Just to confirm, you're having difficulties with the M4 in the optical bay slot right? What about in the standard HD slot?
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2011 MacBook Pro - SATA 6 Gigabit Link Speed
- Thread starter crellion
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Just to confirm, you're having difficulties with the M4 in the optical bay slot right? What about in the standard HD slot?
johnnyturbouk
macrumors 68000
CTO late march 2011 17" MBP with patriot wildfire
20 min inital load, 5 mins subsequent load; beachball galore and sub 100 read/write speeds... my owc ssd was chuckling away at it from the optibay
flashed the ssd, clean os install, smc +pram reset = no difference
used the allufoil shielding on sata cabled.. beachballs gone, but pathetic read write speeds, 240/220.. system profiler stated my negotiated link was 6 gb/s.
SSD taken out and tried in pc rig - no issues with sata-3 port.
I have RMA the drive and ordered the vertex 3 max iops.. i have the gut feeling i have one of the affected 17" MBP
will be talking to apple on mon!
20 min inital load, 5 mins subsequent load; beachball galore and sub 100 read/write speeds... my owc ssd was chuckling away at it from the optibay
flashed the ssd, clean os install, smc +pram reset = no difference
used the allufoil shielding on sata cabled.. beachballs gone, but pathetic read write speeds, 240/220.. system profiler stated my negotiated link was 6 gb/s.
SSD taken out and tried in pc rig - no issues with sata-3 port.
I have RMA the drive and ordered the vertex 3 max iops.. i have the gut feeling i have one of the affected 17" MBP
will be talking to apple on mon!
With the initial firmware 0001 there were some reproducable stalls/beach-balls when I let Spotlight rebuild its index. With firmware 0002 these are gone (I am using TRIM, which may or may not play a role). Turned out that 0001 did not work well with Link Power Management (LPM), which can easily be turned off in Windows, but only worked around via a trick (running HDAPM at least every 39 ms).
Also on Windows I noticed that the Intel AHCI driver (not the MSAHCI one) fell back to 3G speeds quite often. It turned out that this only seems to happen when I put in the M4 without fixing it via the side-screws that hold the drive a few millimeters above the SATA cable.
So overall: After updating the firmware and installing the drive properly with the original Macbook holding screws it works very well on both OS X and Windows.
On the Crucial forum there are some users who still seem to experience beach-balls. It's very well possible that there still is a "physical" difference between 17" MBP units that make some work better than others. Looking at the OWC blog suggests this at least.
One thing to look out for is CPU and SSD load. The M4 can sometimes make audible electronic noise when the CPU utilizes low power/idle C-states in combination with 4K SSD load. I suspect that certain load situations can create specific EMI that affects the SATA cable and thus some people report about successful EMI shielding.
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So what happened when you installed the SSD? Did your computer accept it and all is well?
6 Series PCH B3 stepping confirmed
@crellion
I can confirm for you (if no one else has ) that your early 2011 15" MBP has the fixed B3 stepping of the Intel 6 Series PCH support chip. The evidence for this is the Spec-Code marking ("SLJ4P") on top of the HM65 PCH (platform controller hub) chipset, which is clearly visible on your Front-Side graphic. Thanks for including that pic! I've been trying to find out which 6-Series PCH Apple has been installing with the 2nd gen. Sandy Bridge platform CPU's. Now we know! Check this out-take from page 9 of the Intel PDF document cited below:
PCH Stepping S-Spec Top Marking Notes
B2 SLH9D BD82HM65 Intel® HM65 Chipset
B3 SLJ4P BD82HM65 Intel® HM65 Chipset
Source: "Intel® 6 Series Chipset and Intel® C200 Series Chipset - Specification Update - October 2011" (p. 9)
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/doc/specification-update/6-and-c200-chipset-specification-update.pdf (p.*9)
As to the link speed for the optical superdrive, it's apparent from your iFixit report that the internal connection is to port 2 of the SATA controller. For 6-Series chipsets, only ports 0 and 1 are 6 Gb/s, and ports 2 to 5 are 3 Gb/s (see the Intel document for further details).
