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2011 iMac i7 - Optical drive SataIII?

P

portishead

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 4, 2007
1,114
2
los angeles
I just got a 2011 iMac i7, installed my OWC Electra 6G SSD. I booted up and according the system profiler, it says:

Product: 6 Series Chipset
Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Negotiated Speed: 3 Gigabit

Does the optical drive bay support 6Gbit? What am I missing? Thanks!
 
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What is "it"?? Does the optical drive say the above or does your new ssd? The logic board and chipsets support sata 3, hence the "Product" part, but the device only supports sata 2, hence the "link speed" label. What the negotiated label means is what the computer figured out to be the correct xonnection.
 
The SSD says that. It says "Intel 6 Series Chipset" above it. I'm not sure why it's only connecting at 3 Gigabit though.

screenshot20110709at114.png
 
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Have you installed the firmware update?
 
I don't believe the optical bay does. I think the logic board only has two SATA III ports, which are used for the hard drive and the SSD bay.
 
portishead said:
I just got a 2011 iMac i7, installed my OWC Electra 6G SSD. I booted up and according the system profiler, it says:

Product: 6 Series Chipset
Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Negotiated Speed: 3 Gigabit

Does the optical drive bay support 6Gbit? What am I missing? Thanks!
Click to expand...

It's explicitly stated in your post...

The "Link speed" is what the connection is capable of, whereas the "Negotiated speed" is what you are currently running at

There are 2 SATAIII ports and 1 SATAII port on the 2011 i7 iMacs... the optibay is infact the SATAII

I'll add a shot of my profiler so you can see...
The 1st port is 6gigabit capable, but the drive is 3gigabit max
the 2nd port is 6gigabit capable, and the drive is 6gigabit
the 3rd port (optibay) is 3gigabit capable, and the drive is 1.5gigabit
 

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I figured that out now, but thanks. I'm thinking of putting the SSD in the hard drive slot, and maybe getting a 2.5" laptop drive in place of the optical drive.

If there were some Thunderbolt options available, I'd probably go with that, but the Promise is expensive, and so will the LaCie little big disk (or whatever they are calling it) when it's released.
 
portishead said:
I figured that out now, but thanks. I'm thinking of putting the SSD in the hard drive slot, and maybe getting a 2.5" laptop drive in place of the optical drive.

If there were some Thunderbolt options available, I'd probably go with that, but the Promise is expensive, and so will the LaCie little big disk (or whatever they are calling it) when it's released.
Click to expand...

Don't take this the wrong way, but you really need to do some research before you go doing what you have planned. It's obvious by your original post that you weren't really educated about the 2011 iMac before you stuck your SSD in the optical bay.

There's a BAJILLION articles and how-to's and YouTube videos with instructions and background info. It's really not hard to find.

Really, spend 30 minutes GOOGLING about iMAC 2011 and SSD and educate yourself. You will be sorry if you put your SSD in the hard drive bay.
 
Last edited:
Unless you're reading through every single iMac article, it's easy to miss the optical bay didn't have 3G support.

Don't get your panties all in a bunch man.

What's wrong with putting an SSD in the 3.5" hard drive bay? I had a 21.5" before this, so I've taken it apart plenty of times.

Seriously - try and be a little helpful. You just sound like a tool.
 
portishead said:
Unless you're reading through every single iMac article, it's easy to miss the optical bay didn't have 3G support.

Don't get your panties all in a bunch man.

What's wrong with putting an SSD in the 3.5" hard drive bay? I had a 21.5" before this, so I've taken it apart plenty of times.

Seriously - try and be a little helpful. You just sound like a tool.
Click to expand...

There is a chance that if you place the SSD in the main HDD bay that the cooling fan will go apeshizzle... basically spin up to max and stay there

Some people have reported success with certain drives as to avoiding this, however the safer bet is to install into the second bay (behind the optibay on a 27" imac i7)

If your imac didnt originally come with an SSD as well, and you plan on placing an ssd in the second bay, you will need to figure out some sort of bracketing (i made my own), and purchase a sata/power cable as it will not be present.

Allow me to note there is a workaround to placing a non-mac ssd into the main bay, i believe it was OWC that covered it. Another option is software based fan control.

There are a few posts floating around about this stuff, including one of my own about the install of a 240gb OCZ Vertex 3 into a 27" 2011 iMac i7

Happy modding! Apple seems to really have it out for DIYers these days!
 
portishead said:
Unless you're reading through every single iMac article, it's easy to miss the optical bay didn't have 3G support.

Don't get your panties all in a bunch man.

What's wrong with putting an SSD in the 3.5" hard drive bay? I had a 21.5" before this, so I've taken it apart plenty of times.

Seriously - try and be a little helpful. You just sound like a tool.
Click to expand...

