SATA-300 disk replacement in 2006 iMac?

[Thrash911]

Hello people,

In a month or so, I will replace my 250Gb internal HD with a 1TB disk. My iMac is a 24" white 2006 iMac (the "old" Intel model). Can I hook up a SATA-300 disk to this machine with no problems? Because I'm not too sure if this machine has SATA-150 or SATA-300..??

 

[Thrash911]

Okay.. In System Profiler, under Serial-ATA, it says the speed is 1.5 Gigabit. So that is Sata-150, yes? I'm pretty sure..

New question.. Will all SATA-300 disks just transfer at lower speeds when connected to a SATA-150 controller? I mean, are they 100% compatible? Especially this disk:

http://www.samsung.com/global/busin...up=&type=61&subtype=63&model_cd=249&ppmi=1155

..that's the one I'm planning on putting in.

 

[cube]

Look for the documentation of the disks.

The Samsung F1, for example, has no jumper to change speed. It comes at 3Gbps and can only be downgraded to 1.5 via a Samsung Windows utility, meaning that you need a Windows computer with 3Gbps ports to run it, or I guess otherwise an external enclosure that can do 3Gbps with an older PC.

 

[Thrash911]

Ok, it depends on the disk then. All right, thanks.

 

[cube]

I just googled "7200.11 jumper settings", and it seems these already come with the jumper set to 1.5Gbps, which is the smart thing to do.

 

[cube]

Pay attention that there are 2 Seagate 7200.11 1TB models, and I don't know if both have such a jumper.

 

[Thrash911]

Yes, I will. I don't have access to a SATA-300 controller, and I don't want to buy one, just to set the speed.. So I need one with a jumper setting..

I'm a little confused about whether the HD103UJ has this or not. On the site I linked to, the v4 of the manual says it's a jumper setting.. v5 of the manual says it's set with software.. Hmm.. *scratch scratch*..

I could just order it, and return it if it doesn't have the jumper settings for sata150..

 

[cube]

I bought an F1 about a month ago and some pins are missing. But it was for an external case that fortunately could handle it.

I didn't know at the time the F1 was so stupid, I just lucked out.

 

[Leon Kowalski]

You don't need a jumper with a 1.5 Gbit/s iMac -- the jumper is only
required with brain-dead SATA controllers that don't conform to the
SATA speed-negotiation standard. Any modern 3 Gbit/s SATA drive
should work fine with your iMac's Intel AHCI controller chip. BTW,
my 1.5 Gbit/s white iMac came with a 3 Gbit/s hard drive.

LK

 

[Thrash911]

Actually, I also have a SATA-300 disk in my machine. Hell, I'm just gonna order the F1 disk, and try it out. I bet it works.

And.. Equipped with the official service manual for my model iMac, and a bunch of tools, I had a little "training session" today. I opened up the machine all the way to the harddrive. It was actually much easier than I expected. Took some pictures along the way. Now I know how it's done when I actually have to do it.

 

[markfc]

I fitted a ST3750640AS in mine no problem, didn't need to make any jumper changes at all.

 

[cube]

Well, if Seagate is selling the 7200.11 configured for 1.5Gbps, that tells nothing.

It also tells nothing if your Mac came with a SATA-300 disk, and you didn't check if it was configured for 1.5Gbps.

Maybe AHCI works on the Mac, but it gives a lot of problems to enable it with Windows (at least on PCs).

 

[Thrash911]

Well, either way.. It seems no one agree what the deal is. So for what it's worth, I'll test it. I'll have the F1 disk within a couple of weeks. I assume the disk is configured for full SATA-300 when I get it. I will then install it in the machine without configuring it for SATA-150, and see how it's doing in both OS X and Windows (native Boot Camp). I guess I will try some sniffing apps in Windows as well. If it should turn out, that it needs to be forced to SATA-150, I will deal with that somehow..

I will report my experience back to this thread, after a couple of days use, or so.

I'm not sure that will provide rock-hard proof, but it will definitely prove how the F1 disk works in THIS model of the iMac. And if it works on this iMac, I'm pretty sure it will work in the Alu iMacs as well.

Until later.. Thanks for all your input guys.

 

[Thrash911]

Well.. It didn't go so well. The HD installation went ok without any problems. But it was very unstable. Please see this thread for details:

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=6131307

The drive has now been tested in a Windows enviroment a lot, by reading/writing a lot, really stressing the drive. And there were no problems. So.. If it is just THIS particular drive, or if it's the sheer size of the drive, I don't know.. But the iMac won't deal with it.

Not sure if I'm gonna try with another drive, or I'll go for an external FW drive..