wanting a new internal HD

osburn · osburn #1 (**permalink**)

04-12-2010, 10:44 AM

I've got a G4 and am wanting to put a second, larger hard drive inside. The physical specs are spelled out in my Mac docs, but I'm looking at hard drives and the spec for width is 3.9 inches. The drive I'm looking at says it's width is 4.0 inches. Will this slight difference in width render it unable to fit in my G4 carrier?

Also, the drive indicates it is "SATA". What's the dif between SATA and ATA?

Avenger2SER · Avenger2SER #2 (**permalink**)

04-12-2010, 11:25 AM

Can you be more specific on what G4 you have? (Cube, iMac, eMac, PowerMac?)

Regardless of physical dimensions, your G4 will only take an PATA (ATA) drive, unless it's a powermac, in which case you could buy a SATA controller and plug in the drive. I would recommend sticking with PATA as I haven't seen a significant performance upgrade doing this.

hughvane · hughvane #3 (**permalink**)

04-12-2010, 03:31 PM

This http://mactracker.ca/ is an invaluable assistant in almost anything Mac. Check your G4 specs and compare with what Mactracker tells you about its upgrade potential, eg. drive type and size.

Physical case width is generally standardised for 3.5" drives. The 3.9" vs 4" may be due to a rounded figure.

Avenger2SER #2 (permalink)
Member Since: Nov 25, 2005 Location: Singapore Posts: 280 Mac Specs: Macbook Pro 15" 2.4ghz C2D (early 2008)	04-12-2010, 11:25 AM Can you be more specific on what G4 you have? (Cube, iMac, eMac, PowerMac?) Regardless of physical dimensions, your G4 will only take an PATA (ATA) drive, unless it's a powermac, in which case you could buy a SATA controller and plug in the drive. I would recommend sticking with PATA as I haven't seen a significant performance upgrade doing this. MacBook Pro 2.4 C2D,4gb,320gb 7.2k,10.6 (Primary) iMac G3 600, iBook G3 500, PBook G3 233, Atom WHS 16gb iPhone 4, 32gb iPhone 3Gs, TV1+2, iPad 32gb
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osburn #1 (permalink)
Member Since: Apr 11, 2010 Posts: 13	04-12-2010, 10:44 AM I've got a G4 and am wanting to put a second, larger hard drive inside. The physical specs are spelled out in my Mac docs, but I'm looking at hard drives and the spec for width is 3.9 inches. The drive I'm looking at says it's width is 4.0 inches. Will this slight difference in width render it unable to fit in my G4 carrier? Also, the drive indicates it is "SATA". What's the dif between SATA and ATA?
	QUOTE Thanks

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