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6 HDDs in MDD

MatthewLTL

MatthewLTL

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 22, 2015
1,684
18
Rochester, MN
I was just cerious, Would it be Ideal or wise to make the MDD have 6 HDDs by using 2 HDDs (with 5.25-3.5 brackets) on the ATA33 bus in place of the Optical Drives?

Out of testing the system I even booted Leopard with my HDDs hooked to the ATA33 bus and it didn't seem much slower.

Any thoughts?

Also anyone try 12 HDDs? 12 2.5 drives inside dual 3.5-2.5 brackets?
 
There is no reason why you can't safely run it with 6 hard drives. You could run it with 12 as well, but you'd need a PCI interface card for 6 of them.
 
Keep in mind that the PSUs on these machines were designed to drive large ADC monitors with accompanying USB devices attached over the AGP slot. So the draw of hard drives is not an issue.
 
Altemose said:
Keep in mind that the PSUs on these machines were designed to drive large ADC monitors with accompanying USB devices attached over the AGP slot. So the draw of hard drives is not an issue.
Click to expand...

The ADC displays are on a different 24V rail than that of the 12 and 5 volt drives.
 
It would appear that iBooks' lack of a PRAM battery is my legacy in the PowerPC section of MacRumors.
 
MatthewLTL said:
when you hook a fan up to the 5V and 12V lines its 7V power. Does this mean that HDDs are in fact, 7V or are they 17V?
Click to expand...

The HDDs use the 5v and 12v rails separately. An HDD could use 7 volts if it wants but I don't know of any HDD using 7 volts.
 
As poiihy and Altemose have said, hard drives use both voltages and the clock and other settings are kept by the main battery and the small capacitor.
 
Altemose said:
iBooks and 12" PowerBooks have a small capacitor which stores PRAM information rather than a battery. This is kept charged by the main battery.
Click to expand...

Is that the shot but wide component that looks like it is held in by a holder instead of soldered in, like a battery, but wrapped in blue warp like a capacitor?
Screen_Shot_2015_02_25_at_7_30_09_PM.png
 
Altemose said:
iBooks and 12" PowerBooks have a small capacitor which stores PRAM information rather than a battery. This is kept charged by the main battery.
Click to expand...
Intell said:
As poiihy and Altemose have said, hard drives use both voltages and the clock and other settings are kept by the main battery and the small capacitor.
Click to expand...

But now I have been reminded :)
 
what was the point of the 3.3V line added to SATA connectors? and i have always wondered why are SATA HDDs 25pin power when the connectors are only 4 or 5 wires?
 
MatthewLTL said:
what was the point of the 3.3V line added to SATA connectors? and i have always wondered why are SATA HDDs 25pin power when the connectors are only 4 or 5 wires?
Click to expand...

3.3v line is probably for newer technologies. No known HDD uses the 3.3v line but maybe SSDs use them.

SATA power plugs have many pins because they need multiple pins for power because one pin is too small. I think each power wire uses 3 pins or something like that. Also a few more pins are used for hot-plugging technologies.
http://superuser.com/questions/98274/why-are-there-so-many-pins-on-a-sata-power-connector
 

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