Internal Drives: ATA, Serial, SATA; Ultra; SCSI, etc ???

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Level 3

686 points

Internal Drives: ATA, Serial, SATA; Ultra; SCSI, etc ???

I am about to buy a new G5, either the 2.3 or the quad, and want to (later)add an internal drive. I thought it simple to just look for a Serial ATA internal drive. But quickly got lost in all the different terms and types (ATA; SATA; PATA; ULTRA ATA; Serial; SCSI; RAID; etc.) I know what some of them are but don't understand the differences in terms of what I can use in the G5. Each time I think I found what I need, I read somethin about it being SATA non something or other and may not work in the G5. I'm also lost on whether I need to purchase cables, connectors separate, and what kind. And... what capacity and how many can I add?

Can someone dummy this down for me?
Thanks
nÔÔdle- -hëad myst-e-fied

G4 desktop (about to get G5), Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Posted on May 18, 2006 5:15 AM

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Answer 1

Curnsie

Level 3

745 points

May 18, 2006 5:56 AM in response to Noodle-head

Noodle

Sata is the only type that the G5 supports generically. The other formats (ATA, SCSI, serial, etc) will require some form of PCI card to be installed. A G5 comes with one SATA HD (Hard Drive) as standard, with the ability to add only one extra inside the case.

Most users add extra HD's externally, using either USB 2, Firewire 400/800, or eSata enclosures. You can also buy devices such that allow you to add about 4 HD's inside the G5 case.

Raid 0 is when you combine 2 or more HD's together to read as one HD, giving you greater speed for video editing, etc. However, if one HD dies you loose all your data. Raid 1 provides mirroring, where one HD's contents is mirrored (an identical copy) on a second HD automatically, for critical data storage. In both cases, the HD's ideally need to be matching pairs. Raid 5 is a mixture of both.

SCSI provides the greatest HD performance, although the latest SATA HD's are not far behind. The fastest Sata HD's are the Western Digital Raptors, which spin at 10,000rpm. Normal Sata HD's operate at 7200rpm.

Choosing a HD depends on what you want to use your G5 for.

Provide us with more info on your proposed uses and you will get loads of useful advice here.

Regards

Andrew

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Answer 2

Noodle-head Author

Level 3

686 points

May 18, 2006 6:33 AM in response to Curnsie

Andrew (Curnsie)
That was terrifically helpful. Thank you. While I did mark it as such, I did not yet mark it as answered...only because you left me an open door to get some more advice when you wrote: Provide us with more info on your proposed uses and you will get loads of useful advice here.
So, what I will be using it for is home office, graphics design, video editing, some page layout and writing. My thinking is it's better (financially) to purchase added internal drive and RAM on my own. While not a tech person, I am capable enough given adequate instructions. BTW, I do have several external firewire drives; I just thought it makes sense to add a 500GB internal if I can. Can I add a 500?
Thanks again.
noodl<<Font face="BlizzardD">ehead»

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Answer 3

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

May 18, 2006 6:44 AM in response to Noodle-head

PATA and ATA are the same, parallel ATA.

Older PCI/PCI-X G5s can't use the latest 10K 150GB Raptor on the native SATA ports, but no problem with your dual core G5s.

Seagate 7200.9 SATA drives had a feature implemented that prevented use on any G5 and some SATA controllers called "Spread Spectrum Clocking" or SSC for short.

Serial ATA or SATA or SATA-II is what you need.

FAQ Guide has a lot of information if you dig for it on RAID, SATA and where to find reviews, benchmarks and more.

You don't need to purchase anything extra unless your needs grow to more than two internal SATA drives.

One route would be to get that 10K Raptor which is the fastest boot drive or for building scratch RAIDs. Or affordable and larger and still good performance in 300 or 500GB drives. RAID is best done with two identical drives.

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Answer 4

mbean

Level 4

1,250 points

May 18, 2006 5:09 PM in response to Noodle-head

This is the best drive I have found for a great performance value equation in a PowerMac G5. It is the Maxtor Maxline III 7V300F0 300GB Serial ATA 3Gb for $123.75 shipped.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=100719-9

It provides great performance and has a 5 year warranty. You can always pay more but this is the best bang for the buck that I have found in a PowerMac G5.

Michael

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