Hi, I have a iMac Core Duo (Early 2006) Intel. I'm looking to upgrade the hard drive. Yes, I know it can be troublesome and will void my warranty.
What kind of hard drive would I need to purchase? I realize it's SATA, but I'm not so sure whether it uses a 2.5" (typical laptop hdd) or a standard 3.5".
Also, here's the drive I was considering, if you notice any compatibility issues please tell me:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16822148108
Why not just go with an external firewire HDD??
Far less stress, you wont damage you iMac or any warranty and its virtually portable.
Also nice feature is being able to boot from firewire in target disk mode if there is ever a problem with your internal HDD.
Of course all this depends on your skills in the art of taking apart Apple Products, those who have done this before will know of the patience required 
That is my setup prior to this, I have a firewire enclosure, and the hard drive is dying. However the enclosure only supports IDE (no SATA). So I would be spending more for older technology if I would take that route, when I could just bypass all this together if I just installed it in the iMac itself. If you can get it done, I'm sure it is preferred over having to deal with externals.
I'm fairly tech smart, and have good experience in taking apart PCs and such, but never Mac. However, I'm sure I can take on this challenge and be successful after reading some of the guides on taking apart the Intel iMac.
Good luck then... just don't ***** at Apple if you screw up 
Yup good luck, I will say Macs (I have always found) need the right tools for the job, whereas PC's just need a hammer and any screwdriver will do.
And thats not a dig at PC's before anyone starts LOL
I wish I could get into my mac as easy as I could my PC anyways.
As an final note I have seen SATA supported FW enclosures on Ebay for less than £15 ($25 +/- )
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