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Mac Forum / General / Hardware / January 2007Replacing iMac G5 hard drive - heat issues?
One of my clients has a dead 80 GB hard drive in his 1.8 MHz iMac G5 original (pre-ambient light sensor) model. (And yes, he had his important data backed up). I told him I can order another drive of that capacity and install it for him. He also called a local repair shop, one I consider to be reputable, about this, and the tech told him that replacing the hard drive is something most anyone can do, with no special expertise, BUT he added that you have to be sure to get a new drive that meets Apple's heat specs, else the drive may have a very premature death, or you have to add some heat absorbant material. I've never heard of this and can't find any mention of it in Apple's support area or forums or in a Google Groups search. As I mentioned, this is from a tech I normally trust, and I'll be able to talk to him about it directly on Monday, but in the meantime has anyone heard of this issue? Bear in mind that we're planning on installing another 80 GB drive, not a very large capacity model.  Signature<http://designsbymike.biz/macconsultshop.shtml> Mac-themed T-shirts <http://designsbymike.biz/musings.shtml> Mostly muckraking T-shirts <http://designsbymike.biz/prius.shtml> Prius shirts & bumper stickers <http://cafepress.com/comedancing> Ballroom dance-themed shirts & gift > He also called a local repair shop, one I consider to be reputable, > about this, and the tech told him that replacing the hard drive is > something most anyone can do, with no special expertise, BUT he added > that you have to be sure to get a new drive that meets Apple's heat > specs, else the drive may have a very premature death, or you have to > add some heat absorbant material. IIRC, the 250 GB option (from Apple) ran very hot and some died prematurely. You could just pull the dead harddisk and use en external FW drive. This will also reduce fan speeds on the iMac. I don't see any reason to expect trouble with a 80 GB drive though. SignatureMvh./Regards, Niels Jørgen Kruse, Vanløse, Denmark > One of my clients has a dead 80 GB hard drive in his 1.8 MHz iMac G5 > original (pre-ambient light sensor) model. (And yes, he had his [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > this issue? Bear in mind that we're planning on installing another 80 > GB drive, not a very large capacity model. This doesn't make much sense to me. You might want thermal _insulating_ material to protect a drive from the heat produced by the other nearby components, or you might want thermal _conducting_ material to help a drive dissipate its own heat, but adding _absorbent_ material would be pointless. The heat's gotta go somewhere, and you generally want to move it out of the case as quickly as possible. Adding anything that might impede air flow inside the case would be risky. In any case, there are two somewhat different considerations: the ambient temperature the drive can tolerate and the heat that it produces itself. Manufacturers usually list both specs in their drive data sheets. Most modern drives are rated to ambient operating temperatures of 60 C, and Apple usually keeps case temperatures well below 50 C. Within the same drive model, heat production doesn't vary a lot by capacity, so you shouldn't feel limited to 80GB as a replacement drive. By brand, Seagate drives generally run the hottest and Samsungs the coolest. The freeware app Temperature Monitor <http://www.bresink.de/osx/TemperatureMonitor.html> can display the internal temperature of most hard drives. |
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