A 1st-generation Apple G5 1.6ghz iMac makes a good candidate for a Solid-State computer disk drive upgrade. As the original model - the lowliest and slowest of the iMac G5 family, Mine was beginning to show it's age. An upgrade from it's original 80gig SATA drive to a 250gig 7200rpm 8mb cache drive helped, but now with smaller capacity 30-64GB SSD disk prices hitting new bargain lows it deserves one last breath of new life.

These early generation G5 iMacs are a breeze to upgrade. 3 screws and pop off the back lid. A few more to remove and swap the SATA drive takes mere minutes. Finding an ICY DOCK MB882SP-1S 2.5" to 3.5" SSD & SATA Hard Drive Converter to fit the 3.5" drive bay was easy enough, and barely cost $25 shipped using competitive priced 3rd-party sellers at Amazon

Taking advantage of OCZ's current SSD rebates - I found a dirt-cheap low-cost OCZ 30gig Solid Series SATA 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive that cost $75 after rebate.

Granted, 30GB isn't much drive space these days, and the "Value priced" Solid Series from OCZ is only a respectable middle-of-the-road performer for an MLC SSD in 2009: 150mbps peak Reads, 90mbps Writes. For this backup Mac I keep on-hand, truly bleeding edge SSD speed doesn't matter. And is well matched to the SATA I controller chip of those iMacs anyways.

A clean OS X 10.4 Tiger install on an SSD takes much less disk space than 10.5 Leopard, and all I really need from this system is occasional access to web, email and Microsoft Office. It's also used a test-bench Mac for starting up other G3-G5 Macs in an emergency using FireWire target mode, remotely running disk diagnostics and system updates. An SSD and it's high read speeds is PERFECT for quickly running installers and applying updates.

Long story short, this cheap little bargain SSD drive UTTERLY REVITALIZED an aging Mac: Startup speed, app launching, and switching programs feels nothing short of amazing. It's still easy to push the old single G5 processor to 100% CPU utilization on some tasks, but at least now the drive is no longer the sluggish bottleneck it once was. Total project cost: About $100 - and well worth it.

Tags: SSD disk swap, imac ssd, SSD Adapter, OSX SSD Performance

Solid-state memory-chip based drives are somewhat Operating System Independent: And can be formatted for Mac OS X, Linux-Unix, or DOS/Windows with standard formatting utilities. For Apple Macintosh users pondering a replacement solid-state disk drive upgrade - here's a few insights as to which Mac's are easy to access and do a drive swap with - and those which are a NIGHTMARE to gut to even get to the internal drive:

SOME MACS ARE EASY TO SSD UPGRADE SOME NOT:

EASIEST APPLE SSD DRIVE SWAPS:
G5 Mac Tower or Mac Pro Intel: Slide in 3.5" adapter mounted SATA drives.
G5 Early iMacs: 3 Screws to remove back panel, fairly easy SATA to SSD swap with 3.5" adapter.
G4 Towers: Use ATA SSD's - Usually swapable with 5 screws or so.
Classic White Intel MacBook: 3 Screws under battery to access 2.5" SATA drive.
New Aluminum MacBook and MacBook Pro SSD Upgrade : EASY access under battery cover.

SLIGHTLY DIFFICULT:
Titanium PowerBook: 7 Torx screws on bottom plate, reasonable ATA 2.5" SSD swap
Mac Minis: G4's use ATA, Intel models use SATA. Tricky to pop the case, tight bit of work

ONLY FOR BENCH TECHS
Early Aluminum PowerBooks whether G4 or Intel, Nerve-wracking a bazillion micro-screws
G3 and G4 iBooks: Major dissassembly often required, let a PRO do it.
Intel G5 iMacs with foil-wrapped sheilding and innards, pain in the ass

These latter Mac's are a daunting dissassembly task - not for the casual consumer to try to attempt.

Tags: macbook ssd, imac ssd, powerbook ssd, mac mini ssd