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robertosh

macrumors 65816
Mar 2, 2011
1,095
914
Switzerland
i've just bought a kingspec 64gb ssd pata drive, i will post some benchmarks when it arrive.. Anyone benchmark program for doing tests right now to compare later..?

The main reasons for buying a pata ssd are the age of the current disk, the sound and the heat. I hope this helps
 

Bob Kiwi

macrumors member
Jul 19, 2010
30
0
FYI: PowerBook G4 Titaniums, starting with the DVI model, have 48-bit addressing, so they can use any drive that will physically fit. I've been using a 320GB WD Scorpio Blue in my 1 GHz TiBook for a couple years now. Also, Mac OS 9's boot drive limit is 200GB. Anything at or below that (I made the boot partition 198 GB just to be safe) and you're fine. OS9 can read and write to drives larger than 200GB, it just can't start up from them unless it's from a ≤200GB partition on the drive.

Also, got a question. I've got the same model PowerBook and I've been thinking of putting an OWC Mercury Legacy Pro in it. How did installation go with the Foxconn connector? I wasn't able to get it connected when I worked on mine and I ended up returning the Mercury. The pins on the drive are offset by a millimeter or two from industry standard PATA HDDs, so I wasn't able to get the connector to plug in without forcing it because it was a couple millimeters off from where it was supposed to be. I asked OWC if this was a manufacturing defect or if they're all like that, but I never got a response.

Regardless, I've been thinking of rebuying next month and getting some spare rubber mounts for the hard drive and modifying them with an x-acto so the drive sits a couple mm further in so it'll fit.

How's your experience with noise/heat/battery life running your PowerBook off the Mercury?

Thanks for the corrections to sizing for Mac OS 9.

My TiBook with the Mercury SSD was super easy to install from the stock Apple original drive (well, maybe not the original drive, but what the machine had) and been running almost non-stop without problems (in Mac OS 9, even). Can't speak for battery life, as again mine is run closed and on AC. However, since it is running closed, in Mac OS 9 without much heat control, I can say I've never had any worries about heat, even when I was dumping old data CDs.

I took some pics, so I attached them here. The little black gromit thingies were difficult to get eased into the hard drive bay, but once I did it correctly there was no rattle or problems.

Hope it helps- I do love it, so glad that OWC offers these PATA SSDs.
 

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Frost7

macrumors regular
Oct 15, 2012
193
2
Republic of Texas
Thanks for the corrections to sizing for Mac OS 9.

My TiBook with the Mercury SSD was super easy to install from the stock Apple original drive (well, maybe not the original drive, but what the machine had) and been running almost non-stop without problems (in Mac OS 9, even). Can't speak for battery life, as again mine is run closed and on AC. However, since it is running closed, in Mac OS 9 without much heat control, I can say I've never had any worries about heat, even when I was dumping old data CDs.

I took some pics, so I attached them here. The little black gromit thingies were difficult to get eased into the hard drive bay, but once I did it correctly there was no rattle or problems.

Hope it helps- I do love it, so glad that OWC offers these PATA SSDs.
Fantastic, I really appreciate the info and reply!

Oddly enough I finally heard back from OWC just today too (that took a while) and their tech support thinks that may have been a defective unit, as they said the pins should line up exactly with regular HDDs. I think I will try for another one and place an order in a week or so.
 

dinobot

macrumors newbie
Feb 20, 2013
18
1
trouble formatting SSD

I'm stuck on formatting my Kingspec 32gb PATA ssd.

I'm trying install Tiger 10.4.6 on my ibook with SSD I just installed . Disk Utility recognizes disk, but can't partition it. Program says "Operation timed out"

how can I solve it?
 

robertosh

macrumors 65816
Mar 2, 2011
1,095
914
Switzerland
I've installed a kingspec 64ssd ".6" sucesfully.


Results 82.74
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.8 (9L31a)
Physical RAM 1280 MB
Model PowerBook6,5
Processor PowerPC G4 @ 1.20 GHz
L1 Cache 32K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 512K @ 1.20 GHz
Bus Frequency 134 MHz
Video Card ATY,RV280M9+
Drive Type KingSpec KSD-PA25.6-064MS KingSpec KSD-PA25.6-064MS
Disk Test 82.74
Sequential 91.70
Uncached Write 86.14 52.89 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 99.46 56.28 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 63.24 18.51 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 162.76 81.80 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 75.37
Uncached Write 28.06 2.97 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 69.92 22.38 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1326.36 9.40 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 419.83 77.90 MB/sec [256K blocks]
 

MisterKeeks

macrumors 68000
Nov 15, 2012
1,833
28
I've installed a kingspec 64ssd ".6" sucesfully.


Results 82.74
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.8 (9L31a)
Physical RAM 1280 MB
Model PowerBook6,5
Processor PowerPC G4 @ 1.20 GHz
L1 Cache 32K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 512K @ 1.20 GHz
Bus Frequency 134 MHz
Video Card ATY,RV280M9+
Drive Type KingSpec KSD-PA25.6-064MS KingSpec KSD-PA25.6-064MS
Disk Test 82.74
Sequential 91.70
Uncached Write 86.14 52.89 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 99.46 56.28 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 63.24 18.51 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 162.76 81.80 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 75.37
Uncached Write 28.06 2.97 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 69.92 22.38 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1326.36 9.40 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 419.83 77.90 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Keep us updated on whether it keeps performing well or if performance degrades.
 

robertosh

macrumors 65816
Mar 2, 2011
1,095
914
Switzerland
Keep us updated on whether it keeps performing well or if performance degrades.

