Mac Mini Link Speed (Serial-ATA)

[davidlv]

New Base model Mac Mini 2.3GHz
System Profiler - Serial ATA shows:
Link Speed: 6 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
HD is a Toshiba 500GB, 5,400RPM, MK5065GSXF
Is this link speed normal?
Probably limited by the drive I assume.
Does the Seagate 5,400RPM drive, more often found in the States, linking at 3 or 6 Gigabits?

 

[Intell]

That is normal. The speed is limited by the hard drive.

 

[philipma1957]

no mac mini hard drive needs the 6gb Sata 3 link.


only Sata III ssds need concern you.

the reason is no hdd is fast enough to use all of 3gb sata II. there are ssds that would use the sata III 6gb speeds


samsung series 830 is one

owc mercury 6g is another

 

[davidlv]

no mac mini hard drive needs the 6gb Sata 3 link. only Sata III ssds need concern you.
the reason is no hdd is fast enough to use all of 3gb sata II. there are ssds that would use the sata III 6gb speeds samsung series 830 is one
owc mercury 6g is another

Thanks Philipma
Much obliged for the clear concise answer!

 

[philipma1957]

To further muddy the waters (good singer btw)
No sata III hdd or ssd will work with the mac mini at 6g speeds unless the firmware of that particular unit is correct/compatible.

I know that may frustrate you as it does me. early 2011 macbook pros the owc SSDs worked with the 15 inch macbook at top speeds and correct 6g link. Same SSDs did not work with the 17 inch macbook pro and for months owc blogs stated don't buy our SSD and put it in the 17 inch macbook pro!


Right now my 2011 server mac mini has 2 500gb hdds 7200 rpm speed both are oem seagates


Vendor: Intel
Product: 6 Series Chipset
Link Speed: 6 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.30 Supported



this is what they read. I could check my other 2011 server it has oem upgrade of 2 750gb hdds from western digital both are 7200 rpm.

Asking about can help you but I have had my hands on more then 50 2011 mac minis none of them came with an hdd that had a 6 g link. Since I never buy oem ssds from apple all the ssds I put in were my own and I got samsung series 830 to read 6 g link I also was able to get an owc 6g ssd to do the same. The lack of consistency has gotten worse with apple in the last few years as iPad iPod iPhone have grown much faster then apple computers have grown.

 

[davidlv]

The lack of consistency has gotten worse with apple in the last few years as iPad iPod iPhone have grown much faster then apple computers have grown.

I had a similar issue with my 2009 MBP, the funky SATA controller freaks out with some HDs - notably the WD Scorpio Blue - with constant beachballs etc.
I had good results with the Seagate Momentus 500GB and the Hitachi 500GB 7,200rpm drives and both get a 3GB link speed. Apple never really resolved that issue, related to the firmware 1.7 update. Many people had to go back to 1.6 just to get a working machine, and that dropped the link speed down by half to 1.5GB.
Another example of sloppy work on Apple's part, and I too think that was a result of the company paying too mauch attention to the new products, reducing their capability to maintain excellent quality control.
BTW, this new Mac Mini screams, just converted an album, James Vincent McMorrow's excellent Early in the Morning, from Flac to mp3s. It finished the whole album while I was making a folder to put the files in and I thought the app had crashed 'cause the window was blank (it empties the window when all the files are converted).
So I am not so concerned about the slow HD. I will put a WD Scorpio Black in there when the price drops back down (After the Flood).
And surprisingly enough, Lion seems a bit more stable than the various posts have suggested (probably just not running into the problems lurking in the shadows).
I have found that one app I use often, SilverKeeper, is a little funky under Lion, have to restart it half the time, so I'll be looking for a replacement app.
Otherwise it is working fine so far.
In contrast my MBP running SL refuses to allow File Sharing in the Sharing Prefs Pane!
Can't figure this one out.....
Thanks for the comments.

 

[philipma1957]

Yeah I had bootcamp with;

windows 7 professional
lion
snow
on my 2010 mac pro triple boot all worked fine.

I then got rid of the mac pro and grabbed two 2011 mini servers one with a pair of seagate 500gb hdds and one with a pair of western digital hdds .

I wanted a dual boot with windows 7 home premium and lion boot camp did not allow it to happen.

