on 7/11/02 2:33 PM, Greg Lewis at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > Hi Listees, > i need your advice. i have a Power Center 150 Tower with 96 meg, 2 GB HD. the > thing has crapped out on my daughter. i want to try and refurbish it by > replacing the CD-ROM drive and the HD. i'd like to install a CD-R. > > any advice? i want to spend as little as possible to get the most reliable > components so this can last a year or so for her and maybe be passed to her > daughter. > > thanks in advance. > -greg
I can share my experience upgrading a PowerTower (non-Pro) that uses the same motherboard as the PowerCenter. I went for what I regarded as premium components for my computer: A new 9.1 GB Seagate Barracuda SCSI hard drive and a Yamaha 8424 CD-RW (not the fastest available, but from a solid manufacturer). The Seagate I chose because PowerComputing had installed a Seagate in my box originally, and it worked splendidly. The new one has, too. In fact, while many PowerComputing users encounter problems with hard drive drivers (hard drives that came in most PowerComputing machines were not compatible with Apple's Hard Disk Setup Utility), I was able to format the Barracuda with the version of Drive Setup that came with OS 9.1 with no problem (I believe OS 9.1's Drive Setup is more forgiving). My personal philosophy is that you can use a cheap monitor, a cheap CD-ROM or CD-RW, even cheap RAM, and they may give you trouble but they shouldn't endanger your data. Buy a good, new hard drive, not some worn out, soon-to-fail drive. The Yamaha I picked up factory refurbished, sealed in the box, on eBay. It came with an OEM version of Toast Lite. Works fine. My investment was c. $350. You may do better today, although new SCSI hard drives are becoming more scarce. Good luck. -- Power Computing is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 123Inkjets.com <http://lowendmac.com/ad/123inkjets.html> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Power Computing list info: <http://lowendmac.com/power/list.html> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/powercomputing%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks! <http://www.applelinks.com>
