Level 1

67 points

Does the Late 2009 iMac i7 have dual channel SATA II?

I know there is a 3Gb/s SATA2 connection to the internal HD and a separate 3G SATA connection to the optical drive. But are those two SATA connections on separate channels?

To clarify, I am wondering if I can get greater than 3G speeds in a late 2009 iMac by putting an SSD in the HDD slot and another SSD in the optical drive slot. If there are 2 channels, then I would have the theoretical capability of a 6G SSD if I put the two in a RAID configuration.

Thanks.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10), Late 2009, 2.8GHz i7, 16GB RAM

Posted on Nov 13, 2015 11:00 PM

66 replies

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Nov 15, 2015 7:19 PM in response to Switch900

Switch900 wrote:

AAbout the soft raid I did not utilize this I used disk utility from Yosemite with hex editor to make it run in El Capitan to make a raid 0 which I made a video of that too on the same channel where I am showing my disk speed with raid 0 with black magic speed disk test

Again, what speeds did you achieve?

Switch900

Level 2

238 points

Nov 15, 2015 7:20 PM in response to Csound1

here is the link http://youtu.be/kYZ-LyCc1Og

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Nov 15, 2015 7:22 PM in response to Switch900

Is there some reason you can't just post the speed here, did you forget?

How many megabytes per second, its an easy question if you have done it.

Switch900

Level 2

238 points

Nov 15, 2015 7:21 PM in response to JDW1

here is the link http://youtu.be/kYZ-LyCc1Og

Switch900

Level 2

238 points

Nov 15, 2015 7:44 PM in response to Csound1

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Nov 15, 2015 7:50 PM in response to Switch900

Do the test again, photograph it with a note that says November 15 ASC test.

Switch900

Level 2

238 points

Nov 15, 2015 7:50 PM in response to SeaPapp

JDW1 Author

Level 1

67 points

Nov 15, 2015 8:07 PM in response to Switch900

Thank you for the final proof.

Those benchmarks show, without no room for any doubt, that the SATA II interface inside the late 2009 iMac is indeed DUAL CHANNEL. So by putting one 3G SSD into he HDD slot and a second SSD into the optical slot, and creating a RAID of the 2 into a single volume, you get 6G speeds instead of 3G.

So if anyone has the late 2009 iMac like myself and Switch900, if you can live without the internal optical drive (just put it in an external case), then you can get twice the throughput put putting 2 SSDs inside.

Thank you, Switch900 for the Black Magic Speed testing! It's much appreciated!

Switch900

Level 2

238 points

Nov 15, 2015 8:15 PM in response to JDW1

your welcome my friend and if you have any doubt like some one has in another discussion telling me that I don't get those speed here is my system setup

JDW1 Author

Level 1

67 points

Nov 15, 2015 9:38 PM in response to JDW1

My humble and sincere thanks to everyone who contributed in this thread.

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Nov 15, 2015 9:39 PM in response to JDW1

You're welcome.

Switch900

Level 2

238 points

Nov 15, 2015 9:45 PM in response to JDW1

Your welcome JDW1 if you have any more doubts how to upgrade your system go to OWC I got all my stuff there from them the tools and the adaptor for the 3.5 to 2.5 adaptor from newer tech and the data doubler which you have to look at your identifier which is an iMac 11.1 or just look at your system at the upper left corner about this mac.....

Switch900

Level 2

238 points

Nov 15, 2015 10:12 PM in response to JDW1

Yes it has dual channel Sata 2 there is even a guy explaining it on youtube which he dismounted the logic board of his late 2009 iMac 27 inch.

Switch900

Level 2

238 points

Nov 15, 2015 10:13 PM in response to JDW1

in the optical bay area there is a rumor saying that if you get a 6Gigabit SSD it will run as a Sata 1 not Sata 2 I think that is negative it will run on Sata 2 I got Samsung SSD so both are running on a Sata 2 controller....

JDW1 Author

Level 1

67 points

Nov 16, 2015 12:41 AM in response to Switch900

Switch900 wrote:

in the optical bay area there is a rumor saying that if you get a 6Gigabit SSD it will run as a Sata 1 not Sata 2 I think that is negative it will run on Sata 2 I got Samsung SSD so both are running on a Sata 2 controller....

I believe it to be more than just a rumor:

Re: Best COMPATIBLE ssd for NVidia MCP79 chipset?

Since the Samsung EVO 850 does NOT use a SandForce controller, there will not be any drop to 1.5Gb/s SATA-I speeds on 2009 3G Macs.

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Does the Late 2009 iMac i7 have dual channel SATA II?