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Which connector is your new unibody Macbook pro

  • Sata I - 1.5Gbit

    Votes: 218 69.6%
  • Sata II - 3.0Gbit

    Votes: 95 30.4%

  • Total voters
    313
Me think it's a bug with OSX. Let me explain:

1. Hard disk used, as in the stock 160gb:
Based on the screenshot posted in this thread and the photos on ifixit.com, it would appear that the model used is: HTS545016B9SA02. If anyone could be bothered to check on hitachi's site, SA = Serial ATA = 1.5Gb/s. [Link]
*Insert blablabla why Apple/Hitachi did this here.* (Based on what's on the hard disk's stick, I would assume it's custom made for Apple?)

2. Er, OSX bug? Won't update system profile? /shrugs. That would explain why it would show up as SataII/3.0Gb/s in Windows and not on OSX when someone upgrades their hard disk?

Hoo-haa over nothing, no?

I learned a long time ago not to place too much faith in what the system profiler shows...
 
I learned a long time ago not to place too much faith in what the system profiler shows...

Yes. It's probably a bug. Perhaps it is also a power saving mechanism. For example if its plugged in into a hard drive, it will clock down the bus speed.
 
Not sure if the chipset their using is even capable of something like this, but is it possible that the system will only switch to using SATA 3.0 when it detects a drive that is pushing the limits of 1.5? A trick like that would let them perform well with SSDs but save battery when running a slower drive. :confused:

Bcaslis has a SSD installed in his laptop, and it's only running at 1.5.
 
All uMBPs are using sata II interface. Apple uses Nvidia MCP79 chipset which supports sata II ports.
The reason people seeing 1.5gb/s under system information is apple uses sataI 7200RPM HDDs and cd drives. Those information under system information are referring HDDS and CD drives, not the chipset itself.
Please forgive my poor english since I'm not a native english speaker.
This is something confused me for a while and I just really want to help people out on this.:D
 
All uMBPs are using sata II interface. Apple uses Nvidia MCP79 chipset which supports sata II ports.
The reason people seeing 1.5gb/s under system information is apple uses sataI 7200RPM HDDs and cd drives. Those information under system information are referring HDDS and CD drives, not the chipset itself.
Please forgive my poor english since I'm not a native english speaker.
This is something confused me for a while and I just really want to help people out on this.:D

There are a lot of people posting that have installed SATA II HDs into their new MBPs that are still reading as SATA I. Again, crossing my fingers it's a firmware/software issue!
 
Not sure if the chipset their using is even capable of something like this, but is it possible that the system will only switch to using SATA 3.0 when it detects a drive that is pushing the limits of 1.5? A trick like that would let them perform well with SSDs but save battery when running a slower drive. :confused:

i have a falcon 128G ssd installed. it should read around 230mb/s now it only get 120mb/s. the info says 1.5gigabit
 
All uMBPs are using sata II interface. Apple uses Nvidia MCP79 chipset which supports sata II ports.
The reason people seeing 1.5gb/s under system information is apple uses sataI 7200RPM HDDs and cd drives. Those information under system information are referring HDDS and CD drives, not the chipset itself.
Please forgive my poor english since I'm not a native english speaker.
This is something confused me for a while and I just really want to help people out on this.:D

No it's not. I have an Intel X25M SSD that was 3.0 Gbits in two previous MBPs, but in this new 2.8 is only showing 1.5 Gbits. Unfortunately I didn't save previous numbers from a program (Quickbench) but I'm pretty sure I'm seeing slower maximum sequential reads. Random are just as fast since that doesn't push the 1.5 Gbit limit. But the sequential reads seem to be maxing at around 130 MBytes / second. I wished I had saved the previous numbers so I could tell for sure.
 
I think its been pretty much been proven that the 13" models have been confirmed downgraded from 3Gb/s to 1.5Gb/s. All we need is confirmation on the rest of the line.

I for one have seen only one example of the latest 17" still conserving the 3Gb/s SATA speeds. However, I have seen 2 contradicting reports of the 15" 2.8GHz having 3Gb/s and 1.5Gb/s.

If more people could post their specifications it would finally show which models are actually affected by this.

Also, people who ordered their machines with an SSD installed. Those would be much more appreciated since we would see if Apple allowed 3Gb/s transfer in those and not the machines with an HDD installed. Highly doubt this, but I can see Apple doing this considering the price of an SSD on Apple is a bit of a premium. Premium price premium speed?
 
