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Best SSD to get for my PowerMac G5?

orestes1984 said:
I would not spend a lot of money for an SSD for a G5, it just so happened that drive wouldn't work in my MacBook so I put it in my G5.
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This is the best point.

Crucial drives can be fine, but the company has had a history of bad firmware and poor customer service. For example, that Crucial MX series was advertised with power loss features that the drives do not actually have. It doesn't mean you won't find a bargain that ends up working for you, as I did too with that old Crucial Force3 refurb from MicroCenter.

128Gb drives are super price effective right now and would fit the bill perfectly for a G5. I think the Intel 520s have been on a fire sale too because they are last year's models/clearing out inventory.

I use a SanDisk Extreme in my Macbook Pro and love it - good solid performance.
 
NathanJHill said:
This is a great question and gets debated a lot.

SSDs do work great in G5.

Here is my info that I recommend you checking out that gives you a sense of the ins and outs of what TRIM does:
http://g5center.net/index.php?post=overprovisioning

My Hardware page has more info too:
http://www.g5center.net/hardware.html

I do use a super cheap Corsair 60GB drive that I got for like $40 from MicroCenter. I am looking to upgrade it, because it's not very fast at all. I get a ton of info from the guys at SomethingAwful who tend to be pretty darn knowledgeable about the best SSDs, and they recommend the Intel 520/530 series for older machines without TRIM support (even XP machines for instance). They have aggressive Sandforce processors which try to clean up and optimize the drives in the background. OWC drives also seem like a good solid pick, even if they are a tad bit more expensive.

The best SSDs have consistent performance. The lower end ones may have an initial blast of good performance, but then they taper off because of a lack of built in memory or poor design. My Crucial falls in that latter category. Samsung EVOs are good, although there was a massive bug that meant older data began to suffer serious performance bugs. The fix was just released. They are also not Sandforce based.

Intel drives tend to not be the highest performers, but they are built for enterprise applications so they are pretty consistent and reasonable in price.

Sandisk Extremes are also solid, and if you can find the Mushkin Deluxe drives, those are solid too.

The new Crucial MX series are probably some of the best priced drives out there, but they don't always have the most consistent performance. For a G5, it's probably good enough though, since you will quickly saturate that SATA I port.

Isn't it nice though that G5s even have SATA ports?
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Hey Nathan, I actually just found out about your website last night, and I think it's great that you are doing this for people; way to help out in the PowerPC 'fight'! I am new to the PowerMac G5 as well, and I definitely want to get the most out of mine, as it's my best PowerPC Mac (considering it's obviously of the last PowerPC Macs).

I looked up the PNY SSD, which is one of the ones you recommended, and it seems like a good choice for me. If I do feel like dropping in the extra money (which isn't even that much more), I'll go ahead and get an Intel SSD.

Obviously I don't want to put TOO much money into this computer, as I own a newer Mac. It's great that G5s have SATA, although are you sure all of these drives will work in a SATA II-only computer? And should I still allot about 20GB (of a 120GB SSD) as garbage collection, even though the SSD supports older systems that don't 'do' TRIM? Lastly, are you aware of what the best IDE SSDs are? Maybe some day I'll stick one in my PowerBook or something.

P.S. I used PowerPC Macs as my main machines from 2004-2012, although I still continue to stick with them. The few things I cannot do on my PowerPC, I do on an Intel machine, but the rest is still running with PPC inside :)

-Thanks
 
PowerMac G4 MDD said:
Hey Nathan, I actually just found out about your website last night, and I think it's great that you are doing this for people; way to help out in the PowerPC 'fight'! I am new to the PowerMac G5 as well, and I definitely want to get the most out of mine, as it's my best PowerPC Mac (considering it's obviously of the last PowerPC Macs).

I looked up the PNY SSD, which is one of the ones you recommended, and it seems like a good choice for me. If I do feel like dropping in the extra money (which isn't even that much more), I'll go ahead and get an Intel SSD.

Obviously I don't want to put TOO much money into this computer, as I own a newer Mac. It's great that G5s have SATA, although are you sure all of these drives will work in a SATA II-only computer? And should I still allot about 20GB (of a 120GB SSD) as garbage collection, even though the SSD supports older systems that don't 'do' TRIM? Lastly, are you aware of what the best IDE SSDs are? Maybe some day I'll stick one in my PowerBook or something.

