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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Suggestions for a cheap & large LAPTOP hard drive
frozendice - Mar 13, 2006 - 11:31 pm
Hi! I'm looking for a new hard drive for my G4 iBook. The 30GB drive is just WAYYY to small. I've been looking on amazon but the prices vary wildly. What is an expected price for a 60-80gb laptop HD. Also on amazon they have a section for mac drives, do macs need a different type of drive than other laptops?
earthsaver - Mar 13, 2006 - 11:59 pm
No difference between hard disks by OS platform. You just need a 2.5" 9.5mm ATA/IDE hard disk. I recommend looking at zipzoomfly.com and newegg.com. Recommended model: Hitachi 5K80 or 5K100 in the volume you desire. ZZF seems to have the 5K100 in 60 and 80 for $85 and $100.
Might also find a deal via pricewatch, froogle, or pricegrabber. Be careful, however, because many of the sites charge a bundle on shipping. ZZF and NE make shipping costs (if any) very clear.
- Ben
Might also find a deal via pricewatch, froogle, or pricegrabber. Be careful, however, because many of the sites charge a bundle on shipping. ZZF and NE make shipping costs (if any) very clear.
- Ben
frozendice - Mar 14, 2006 - 12:59 am
Are all drives normally ATA? I'm not very knowledgeable about hardware but isnt' ata mean the controller is inside? Plus i'm looking for a drive to hopefully also improve my performance, eg. 7200rpm 8mb cache 10ms seek if possible. New egg recomended to me the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822146047
Does this seem a good deal for the price? Also I know that since my G4 dissapates heat through the keyboard as well as other ports on the side, could heat from a 7200 rpm drive be a concern? Any idea about power consumption, how much extra? Btw, my current drive is shit. 4200rpm, 2mb cache, 13ms seek. Do you think I could get $40 for it on ebay?
I checked and the new sale price is $70. Of course I know to wipe the drive clean before I sell it also. 35 pass gutman.
Does this seem a good deal for the price? Also I know that since my G4 dissapates heat through the keyboard as well as other ports on the side, could heat from a 7200 rpm drive be a concern? Any idea about power consumption, how much extra? Btw, my current drive is shit. 4200rpm, 2mb cache, 13ms seek. Do you think I could get $40 for it on ebay?
I checked and the new sale price is $70. Of course I know to wipe the drive clean before I sell it also. 35 pass gutman.
earthsaver - Mar 14, 2006 - 7:39 am
The 7K100 is a fine series, too; I didn't know your budget for a replacement. 5400 RPM disks are a significant improvement over 4200, but of course 7200 is that much better. They've come down in price significantly in the last two years. I don't know how they fare with heat. Mine is in an external enclosure.
There are currently two standards on the market: ATA and Serial- (S)ATA. You'll notice via Froogle a 7K100 80GB model from Buy.com for only $110, but it's SATA, so you have to be careful. OnSale.com seems to have it for $115+shipping.
As to your old one, look for similar models on eBay to judge value. And plan to spend at least an hour getting it out of your iBook and the new one in. It's not a very easy process.
There are currently two standards on the market: ATA and Serial- (S)ATA. You'll notice via Froogle a 7K100 80GB model from Buy.com for only $110, but it's SATA, so you have to be careful. OnSale.com seems to have it for $115+shipping.
As to your old one, look for similar models on eBay to judge value. And plan to spend at least an hour getting it out of your iBook and the new one in. It's not a very easy process.
frozendice - Mar 14, 2006 - 6:20 pm
One last question. How do I know if my drive is SATA or ATA?
earthsaver - Mar 14, 2006 - 6:23 pm
It's ATA. Because I told you so. Only the PowerMac G5, iMac G5/Core Duo, and MacBook Pro have SATA drives. But if you really wanted to find out on your own, you could check the ATA and SATA sections of System Profiler.
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