I am now using vm fusion and it works. Sloppy programming caused a sign-on bug and my boot - camped windows could not connect to the internet. I purchased 2 dvds of fusion one for each mini. From amazon for 27 bucks each on black fri. works fine.

There is no excuse for some of the lion bugs.

yahoo mail crashes one or two times a day on safari only.

can't do a 3 pass or 7 pass 0 over write on disk utility.

can't do window 7 home premium with boot camp.

 

[shortcut3d]

Yeah I had bootcamp with;

windows 7 professional
lion
snow
on my 2010 mac pro triple boot all worked fine.

I then got rid of the mac pro and grabbed two 2011 mini servers one with a pair of seagate 500gb hdds and one with a pair of western digital hdds .

I wanted a dual boot with windows 7 home premium and lion boot camp did not allow it to happen.

I am now using vm fusion and it works. Sloppy programming caused a sign-on bug and my boot - camped windows could not connect to the internet. I purchased 2 dvds of fusion one for each mini. From amazon for 27 bucks each on black fri. works fine.

There is no excuse for some of the lion bugs.

yahoo mail crashes one or two times a day on safari only.

can't do a 3 pass or 7 pass 0 over write on disk utility.

can't do window 7 home premium with boot camp.

VMware does not require a separate license for each Mac in your household for Fusion. They basically follow the Mac App store policy although not there yet. I believe they are making their way to the Mac App store with the they configured the new installer.

I've had no problem running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit in bootcamp with Lion. In fact, I have Lion only on an external FireWire 800 enclosure. In fact, I'm not seeing all the bugs reported in Lion. So far, the WiFi bug was actually VMware Fusion 3 and I've lost Bluetooth completely just once on the iMac forcing a very rare reboot. YMMV

Back on topic, link speed at 6Gbps also confirmed on OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS. WD Scorpio Black is at 3Gbps. Completely normal.

For the 2009 MBP with WD Scorpio Blue, the problem was likely the model of drive. The model with sudden impact sensor would stutter. You can fix this with a couple hdparm commands.

 

[davidlv]

For the 2009 MBP with WD Scorpio Blue, the problem was likely the model of drive. The model with sudden impact sensor would stutter. You can fix this with a couple hdparm commands.

Nope, can't 'member the model number off-hand, but it was the one without the SIS. Constant stuttering, keystroke delay, beachballs, completely useless.
At the time I considered it was due to an incompatibility with the SATA hardware, firmware, whatever. Swapping in a Seagate 7,200rpm HD fixed the issue, and a later swap to a Hitach was good too. Trying to solve that issue was not an option as I had work to do and the Seagate was great (Hitachi is even better, cooler and just a tad less noise). The 2009 MBPs are prone to firmware/SATA issues, and some people have had good luck with the Scorpio Blue models, not me, and never again. Completely soured

 

[philipma1957]

Nope, can't 'member the model number off-hand, but it was the one without the SIS. Constant stuttering, keystroke delay, beachballs, completely useless.
At the time I considered it was due to an incompatibility with the SATA hardware, firmware, whatever. Swapping in a Seagate 7,200rpm HD fixed the issue, and a later swap to a Hitach was good too. Trying to solve that issue was not an option as I had work to do and the Seagate was great (Hitachi is even better, cooler and just a tad less noise). The 2009 MBPs are prone to firmware/SATA issues, and some people have had good luck with the Scorpio Blue models, not me, and never again. Completely soured

the 500gb scorpio blue was very good in 2009 mac mini's

 

[davidlv]

the 500gb scorpio blue was very good in 2009 mac mini's

So, that is my point exactly. There are several factors involved, SATA hardware, Drive versions (SIS, etc.), etc, and it can be difficult to determine what is the issue when problems arise. Rather than get fixated on any particular HD or brand, it is often easier to just find one that works well, and get on with business as usual.
BTW, Philima1957, do you know if there are any issues involved using Disk Warrior on a SSD? In theory, it should work as the object of the apps magic is the directory, but I haven't had any actual experience, so I thought I would ask.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

...do you know if there are any issues involved using Disk Warrior on a SSD?

DW works within the software layer of a system (HFS+ file system on a Mac OS X Intel or PPC machine), so the hardware is not the problem.

 

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