2011 17" MBP supports 6Gbps SATA

[gnasher729]

Thanks, will do. Screwing around with technology isn't JUST my hobby, it's what I do for a living . I agree, I doubt Apple would knowingly ship computers with faulty components. That's why we 'love and trust' Apple. Worst case, it gets a lot more expensive for them to replace all of the bad machines/do a recall down the road.

For example, in the UK they would have to fix faults for a length of six years _if the fault was present when the machine was built_. If one of the good 6 GBit ports breaks after one year and one day, bad luck for the customer. If Apple used one of the faulty 3 GBit ports, and it stops working after 5 1/2 years, Apple has to fix it (in the UK).

And I am quite sure that Intel didn't give these chipsets to anyone who didn't sign a contract that ports 2-5 are not used.

 

[kfscoll]

*deleted*

 

[smarty-s]

SATA 6Gb BUS

Here is the offical Awnser from Apple ... i ask about the Support from both !!! bays the optical and HDD from the new macbkooks ....

Sehr geehrter Herr


Die neuen MacBook Pros haben SATA III Schnittstellen, hat mir eben die Abteilung für Business Solutions mitgeteilt.

Alle meine Kontaktdaten bei Apple, meine email Adresse, Telefonnummer ersehen Sie am Ende dieser email.



Mit freundlichen Grüssen:

Csaba Bujna
 Apple Sales Inbound International

Apple Operations Europe
Directors: Cathy Kearney (Irish), Gary Wipfler, Peter Oppenheimer & Timothy Cook (United States of America)

Hollyhill Industrial Estate
Hollyhill
Cork
Ireland


( Iám German ... but they say that the new macbooks works with SATA III ! )

 

[RainCityMacFan]

I think they are talking about the HDD which does have SATA III capabilities. But we are focusing on the optical bay here, and the IOExplorer clearly shows that the ODD is plugged into Port 2, a SATA II interface.

I demand SATA III and I demand that Apple redesign the MBP. /rage Ok, bleh. Now I'll just wait for a SATA III SSD and invest in a Scorpio Black for my ODD bay. OS X is OS X and a MBP is MBP. *sigh*

 

[idea_hamster]

Here is the offical Awnser from Apple ... i ask about the Support from both !!! bays the optical and HDD from the new macbkooks ....

Sehr geehrter Herr


Die neuen MacBook Pros haben SATA III Schnittstellen, hat mir eben die Abteilung für Business Solutions mitgeteilt.

Alle meine Kontaktdaten bei Apple, meine email Adresse, Telefonnummer ersehen Sie am Ende dieser email.



Mit freundlichen Grüssen:

Csaba Bujna
 Apple Sales Inbound International

Apple Operations Europe
Directors: Cathy Kearney (Irish), Gary Wipfler, Peter Oppenheimer & Timothy Cook (United States of America)

Hollyhill Industrial Estate
Hollyhill
Cork
Ireland


( Iám German ... but they say that the new macbooks works with SATA III ! )

Google translate:
Die neuen MacBook Pros haben SATA III Schnittstellen
=
The new MacBook Pros have SATA III interfaces

Technically, this is true -- but what is connected to them? The main hard drive is connected to SATA III, but the optical drive seems to be connected to SATA II, wasting a SATA III port.

This is the question we need answered:
Ist das SuperDrive verbunden mit einem SATA-III-Port, und warum nicht?

 

[smarty-s]

Google translate:
Die neuen MacBook Pros haben SATA III Schnittstellen
=
The new MacBook Pros have SATA III interfaces

Technically, this is true -- but what is connected to them? The main hard drive is connected to SATA III, but the optical drive seems to be connected to SATA II, wasting a SATA III port.

This is the question we need answered:
Ist das SuperDrive verbunden mit einem SATA-III-Port, und warum nicht?

i Ask this question to the Apple Technical support , if there is a answer i will post it ...

 

[idea_hamster]

i Ask this question to the Apple Technical support , if there is a answer i will post it ...

Danke schon!