P.S. I used PowerPC Macs as my main machines from 2004-2012, although I still continue to stick with them. The few things I cannot do on my PowerPC, I do on an Intel machine, but the rest is still running with PPC inside :)

-Thanks
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The PNY drives are decent too - there has been some mixed reports that the lower end PNY drives are equivalent to the higher end versions of those drives (because of supply issues). If so, they are a heck of a bargain, but that may be a fluke. They are almost always on sale, which is nice. I've been looking at them too.

In truth, if you never plan on filling up your SSD, you should be fine not doing trim. But if you ever, for any reason, expect to fill near 99% capacity, that's when it can get really bogged down and overprovisioning can be really helpful. I am still running my Corsair without overprovisioning (with 20+ GB free), and it seems fine so far.

Remember that most SSDs already have some overprovisioning built-in, especially if they are rounded off to a weird number (i.e. 60 GB instead of 64 GB, 240 GB versus 256 GB, etc.). Those are probably even less of a concern, but you can still add more overprovisioning if you want to geek out about it.

I am not aware of the best IDE SSD. It's something I should look into. It looks like OWC takes their SATA drives and attaches an IDE converter. Other IDE flash drives are really just a compact flash card and IDE converter, which you can build yourself if you want. Looking at NewEgg, KingSpec and Transcend are not particularly great brands, but they may work for you.

I just picked up a Mac Mini G4, so I am going to try one of OWC's drives at some point and see how they do.
 
NathanJHill said:
The PNY drives are decent too - there has been some mixed reports that the lower end PNY drives are equivalent to the higher end versions of those drives (because of supply issues). If so, they are a heck of a bargain, but that may be a fluke. They are almost always on sale, which is nice. I've been looking at them too.

In truth, if you never plan on filling up your SSD, you should be fine not doing trim. But if you ever, for any reason, expect to fill near 99% capacity, that's when it can get really bogged down and overprovisioning can be really helpful. I am still running my Corsair without overprovisioning (with 20+ GB free), and it seems fine so far.

Remember that most SSDs already have some overprovisioning built-in, especially if they are rounded off to a weird number (i.e. 60 GB instead of 64 GB, 240 GB versus 256 GB, etc.). Those are probably even less of a concern, but you can still add more overprovisioning if you want to geek out about it.

I am not aware of the best IDE SSD. It's something I should look into. It looks like OWC takes their SATA drives and attaches an IDE converter. Other IDE flash drives are really just a compact flash card and IDE converter, which you can build yourself if you want. Looking at NewEgg, KingSpec and Transcend are not particularly great brands, but they may work for you.

I just picked up a Mac Mini G4, so I am going to try one of OWC's drives at some point and see how they do.
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Yeah, I think I may get a PNY drive. They look good and it's about $75 for one. I realized that I definitely won't fill the drive on my PowerMac G5; I only do so on newer, main computers. As for my MacBook Pro, into which I may want to put an SSD, it doesn't matter since it supports TRIM. I'll look into IDE HDs myself, as there's--no doubt--lots of information on those. Anyway, getting an SSD for my G5 is just a thought so far. I am not too sure if I want to be putting the money into this thing, even if the SSD may be gifted to me.

Well, thanks for your help. I definitely feel more comfortable now, as this will be my first time buying an SSD, assuming I choose to go through with it.

(this is my G5 :) )
 

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OK... It seems like alot of the people chiming in have not actually tried it ... so I found a 4-5 year old kingston 250gb ssd and the PPC G5 chipset likes it just fine. (unlike a recent sata3 seagate barracuda that did not show up at all) Tests: It boots, and the blackmagic speedtest showed a 50% improvement (120gb/s vs 80gb/s) Overall it feels a bit snappier, so I think ill leave it in there :) I guess my ssd is newer than the last post !
 
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Now, I realise this is an ancient thread - from 2014 - but it's a perennial topic, and I decided to put an SSD in my dual 2ghz PCIX first-generation G5. It's one of these:
7n1mXZ3.jpg


A second-hand 80gb Intel 320 that I picked up for £13.49! I have no idea what condition it's in. As of 2020 SSD prices are very low so the lack of TRIM doesn't really bother me. It's more of a proof of concept than anything. My understanding is that Intel SSDs are or were in the past more widely compatible than other SSDs.