Today the ibook doesn't come back from sleep, i had to force shutdown. I'm investigating the issue..it can be related to the hard disk sleep mode, i will mantain you updated.. really excited for the mod anyways ;)
 

TUSL2C

macrumors newbie
May 15, 2013
7
0
Computer Model:

Model Name: PowerBook G4 15"
Model Identifier: PowerBook5,8
Processor Name: PowerPC G4 (1.5)
Processor Speed: 1.67 GHz
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz


SSD Model name: KingSpec KSD-PA25.6-128MS

Revision: 20121203

Benchmark results:

Disk Test 59.32

Sequential 103.62

Uncached Write 109.97 67.52 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 102.39 57.93 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 73.86 21.61 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 161.25 81.04 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Random 41.56

Uncached Write 12.79 1.35 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 66.35 21.24 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1666.84 11.81 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 418.22 77.60 MB/sec [256K blocks]

I would NOT recommend this PATA SSD for the price / performance
 

DaKKs

macrumors 6502
Aug 15, 2012
474
43
Stockholm, Sweden
Anyone ever try to run SSD's as system drives in the optibay with a PATA-SATA ODD adapters?

Main bays are good and all, but if you opt for a PATA or a SATA 1.8 w/ adapter, the prices double as opposed to a 2.5 SATA in the optibay.
 

ppcfanforever1

macrumors regular
Dec 31, 2012
227
1
Pennsylvania
Thanks for the corrections to sizing for Mac OS 9.

My TiBook with the Mercury SSD was super easy to install from the stock Apple original drive (well, maybe not the original drive, but what the machine had) and been running almost non-stop without problems (in Mac OS 9, even). Can't speak for battery life, as again mine is run closed and on AC. However, since it is running closed, in Mac OS 9 without much heat control, I can say I've never had any worries about heat, even when I was dumping old data CDs.

I took some pics, so I attached them here. The little black gromit thingies were difficult to get eased into the hard drive bay, but once I did it correctly there was no rattle or problems.

Hope it helps- I do love it, so glad that OWC offers these PATA SSDs.

Looks super sexy! Great job :D
 

666sheep

macrumors 68040
Dec 7, 2009
3,686
291
Poland
Anyone ever try to run SSD's as system drives in the optibay with a PATA-SATA ODD adapters?

Main bays are good and all, but if you opt for a PATA or a SATA 1.8 w/ adapter, the prices double as opposed to a 2.5 SATA in the optibay.

ATA 33 isn't best for SSD unless it's your only bus.
PATA SSDs aren't nowadays that expensive as they used to be some time ago.
 

wobegong

Guest
May 29, 2012
418
1
Powermac G5 DC 2.3

OCZ Agility 3 248Gb (latest firmware 2.25) (Boot drive)

Results 263.44
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.8 (9L31a)
Physical RAM 12288 MB
Model PowerMac11,2
Processor PowerPC G5x2 @ 2.30 GHz
L1 Cache 64K (instruction), 32K (data)
L2 Cache 1024K @ 2.30 GHz
Bus Frequency 1 GHz
Drive Type OCZ-AGILITY3 OCZ-AGILITY3
Disk Test 263.44
Sequential 168.67
Uncached Write 211.70 129.98 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 208.91 118.20 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 98.17 28.73 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 248.93 125.11 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 601.21
Uncached Write 455.66 48.24 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 385.79 123.50 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 2802.73 19.86 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 662.38 122.91 MB/sec [256K blocks]
 

Courierdog

macrumors newbie
Jun 9, 2019
1
0
Edmonton
I use an OWC Legacy SSD for a Titanium PB G4 (1GHz, last model to boot Mac OS 9).
Use it for Mac OS 9 mainly, with Mac OS X 10.5 as an emergency OS (that is terribly slow, I think I'd rather run Mac OS X 10.2 just for nostalgia...).
Mac OS 9 on an SSD, on a 1GHz laptop, is pretty great. No problems and runs for weeks straight without reboots in a clamshell mode (screen shut and external display and keyboard/mouse) so I'm quite happy.
Just have to make sure to get a 120GB or smaller drive as I'm pretty certain Mac OS 9 can't boot on bigger drives (and some Macs pre-2001 are not 128GB+ native without third party software).
Makes me kind of wonder what a Firewire 400 enclosure with an SSD would bench, and if it'd be faster than my NAS for the PowerBook
I would be very interested in knowing how you managed to squeeze in the SSD complete with the ATA to SATA adaptor into the Titanium case as there is very little room even to install the drive let alone the adaptor.
 

swamprock

macrumors 65816
Aug 2, 2015
1,204
1,759
Michigan
I would be very interested in knowing how you managed to squeeze in the SSD complete with the ATA to SATA adaptor into the Titanium case as there is very little room even to install the drive let alone the adaptor.
The OWC Legacy drives are PATA, not SATA. No adapter is necessary.

Saying that, it's gotten unnecessary to buy OWC drives at their prices. You can buy an mSATA SSD and a PATA adapter to fit it in, for just a little over half of what they charge, plus you have a wider range of drive capacities to choose from. OWC has been out of stock of their Legacy line of drives for some time now, and it seems that they're going to stop selling them; most likely for the reasons I listed above.
 
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