There are a lot of people posting that have installed SATA II HDs into their new MBPs that are still reading as SATA I. Again, crossing my fingers it's a firmware/software issue!
So am I, but you can't completely ignore the fact that an Apple engineer has confirmed all 13" now have 1.5 (post number 47)
 
I have a 15inch MPB coming in next week (3.06, 500GB 7200, 4GB RAM)

i'll be sure to come post the speed when it comes in.. i plan on investing in an SSD eventually, so im hoping for 3.0..
 
There seems to be far too much contradictory evidence to deduce anything from this topic.

Can someone explain why under Windows 7 Bootcamp the interfaces are registering as SATA II 3Gb/s?
 
There seems to be far too much contradictory evidence to deduce anything from this topic.

Can someone explain why under Windows 7 Bootcamp the interfaces are registering as SATA II 3Gb/s?


Interesting.. Apple has pulled a quick one on us with this one:rolleyes:
 
It appears that it's not a reporting error, but something that is being limited in firmware. The speed of fast SSDs are being limited by the 1.5 Gbit/s SATA I bus.
I too hope it could be a quick fix as firmware update. It wouldn't be cost effective for Apple to maintain two separate firmwares on UMBP line, say one for 1.5 Gb and another for 3.0Gb.

Gathering the information collected, we've the following summary:

- (Macbook Air 2,1) MBA 1.86GHz, 2.13GHz reported 3.0Gb
- (Macbook Pro 5,5) UMBP 13" 2.26GHz, 2.53GHz reported 1.5Gb (SD capable)
- (Macbook Pro 5,4) UMBP 15" 2.53GHz, 2.66GHz, 2.80GHz reported 1.5Gb (SD capable)
- (Macbook Pro 5,2) UMBP 17" 2.80GHz reported 3.0Gb

It seemed only the SD capable models are affected? If Windows 7 is reporting correct SATA-II spec, the special edition 10.5.7 pre-installed on the new UMBP maybe the culprit.
 
There seems to be far too much contradictory evidence to deduce anything from this topic.

Can someone explain why under Windows 7 Bootcamp the interfaces are registering as SATA II 3Gb/s?

Agreed.. we need some more windows benchmarks of SSDs on these new machines.

It wouldn't make sense for apple to put 5 different chipsets across 3 different macbook configurations.. it would have to be more cost-effective to use the same one.

If speeds in windows are better, then it might indicate that the 1.5Gbps limitation is not hardware, but a kernel extension from apple that exists on the new notebooks.
 
I think its been pretty much been proven that the 13" models have been confirmed downgraded from 3Gb/s to 1.5Gb/s. All we need is confirmation on the rest of the line.

I for one have seen only one example of the latest 17" still conserving the 3Gb/s SATA speeds. However, I have seen 2 contradicting reports of the 15" 2.8GHz having 3Gb/s and 1.5Gb/s.

If more people could post their specifications it would finally show which models are actually affected by this.

Also, people who ordered their machines with an SSD installed. Those would be much more appreciated since we would see if Apple allowed 3Gb/s transfer in those and not the machines with an HDD installed. Highly doubt this, but I can see Apple doing this considering the price of an SSD on Apple is a bit of a premium. Premium price premium speed?

I haven't seen one report of a 15" showing 3Gb/sec. I've only seen a report of a 17" 2.8GHz showing this speed.
 
FYI, I have no inside information

My gut feeling is that this is an oversight in the firmware that Apple shipped with this model MacBook Pro and will be fixed in a firmware update.

That being said, I am disappointed as I was planning on getting an 80-120GB SSD for my new 13' MBP

Guess I'll hold off for a few weeks and see what happens.
 
Agreed.. we need some more windows benchmarks of SSDs on these new machines.

It wouldn't make sense for apple to put 5 different chipsets across 3 different macbook configurations.. it would have to be more cost-effective to use the same one.

If speeds in windows are better, then it might indicate that the 1.5Gbps limitation is not hardware, but a kernel extension from apple that exists on the new notebooks.

It could be due to lame-brain OS X limitations on the driver or controller part.
 
FYI, I have no inside information

My gut feeling is that this is an oversight in the firmware that Apple shipped with this model MacBook Pro and will be fixed in a firmware update.