No jumpers. I slotted it into the second drive bay, used Disk Utility to restore my boot drive to the SSD, then put the SSD in the first drive bay and booted from it. No problems whatsoever. I doesn't feel very much faster than a 7200rpm hard drive, although emptying the trash is almost instant. 80gb is however very tight (I only have 10gb free, after getting rid of pretty much everything except Logic Express) so I might at some point get hold of a higher-capacity model.

The Intel 320 dates from 2011 and maxed out at 600gb. Is there an OSX Leopard equivalent of Windows disc cleaning utility? It seems odd that Leopard, TenFourFox, and Logic Express should take up 60gb, given that all of LE's sample libraries and project files are on a second hard drive.
 
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macguru9999 said:
Yes thats about the speed i was getting with the kingston ssd under tiger ....
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This is the nearly maximum you will get from SATA I.
SATA I, 150 MB/s (real 120-130)
SATA II, 300 MB/s (real 240-250)
SATA III, 600 MB/s (real 530-550)
 
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Intell said:
I can personally assure you, no Samsung SSD has worked in a G5 since the 830 series, let alone even be recognized in a G5. It's still undeniable that G5's are extremely picky about SATA III drives and it's best to avoid them completely.
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I believe you are wrong, sir. I have a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB in an iMac G5 right now.
Granted, it only works in Safe Mode, but it did recognize and install.
And it's SATA III.
 
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I just snatched a dual core G5 and I am planning on getting cheap gen.1 Airport Extreme router and gut it out to get the Airport Extreme and the antenna from it for the G5. I also ordered a cheap server pull from Ebay, and Intel 320 series 160GB SSD, SATA II so it should be fun. My flashed Mac Pro 4,1->5,1 is sitting in the corner for now. And yes, I can confirm that Intel 320 series SSD SATA II does work fine since I've used it a while back when I had another G5 which I sold. I've run 2009 Garage Band and it's responsive and really performing well, I am surprised. It even recognizes my pretty recent DAW, no drivers required, all running Leopard.
 
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xargs said:
I just snatched a dual core G5 and I am planning on getting cheap gen.1 Airport Extreme router and gut it out to get the Airport Extreme and the antenna from it for the G5. I also ordered a cheap server pull from Ebay, and Intel 320 series 160GB SSD, SATA II so it should be fun. My flashed Mac Pro 4,1->5,1 is sitting in the corner for now. And yes, I can confirm that Intel 320 series SSD SATA II does work fine since I've used it a while back when I had another G5 which I sold. I've run 2009 Garage Band and it's responsive and really performing well, I am surprised. It even recognizes my pretty recent DAW, no drivers required, all running Leopard.
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For the record I eventually replaced the 80gb Intel 320 in the post above with a 160gb Intel 320, which works just as well and has a lot more breathing room.

It appears that the first digit in the ISN represents the year, e.g. BTPR310503SM080BGN is 2013, which makes sense as Intel's support website says that the warranty for that SSD expired in 2018.

The 320 series had a five-year warranty, which was apparently unusual at the time. I remember that when SSDs started to become a thing a lot of people were worried about write cycles.
 
i have a kingston a400 960gb in my g5 and it works great . Can anyone point me to a place i can download this aja system test compatible with my g5 i saw a few posts up ? thanks
 
ragnarok0273 said:
I believe you are wrong, sir. I have a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB in an iMac G5 right now.
Granted, it only works in Safe Mode, but it did recognize and install.
And it's SATA III.
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I also believe he is wrong. Registered just to counter that particular piece of FUD. The 870 EVO works just fine and is bootable, too.

g5_ssd_in_2021.png
 
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Intell said:
Do keep in mind that was posted about 7 years ago and some things have changed since then. But at the time, it was fairly accurate.
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Except in February 2014, when I picked up my Power Mac G5 DP 2.0, I learnt in pretty short order how a Kingston Fire 64GB SATA III SSD I had at the time would sometimes boot from the two OEM bays, and sometimes it wouldn’t. There was no way to use a jumper on it to lower its rated SATA speed. Soon after, also in 2014, in lieu of trying to stick it out with the SATA III SSD as a boot volume, I bought a SATA II SSD from OWC, and that became the boot drive thereafter, working flawlessly to this very day.

Just take your L and move on.
 
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