iMac 1TB Harddrive Upgrade

[salmacis]

Hi,

Just ordered a refurbished Alu iMac 20" with 320GB HDD. I want to upgrade to a 1TB disk, and have some questions:

1. Does anyone here who has an iMac (2008 or 2009) with a 1TB disk that came from Apple, i.e. a CTO model and could tell which model Apple uses (just a quick check in System Profiler should reveal that)? Couldn't find anything specific on that so far.

I know that probably all SATA disks will work, but going for the same as Apple uses should be the safest bet (temperature, etc.) I think.

2. Besides, are there any recommendations for a 1TB disk? I thought about the WD Caviar Black, but it should be rather noisy. I have the Caviar Green drives, they are very silent but also rather slow. What about the Seagate 7200.12 1TB?

3. There are different opinions on if doing the upgrade myself will void the warranty. Is it so?

Thanks,
salmacis

 

[itommyboy]

Hi,

Just ordered a refurbished Alu iMac 20" with 320GB HDD. I want to upgrade to a 1TB disk, and have some questions:

1. Does anyone here who has an iMac (2008 or 2009) with a 1TB disk that came from Apple, i.e. a CTO model and could tell which model Apple uses (just a quick check in System Profiler should reveal that)? Couldn't find anything specific on that so far.

I know that probably all SATA disks will work, but going for the same as Apple uses should be the safest bet (temperature, etc.) I think.

2. Besides, are there any recommendations for a 1TB disk? I thought about the WD Caviar Black, but it should be rather noisy. I have the Caviar Green drives, they are very silent but also rather slow. What about the Seagate 7200.12 1TB?

3. There are different opinions on if doing the upgrade myself will void the warranty. Is it so?

Thanks,
salmacis

WD Caviar Black. Has not made a peep so far but I've only had this machine half a day (3.06 Ghz model). I also have two of these in custom built PC's as well and I really like these HDD. To be honest I was quite pleasantly surprised to find it in this iMac when I was looking up an answer to your post! I had no idea really what was in here. In my experience these drives are not loud or noisy at all and they are fast boasting 32 MB Cache and 2 processors.


Capacity: 931.51 GB
Model: WDC WD1001FALS-40K1B0
Revision: 07.00K07
Serial Number: *************
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Mac OS 9 Drivers: No
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 931.19 GB
Available: 841.5 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk0s2
Mount Point: /

 

[Mike in Kansas]

Hi,

Just ordered a refurbished Alu iMac 20" with 320GB HDD. I want to upgrade to a 1TB disk, and have some questions:

Any reason why you wouldn't consider an external FW400 or FW800 drive? They are a little pricier than their bare drive counterparts, but a lot easier to install! That way you can keep your OS and applications on 1 drive, and all your other "stuff" on another.

 

[salmacis]

WD Caviar Black. ... In my experience these drives are not loud or noisy at all and they are fast boasting 32 MB Cache and 2 processors.

Thanks, that's cool. So you don't feel the Caviar is too noisy in the iMac, now as you have it? Read good reviews on that disk, the only drawback seems to be they are a bit noisier than others, that's why I'm asking. Well, and if Apple uses the Caviar Black for their 1TB iMacs, I think it makes my decision easier.

 

[salmacis]

Any reason why you wouldn't consider an external FW400 or FW800 drive? They are a little pricier than their bare drive counterparts, but a lot easier to install! That way you can keep your OS and applications on 1 drive, and all your other "stuff" on another.

Well, yes of course. In order to really cleanly seperate OS/Apps from data, I would probably need to mount the home folders on another external disk or so. Could be an option, but for me personally:

- this would mean another external HDD on my desk, which i wan't to avoid (now i have put all "stuff" and Time Machine on a Drobo, but the Drobo is a bit too slow as a working disk, it's more a safe archive for me...)
- performance of external disks are in my opinion lower than internal SATA

Bye,
salmacis

 

[salmacis]

Upgrade successful!

I've just upgraded the iMac with the WD Caviar Black 1TB - works well and is not too noisy (maybe a bit noisier than the WD 320 GB but still fine...). Had some problems with the upgrade process - detailed experiences can be found at http://www.amfiteatar.org/content/view/155/78/lang,en/ (comments section)

-- Salmacis