Maxtor HD OSX

Doug D. · Feb 27, 2002

I'm thinking of getting a maxtor HD so I can partition OSX when I install. Question is, is there a big difference in performance between the 5200rpm and the 7200rpm. I am using a year old imac g3.

Also, my mac came with the first version of OSX. I didn't install, because I thought I would wait for the bugs to be worked out. Is there a way to upgrade 10.0 to get it to the current version, or am I stuck with purchasing 10.1.2

Thanks!--Doug D.
'Promise a rainbow, and someone will look to the sky.'

James Anderson · Feb 27, 2002

Last Fall, Apple offered the upgrade to OS 10.1 for about $20.00. Look around, it's probably still available at that price (but you did have to buy the upgrade, it wasn't offered "free").

I'm not a hard drive expert, but as I understand it the 7200 RPM is faster than the 5400 RPM model. If speed is completely unimportant to you get the cheaper one. If speed is, or ever will be important, you're probably better off with the 7200 RPM. I'm sure you'll get some other opinions on this.--jim

Ken P · Feb 27, 2002

I am using a 60Gig Maxtor 7200 External with a G3 PowerBook via a Newer Tech PCMCIA FireWire Card. It is really fast and I was advised to go the 7200 route by people more savvy than me.

A note of caution - since a Mac will recognize a "PC " drive, be sure you initialize the new HD first as a Mac drive. Otherwise, Mac disk utilities will not work.

Ken

Doug D. said:
I'm thinking of getting a maxtor HD so I can partition OSX when I
install. Question is, is there a big difference in performance
between the 5200rpm and the 7200rpm. I am using a year old imac g3.

Also, my mac came with the first version of OSX. I didn't install,
because I thought I would wait for the bugs to be worked out. Is
there a way to upgrade 10.0 to get it to the current version, or am
I stuck with purchasing 10.1.2

Thanks!
--
Doug D.
'Promise a rainbow, and someone will look to the sky.'

--Ken P

Susan M. · Feb 27, 2002

IMO 7200 is far superior. If you use iMovie or any video stuff you won't drop any frames...the 5200 is just too slow. I've had both and sold my 5200.

Part 2, I think you're stuck, unless you want to do several downloads and installs.

And from what I understand the latest version is far superior to the first. I just got it on my new iMac and it's great! I'm surprised at how much I like OSX. I was sooo afraid, and it's just fine, even with Quark & Photoshop.

drdarrow · Feb 27, 2002

Doug D. said:
I'm thinking of getting a maxtor HD so I can partition OSX when I
install. Question is, is there a big difference in performance
between the 5200rpm and the 7200rpm. I am using a year old imac g3.

My best friend just lost ALL his data on his Maxtor. Heads wouldn't even read. Happened on starup. Took it to a Mac doctor only to be told the Maxtors are "doing that a lot."

Tough lesson. now he owns a new Drive and Retrospect

Pat Minicucci · Feb 27, 2002

I have heard one too many horror stories about Maxtor. 7200 is the right choice. Go with Seagate if SCSI is your structure. IBM makes the best IDE drives. Both are pricier than Maxtor but the security is worth it.

Doug D. said:
I'm thinking of getting a maxtor HD so I can partition OSX when I
install. Question is, is there a big difference in performance
between the 5200rpm and the 7200rpm. I am using a year old imac g3.

Also, my mac came with the first version of OSX. I didn't install,
because I thought I would wait for the bugs to be worked out. Is
there a way to upgrade 10.0 to get it to the current version, or am
I stuck with purchasing 10.1.2

Thanks!
--
Doug D.
'Promise a rainbow, and someone will look to the sky.'

Frank Sinkavich · Feb 28, 2002

I'm in the minority here I see. However, I have a 5200 80GB FW Maxtor running with a G4/500 and it is very fast. I do a lot of Photoshop and prepress production in addition to web development and InDesign projects. The Maxtor 5200 does just fine. The only advantage with higher speed is if you do digital video (that is what the 7200 rpm drive was designed for). You will notice that speed makes a difference with digital video, especially if it is running from the external drive. Other than that, you cannot tell the difference between the 5200 & 7200 with other applications. The Maxtor is small and quiet in addition to being stackable if you want to add more.

Good Luck,
Frank
http://www.pbase.com/drfrank/galleries

Patricia Minicucci said:
Doug D. said:

I'm thinking of getting a maxtor HD so I can partition OSX when I
install. Question is, is there a big difference in performance
between the 5200rpm and the 7200rpm. I am using a year old imac g3.

Also, my mac came with the first version of OSX. I didn't install,
because I thought I would wait for the bugs to be worked out. Is
there a way to upgrade 10.0 to get it to the current version, or am
I stuck with purchasing 10.1.2

Thanks!
--
Doug D.
'Promise a rainbow, and someone will look to the sky.'

Click to expand...

Dont_Shoot · Mar 1, 2002

I also have an 80GB 5200 external Maxtor FW and it's certainly fast enough. I decided not to pay extra for the faster drives as I don't do any video work, and that's the only reason I can see it being necessary. The 5200 is fast, big (gb's) and cheap.

