320, 500 or 750 GB HDD with new iMac ?

[gormond]

Hello,

This is my first post but have been reading posts here for a while now.

I'm going to get my first Mac when OSX 10.5 comes out and I have decided apon a 24" 2.4Ghz Model 1GB RAM (and another 1GB from crucial) from what I have read here on the forums that seems like the best bang for your bucks. The 2.8Ghz machine sounds like a good buy but I would rather not have the extra heat and noise generate from the extreme chips.

Now to my question, I seem to be stuck on which harddrive to get, from what I understand the 320GB is only 8MB cache while the 500 and 750 are 16MB cache so should provide a overall faster experience.

Prices in the UK for the 24", 2.4Ghz are as follows:

320GB - £1149.00
500GB - £1208.99
750GB - £1309.00

My main consern is speed as apposed to storage as I can always use extrenal drives for storage., with that in mind what would you guys suggest?

Cheers

Gormond

 

[amakh007]

I went with the 2.4 ghz 20 inch

I got the 320 HDD and then used the money I saved to get a 500 GB FW800 external. Then you get the best of both worlds and can have a backup. FW 800 runs as fast as the internal and I do all my video editing off that.

 

[flipperanubi]

a

 

[RafMac]

Lesson learned...

Hello,

Now to my question, I seem to be stuck on which harddrive to get, from what I understand the 320GB is only 8MB cache while the 500 and 750 are 16MB cache so should provide a overall faster experience.

All Hard Drives are same cache and speed, if I were you get 320GB, that's what I did, and I have 2 external LACIE drives, as we can't depend on primary drive. Just bought a 500GB Lacie for $119 Canadian dollars.
I learned a lesson from my Powerbook, as my drive fried...click,click,click...
Gotta have backup external drive, luckily I lost 30% of my files as most were backed up. None of my digital photos were lost, you don't want to lose memories... trust me.

 

[Jeff Flowerday]

Hello,

This is my first post but have been reading posts here for a while now.

I'm going to get my first Mac when OSX 10.5 comes out and I have decided apon a 24" 2.4Ghz Model 1GB RAM (and another 1GB from crucial) from what I have read here on the forums that seems like the best bang for your bucks. The 2.8Ghz machine sounds like a good buy but I would rather not have the extra heat and noise generate from the extreme chips.

Now to my question, I seem to be stuck on which harddrive to get, from what I understand the 320GB is only 8MB cache while the 500 and 750 are 16MB cache so should provide a overall faster experience.

Prices in the UK for the 24", 2.4Ghz are as follows:

320GB - £1149.00
500GB - £1208.99
750GB - £1309.00

My main consern is speed as apposed to storage as I can always use extrenal drives for storage., with that in mind what would you guys suggest?

Cheers

Gormond

1TB drive has a 32 MB cache and is the fastest option for 24" Imac. It's almost raptor fast.

 

[davekarn]

1TB drive has a 32 MB cache and is the fastest option for 24" Imac. It's almost raptor fast.

Do you have the 1TB? I was thinking about getting that as well, but haven't heard from anyone on here who has one.

 

[gormond]

All Hard Drives are same cache and speed

Interesting, I got the impression that wasn't the case, what model is your 320GB drive ?

 

[gormond]

1TB drive has a 32 MB cache and is the fastest option for 24" Imac. It's almost raptor fast.

Fastest option but very expensive and would make the system cost £1498.99

 

[Jeff Flowerday]

Do you have the 1TB? I was thinking about getting that as well, but haven't heard from anyone on here who has one.

Yes, I have one in an external enclosure for all my media. I needed the space and didn't want a honkin raid enclosure sitting by my TV.

 

[Jeff Flowerday]

Fastest option but very expensive and would make the system cost £1498.99

Don't buy your Imac with the 1TB in it. Buy it from a reputable vendor and then sell the 320 that your Imac came with. Much, much, much cheaper way of going about it.

 

[vansouza]

Where to get data...

... where can we find nuts and bolts data on the iMac drives and heat and such. I ordered the 2.8 with 1Tb drive; I guess I should expect the case to melt; perhaps that is why they left the plastic cases? I bought what I could afford skimped on memory and went for the hard drive space. I figure 4gig chips can not be far off, so I will wait.

But back to the reason for posting... where can I find speed and heat data and the like... thank you very much...

 

[Italchef]

I upgraded my hard disk to 500GB and bought an external 500GB with FW800 for backup and to use with Time Machine when Leopard is released. I have another 160 GB external drive for backing up my photos and music. Can never have too much backup.

 

[negatv1]

I went with the 2.4 ghz 20 inch

I got the 320 HDD and then used the money I saved to get a 500 GB FW800 external. Then you get the best of both worlds and can have a backup. FW 800 runs as fast as the internal and I do all my video editing off that.

FW800 is fast, faster than FW400 and worlds faster than USB2.0, but it's not as fast as the internal SATA disk. If the machine had an eSATA port, then an external enclosure would be on equal grounds, but not quite even with FW800.

 

[CajunCARTFan]

... where can we find nuts and bolts data on the iMac drives and heat and such. I ordered the 2.8 with 1Tb drive; I guess I should expect the case to melt; perhaps that is why they left the plastic cases? I bought what I could afford skimped on memory and went for the hard drive space. I figure 4gig chips can not be far off, so I will wait.

But back to the reason for posting... where can I find speed and heat data and the like... thank you very much...

I also ordered the 2.8 with 1TB hard drive and I don't find it to be real hot. I find it to be quite cool compared to the gaming PC's and Dell LCD's I have had.

 

[solvs]

All Hard Drives are same cache and speed

Most of the 320's I've worked on are the WDs with 8MB cache. The 500s seem to be 16MB, but some of the older iMacs and even Mac Pros came with 8MB ones. The 750s are 16, the 1TB are 32.

They are a pain to open to change the hdd, so get what you can afford now.

 

[gormond]

Most of the 320's I've worked on are the WDs with 8MB cache. The 500s seem to be 16MB, but some of the older iMacs and even Mac Pros came with 8MB ones. The 750s are 16, the 1TB are 32.

That's just what I wanted to know, looks like I will be ordering the iMac with a 500GB HDD