I need G4 MDD, Hard Drive Up-Grade advice, please.

I need G4 MDD, Hard Drive Up-Grade advice, please.

My G4 Model:

Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors 2003) - M9145LL/A
Processor G4 1.25 GHz (SINGLE)
- L2 Cache 256 KB (1:1)
- L3 Cache 1 MB
167 MHz Bus Speed
(Dual Boot Model) - Running 10.3.9 and 9.2.2
Installed Memory - 1- 256 MB Stick and 1- 512 MB Stick - (Kingston PC2700 - KTA-G4333)

- Maximum 2 GB
- Slots 4 SDRAM (PC2700 - DDR333)
Hard Drive 80 GB Seagate
- Type (Speed) Ultra ATA/100 (7200 rpm)
Combo Drive
USB 1.1 2
FireWire 400 2
EtherNet (built-in) 1000Base-T
Expansion Slots 4 PCI slots
Display ATI Radeon 9000 Pro
- VRAM 64 MB DDR
- AGP 4x

LaCie external DVD Burner.
...................................................................................................................................................................

I'm planning on doing the following:

I'm on a limited budget, can only afford to spend around $300.00

I Want to add 3 more 512 MB Sticks of the Kingston KTA-G4333/512 PC2700 Ram.

Also, I Want to Replace my 80 GB HD with either of the following:

2 - Seagate 160 or 250 GB SATA drives/8 MB Cache on the Rear Bays

And a - SIIG SATA PCI Controller Card (SIISCSATM12S)

OR;

1 Seagate 160 GB ATA/100 8 MG Cache drive in the ATA/100 Bus Rear Bay.

And 1 Seagate 160 GB ATA/100 8 MG Cache drive in the front ATA/66 Bus Bay.

My Question:

(Which would be better performance wise and for stability?)

I only want to have 2 internal Hard Drives so my Mac won't over heat.

I'm planning on Cloning my 80 GB drive to one of the new drives using Super Duper.
After that, I'll store the drive until I can afford to get an external OWC case for it.

I want to use the second new drive for a Photoshop Scratch disk and for temp video file work.

Under 10.3.9 - I use:
Photoshop CS2
MTR 2.6.6
Toast 7
Popcorn 1.0.3
VisualHUB

On occasion I still boot into OS 9 for Photoshop 5.5., QuarkXPress 3.2.2 r5 and Adobe Illustrator 7.

I don't foresee being able to afford a Mac Pro and don't want to get a used G5 anytime
soon. I'm hoping my G4 will last me a few more years.
I suspect putting a ATA/100 drive on the ATA/66 Bus might hamper performance. And suspect using a SATA controller card in a "PCI" slot isn't as good as having a True SATA Bus, performance wise either.

I was just wondering which would be the better way to go for performance and stability?

The drives will be probably OEM either at OWC or NewEgg.

I'd really appreciate some help with this. Thank You.

I would stick with the IDE drives in your preferred sizes. If you do a search of the forums you will find some discussiomn on the actual increase in performance of SATA and IDE drives, if any. Maybe a Raptor 10,000RPM drive would be the way to go.

Also at OWC memory for MDD is as cheap as chips. Purchased 4x512MB PC2700 of their own brand for about $80.00, or $20 per module.

Hi Harryb2448,

Thanks so much for the information. On some sites I've been reading that SATA cards and SATA drives gave them an impressive performance boost. But, I also heard that some people have a lot of problems with the OS and System Profiler not recognizing the hard drives, and some other problems too.

I wish I could afford to get a Raptor. I hear that the New 300 GB V Raptors are a big improvement over the older 150's. But can't afford the price of 2 drives like that and a card, and ram too.

I'm going to look into the discussions you mentioned about the performance issues about ATA vs SATA. I'm not sure which way to go yet. Something to think about. Thanks!

What kind of drives do you have in your Mac?

Thanks again!

Seagate 7500RPM IDE drive is enough for me!

And I'll put in a plug for Hitachi IDE, 7500 rpm, very reliable.

In all the discussions about brands of hard drive, I've yet to read of anyone pushing the IDE-USB adaptor idea. They're cheap - and they work! (SATA-USB adaptors available also).

Connecting this way enables one to hook up several hard drives, be they in enclosures or 'bare'. For people on low or tight budgets, 2-hand drives with an adaptor connection are a very economical/efficient/effective way to go. [I've made polystyrene trays for my two 'bare' external drives.]

Tio each his own I guess. Would not consider a Hitachi drive as they took over manufacture and distribution of the IBM Death Stars, If you want to know why they were called Death Stars and not by trade name Desk Stars, do a Google.