 

[latzke]

I think you can solve this issue by buying a hard drive with a built in motion sensor such as the WD Scorpio Blacks and put those in the Optibay, and then put the SATA 3 SSD in the main bay.

Solves motion sensing issue...but not temperature/heat.

 

[RainCityMacFan]

Solves motion sensing issue...but not temperature/heat.

Is the heat really that bad?

 

[Merkyworks]

I wonder about this as well? Have people that done this on a 2010 and earlier noticed this?

 

[darwin022]

Currently I'm booting from the OWC SSD in the second bay (optical slot) running at 3Gbps SATA II. The C300 is in the primary slot at 6Gbps SATA III.

As of this iteration of testing, the C300 seems to work great at 6Gbps as long as you don't boot from it. What's the point though? I hope that some of the new/next generation 6Gbps SATA III drives coming out soon have better results. I give up on trying to boot from the C300 in 6Gbps mode on this MBP.

Benchmarks:

C300 256GB (I had to go with a single pass test on this because it kept hanging)

QuickBench(TM) 4.0 Test Results
©2000-2007 Intech Software Corp.
Test file created on Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 1:37:21 PM
Test Volume Name: C300 1
Test Volume Type: MacOS Extended
Test Volume Size: 213.805 Gigabytes
Test Volume Free Space: 200.087 Gigabytes
Allow Disk Cache Effects: Disabled
All reads and writes performed sychronously

Standard Test Results:
Test Cycles: 1 

Transfer Size   Sequential Read   Sequential Write    Random Read      Random Write

   4 KBytes      34.652 MB/Sec     32.982 MB/Sec     19.662 MB/Sec     33.111 MB/Sec
   8 KBytes      0.528 MB/Sec      61.111 MB/Sec     37.866 MB/Sec     60.699 MB/Sec
  16 KBytes      109.064 MB/Sec    100.221 MB/Sec    67.684 MB/Sec     103.052 MB/Sec
  32 KBytes      167.346 MB/Sec    151.582 MB/Sec    106.206 MB/Sec    150.308 MB/Sec
  64 KBytes      209.911 MB/Sec    195.799 MB/Sec    158.428 MB/Sec    180.324 MB/Sec
 128 KBytes      216.433 MB/Sec    207.414 MB/Sec    211.263 MB/Sec    211.417 MB/Sec
 256 KBytes      246.628 MB/Sec    207.213 MB/Sec    238.944 MB/Sec    222.004 MB/Sec
 512 KBytes      278.089 MB/Sec    223.863 MB/Sec    271.392 MB/Sec    221.532 MB/Sec
1024 KBytes      290.190 MB/Sec    225.092 MB/Sec    289.167 MB/Sec    219.792 MB/Sec

Standard Ave     172.538 MB/Sec    156.142 MB/Sec    155.624 MB/Sec    155.804 MB/Sec


Large Test Results:
Test Cycles: 1

Transfer Size         Large Read         Large Write

  2 MBytes           327.648 MB/Sec     218.538 MB/Sec
  3 MBytes           339.271 MB/Sec     223.083 MB/Sec
  4 MBytes           345.948 MB/Sec     224.469 MB/Sec
  5 MBytes           348.242 MB/Sec     222.736 MB/Sec
  6 MBytes           350.138 MB/Sec     223.933 MB/Sec
  7 MBytes           350.866 MB/Sec     206.572 MB/Sec
  8 MBytes           352.842 MB/Sec     223.636 MB/Sec
  9 MBytes           353.976 MB/Sec     200.834 MB/Sec
 10 MBytes           354.914 MB/Sec     223.840 MB/Sec