If you still intend to verify the SATA ports in use or available using Windows Device Manager diagnostics via Boot Camp, then expand the System devices listing in that utility and double-click each of the Intel 6 Series device ports you find listed there in turn, selecting the Details tab and then 'Hardware Ids' from the Property drop-down menu. The REV_??? number at the end of the first value listed should be 'REV_B5' (a hex value) representing the B3 stepping of the chipset, or 'REV_B4' for the faulty B2 stepping. See page 10 of the cited document for other details.
btw, over the past months OWC (Other Word Computing) has (I think) reported both 6 and 3 Gb/s ratings for the optical drive bay connection (used by the OWC Data Doubler kit to attach secondary SSDs and HDDs). My theory is that Apple has been playing footsies releasing MBPs with the optical drive bay connected either to SATA port 1 or 2 -- probably because of the problems being reported for 6 Gb/s devices. It seems the recent EFI Firmware 2.2 update has largely resolved these issues, if not entirely. See the OWC Blog for Thursday, September 15, 2011 for the details.
Again, thank for those pics!
Saltimbank
New York
@crellion
I can confirm for you (if no one else has ) that your early 2011 15" MBP has the fixed B3 stepping of the Intel 6 Series PCH support chip. The evidence for this is the Spec-Code marking ("SLJ4P") on top of the HM65 PCH (platform controller hub) chipset, which is clearly visible on your Front-Side graphic. Thanks for including that pic! I've been trying to find out which 6-Series PCH Apple has been installing with the 2nd gen. Sandy Bridge platform CPU's. Now we know! Check this out-take from page 9 of the Intel PDF document cited below:
PCH Stepping S-Spec Top Marking Notes
B2 SLH9D BD82HM65 Intel® HM65 Chipset
B3 SLJ4P BD82HM65 Intel® HM65 Chipset
Source: "Intel® 6 Series Chipset and Intel® C200 Series Chipset - Specification Update - October 2011" (p. 9)
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/doc/specification-update/6-and-c200-chipset-specification-update.pdf (p.*9)
As to the link speed for the optical superdrive, it's apparent from your iFixit report that the internal connection is to port 2 of the SATA controller. For 6-Series chipsets, only ports 0 and 1 are 6 Gb/s, and ports 2 to 5 are 3 Gb/s (see the Intel document for further details).
If you still intend to verify the SATA ports in use or available using Windows Device Manager diagnostics via Boot Camp, then expand the System devices listing in that utility and double-click each of the Intel 6 Series device ports you find listed there in turn, selecting the Details tab and then 'Hardware Ids' from the Property drop-down menu. The REV_??? number at the end of the first value listed should be 'REV_B5' (a hex value) representing the B3 stepping of the chipset, or 'REV_B4' for the faulty B2 stepping. See page 10 of the cited document for other details.
btw, over the past months OWC (Other Word Computing) has (I think) reported both 6 and 3 Gb/s ratings for the optical drive bay connection (used by the OWC Data Doubler kit to attach secondary SSDs and HDDs). My theory is that Apple has been playing footsies releasing MBPs with the optical drive bay connected either to SATA port 1 or 2 -- probably because of the problems being reported for 6 Gb/s devices. It seems the recent EFI Firmware 2.2 update has largely resolved these issues, if not entirely. See the OWC Blog for Thursday, September 15, 2011 for the details.
Again, thank for those pics!
Saltimbank
New York
This is a hardware problem (cable). The original ODD required only SATA I speed, and that is what the cable "shielding" supports. SATA II is backwards compatible to SATA I, so you should use only SATA I or SATA II SSDs/HDDs in the optibay. If you use a SATA III SSD/HDD, the cable must support SATA II and SATA III frequencies, with the appropriate shielding of the cable.
Well could be the cable, but even if so: It's not only the cable. As you can see with IORegistryExplorer the ODD is connected to port 1 on some models (= 6Gbit), and on port 2 on others (= 3 GBit). - So simply exchanging the cable won't do the job.