That being said, I am disappointed as I was planning on getting an 80-120GB SSD for my new 13' MBP

Guess I'll hold off for a few weeks and see what happens.

Apple will lose some sales the next few weeks until they shed some light on this one.
 
FYI, I have no inside information

My gut feeling is that this is an oversight in the firmware that Apple shipped with this model MacBook Pro and will be fixed in a firmware update.

That being said, I am disappointed as I was planning on getting an 80-120GB SSD for my new 13' MBP

Guess I'll hold off for a few weeks and see what happens.

I could see this being plausible. They ran into some trouble with either firmware or drivers or something, couldn't fix it in time for WWDC. They knew that the problem could be fixed via firmware/software update, so go ahead and ship them anyways. That way they can get up on stage and say "Shipping Today". In the available configurations, there is not going to be a measurable or noticeable difference, so they are not worried.

OTOH, if it were a true hardware problem, maybe they would have been forced to announce the new laptops but say they weren't shipping until later (i.e. iMac March 2009 w/ATI graphics chip...? What was that 4-6 weeks post announcement until shipping?)

There's just no logical or business sense to artificially cap the SATA bus on your laptops like this, only to magically "unlock" them to the lucky few who go with SSD BTO. As someone else said, if you don't advertise it then how do people know they're suppoesd to buy the BTO SSD in order to get the "good" laptops? Furthermore, it probably costs more money to make the differentiation because now you gotta swap out the logic boards in those BTO laptops to put in those secret "good" ones, or flash on the "special firmware" for those SSD BTO orders only. Where's the sense in that? If Apple really wanted to punish people for going 3rd party, they'd make some bug or incompatibility that rendered MS Office 2008 unusable with OS X, forcing everyone to get iWork, rather than target the tiny fraction of laptop owners who upgrade their computers with SSDs. Or heck even the RAM! Come on how many people don't upgrade the RAM on Apple computers instead buying 3rd party. That's surely a better target for "3rd party punishment" than SSD customers.

Typical macrumors forums over-the-top knee-jerk reactionary response to something like this. No, it can't be the logical explanation, it's Apple screwing us over, or being greedy and punishing those disloyal unfaithful fans who go 3rd party to upgrade their hardware.

Ruahrc
 
This thread was created around 11 hours ago and already has 12k views. I hope it gets a front page article so even more people start to take notice.
 
I could see this being plausible. They ran into some trouble with either firmware or drivers or something, couldn't fix it in time for WWDC. They knew that the problem could be fixed via firmware/software update, so go ahead and ship them anyways. That way they can get up on stage and say "Shipping Today". In the available configurations, there is not going to be a measurable or noticeable difference, so they are not worried.

OTOH, if it were a true hardware problem, maybe they would have been forced to announce the new laptops but say they weren't shipping until later (i.e. iMac March 2009 w/ATI graphics chip...? What was that 4-6 weeks post announcement until shipping?)

There's just no logical or business sense to artificially cap the SATA bus on your laptops like this, only to magically "unlock" them to the lucky few who go with SSD BTO. As someone else said, if you don't advertise it then how do people know they're suppoesd to buy the BTO SSD in order to get the "good" laptops? Furthermore, it probably costs more money to make the differentiation because now you gotta swap out the logic boards in those BTO laptops to put in those secret "good" ones, or flash on the "special firmware" for those SSD BTO orders only. Where's the sense in that? If Apple really wanted to punish people for going 3rd party, they'd make some bug or incompatibility that rendered MS Office 2008 unusable with OS X, forcing everyone to get iWork, rather than target the tiny fraction of laptop owners who upgrade their computers with SSDs. Or heck even the RAM! Come on how many people don't upgrade the RAM on Apple computers instead buying 3rd party. That's surely a better target for "3rd party punishment" than SSD customers.

Typical macrumors forums over-the-top knee-jerk reactionary response to something like this. No, it can't be the logical explanation, it's Apple screwing us over, or being greedy and punishing those disloyal unfaithful fans who go 3rd party to upgrade their hardware.

Ruahrc

I don't know much as of punishment, but I do know, it can become troublesome trying to difference those machines with special firmware and those without.

Try the past Al MacBooks that don't support 8GB RAM, but the hardware does. Now magically, the same 9400M chipset present in the 13" can support 8GB.
 
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