Is The iMac's Optical Drive IDE or SATA?

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nathanjbrown

macrumors 6502

Original poster

• Jul 2, 2009

• #1

Hello All,

I have an April, 2008 Aluminum iMac. I've searched the web and am rather surprised that I can't find the answer (though perhaps I've completely overlooked it): Is the optical drive (DVD/RW) in my iMac an IDE or SATA drive? I know the HDD is SATA, but what about the optical?...

Thanks!

Nathan

 

Tallest Skil

macrumors P6

• Jul 2, 2009

• #2

Ultra ATA.

 

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guydude193

macrumors 6502a

• Jul 2, 2009

• #3

Spotlight search System Profiler. Then look through the Serial-ATA tab. Hope this helps!

 

ltldrummerboy

macrumors 68000

• Jul 3, 2009

• #4

The 2009 Nvidia model is the first to use an SATA optical drive. If you're thinking about putting two drives in your model you'll have to use PATA.

Edit: Whoops, I just gave you the specs for the Mac mini. My 2008 24" iMac has a PATA DVD drive.

 

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DavidR91

macrumors member

• Jul 3, 2009

• #5

2009 models use SATA for the optical drive (NVIDIA AHCI + OPTIARC)
2008 use (P)ATA for the optical drive (Intel + OPTIARC)

 

zmttoxics

macrumors 65816

• Jul 3, 2009

• #6

I can confirm on the 2009 it is on the SATA bus. 🙂

But of course, that doesn't help anyone.

 

nullx86

macrumors 6502a

• Jul 3, 2009

• #7

2009 = SATA
2008 = PATA

If Im correct, at this date, all 2009 and most 08's should have SATA, I think the only ones that dont are your model of iMac and the Apple TV (PATA HDD...)