09-15-2004, 07:53 PM

Will adding an external fire wire hard drive speed up my g3 imac? i already have 640mb ram but only a 20 gig internal hard drive.

Cheers

SCOOBY

09-15-2004, 08:05 PM

Well, what's the speed of the FireWire HD you want to add? Also, is it FireWire 400 or 800? And what's the speed of your internal HD?

There are three typical speeds, 4800RPM, 5400RPM and 7200RPM. Get 7200 if at all possible, it's the fastest. FireWire 400 is fast, but FireWire 800 is the fastest. So if you want to superspeedup your G3 get a 7200RPM, FireWire 800 drive with plenty of space (If G3's support FireWire 800, I'm not sure). These are sure costly, but you'll notice a huge performance difference in booting your G3 up, doing internet, pretty much everything.

I think the G3 comes with a 4200 RPM drive, which is quite slow, so even if you get the 5400RPM drive you'll notice a big difference.

Good luck!

09-16-2004, 03:04 AM

I wouldn't recommend $500 external HD for G3 iMac. For that money he's much better off getting a new computer.

In general, adding an external HD is not going to speed up your iMac. If your primary goal is getting better performance, I'd suggest you trade in your iMac and get a faster one. Used rainbow iMacs go for anywhere from $100 for 233MHz to $400 for 700MHz. You can step up to faster G3 iMac, or go for G4 PowerMac. It really depends on your budget. But don't try to get a $500 Firewire 800 external drive.

09-16-2004, 04:31 AM

i was thinking of one of these Formac Oxygen HD

its a fire wire 400 7200rpm 160gb only £89.99

09-16-2004, 08:41 AM

it wont actually speed up how your computer runs it will just give you extra space to store things which can help keep the system disk running quicker

09-16-2004, 08:58 AM

cheers guys, youve told me all i need to know

SCOOBY

09-16-2004, 09:21 AM

For a speed boost, i would invest in more memory.

09-16-2004, 05:28 PM

A faster hard drive (Faster RPM that is) will mean he's able to open programs faster and access data faster, so it will mean he'll have a faster system.

But if you want to drastically speed up your system, I'd agree with MoltenLava, upgrade your RAM or even get a new Mac.

Good luck!

09-16-2004, 05:32 PM

Originally Posted by m1k

A faster hard drive (Faster RPM that is) will mean he's able to open programs faster and access data faster, so it will mean he'll have a faster system.

But if you want to drastically speed up your system, I'd agree with MoltenLava, upgrade your RAM or even get a new Mac.

Good luck!

That only works if he is going to be booting off that hard drive.

09-16-2004, 05:35 PM

Yeah, I guess you're right. But even if he isn't booting off the external drive, if he has his programs and stuff on it they'll open much quicker because of the high RPM speed.