Just out of sheer curiosity, is it possible to install a 500GB HD later down the road, if I actually somehow fill up 250gigs? I probably won't, it's more a hypothetical question. I know it'd void the warranty and what not. Or would it be smarter to get an external USB 500GB if that situation arises?
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Is it possible to later install a 500GB HD in Intel iMac?
- Thread starter kntgsp
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kntgsp said:
External would be easier...and you'd know it would work.
It depends on the IDE controller, it may or may not be designed to work with 500GB drives. I think that would be pretty short sighted of Intel, since 300+GB drives are already on the market, but you never know.
mmmcheese said:
Yea well you can BTO them with 500GB drives, but I usually shy away from BTO models. Our Apple store on campus here ordered 256mb video card models though, so that was a nice catch.
Any idea about whether or not I'd be able to use Front Row with stuff that's on an external HD? I thought about ripping all of my dvd's onto a 500GB external or something. Would I be able to access all that in Front Row?
kntgsp said:
What type of drives are in the imacs? Is it a 3.5 inch SATA drive?
The reason I ask is becasue we're on the verge of perpendicular recording in which we'll see 4-5x times recording capacity sometime this year in the same sized drive.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/06/09/HNseagatehdd_1.html?NOTEBOOKS
Seagate is promising 300-500gb HDD for laptops this next year with 160gb drives out right now.
For 3.5 inch SATA drives, it's supposed to go up to 1TB in the next year w/ the 500gb drives out right now
kntgsp said:
Yeah, you just a shotcut to your external HD in your Movies folder, and the link will appear at the bottom of your list of movies in Front Row.
The iMac with Built-in iSight is NOT user-serviceable for the hard drive. Even the geniuses at the Apple Store whine and moan about how difficult it is to correctly disassemble/reassemble. You don't want to be doing that. I have a 1st gen iMac G5, and the 3.5" SATA HD is relatively easily replaced.
External is the way to go for Intel Macs.
External is the way to go for Intel Macs.
psycho- said:
Got a link? I've never read 300-500GB within a year. The initial implementation of perpendicular recording has bought them a 25% increase. Are they really claiming that they'll be able to double or triple the current density in a year? I'll believe it when I see it.
macrants said:
Thanks, good to know. I just didn't want to get a special BTO model from Apple. And also I was able to get a 256mb video one in our apple store. Plus I figured I wouldn't fill that up. I had a 120 on my PC for the last 6 months, with the full season 1-9 of southpark, all family guy, a bunch of divx movies, games, etc. and still only 100 gb taken up. Just figured no reason for the 500 gig.
WildCowboy said:
http://www.infostor.com/articles/ar...ARTICLE_ID=245676&KEYWORDS=perpendicular&p=23
I might be corrected on the 300-500gb claim for laptop drives. I think they were theoretical numbers made back in 2003 or 2004 when the technology was first coming out
Man, you can fill up 250GB in no time at all, as soon as you start downloading tv shows it gets crazy.
I originally got two 300GB drives for my PC (which already had an 80GB and a 120GB). I stupidly set them up in a Raid configuration so that I could effectively have a single drive with half a terrabyte of space, vain and pointless I know. The raid config never worked, kept erroring and I started to lose data. The only way to get all the stuff off though was to buy another 300GB drive. I bought one with the intentions of selling one of the older 300GBs.It never happened. Now two of the 300GB drives are 95% full and the other's on its way.
Mind you if you 'only' have 250GB you do tend to be a bit more space saving. I've got two or three backups of my 80GB drive stored somewhere on there which I really should sort through and delete. They'd have been dealt with months ago if I didn't have as much space.
Also, its not going to be *that* hard to install a 500GB drive if you're mildly technically minded. All you need are the right screwdrivers, a bit of patience, a few cups to sort screws into and a pen and paper to write down in which order you've taken everything apart. That way you really can't go wrong.
I originally got two 300GB drives for my PC (which already had an 80GB and a 120GB). I stupidly set them up in a Raid configuration so that I could effectively have a single drive with half a terrabyte of space, vain and pointless I know. The raid config never worked, kept erroring and I started to lose data. The only way to get all the stuff off though was to buy another 300GB drive. I bought one with the intentions of selling one of the older 300GBs.It never happened. Now two of the 300GB drives are 95% full and the other's on its way.
Mind you if you 'only' have 250GB you do tend to be a bit more space saving. I've got two or three backups of my 80GB drive stored somewhere on there which I really should sort through and delete. They'd have been dealt with months ago if I didn't have as much space.
Also, its not going to be *that* hard to install a 500GB drive if you're mildly technically minded. All you need are the right screwdrivers, a bit of patience, a few cups to sort screws into and a pen and paper to write down in which order you've taken everything apart. That way you really can't go wrong.
kntgsp said:
One benefit of doing this (if you have it formatted to something like FAT32, or another format that both Windows and OSX can read), is that you can connect it to any machine. Makes it portable if you're going for a movie-night somewhere and don't want to bring your iMac.