Filed under: Hardware, Hacks, Apple TV
PowerMax sells Apple TV with pre-upgraded 120GB drive, 1 year warranty
Yesterday we found a couple of companies who are offering hard drive upgrade plans for Apple TVs. For those of us who already scored one of Apple's latest gadgets, this post-purchase service is music to our ears (though maybe not to our wallets) - but for potential buyers, PowerMax does one better by selling Apple TVs straight out the gate with a pre-upgraded 120GB hard drive for $449. This is a serious advantage over both MacService and TechRestore, as their post-Apple TV purchase upgrade services raise your total investment to $534 and $497.99 for the same size drive, respectively. As icing on the cake, however, PowerMax goes yet another step further by offering a full 1-year warranty on the Apple TV, though no hard drive-specific warranty is specified (as I mentioned yesterday, MacService and TechRestore both warranty the drives they install - not the Apple TV itself, however - for up to 3-5 years). All these upgrade options are fantastic for both new and existing Apple TV owners who are experiencing bouts of 40GB-induced claustrophobia. While I'm glad these companies are doing a great job of picking up the ball that Apple so horribly dropped, I still hope the company pays attention to the market and treats us right with the Apple TV 2.0. Heck, it isn't too late even for an Apple TV 1.5 that offers decently sized hard drives. Hey Apple, *knock knock* - you listening?
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Matthew Arevalo said 1:28PM on 3-31-2007
I hope they're listening. Sure, some third party that wants to make some money I understand.
ProMax is an Authorized Apple Reseller. They're going to piss someone Apple off in 3... 2... 1....
Reply
Leonard Nimrod said 2:04PM on 3-31-2007
1) Now that we have USB usage there needs to a 3rd-party company that makes a form-fitting DVD and/or Blu-ray player that fits underneath.
2) One of these 3rd-party companies needs to make a 3.5" drive enclosure for the AppleTV. In other words, a new bottom plate with raised sides to support the larger HDD.
Reply
macfan525 said 2:14PM on 3-31-2007
Apple TV + external DVD player + external Hard drive + multiple hacks = Mac Mini - hassle - $
Reply
Doug said 2:15PM on 3-31-2007
Maybe the intent of the smaller hard drives was to, much like an iPod nano, not hold ALL of your media at one time, but to sync with the media you want at the moment. Your Mac's HD should be the vault, not the ATV.
And probably to keep costs/price down too.
Reply
(01) said 2:49PM on 3-31-2007
Sure, Apple may have initially dropped the ball on the first gen AppleTv, but its been out for...2 weeks? As crazy as it is lots of people don't need the extra storage (for example, my roommate still has 2 gigs free on her 4.0 gig iPod mini) so the initial release gets the low/mid range user in. I'm happy to see that the drive replacement is fairly easy for those of us that do need more room, but still look forward to AppleTv 2.0
Reply
LD said 3:06PM on 3-31-2007
I am missing the point of upgrading the hard drive. As was stated above, it's not meant to store your media. It's just meant for caching, for temporary storage. I think perhaps people don't understand this part.
Reply
Dave Chartier said 3:14PM on 3-31-2007
I *want* my ATV to be a vault though. Why shouldn't it be? I downloaded a movie from the iTS and synced it up via 802.11n the other day - it took *forever.* I don't want to have to constantly run downstairs to my Mac every time I want to swap out videos and music - I just want it to *be there.* The luxury of not having to make that choice is why 30/60 and 80GB iPods exist.
More importantly, however: this is 2007, not 1998. A drive larger than 40GB really shouldn't have been much more expensive, considering Apple's purchasing power.
Reply
JeffDM said 3:39PM on 3-31-2007
I'd too believe that the hard drive size was chosen to guide its intended use, that being a streaming cache. I think it's great that people are upgrading theirs, I think that's a sign of a healthy type of user base. If it weren't for the buffering, they could get away with a CF card to hold the OS.
I wonder though, why stop with 120GB? Is that old drive size limit preventing the use of the 160 and 200GB drives from working?
Reply
DrWho said 4:45PM on 3-31-2007
Dave, you can play your movie or tv show as it streams it from wherever you are running itunes from. It seems pointless to me to have a streaming device act as a 'vault', you'd be better off putting your media where it can be safer, like on a raid nas for example. And you can also tell itunes what to automatically sync to the apple tv, new shows, unwatched movies etc. For the extra money, destroying your warranty, to me it just isn't worth it. If you are going to spend $450 plus, I'm with the previous poster - get a mini for an extra $50 or so.
There are bigger iPods because you take them with you, the apple tv is always on the network and always has access to all your media.
Having said that - it's your money!
Reply
Greenline said 7:24PM on 3-31-2007
I love Powermax - they are great! They might be pissing off Apple here so we'll see how that pans out, I hope not bad for them :0 ?
Powermax if you are out there - how can you do this and not piss off Apple?
Reply
YodaMac said 4:32PM on 4-01-2007
#9, DrWho hits the nail on the head. If you're getting this "deep" into an all-digital media solution, then you'd sure better be storing it somewhere very safe (ie...RAID!) Anything else is just silly. You do remember that there are only TWO kinds of hard drives, right?....
I don't object to users who want to mod their aTV for whatever reason, but let's not accuse Apple of "dropping the ball" on this. They delivered a winning device that does just what it's supposed to! Just hook it up to your Mac and some redundant external hard drives, and you're good to stream! Bravo, and long live aTV!
Reply
Jacob Loeb said 8:49PM on 4-02-2007
Greenline, thanks for the kind words. PowerMax from our beginning has specialized in customized and upgraded Macs. Because we have based our business on upgrading Macs, this Apple TV project was well within what Apple has come to expect from PowerMax. As of yet, no one at Apple we have spoken to has expressed concern over what we are doing. Based on our strong relationship with Apple, I would expect a simple call if there were concerns. I don't think we will have any problems, just as long as we tell our customers that the Apple TV 120GB has a PowerMax warranty and not an Apple warranty. -askjacob@powermax.com-
Reply