 Large Ave           347.094 MB/Sec     218.627 MB/Sec


Extended Test Results:
Test Cycles: 1

Transfer Size        Extended Read      Extended Write

 20 MBytes           359.795 MB/Sec     217.160 MB/Sec
 30 MBytes           361.683 MB/Sec     222.480 MB/Sec
 40 MBytes           362.380 MB/Sec     216.423 MB/Sec
 50 MBytes           362.042 MB/Sec     217.342 MB/Sec
 60 MBytes           362.647 MB/Sec     220.084 MB/Sec
 70 MBytes           357.306 MB/Sec     216.682 MB/Sec
 80 MBytes           362.695 MB/Sec     218.286 MB/Sec
 90 MBytes           362.889 MB/Sec     220.160 MB/Sec
100 MBytes           362.901 MB/Sec     217.781 MB/Sec

Extended Ave         361.593 MB/Sec     218.489 MB/Sec

OWC 240GB:

QuickBench(TM) 4.0 Test Results
©2000-2007 Intech Software Corp.
Test file created on Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 10:52:55 AM
Test Volume Name: OWCSSD
Test Volume Type: MacOS Extended
Test Volume Size: 223.250 Gigabytes
Test Volume Free Space: 210.478 Gigabytes
Allow Disk Cache Effects: Disabled
All reads and writes performed sychronously

Standard Test Results:
Test Cycles: 5 

Transfer Size   Sequential Read   Sequential Write    Random Read      Random Write

   4 KBytes      28.504 MB/Sec     34.548 MB/Sec     21.025 MB/Sec     34.570 MB/Sec
   8 KBytes      48.787 MB/Sec     57.913 MB/Sec     39.445 MB/Sec     58.411 MB/Sec
  16 KBytes      82.018 MB/Sec     89.300 MB/Sec     70.245 MB/Sec     86.990 MB/Sec
  32 KBytes      115.810 MB/Sec    123.812 MB/Sec    103.827 MB/Sec    124.312 MB/Sec
  64 KBytes      151.298 MB/Sec    156.722 MB/Sec    144.219 MB/Sec    157.904 MB/Sec
 128 KBytes      179.207 MB/Sec    179.304 MB/Sec    162.153 MB/Sec    181.443 MB/Sec
 256 KBytes      207.300 MB/Sec    187.119 MB/Sec    199.683 MB/Sec    187.659 MB/Sec
 512 KBytes      226.706 MB/Sec    209.813 MB/Sec    223.614 MB/Sec    206.864 MB/Sec
1024 KBytes      243.199 MB/Sec    216.974 MB/Sec    238.816 MB/Sec    215.721 MB/Sec

Standard Ave     142.536 MB/Sec    139.500 MB/Sec    133.670 MB/Sec    139.319 MB/Sec


Large Test Results:
Test Cycles: 5

Transfer Size         Large Read         Large Write

  2 MBytes           250.208 MB/Sec     240.278 MB/Sec
  3 MBytes           257.830 MB/Sec     246.580 MB/Sec
  4 MBytes           261.179 MB/Sec     241.792 MB/Sec
  5 MBytes           263.432 MB/Sec     241.456 MB/Sec
  6 MBytes           264.785 MB/Sec     245.653 MB/Sec
  7 MBytes           265.900 MB/Sec     250.129 MB/Sec
  8 MBytes           266.666 MB/Sec     244.040 MB/Sec
  9 MBytes           267.003 MB/Sec     248.035 MB/Sec
 10 MBytes           267.728 MB/Sec     246.038 MB/Sec

 Large Ave           262.748 MB/Sec     244.889 MB/Sec


Extended Test Results:
Test Cycles: 5

Transfer Size        Extended Read      Extended Write

 20 MBytes           263.841 MB/Sec     240.633 MB/Sec
 30 MBytes           263.785 MB/Sec     239.124 MB/Sec
 40 MBytes           264.600 MB/Sec     238.405 MB/Sec
 50 MBytes           265.373 MB/Sec     238.167 MB/Sec
 60 MBytes           265.229 MB/Sec     235.529 MB/Sec
 70 MBytes           267.390 MB/Sec     235.907 MB/Sec
 80 MBytes           268.255 MB/Sec     236.730 MB/Sec
 90 MBytes           269.586 MB/Sec     235.930 MB/Sec
100 MBytes           270.648 MB/Sec     236.948 MB/Sec

Extended Ave         266.523 MB/Sec     237.486 MB/Sec

Rather interesting results, don't you think? Especially write speed comparisons between each.

