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did u install the imac efi firmware update 1.6 for the 2011 iMacs?

Benz63amg

Benz63amg

macrumors 601
Original poster
Oct 17, 2010
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as the title says, did u guys install the update? i didnt as its a risky update and besides it doesnt seem to do anything i would use ? ( it says it fixed and improves thunderbolt or something..)
 
did u notice any improvements? basically it only fixes something with thunderbolt right?
 
No, it fixes a variety of things. It's documented on apples site.

I didn't notice anything different. But there is no reason not to install it.
 
Someone correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't this the recent update that "unlocked" SATA III for us? That is a pretty big deal and something many were complaining about immediately after the refresh.

Now we can install those super new, super fast SSD's and reap all of the benefits!!!
 
I installed it as it was in software update etc.
I understand that it's supposed to enable SATA 3 theorectically doubling throughput to 6GB/s.
However I notice in the profiler under Sata that it says:

Link Speed: 6 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit

So what is this negotiated link speed?
Surely the two values should be the same i.e. 6 Gigabit for both.
This sounds like it 'should' be 6 GB/s but that the controller and HD have had a meeting and decided that was way too fast so negotiated 3 GB/s as a compromise...

Joking aside is everyone else's the same?
 
The hard drive is SATA II I believe, so the negotiated link speed will be the same as that. Doesn't matter really, as a hard drive is incapable of saturating SATA II.
 
So has the data transfer actually been changed between the HD and controller or is the 6GB transfer rate for thunderbolt only?

Monkeyoe said:
The hard drive is SATA II I believe, so the negotiated link speed will be the same as that. Doesn't matter really, as a hard drive is incapable of saturating SATA II.
Click to expand...
 
Georgio said:
So has the data transfer actually been changed between the HD and controller or is the 6GB transfer rate for thunderbolt only?
Click to expand...

The data transfer is always limited by the weakest link. Your HDD is SATA2 - so the SATA3 controller will work in the SATA2 mode. If you had one of the latest SATA3 SDD in there, you would see the negotiated speed of 6GB. So don't worry, everything is working fine.
 
Nah. The hard drive is connected at the fastest speed that it can be connected at (SATA II). If you replace the hard drive with an SSD that is SATA III compatible, it will run at SATA III speeds. Not too sure about Thunderbolt. I think it's a 4x PCI-E connection combined with a mini displayport connection.
 
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