I must say I've become a little nervous since reading so many bad reports on this forum regarding Maxtor drives but so far (touch wood) I have had no problems at all.
It looks good too...

Frank J. Sinkavich said:
I'm in the minority here I see. However, I have a 5200 80GB FW
Maxtor running with a G4/500 and it is very fast. I do a lot of
Photoshop and prepress production in addition to web development
and InDesign projects. The Maxtor 5200 does just fine. The only
advantage with higher speed is if you do digital video (that is
what the 7200 rpm drive was designed for). You will notice that
speed makes a difference with digital video, especially if it is
running from the external drive. Other than that, you cannot tell
the difference between the 5200 & 7200 with other applications. The
Maxtor is small and quiet in addition to being stackable if you
want to add more.

Good Luck,
Frank
http://www.pbase.com/drfrank/galleries

Steve Macaulay · Mar 2, 2002

Doug D. said:
I'm thinking of getting a maxtor HD so I can partition OSX when I
install. Question is, is there a big difference in performance
between the 5200rpm and the 7200rpm. I am using a year old imac g3.

Over the years countless articles have been written about what makes a computer fast. While processor speed is a factor, memory speed, buss design and hard drive access speed are equally or more important -- of course depending on how old your computer is. IMHO you should take every opportunity within prudent fiscal constraints to speed things up -- and hard drive access is a big factor in how fast your computer does what it does in many applications. Of course anything that is very processor-intensive will not be helped much.

Hope this helps -- buy the 7200 rpm drive -- I did! I have a G4 400. BTW -- do more research on problems with curretn models of hard drives before buying. When I bought my Maxtor 40 GB HD back in December everyone was saying maxtor drives were the best and IBMs had a high failure rate. You might want to look at actual customer reviews with various vendors -- I bought my drive from newegg.com.

--SteveG2, LowePro 40AW, Slik U9000, Ridata CF, Audi A4 Quattro, broke!

SRHookEm · Mar 2, 2002

Get the Maxtor 7200. I have 5 in my G4/800DP. Two on the internal IDE and two on a Sonnet IDE PCI card. I also have one in an external firewire case.

40gb
60gb x 3
80gb

They have performed flawlessly during hard use--video editing. The 7200 drives boot faster, read and write faster, launch apps faster, etc. Go with the 7200.

Steve Macaulay said:
Doug D. said:

I'm thinking of getting a maxtor HD so I can partition OSX when I
install. Question is, is there a big difference in performance
between the 5200rpm and the 7200rpm. I am using a year old imac g3.

Click to expand...

Over the years countless articles have been written about what
makes a computer fast. While processor speed is a factor, memory
speed, buss design and hard drive access speed are equally or more
important -- of course depending on how old your computer is. IMHO
you should take every opportunity within prudent fiscal constraints
to speed things up -- and hard drive access is a big factor in how
fast your computer does what it does in many applications. Of
course anything that is very processor-intensive will not be helped
much.

Hope this helps -- buy the 7200 rpm drive -- I did! I have a G4
400. BTW -- do more research on problems with curretn models of
hard drives before buying. When I bought my Maxtor 40 GB HD back
in December everyone was saying maxtor drives were the best and
IBMs had a high failure rate. You might want to look at actual
customer reviews with various vendors -- I bought my drive from
newegg.com.

--
Steve
G2, LowePro 40AW, Slik U9000, Ridata CF, Audi A4 Quattro, broke!

iBill · Mar 2, 2002

'
You will notice your computer will seem much faster with a 7200rpm
drive.

I thought I might mention that some will tell you not to put a 7200rpm
drive in a iMac because the faster drives generate more heat and there
is no fan in your iMac. However, I own both IBM and Maxtor 7200rpm
drives and they don't seem to run much hotter than a 5400rpm drive to me.

I have heard of several people using them in iMacs without problems, if
you have any doubts you can research any compatibility problems here:
http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/drivedb/search.drivedb.lasso

BTW, I would recomend the IBM 60 GXP series, and the best place to buy
it is newegg.com

SPT · Mar 3, 2002

I have replaced the original Western Digital 24300 (4.3GB, 128Kb cache, 5400 rpm) hard drive in an iMac (233 MHz, first generation) with a Maxtor 30GB/2MB cache/7200rpm. The difference is speed is very noticeable at startup and anytime heavy reading/writing is required. Wether it is worth the average 30-40% premium over the price of a 5400 rpm drive is for you to decide.

For the record, I have owned Maxtors, IBMs, WD, Micropolis, and of late fluid-bearing Fujitsu drives. The Maxtor are very high in my satisfaction ratings. There have been a number of issues with certain Macs regarding corruption issues while writing very large files. To the best of my knowledge, very few were related to the drives themselves (of very various brands) but rather to firmware issues.

Most drives nowadays come with a 3 to 5 years warranty, and should they fail, the manufacturers usually replaces them with a similar (but most often larger or faster) version of the drive, no questions asked...
Hope this helps you decide. Regards,
SPT

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Maxtor HD OSX

Doug D.

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James Anderson

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Ken P

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Susan M.

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drdarrow

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Pat Minicucci

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Frank Sinkavich

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Dont_Shoot

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Steve Macaulay

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SRHookEm

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iBill

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SPT

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