A new HD for a Mac

> How did you get a 10 GB drive in a QuickSilver? It must have been
> installed after purchase - the smallest drive Apple supplied in a
> QuickSilver was 40 GB.
>

> --
> David Empson
> demp... RemoveThis @actrix.gen.nz

Hi, thanks for the info. I'm actually not sure if this is a G4 QS.
I've just seen some
pictures of different Mac models on the Internet and the one I was
given looks to
me like a G4 QS. From what you wrote here, apparently it isn't as it
has only
a 400MHz processor installed.
yaro
 >> Stay informed about: A new HD for a Mac 

yaro137.DeleteThis@googlemail.com wrote:

> I have a PowerMac G4 QS with a damaged hard drive. I know nothing
> about Mac's so my Question is can I replace it with any hard drive
> from any manufacturer?

Yes.

A PowerMac G4 QuickSilver will work with a 3.5" parallel ATA drive from
any manufacturer. In fact, you can put two of them in there (with
appropriate jumper settings). The case will support a third drive if you
add a PCI card to control it, and that third drive could be some other
interface type such as SATA or SCSI, depending on what the PCI card
supports.

For drives connected to the built-in controller, you might be limited to
128 GB per drive, depending on exactly which QuickSilver model you have.

The QuickSilver 2002 models (800, 933 or dual 1 GHz) support drives
larger than 128 GB.

The QuickSilver 2001 models (733, 867 or dual 800 MHz) do not, unless
you happen to get one which was manufactured late in the life cycle of
that model which has updated drive controller hardware. I don't know of
a way of identifying one of these without trying a larger drive in it,
and I've only seen one person claiming to have such a computer.

There were also education-only 733 and 867 MHz models of the QuickSiler
2002, which do support drives larger than 128 GB.

The 128 GB limit will not affect you for a third-party PCI controller
card (as long as you don't buy something very old).

> E.e.I got a 10GB and I'd like to replace it by a 40GB HD. Thx

How did you get a 10 GB drive in a QuickSilver? It must have been
installed after purchase - the smallest drive Apple supplied in a
QuickSilver was 40 GB.

If you are going to upgrade a drive, I don't see much point wasting time
with a 40 GB drive. I don't think they are even made any more - 80 GB is
the entry level, and the incremental cost of getting an even larger
drive is very low. The cheapest drives on a "cents per gigabyte" scale
are currently around the 250 to 320 GB mark.

--
David Empson
dempson.DeleteThis@actrix.gen.nz
 >> Stay informed about: A new HD for a Mac 

yaro137 RemoveThis @googlemail.com wrote:

> > How did you get a 10 GB drive in a QuickSilver? It must have been
> > installed after purchase - the smallest drive Apple supplied in a
> > QuickSilver was 40 GB.
>
> Hi, thanks for the info. I'm actually not sure if this is a G4 QS.
> I've just seen some pictures of different Mac models on the
> Internet and the one I was given looks to me like a G4 QS. From
> what you wrote here, apparently it isn't as it has only
> a 400MHz processor installed.

Ah, in that case it is an older model.

All the G4 models up to and including the QuickSilver are quite similar
in appearance, other than colour: the QuickSilver models are a clean
grey/silver while the earlier models are more blue tinted and have a
striping effect in the plastic on the front. Another visible difference
is the speaker on the front, which is an open hollow on the QuickSilver,
but a covered grille on earlier models.

This page has links to details about each model, including
representative pictures.

<http://lowendmac.com/ppc/index.shtml>

Given your processor speed of 400 MHz, you have one of these models:

PowerMac G4 (PCI Graphics), also known as "Yikes"
PowerMac G4 (AGP Graphics), also known as "Sawtooth"
PowerMac G4 (Gigabit Ethernet)

The fact that you have a 10 GB drive pretty much rules out the third
one, but either of the first two is possible.

It is difficult to tell these apart without having a close look at some
technical details in System Profiler or knowing about the subtle visible
differences (see below).

It doesn't matter which of the two you have as far as your hard drive
question is concerned, except that the AGP model has much better hard
drive performance.

The information in my previous post is still valid, except that these
older models are definitely limited to 128 GB per drive using the
built-in disk controller.

This page on Apple's site has pictures showing how to tell which model
you have, and has detailed specifications.

<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58418>

with thanks to the following Tidbits article dating back to 1999 for
enough of a hint to re-locate the above article...

<http://db.tidbits.com/article/5546>

--
David Empson
dempson RemoveThis @actrix.gen.nz
 >> Stay informed about: A new HD for a Mac