Mac Daniel's Advice

Can You Add FireWire and DVD to a Tray-Loading iMac?

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Dan Knight - 2004.06.25

Q. Thanks for your Low End Mac website. The information you put there has proved really useful.

I own a strawberry iMac (333, 6 GB). Do you know if it can be upgraded to have FireWire?

Also, right now it only has CD-ROM. Can is be upgraded to play DVDs?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

iMac 333A. Yes, there is a way to add FireWire to Rev. A-D iMacs, the Sonnet Harmoni card, which also includes a 600 MHz G3 processor. However, at US$349 it might be more cost-effective to buy a used iMac 400 and sell your iMac 333 for $200-300.

There is a list of four CD-RW options for the tray-loading iMac on our Upgrade Guide for the Tray-Loading iMacs, and prices for them currently range from $135 to $179. There are no DVD-ROM drives as far as I know.

Even if you could install a DVD-ROM drive, I don't think the tray-loading iMacs have the processing horsepower or video support to handle DVD, although it might be possible with the Harmoni upgrade.

You could add an external FireWire DVD drive to a Harmoni-upgraded tray-loading iMac, but I think that goes beyond making economic sense.

Our latest G3 iMac price tracker includes an iMac 450 DVD for $400. That includes a FireWire port.

slot-loading iMac

No G3 iMac was offered with a Combo drive. However, you can add a CD-RW, CD-RW/DVD, or even a CD-RW/DVD-RW drive to the slot-loading models. If you plan on doing that, just pick a 400 MHz or faster model (the 350 MHz didn't have FireWire) and add one of the drives listed on our Upgrade Guide for the Slot-Loading iMacs.

I personally thing buying that iMac 450 DVD for $400 and then turning your old iMac 333 around for $250 or so makes the most sense. Or for the same power as your iMac plus the Harmoni upgrade, an iMac 600 CD-ROM at $479 plus as little as $39 for a Combo drive.

Either way, you get much better video, easier and greater memory expansion, a faster system bus, and a larger drive in a slightly smaller, lighter, quieter case with the slot-loading models. Further, if you run OS X, there's no need to partition hard drives larger than 8 GB like there is on the tray-loading models.

Q. Thanks so much, Dan, for the in-depth answer.

We are leaving the country for a couple months Monday, but when we get back, I think I will take your advice to sell the 333 and get a faster iMac with DVD and FireWire capability.

I am new to your site. Can we buy and sell Macs through your website? If so, is there an explanation on how to do that on the site? Or should we go to one of the used Mac sites listed on your website?

A. We run the Low End Mac Swap List, where subscribers can buy and sell their used Mac and Mac-related gear. It's a free email-based service that we're hoping to move to our website soon. That might get you the best price for your iMac 333.

As for buying, it's always a bit of a crap shoot buying sight unseen. When you buy from an individual, you'll usually get a better deal, but you won't have any warranty to back things up. Macs are usually pretty reliable, but you usually gain a 30-day to 90-day warranty on used equipment sold by dealers.

Which is the better choice? We've had great results both ways, so whatever you're most comfortable with should work for you.  LEM

UPDATE: The Sonnet HARMONi card was incompatible with early versions of Mac OS X 10.4. The FireWire port would tie up 100% of CPU resources. This problem was fixed in version 10.4.7 (if not earlier). If you have a HARMONi card that's had this issue, be aware that updating to 10.4.7 or newer should fix it.

Not sure if you should upgrade your old Mac or replace it? Check the Mac Daniel index to see if we've already addressed your problem.

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