage is plenty. I have a huge external drive for movies and such. Plus the cooler operating temps of the velociraptor are always welcome.



Yeah I agree 100%. I would most likely take out the HD that comes with the iMac and put that in a FW 800 external case.
 
Seems like Apple should consider these drives as an option on the high end machine. Although it would probably run $500 but many don't like to open their machines.

I'm a speed freak so this is tempting but I'll most likely wait until I've upgraded my 2.4 to a 3 or greater in the future. I've avoided the upgrade bug thus far and my 2.4 is still serving me quite well...
 
I keep thinking about it and at $1 / 1 GB I've decided I'll wait it out. The SpinPoint is almost there performance-wise, and at $80 for 500GB you can't beat it.. Though I bet it will run hotter and use more energy too :/
 
Well I was bored Sunday and my wallet got the best of me. I ran out and get the Velociraptor for my 20" iMac.

Install wasn't too bad. The only problem I ran into was that since the VR has the SATA/Power in a non-traditional spot it was a bit difficult getting the cables to reach. There was barely any slack on the cables but after about 15 minutes of wrestling with the drive I got everything in.

The drive is definitely very fast and quiet as well. Temps seem to be a bit lower now compared to before installing the VR.

The iMac was no slouch before installing this drive but everything just seems soooo much snappier now.
 
I keep thinking about it and at $1 / 1 GB I've decided I'll wait it out. The SpinPoint is almost there performance-wise, and at $80 for 500GB you can't beat it.. Though I bet it will run hotter and use more energy too :/

FWIW, I just purchased 4 1TB Seagate ES.2's (server grade 7200.11's) for $150 each shipped from a reputable (sold many drives at that price/model with positive feedback) seller. Should have them next week....
 
The drive is definitely very fast and quiet as well. Temps seem to be a bit lower now compared to before installing the VR.

The iMac was no slouch before installing this drive but everything just seems soooo much snappier now.


Man, you guys are making this so tempting... Stop it :p

If you were to rate it from 1-10 on how much things have improved performance wise, what would you give it? Worth the $300 (or whatever you paid) ?
 
iMac 24" white with Velociraptor

Hi there,

after reading this and other threads about a HD swap, I thought I could give the VR a try in my white 24" iMac. As I use the iMac for work (photo/retouch), I thought a fast HD would be a nice upgrade.

Installationwise I followed some guide found in the web (kowarisan?) and it was quite easy to open. The 24" has plenty of space behind the screen and the cables are long enough to fit the drive interface.

My first impressions are very positive. Start up time went down from 1:20 to 30 Sec. Photoshop also started a lot faster, though I wasn´t able to actually work with the program, spent the day with RAW- converting in Lightroom. Performance here was satisfying, but I had slow- downs when I made certain operations in Lightroom. Maybe due to unclean install, will find out later.

Peak temperature on drive and drive bay were 47 Celsius during heavy RAW Development, Photoshop batch processing (and really loud music via iTunes while I watched my machine do all the work for me).

On the negative side and in contrast to earlier posts, the drive is noticeably louder than the WD 250GB (stock) drive it replaced. It shurely creates less noise than my WD MyBook Studio external drives, but before I hardly heard the drive working. Don´t know if this is white 24" iMac- specific, but as I noticed above, there is a lot of empty space behind the display (this is where the drive mounts) in this machine, maybe acting as a resonator?

The attached XBench tests (bef/aft) were both done several times in a row as there was a variation in the results with a performance increase the more often I started it. I should also mention that I upgraded RAM to 2x2GB CL 2,5 modules.

Tomorrow I will go into PS work, that will be more meaningful to me. So far I´m impressed and can live with a little noise when I have this performance.

P.S. Don´t want to hijack this thread with my old machine, jwright just didn´t specify which 24 (alu-white) iMac and I know a lot of people who want to squeeze the last out of the matte- display iMacs. So maybe some of these guys find this thread, at least one of them did.

iFake
 

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I'm tempted, but I'll wait until my warranty is run out first. I can't believe the glass just lifts off like that.
 
^ Yeah me either.. Makes me wonder why it doesn't just lift off by itself ;)


Thanks for the info iFake! :)
 
the new VelociRaptor should be cooler and quieter... and also VERY fast. interesting upgrade!!!
 
Velociraptor

I'm about to install a velociraptor drive in my Imac does anyone know if you half to use the drives that are Backplane ready or the one ones without for my imac. My drive is size 3.5 inch
 
It will fit just fine, the Velociraptor is a 2.5 inch drive in a 3.5 inch shell, so it should fit. I might add that Velociraptor runs significantly cooler and consumes much less power then the factory drives that ship with an imac, so it should work great.
 
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