150GB Raptor?

I have already installed WD Raptor150 and Firmtek Serial PCI CARD, and no problems (in this moment 😀 )

Rick,

Thanks for your help and this does give me confidence.

New York Creative - buying a large drive and partitioning it and using one the the partitions for scratch or two separate drives.


If you backup your files, do a Erase w/Zero and fresh install Tiger, iLife '06 and Software Update.

Then pump up your 64 Bit PowerMac G5 with RAM, 4 GB or more.

Then if you have Photoshop CS2 installed.

You will not need a "scratch disk" and your performance will be better than if you had one. The 2 GB RAM limit is over run, you'll use RAM instead of your boot drive/scratch disk for swaps.

Partitioning a drive is the worse performance mistake one can make. All you are doing is separating space a drive, your still using the same hardware and interface. One will have to wait for the other partition to finish before proceeding.

Use a 74GB Raptor as a boot and everything drive except your space hogging files, put these in new folders on the second internal drive. Keep the boot drive below 50% for best performance.

You can use a 150GB Raptor (and certain other WD drives), but you'll have to install a SATA PCI card which is a extra cost. Apple's SATA interface is not up to date, the drives may work for a time, but it's Russian Roulette.

The G5's are monsters, I can only guess that the industry moved a bit faster than Apple expected concerning SATA, or there's a little premature planned obsolence at work.

Always Erase w/Zero option all new drives just once for bad sector remapping. Has helped "cure" my Raptor Mac OS X issues.

Best regards

According to Western Digital, the PowerMac G5 (ALL OF THEM...Quads included), are not compatible with the Raptor 150. I will have to agree with them. The problem is there, many don't notice or don't care. I'm hoping for a fix, that's why I'm following this thread. There is a work-around that helps the situation. Mine hasn't bombed on me yet, going strong for over a month now.

Nikoman - phone call, email, or something on the web? Also, what did you learn about a "work around"?

Like you - our 150 Raptor continues w/o issues - so far 🙂

Nikoman - still trying to pick up on your May 5 post on the 150 Raptor - did you get some new info? If so, please share what you learned. Like any company, WD has good techs and some not so good techs / reps. We have all experienced "BS" from staff that were trying to wing it when they really did not know their stuff. OTOH - if you have some new scoop that you consider correct, then I'd love to hear it.

Our new Seagate 750 is arriving on Tuesday - one of my options is to take the 150 out of the Quad and put it in our new external array - I do not think that there are any questions regarding it working through the new Sonnet PCIe controller now in my Quad. I can put the older 74 Raptor back in the Quad for boot / apps (tight on space) and the Seagate 750 as the data drive. Again - the 150 Raptor and a couple of other drives go external for backup.

BUT - the 150 has been rock solid so far and I would prefer to keep it in the Quad for boot / apps.

So...........??

Luciano,

My Powermac has the same configuration as yours (2x2.3) and I have the same problems with the Raptor 150. The SATA host card that you are using, is it a Firmtek Seritek 1/S2 (PCI) or the Firmtek Seritek 4 Ports (PCI-X)?

And is there any performance difference between both cards?
I have two harddrives in my Powermac, the new Raptor 250 and the standard 250GB Maxtor. Do I have to use the new controller for both the drives?

The 1S2 is 32-bit, 33/66MHz, while the 4-channel SeriTek's use 64-bit and an updated SilImage chip.

For just one drive, the 1S2 should work fine, but I think I would look into the 2+2 SeriTek.

Ok, but is there any measurable difference in the performance between the 1/S2 and the 1V4? (like write-speed, search time...)(the 1/S2 is € 82 and the 1V4 € 141)
Sadly enough, the 1VE2+2 isn't deliverable in any online shop in the Netherlands.

I wonder if WDC has even looked at whether newer G5s (Quad, PCIe) are working fine, and that their statement should be amended to say that older PCI/PCI-X models are affected.

Seagate has addressed problems with the Barracuda 7200.9 with newer firmware, newer models, and now with the 'Cuda 7200.10 series which will probably address and resolve compatibility issues (seems like the .10s came out rather quickly). Doesn't mean that there won't be new issues, I don't think SATA is done with incompatibilities quite yet (Port Multiplier seems to be adding new issues).

I have to question the wisdom of WDC's blanket (ALL G5s) statement. it flies in the face of a number of heavy, hard-core users that know their stuff (work in IT support and use Quad G5 even) that have not had any problem in months with WD 10K 150GB models.

So, what's the status of this?

Is it still the case that the WD1500ADFD does not work in any powermac?

I have a later DP 2.0 that I have a 74 GB Raptor in and was looking to upgrade it.

Machine Name: Power Mac G5
Machine Model: PowerMac7,3
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.0)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 2 GHz

It works in G5s that have PCI Express graphics. I know of half a dozen Quad users using the 150GB as boot drives and tested copying large (4GB and 20GB) w/o errors or freeze or stall.

The 74GB Raptor is being updated to 16MB cache, and may not work on older PCI-X AGP G5s, but they are just starting to reach retail market like Newegg and ZipZoomFly.

I've installed the Seritek 1V4, but I'm still having the same problems with getting my Powermac to sleep...
The screen gets black, fans keep running and the system locks up completly.

Do you have the same problem? I haven't done a complete re-install of os x when I installed the 1V4, is that necessary?

Hi Gerrit,
My Powermac not problem to sleep.

I made a new installation and transference of user.
But I believe that it is necessary to disable the SSC (Spread Spectrum Clocking)

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?p_faqid=1405&p_created=1135201452&p_sid=ScRGNDai&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTE mcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MTMzJnBfcHJvZHM9JnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj0 mcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1zZWFyY2hfZm5sJnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9cmFwdG9 yIG1hYw**&p_li=&ptopview=1

Is it still the case that the WD1500ADFD does not work in any powermac?
I have a later DP 2.0 that I have a 74 GB Raptor in and was looking to upgrade it.

You just have to use the firmtek SATA PCI controller card and hook the drive to that. This really goes for all SATA WD drives now that they have been upgraded.

Make sure you Disk utility Erase w/Zero all new drives.