Power Mac G5 SATA 1.5 compatibility question (with a SATA 3 SSD)

We can assume that the drive is completely and properly connected (physically), and that those connections do work with a different drive?

Except for a couple of old, out of production drives, SATA Rev. 2 (3 Gbps) drive will work with the G5's onboard controller.

Typically, however, a SATA 6 Gbps drive must be limited to SATA 3 Gbps to allow for proper auto-negotiation with the G5 SATA controller.

With SATA 6 Gbps mechanical drives, this is done with a jumper.

While the claims of the maker regarding backward compatibility are correct, as that is a requirement of the SATA standards, the G5 doesn't play by standard rules when it comes to the latest SATA Rev. 3 (6 Gbps) drives.

As for OS being the issue, I doubt it, as the G5 controller negotiating ability (or inability) has been called into question before, and compatibility issues have been seen before.

Still, old software and new technology can have quirks.

Great, thanks for the report! 🙂

I exchanged the SATA 3 drive for a SATA 2 and it works.

As expected.

Now, G5 owners considering SSD need to hurry and get a SATA Rev.2 drive before they are all gone.

If not, then the search for a compatible PCI card will be needed to use SATA Rev. 3 drives......

I just closed a case with Corsair Tech Support after a few replies. They couldn't help me get their Corsair Force GT 120 GB, SATA 3 even show up on my PowerMac G5, Dual 1.8 GHz (SATA 1) on Leopard 10.5.8).

Their last reply conveyed advice from Apple to install Snow Leopard! That's ridiculous! Any Mac user with some experience knows that OS Snow Leopard 10.6 works only on Intel Macs.

I explained that I cloned the OS internal drive and the Corsair SSD was bootable and perfectly operational, but only via firewire. It won't even show connected to the internal SATA hookups on either of the two bays. They saleman at Fry's Electronics assured me it would work!

I'm still trying to figure out if SSDs SATA 3, and probably SATA II work only on Intel Macintoshes. I'm aware I would only get 1.5 Gbs, but I'd be happy to have instead of my 7200 rpm hard drive.

Can anyone offer a solution! I will very much appreciate it.

Alberto

Haven't heard of this with SSDs yet, but occasionly G5s will see and use a SATA II drive that doesn't readily step down to SATA I speed, if there's another SATA I Drive internally... might be some kind of negotiation going on AFTER the G5 sees one proper SATA I drive.

I have a tried a OCZ vertex 2 240 gb on a PowerMac7,3 and work perfectly