Of course, my model (early 2011 - 15" 2.2 MBP) has the 6/3 setup. grrr...
I am running two C300 256 GB drives, in raid 0. One runs at 6, the second at 3 Gbit ... It definately works that way (mixing 6/3), however, the raid 0 speed with "Disk Speed Test" app from BlackMagicDesign (see App Store) is around Write 410 MB/s and read 510 MB/s on the first run ...
Your post is both confusing and incorrect. SATA-3 is 6G, SATA-2 is 3G. Also, many early 2011 MBP's have 6G on both ports (mine included).
Hi guys. I've been doing research on swapping my internal into a SSD but when I look at the System Profiler on the early 2011 17" MBP, it shows 6 Gb link speed and 3 Gb negotiated link speed and 1.5 Gb negotiated link speed for the drive. Is this normal? From what I'm reading, it sounds like all of you guys have either 6 or 3 Gb negotiated link speed? Will I be able to utilize SATA 3 SSDs?
yes it's normal on early 2011 MBP, because the sata cable was low quality and had not proper shielding
some people put some aluminium paper or bought shielding from OWC or even replaced the sata cable and solved this issue
but still, negotiated link speed on optical drive may be limited to sata2 on some models
some people put some aluminium paper or bought shielding from OWC or even replaced the sata cable and solved this issue
but still, negotiated link speed on optical drive may be limited to sata2 on some models
Don't think this has anything to do with "bad quality" cable, especially since you haven't yet put a SATA 3 SSD in that slot. The HDD that your Macbook Pro shipped with is only SATA 2, so the fastest it would connect at is 3Gbps, hence the negotiated link speed. If you put in a SATA 3 capable drive in your HDD spot, it will connect at 6Gbps.
The ODD spot is the wildcard; from what I gather, some early 2011 MBPs can connect at 6Gbps, some only at 3Gbps. Someone correct me if I am mistaken.
James
Not quite
I have the late 2011 macbook pro bought it on November... I have 2 ssds in it. (1 for mountain lion, 1 for bootcamp) and the speed of each are 480 and 450. What some people say "ssds will just reach to 200 mb/s on the optical bay seems false to me.. I have 2 samsung 830 ssds 128 gb and 64 gb.
I have the late 2011 macbook pro bought it on November... I have 2 ssds in it. (1 for mountain lion, 1 for bootcamp) and the speed of each are 480 and 450. What some people say "ssds will just reach to 200 mb/s on the optical bay seems false to me.. I have 2 samsung 830 ssds 128 gb and 64 gb.
Any further info
Anyone got any further with this. I want to buy a 17 inch Feb or October Macbook Pro but want to put a large 512Gig ssd in the optical drive. What are the odds of it at least working OK at SATAII speeds under Snow Leopard?
Is there anything I can do (modification) that I can do to improve the situation - I think I read somewhere a while ago about this but can't find it now.
Thanks
Anyone got any further with this. I want to buy a 17 inch Feb or October Macbook Pro but want to put a large 512Gig ssd in the optical drive. What are the odds of it at least working OK at SATAII speeds under Snow Leopard?
Is there anything I can do (modification) that I can do to improve the situation - I think I read somewhere a while ago about this but can't find it now.
Thanks
If you're only concerned about SATA2 drives, you're fine. The issue was with SATA3 drives and interference from the battery cable.
I believe I'm interested in SATA3 drives because you can't get anything larger than 240gig SATA2 drives (am I correct on this?). I don't mind though if the SATA3 drive only works at SATA2 speeds but I'm worried about it not working at all or worse not working sometimes. In particular, I want to put a 512gig Corsar M4 drive in the optical bay!
If your optical bay reports 6G capability then your SATA 3 SSD likely will not work at all, not even at SATA 2 speed. It isn't worth trying it. I bought an MBP with 6G optical bay just to test the theory and had to return it. My early 2011 MBP with 3G optical bay however happily runs a SATA 3 SSD at SATA 2 speed.