Write speed Mac mini Early 2009 SSD

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Level 1

8 points

Write speed Mac mini Early 2009 SSD

Hello,

I´ve recently purchased a Drevo X1 SSD for my early 2009 Mac mini to boost up its performance, but I was rather disappointed when I found out that the write speed of the SSD stays at approx. 200MB/s for 2 seconds (which is fine) but then rapidly decreases to a point on which there´s only 25 MB/s. Read speeds stay somewhat constant on around 250MB/s. Also I trim forced the SSD. Even though the mac mini is SATA II and the SSD is SATA III, that difference is quite massive and now I don´t know what to do.

I would really appreciate it, if you could help me.

Thanks in advance

Leon Hussain

Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6), TRIM enabled

Posted on Apr 8, 2017 1:08 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

den.thed

Level 9

77,008 points

Apr 9, 2017 10:04 AM in response to Leon500

I think that BDAqua maybe on to something here, because I can not find anything in the Drevo X1 spec's that say's the interface is backwards compatible to SATA ll G3. > http://www.drevo.us/product/drive#params

At this point, I'm not going to move one of the 6G CS1311 PNY's in my 2012 Mac Mini to the 2010 Mac Mini. However like others, PNY states that they are backwards compatible to SATA ll G3. > https://www.pny.com/ssd-CS1311#specifications

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

238,979 points

Apr 9, 2017 10:16 AM in response to Leon500

I'm thinking the Mac & the Drevo aren't liking each other & one or the other is having trouble negotiating & sticking to a Write speed, my bet is the SATA implementation on that model Mac, & why OWC's 6G SSD won't work @ 3G on that model.

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Answer 3

den.thed

Level 9

77,008 points

Apr 8, 2017 3:25 PM in response to Leon500

Hmmm... what disk speed test are you using?

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blackmagic-disk-speed-test/id425264550?mt=12

When I run BlackMagic on my 2010 Mac Mini, I always get a fairly steady 215MB/s Write and 260MB/s Read.

(like your 2009 my 2010 Mac Mini is also SATA ll 3G, the only difference is that I have a matching 3G PNY CS1111 SSD)

It also does not seem to matter if the Mac Mini just started up, has been up for a weeks or what processes are running.

Hmmm... I'm not certain, but I do not think that Trim would affect the Reed/Write speed.

(I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that Trim is not need for SSDs that have good garbage collection. So with that, I have not enabled Trim on my 2010 Mac Mini or on either of my 2012 Mac Mini's that have 6G PNY SSDs installed in them)

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Answer 4

BDAqua

Level 10

238,979 points

Apr 9, 2017 10:03 AM in response to Leon500

Any clues here?

Special note for specific 2009 iMacs, 2008-2010 MacBooks, 2008-2009 MacBook Pros & 2009 Mac mini.

We highly recommend the use of a SATA 2.0 (3Gb/s) SSD such as the OWC Mercury Electra 3G for the following Macs:

iMacs w/ Model ID:

How to find the model ID

iMac9,1

iMac10,1

iMac11,1

MacBooks w/ Model ID:

How to find the model ID

MacBook5,1

MacBook5,2

MacBook6,1

MacBook7,1

MacBook Pros w/ Model ID:

How to find the model ID

MacBookPro5,1

MacBookPro5,2

MacBookPro5,3

MacBookPro5,4

MacBookPro5,5

Mac minis w/ Model ID:

How to find the model ID

Macmini3,1

Macmini4,1

While a 6G SSD does function, it will only do so at SATA Revision 1.0 (1.5Gb/s, 150MB/s) speeds rather that the SATA Revision 2.0 (3.0Gb/s 300MB/s) speed the computer can deliver.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/SSD7E6G480/

The Drevo X1 SSD is 6G correct?

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Answer 5

Leon500 Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 8, 2017 3:55 PM in response to den.thed

Hi

First of all thanks for answering that quickly.

I'm also using blackmagic disc speed test as a benchmark and a terminal command which lets you read how long it took to copy a "test" file and the resulting mb/s.

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Answer 6

Leon500 Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 8, 2017 3:59 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi

Thanks for the answer

Yep the drevo X1 is 6G but even if the Mac mini is 3G ,30mb/s is very very slow. Even the original 5600rpm had was faster than the ssd. What's a bit surprising is that blackmagic starts the Speedtest with about 200mb/s write and then decreases very rapidly to about 30-25mb/s where it usually gets up a bit but not too much( approx. 60mb/s)

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Answer 7

Leon500 Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 9, 2017 12:52 AM in response to den.thed

This seems logical, thank you.

But does it really affect performance that much if the ssd isn't backwards compatible to Sata II ?

Also I found out that others have the exact same problem with the drive spontaneously dropping write speed. So I guess it's a drive problem?

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Answer 8

Leon500 Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 9, 2017 1:49 PM in response to BDAqua

So from my understanding you´re saying that I should avoid SSDs which aren´t backwards compatible to SATA II?

I´ve just purchased a

HyperX FURY SHFS37A of Amazon and I went on and checked whether or not it´s backwards compatible to SATA II and it is. So this one should work flawlessly, right?

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Answer 9

BDAqua

Level 10

238,979 points

Apr 11, 2017 8:45 AM in response to Leon500

That is what I'm thinking should be the case... but it all depends on their's & Apple's implementation of negotiating SATA II, the OWC one I linked to is SATA I, II, & III compatible, yet only operates at SATA I on your SATA II Mac!

I'd opt for a true SATA II SSD myself.

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Answer 10

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Apr 9, 2017 1:53 PM in response to Leon500

If it doesn't have SATA2 compatibility there is no telling what won't work correctly, this scenario does not sound very far fetched.

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