 

[MBMarc]

My C300 has firmware 002 and it works great darwin. Check out my bench numbers on post #96... what do you think?

 

[JoJoCal19]

Can't you just pull the logic board and plug the SATA cable for the ODD into the other open SATA III slot? I have no idea really but just curious.

 

[hoxley]

Can't you just pull the logic board and plug the SATA cable for the ODD into the other open SATA III slot? I have no idea really but just curious.

I wondered this. No idea.

 

[poppap]

Can't you just pull the logic board and plug the SATA cable for the ODD into the other open SATA III slot? I have no idea really but just curious.

The answer would be no.

As there is no other "open SATA III slot" on the logic board, it's not wired to a physical port. The only port on the logic board that the ODD can plug in is the SATA II port near the ODD drive.

The ODD SATA II port is the rectangular port in the middle on the left side of the picture in Step 13
The HDD SATA III port is the bottom left port which seems to be bigger than the ODD SATA II port.
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook-Pro-15-Inch-Unibody-Early-2011-Teardown/4990/2

 

[darwin022]

My C300 has firmware 002 and it works great darwin. Check out my bench numbers on post #96... what do you think?

It looks good, you don't seem to have quite the drop off on 4K reads that my 256GB gets. However, there's a big speed difference between the 128GB and the 256GB C300 drives.

How responsive is yours? Does it occasionally hang for 20-30 seconds or more? Lockups? etc?

 

[darwin022]

PGP Whole Disk Encryption benchmarks, from boot device. Atrocious. It wasn't nearly this much of a hit compared to non-encrypted on the previous systems. The machine is still useable, but these are very disappointing scores. Previous performance decrease was around 10-20%

QuickBench(TM) 4.0 Test Results
©2000-2007 Intech Software Corp.
Test file created on Tuesday, March 1, 2011 at 8:32:41 PM
Test Volume Name: OWCSSD
Test Volume Type: MacOS Extended
Test Volume Size: 223.250 Gigabytes
Test Volume Free Space: 210.158 Gigabytes
Allow Disk Cache Effects: Disabled
All reads and writes performed sychronously

Standard Test Results:
Test Cycles: 5 

Transfer Size   Sequential Read   Sequential Write    Random Read      Random Write

   4 KBytes      16.458 MB/Sec     27.057 MB/Sec     14.957 MB/Sec     27.404 MB/Sec
   8 KBytes      29.319 MB/Sec     40.643 MB/Sec     25.720 MB/Sec     40.708 MB/Sec
  16 KBytes      43.206 MB/Sec     53.029 MB/Sec     39.534 MB/Sec     53.141 MB/Sec
  32 KBytes      54.650 MB/Sec     66.224 MB/Sec     52.049 MB/Sec     65.824 MB/Sec
  64 KBytes      63.175 MB/Sec     73.311 MB/Sec     60.685 MB/Sec     71.191 MB/Sec
 128 KBytes      72.357 MB/Sec     79.048 MB/Sec     70.584 MB/Sec     78.194 MB/Sec
 256 KBytes      77.298 MB/Sec     69.745 MB/Sec     75.696 MB/Sec     67.483 MB/Sec
 512 KBytes      82.716 MB/Sec     64.467 MB/Sec     80.786 MB/Sec     62.711 MB/Sec
1024 KBytes      63.692 MB/Sec     58.987 MB/Sec     64.175 MB/Sec     55.922 MB/Sec

Standard Ave     55.875 MB/Sec     59.168 MB/Sec     53.798 MB/Sec     58.064 MB/Sec


