Xtreme1690
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Whats the biggest hard disk my PowerMac G5 can hold?

Greetings!

 

I got a hold of a PowerMac G5 recently, rather cool machine!

 

Anyway, i want to use it as a fileserver and also for backups of me and my family members computers so im going to need some big hard disks!

 

Unfortunately PPC macs wont boot from GUID partitioned hard disks so i have 1 hard disk bay free (Whilst the other holds the boot drive) Unless i find some super nice fellow willing to sell me a G5 Jive card rather cheap

 

At the moment i have a 2TB Samsung Spinpoint (HD204UI) that i could use however before i go messing around inside the system i'd like to know if such high capacity drives will work in the system at all? As far as im aware some hard disks need certain pins/jumpers connected so they run at the slower speed and such. I recall reading something about AFT being an issue as well?

 

Any information is appreciated, i have listed the system information below as well if it helps.

 

Model Name:    Power Mac G5

  Model Identifier:    PowerMac11,2

  Processor Name:    PowerPC G5 (1.1)

  Processor Speed:    2 GHz

  Number Of CPUs:    2

  L2 Cache (per CPU):    1 MB

  Memory:    1 GB

  Bus Speed:    1 GHz

  Boot ROM Version:    5.2.7f1

PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8), PowerMac G5 (11,2)

Posted on Dec 2, 2014 1:04 PM

by BDAqua,Solvedanswer
BDAqua BDAqua
Level 10 (123,516 points)
A:

2.19 TB is the limit to be bootable on PPC Macs, but they can read & write to any size GUID drive, the biggest problem is getting a SATA drive that is still SATA 1.5 Gb/sec compatible.

Posted on Dec 2, 2014 2:48 PM

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Xtreme1690

Q: Whats the biggest hard disk my PowerMac G5 can hold?

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  • by BDAqua,Solvedanswer

    BDAqua BDAqua Dec 2, 2014 2:48 PM in response to Xtreme1690
    Level 10 (123,516 points)
    Dec 2, 2014 2:48 PM in response to Xtreme1690

    2.19 TB is the limit to be bootable on PPC Macs, but they can read & write to any size GUID drive, the biggest problem is getting a SATA drive that is still SATA 1.5 Gb/sec compatible.

  • by K Shaffer,

    K Shaffer K Shaffer Dec 2, 2014 3:00 PM in response to Xtreme1690
    Level 6 (14,304 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 2, 2014 3:00 PM in response to Xtreme1690

    There may be an upgrade potential with a PCI card or other hardware;

    not sure. The data rate according to MacTracker for the model you

    have is 1.5GBps or so. Without some hardware upgrade, that may not

    be surpassed. A 2TB to 4TB HDD should be an easy upgrade.

     

    •PowerMac G5 (Late 2005)

     

    Introduced    October 2005

    Discontinued    August 2006

     

    Model Identifier    PowerMac11,2

    Model Number    A1117

    EMC    2023

    Order Number    M9590LL/A (2.0 GHz), M9591LL/A (2.3 GHz), M9592LL/A (dual 2.5 GHz)

     

    Built-in Memory:    None

    Maximum Memory    16 GB

    Memory Slots    8 - 240-pin PC2-4200 (533MHz) DDR2 ECC or NECC SDRAM (matched pairs)

     

    Graphics Card    NVIDIA GeForce 6600 LE, GeForce 6600, GeForce 7800 GT, Quadro FX 4500

    Graphics Memory    128 MB (6600 LE) or 256 MB (6600, 7800 GT) or 512 MB (Quadro FX 4500)

    Display Connection    1 - DVI and 1 - dual-link DVI (6600 LE/6600/7800 GT) or 2 - dual-link DVI and 1 - stereo 3D port (Quadro FX 4500)

    Display Modes    Dual display extended and video mirroring

     

    Expansion:

    Slots    2 - 4-lane, 1 - 8-lane, 1 - 16-lane PCI Express

    Bays    2 - Internal 3.5" Serial ATA drive bays, 1 - optical drive bay

     

    Hard Drive Interface:    2 - 1.5 Gbps Serial ATA (SATA) controllers

     

    {according to the http://mactracker.ca free database application}

     

    You may be able to contact a product specialist or reseller of upgrade

    parts, to see what the upper limits are to a stock last model G5 tower.

     

    I see some options here, but not certain of product boundaries:

    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/3.5-SerialATA/

     

    The above company does offer pre-purchase support, to help get what

    works; and from reports by other Apple users, they also do, afterward.

     

    At least with an internal 3.5" HDD, these run 7200 RPM, and so should

    be fairly quick at moving data; the computer drive bus may be a slow

    link in the chain, when a modern drive may be faster at in this aspect.

    Same if you were to choose too-high spec SSD, instead of closer match.

     

    The replacement or upgrade hard disk drives may be somewhat backward

    compatible to older spec data rates; so that may be an answer of a sort.

     

    A few of the listed HDDs and perhaps a SSD look promising. OWC does offer

    some legacy SSD products that can be used in slower data bus situations.

    Other specs may be found at http://everymac.com regarding this PM G5.

     

    Not sure if this helps...

    Good luck & happy computing!

  • by K Shaffer,

    K Shaffer K Shaffer Dec 2, 2014 3:19 PM in response to BDAqua
    Level 6 (14,304 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 2, 2014 3:19 PM in response to BDAqua

    A larger capacity drive, if suited to the 1.5GBps limit, could be partitioned so

    the OS X startup volume would be on a correct size area of a larger HDD...

     

    Could also be handy if one were to need both Tiger 10.4 and Leopard 10.5 on

    separate partitions, for the sake of advantage in using vintage software options.

     

    Storage is another matter...