It's called constructive criticism. I prefaced my comment accordingly.

What's wrong with knowing what you are doing, before you are doing it? I just got my iMac 27" i7 and in doing my research BEFORE I tore it apart, I learned the ODD port was SATA 2, I learned about how Apple put a temp sensor on the HDD and added firmware so any modification with non-Apple HW in that bay causes your fans to rev up full speed. I learned how to connect my SSD to SATA port 1 (6GB/s SATA III) and leave the HDD in the HDD bay. Having never ventured into tearing apart a 27" iMac, and now having done it, I was just recommending that you know as much about your iMac as possible so you do the upgrade right, unless you really like tearing that thing apart a half dozen times!

Anyways, sorry if you took it the wrong way...I was just recommending you do some research before you make more mistakes. There is a ton of info on this topic due to Apple's inclusion of the temp sensor firmware, so it's easy to find.

Here's a time saver for you, so I'm not such a "tool". I found that there was no need to mount the SSD to a specially modified pressure wall, and having to disassemble the iMac to that point. Since a SSD has no moving parts, it just needs to be "secured" in the area of the empty bay. Some good 3M double-sided foam tape will hold it in place well past the life of your iMac. Don't over do it, though...just a small amount is all you need or you'll never get it out.

Oh, one more bonus tip. Get the right cable so your not messing with the HDD power cable. This is the perfect cable and plugs directly into the SATA 1 port on the MB and then into your SSD. No converters needed.
 
I'm already dealing with the fan issue since I installed a 2TB drive in place of the stock drive.

I don't know why you would tell me its a bad idea to place the SSD there since its no worse of a solution than I already have. Technically its a better idea since SSD doesn't generate as much heat.

HDD Fan Control solves this problem although i haven't paid the $30 for it yet. I'm still holding out for another solution.

I accept your apology but seriously - I am very aware of what I am doing and all the other issues I am facing with adding SSDs and replacing hard drives. The only thing I didn't realize was the optical bay was SATA2.

I'm not sure what Im going to do yet. I might wait for a better solution to properly mount the SSD with proper cabling etc.

The fans are super annoying. I'm in another room and I hear them still.
 
dmylrea said:
Here's a time saver for you, so I'm not such a "tool". I found that there was no need to mount the SSD to a specially modified pressure wall, and having to disassemble the iMac to that point. Since a SSD has no moving parts, it just needs to be "secured" in the area of the empty bay. Some good 3M double-sided foam tape will hold it in place well past the life of your iMac. Don't over do it, though...just a small amount is all you need or you'll never get it out.

Oh, one more bonus tip. Get the right cable so your not messing with the HDD power cable. This is the perfect cable and plugs directly into the SATA 1 port on the MB and then into your SSD. No converters needed.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I've literally read through hours of posts about temperature control and SSD mounting it's exhausting. I haven't seen anyone post that link yet. I'll look into it.
 
Since nowhere did you mention you upgraded the stock drive to 2TB and already have fan noise, my suggestion to stay away from SSD in HDD bay made sense when I posted it. Personally, I would NEVER want my ultra quiet iMac 27 making ANY noise, so your current predicament is not an option I would ever entertain. That's why I have my SSD tucked neatly in it's own space using SATA1 port and the nifty cable I linked to earlier. My iMac 27" runs perfectly.

But, it sounds like you've got everything under control and since you've gotten your optical drive bay question answered, I guess we're done here!

Good luck.
 
I don't mind a little fan noise, but the fans blasting at 5000 rpm all the time is incredibly annoying. I've thought about putting the stock drive back in for now since I only need around 800GB for now.

Yeah - adding the 2TB drive wasn't really relevant to my initial question but as the thread progressed - well you know... I dealt with the same thing with my 2010 iMac, but I just shorted the sensor which worked. 1 year later I took the 2TB drive out, and the cables weren't melted so apparently it was fine.

I got a refurb and no yellow screen so I'm happy.
 
portishead said:
I don't mind a little fan noise, but the fans blasting at 5000 rpm all the time is incredibly annoying. I've thought about putting the stock drive back in for now since I only need around 800GB for now.

Yeah - adding the 2TB drive wasn't really relevant to my initial question but as the thread progressed - well you know... I dealt with the same thing with my 2010 iMac, but I just shorted the sensor which worked. 1 year later I took the 2TB drive out, and the cables weren't melted so apparently it was fine.

I got a refurb and no yellow screen so I'm happy.
Click to expand...

What about putting the 1TB back in the HDD bay to quiet things down, put the SSD in the SSD bay (SATA1) and put a 1GB 2.5" HDD in the ODD bay (since, really, who used a DVD these days, and if you need to, just plug in a $30 USB DVDRW)?

That gives you a super quiet, SSD bootable iMac 27 running SATA III, and 2TB total storage. :)
 
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