Large Test Results:
Test Cycles: 5

Transfer Size         Large Read         Large Write

  2 MBytes           87.074 MB/Sec      78.928 MB/Sec
  3 MBytes           105.937 MB/Sec     91.727 MB/Sec
  4 MBytes           94.826 MB/Sec      98.839 MB/Sec
  5 MBytes           104.206 MB/Sec     111.226 MB/Sec
  6 MBytes           102.176 MB/Sec     110.014 MB/Sec
  7 MBytes           101.817 MB/Sec     116.516 MB/Sec
  8 MBytes           94.127 MB/Sec      121.619 MB/Sec
  9 MBytes           98.669 MB/Sec      117.532 MB/Sec
 10 MBytes           107.131 MB/Sec     121.851 MB/Sec

 Large Ave           99.551 MB/Sec      107.584 MB/Sec


Extended Test Results:
Test Cycles: 5

Transfer Size        Extended Read      Extended Write

 20 MBytes           95.244 MB/Sec      129.317 MB/Sec
 30 MBytes           100.715 MB/Sec     132.119 MB/Sec
 40 MBytes           103.697 MB/Sec     121.439 MB/Sec
 50 MBytes           101.816 MB/Sec     125.003 MB/Sec
 60 MBytes           101.323 MB/Sec     116.999 MB/Sec
 70 MBytes           102.615 MB/Sec     119.192 MB/Sec
 80 MBytes           100.548 MB/Sec     106.456 MB/Sec
 90 MBytes           102.641 MB/Sec     110.777 MB/Sec
100 MBytes           104.301 MB/Sec     103.955 MB/Sec

Extended Ave         101.433 MB/Sec     118.362 MB/Sec

That is an almost unacceptable performance drop.

 

[mac jones]

So until Apple changes the DVD bay with firmware (because speed fanatics harassed them ), I guess i'm going to have to put a rotational drive in the Optibay (generic)

I've never done this. I always put the SSD there as it doesn't need mounting and doesn't get very hot.

But I don't think it's a big deal. Just not optimal perhaps.

But I guess you raid guys are really pissed.

 

[xchaotic]

Can anyone confirm that the 13" has the same ports?
Other than the GPU 13" is a winner when you compare it to the same size Air.

 

[idea_hamster]

So until Apple changes the DVD bay with firmware (because speed fanatics harassed them ), I guess i'm going to have to put a rotational drive in the Optibay (generic)

I've never done this. I always put the SSD there as it doesn't need mounting and doesn't get very hot.

But I don't think it's a big deal. Just not optimal perhaps.

But I guess you raid guys are really pissed.

This has nothing to do with firmware -- the only cure is a redesign. With the ODD connected to a 3Gb/s port, there isn't anything to be done.

And remember that when you put a spinning drive in the OptiBay, it has no protection from Apple's Sudden Motion Sensor. So you'll need a drive that has its own sensor, like a few smaller WD Scorpio Black drives, but not the larger ones.

Also, you're limited to a 9.5mm rotational drive, so all the 12.5mm drives that would fit into the main HDD bay are out.

Congrats, Apple -- you really screwed the pooch on this one.

 

[2contagious]

If the SSD is made for SATA II, would using it with an SATA III port even make a difference?

 

[idea_hamster]

If the SSD is made for SATA II, would using it with an SATA III port even make a difference?

No -- but using an SSD made for SATA III would have made a difference if Apple hadn't sabotaged that option.

There are already a few SATA III drives out there from Crucial and Corsair, and Intel's and OCZ's models will be out in a few weeks.

 

[Apple Corps]

Idea_hamster

"...Congrats, Apple -- you really screwed the pooch on this one. "

Apple did not screw anything. You are doing a mini hardware hack that deviates from the MBP specs and design.

Suck it in and quit all your bitching.

 

[dnlt]

Idea_hamster

"...Congrats, Apple -- you really screwed the pooch on this one. "

Apple did not screw anything. You are doing a mini hardware hack that deviates from the MBP specs and design.

Suck it in and quit all your bitching.

I thought the main reason is that the SATA II drives were defective :\

 

[PurdueGuy]

I thought the main reason is that the SATA II drives were defective :\

SATA II drives are not defective.

Some of the early Intel Cougar Point chipsets have flawed SATA II ports.

Apple has states they don't use any of those chipsets.