Upgrading an iMac/eMac IDE disk
What are my options for upgrading the drive of an iMac G4 or an eMac to eliminate the noise from the original drive? Either an SSD, or a mechanical HDD with a lower noise level than the original.
The second hand value of the machine is $100, so the drive must be justifiably cheap, under $30 if possible. Pre-owned and capacity as small as 16-32 GB is fine.
For each suggestion, please specify:
- Required adapters (to connect the drive to the iMac)
- Expected total price (USD, for easy comparison)
- Expected performance (for non-SSD suggestions such as CF/SD)
PS! Reading speed from an IDE drive is around 22 MB/s using dd on the eMac.
PPS! The easiest way to experiment with drive replacement is by using the IDE cable and power to the CD player, which by a lucky shot can be reached from the removable RAM slot. That way you won't have to disassemble the whole eMac until you've done your research.
Solution 1:
Upgrade to an SSD
Just get a simple SSD and an IDE to SATA adapter. You may need a 3.5" drive adapter if you use a 2.5" drive, but those are abundant and easily sourced.
- StarTech IDE to SATA adapter (Approx $18 USD)
- Kingston SSD A400 120GB (Approx $50 USD)
This will give you a solid state solution for less than $70 USD. You can probably find these items for less on the used market, but probably not by much when you factor shipping and handling.
That said, your $30 budget is unrealistic as PATA SSD's are notoriously expensive and any small capacity SSDs (16 to 60GB) will run about $20 USD (plus shipping). In addition, you will still need the IDE to SATA adapter because those cheap drives are all SATA. You may spend (slightly) less, but it will be a solution based on used (pre-owned) components.
Convert IDE to SATA
The StarTech IDE to SATA adapter will allow you to use newer SATA disks including SSDs. Whether you choose to go with an SSD or stick with spinning media, this little adapter will be critical in allowing you to use modern drives with your older hardware.
Personally, I have used this exact adapter in an X-Serve RAID (connected to a XServe G4) to use 1TB 2.5" HDDs (the limitation was 750GB PATA drives). The X-Serve RAID ran cooler and I increased it's storage capacity limitation by 25% (it was also substantially lighter). There are other manufacturers of this type of adapter, but this brand seemed to be the most reliable and compact.
Solution 2:
You could purchase a PATA/IDE SSD off Amazon for under $100. You would likely need to purchase a 2.5" IDE to 3.5" IDE cable adapter, as well as a 2.5" to 3.5" drive bay adapter. See Amazon links below.
https://www.amazon.com/Transcend-PSD330-2-5-inch-Internal-Solid/dp/B00AQT2LL6/ https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-3-5-Inch-Drive-Adapter-IDE4044/dp/B00006B8C2/ https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Internal-Drive-Mounting-BK-HDDH/dp/B00G57BN1M/