I'm getting a IBook G4 (Specs in sig.) and was wondering is it worth putting in a 120GB hard disk drive as i've heard it can affect the performance. I've read somewhere that 80GB is the max someone should put in... Reason for such a big hdd is because I was planning to use the laptop to store my ripped records for DJ use.

Thanks in advance

Sticking a 5400rpm HDD is definitely a good idea in an iBook. The stock 4200rpm HDDs are bad for multimedia work.

http://www.staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/...160gb%202.5%22

You can get 160GB laptop drives for under $160 if you click on the link above. I would do a bit of research on particular models, look up some reviews etc. You can never have too much HDD space when you are doing multimedia development work.

The only performance hit would be if its a much faster drive. A 7200rpm drive will definitely reduce battery life and increase heat. Go with a 5400rpm drive. It will be a little faster then the stock drive but it wont significantly increase heat or power usage

Yeah, and to second that comment, 7200rpm drives are usually quite a bit more expensive. I put a 7200rpm drive in my old iBook, and replaced it in less then a week due to the heat. 5400rpm is definitely the sweet spot for most applications. The benefits of 7200rpm will be pointless unless you are doing heavy multi-track work or video work.

Oh thats great info guys, thank you so much.

forgie... so a hdd of 160GB will work? is there a limit on ibooks? Only reason why i ask is obviously macs aren't like other notebooks out there with that said I have a notebook slightly older having the capacity of 80GB due to the bios.

But thats great news. Definitely power and heat are a major factor to take into consideration... so i'll be looking at the 120/160GB.

Edit: Oh and what drive brands would you guys recommend? I hear Samsungs are quiet...

Yeah should be fine. The old limit was removed from desktop macs well before the 1.2GHz iBook came out so id assume it was removed from them aswell

There was an issue that I think is mostly caused by hardware design - older ATA controllers were built with 37 address lines for hard disks/mass storage. 2^37 = 137GB, so the older controllers could only see 137GB of storage per device. Virtually all hardware for the last 5 years has done away with this limitation. I don't know exactly when the transition happened. Your iBook should be fine with more then 137GB.
I've got a 160GB Samsung in my Macbook - it's quiet, but not ultra quiet. I'd definitely recommend it, and it was very cheap to boot. Mine is a SATA drive though, and you need an ATA drive for the ibook, so the noise/heat may be slightly different.

Oh okay thanks for the heads up.

Samsung HDDs seem to be a bit cheaper than others aswell.. so thats a bonus. Just gotta do a search now on how to prep the HDD as its installation process is a bit different to Windows.

western digital would be my first recommendation.
after that anything but seagate pretty much

hahaha okay... seagate and maxtor have merged as a company havent they? but still producing both named products.

yep they have. I'd forgotton about Maxtor's. Probably best to stay away from them aswell

I'd go for a Samsung. I have over half a dozen of them, very quiet and reliable, never had one fail. Avoid Seagate/Maxtor I've had several take a dirt nap after 18-24 months.

Yeh same here have had real bad experiences with them. Never used a Samsung before but hear a lot abt them being pretty quiet and reliable.

I have never tried a samsung drive, but I have put a Fujitsu 120Gb HDD into my ibook G4 1.2Ghz 12". It works perfectly for all everything. I would recommend Fujitsu as well.

I have also had good experiences with 80GB ATA WD Scorpio drives. They are very quiet (although the older ones had a wierd clunking sound, but that was fixed with a firmware update). I put one in my 12" iBook. The only 160gb ATA Scorpios on staticICE are much more expensive then the SATA models, so that's out of the question.

For the hardware side of things: http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/iBoo...lacement/83/14 will show you how to swap the drive. Be warned that it's not for the faint of heart, and if you are a bit squeamish about going near the innards of a laptop, then I'd get someone else to do it. You WILL need to set aside 2 hours minimum for this job.

To clone your existing system onto the new drive, you can use something like SuperDuper to make a fully bootable clone. You will need access to some sort of USB/Firewire to ATA adapter or enclosure for that, since you'll need someway to get your iBook to talk to the new drive before you install it.