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Hard-drive compatibility question

J

jjbankhead

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 14, 2009
16
0
central valley california
Hello all...


I have a 2007 version mac mini:

Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier: Macmini2,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MM21.009A.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.19f2
Serial Number (system): YM8052EPYL2
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-0016CBAEAB84


I am planning on upgrading to 4gb ram and am considering upgrading the internal Harddrive.

I am currently using a seagate 1.5tb external to run osx leopard, am planning on upgrading to snow leopard and want to free up space on my external and start using a larger internal.

My question: I don't understand the difference of Sata speeds and am wondering if there is a limitation to what this system is compatible with. I understand this system will work with a Sata or Sata 2, but everything i see lists as Sata with GB/s and i am ignorant as to what this speed refers to and if certain speeds are not compatible with my processor.

if someone could help it would be much appreciated.
 
M

mrfoof82

macrumors 6502a
May 26, 2010
577
15
Lawton, OK
The MacMini 2,1 is "SATA 1" which has a maximum throughput of 1.5Gbps per channel.

You can connect SATA-2 and SATA-3 drives, however throughput will be limited to 1.5Gbps instead of 3.0Gbps (SATA-2) or 6.0Gbps. In terms of sustained transfer rate, this will largely be a non-issue for you, since the burst rate of 7200rpm disks rarely even come close to that even under optimal conditions (contiguous reads on inner tracks). It'd be much more of an issue for high-end SSDs (like the Crucial C300), where they can absolutely eclipse those limits.

Also, for SATA in general, take 8b/10b encoding into account, and consider "real-world maximum throughput" to be 80% of the standard's limit.

The major advantage of SATA-2 is Native Command Queueing. Your controller simply won't support it.

A good overview of the SATA revisions is here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA#Revisions


TL;DR: All SATA drives will work, though you won't get all the benefits (speed, features, power consumption) with the MacMini 2,1's older controller.
 
R

rtrt

macrumors 6502a
Jan 19, 2008
544
0
mrfoof82 said:
It'd be much more of an issue for high-end SSDs (like the Crucial C300), where they can absolutely eclipse those limits.
Click to expand...

i'd just add one point to this - if you'll use the ssd mainly as an OS drive and not for large file storage then the sustained throughput limits mentioned shouldn't really be an issue - you'll still benefit significantly from the increased random access speed.
 
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