Best SSD to get for my PowerMac G5?

[B S Magnet]

Being a non-native speaker I had to look up that idiom as well.

Fair, although it would be instructive for @Intell to briefly acknowledge how they were completely incorrect in their guess-assumption of a solution which has demonstrably been shown to work — even back in 2014… even before they posted their original doubting remarks which were not based on application or praxis or even basic tenets of logic.

 

[Jubadub]

My Quad uses a 4TB MLC 3D NAND SSD perfectly. Saying that just for me record. Heck, even my MDD has the exact same SSD working perfectly, that too under Mac OS 9, except it's 2TB instead of 4TB. They are a Samsung 860 PRO, and are as "latest" as they get (as far as SATA goes, anyway). That statement from 2014 just was and is wrong and inaccurate, and that's all. Everyone makes mistakes, that's normal. Acknowledging them does help, and makes it less frustrating to read, but it's no big deal.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Everyone is bound to get a rise out of hearing about the circumstances that have led to my re-discovering my own thread. I just had to log in and comment.

Preface: roughly four years ago, I ended up finding what was purportedly one of the most suitable SSDs for use in a PowerPC Mac; it was a SATA II SSD by Intel. Only, it wasn't for my PowerMac G5 (a computer which I had no longer been using)—it was meant to replace the HDD in my beloved iMac G5 iSight. Skipping forward, the installation ended up going smoothly, and I had Leopard running like a champ. Although there was no noticeable improvement in responsiveness of the iMac, it at least no longer had resonating throughout its casing the groaning and churning din that is associated with a mechanical hard drive... but, not without a major impediment to the iMac's SMC—specifically the sleep function; because, after what I thought was a successful installation, I discovered the iMac was no longer able to fall asleep. I attempted to intervene, by manually having it enter sleep mode, but I found it would then lock up entirely (blank screen, blasting fans) and give me no choice but to forcibly shut it down.

At present: I have revisited the project, because I badly want to return this computer to its original, unbothered state. (To thank for this, I have the entire abstract concept of sentimental value...) Turns out, however, that I had since managed to lose the HDD bracket + screws, which means I cannot currently replace the hard drive. Bummer. I did a quick search, to see if there might be information on this sort of issue, and I came across this here thread. (Separately, I did not expect to see new replies to it.) Question is... do I find a better SSD, or should I just source replacement mounting components and place the old HDD back in there? Alternatively, I could install a 2.5" mechanical drive, since the nature of its dimensions and weight basically means that it will not need any serious mounting hardware.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

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.

Let us remember to be kind, here. I re-read Intell's initial reply from 2014, and it appears the information (or, the intel) granted is essentially correct, if but sparing of detail: SATA III SSDs generally do not play well with PowerPC Macs and/or legacy versions of OSX.

That said, one important caveat for everyone is that not all SATA II SSDs are apparently created equal, as it pertains to their functionality / lack thereof in PowerPC Macs. (Intell was effectively correct when saying that nearly any SATA I or SATA II SSD will work, when considering "nearly" suggests "almost all" and not "all"): a couple years following making this post, I pounced on a deal on a SATA II Intel SSD — in this instance, for my iMac G5 — and I could not have regretted the decision more. (I have posted a followup to the thread.) In short, I'm probably going to re-introduce a mechanical drive... which would be simple, had I not managed to lose the old mounting hardware! 😣

 

[TzunamiOSX]

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.

Are you using a 2,5 to 3,5 adapter? I find out my 850 Pro does not boot when i connect it direct to the SATA connector, but works well when i put it into an IcePack WD Adapter with a small circuit board.

 

[onre]

Are you using a 2,5 to 3,5 adapter? I find out my 850 Pro does not boot when i connect it direct to the SATA connector, but works well when i put it into an IcePack WD Adapter with a small circuit board.


View attachment 1781199

Nope, cables directly connected to the disks. Just a piece of steel as the physical adapter. Works fine. Wonder what that circuit board in the IcePack does?

 

[TzunamiOSX]

Nope, cables directly connected to the disks. Just a piece of steel as the physical adapter. Works fine. Wonder what that circuit board in the IcePack does?

Looks like a simple angle to bring the connector to the right position. Perhaps it is the bay, on second test I put the disk into lower bay. Is your disk upper or lower?

 

[onre]

Looks like a simple angle to bring the connector to the right position. Perhaps it is the bay, on second test I put the disk into lower bay. Is your disk upper or lower?

The SSD is in the lower bay. I've heard this can have an effect.

 

[B S Magnet]

Let us remember to be kind, here. I re-read Intell's initial reply from 2014, and it appears the information (or, the intel) granted is essentially correct, if but sparing of detail: SATA III SSDs generally do not play well with PowerPC Macs and/or legacy versions of OSX.

That said, one important caveat for everyone is that not all SATA II SSDs are apparently created equal, as it pertains to their functionality / lack thereof in PowerPC Macs. (Intell was effectively correct when saying that nearly any SATA I or SATA II SSD will work, when considering "nearly" suggests "almost all" and not "all"): a couple years following making this post, I pounced on a deal on a SATA II Intel SSD — in this instance, for my iMac G5 — and I could not have regretted the decision more. (I have posted a followup to the thread.) In short, I'm probably going to re-introduce a mechanical drive... which would be simple, had I not managed to lose the old mounting hardware! 😣

Unless I was mistaken, the spirit of the PowerPC forum (and the Early Intel forum) strives to dispel idle speculation or uninformed guesses with folks trying out new solutions, providing how-tos, and sharing that knowledge with the community so that other folks can benefit. Atop all this, offering encouragement to community members who take the initiative to make things happen on their gear is kind of central to the lifeblood of this community.

Intell’s remarks weren’t being very helpful here, and honestly I lack a lot of patience for naysayers when they’re not, at least, trying different things with their own equipment and reporting on their findings.

As for your iMac G5, returning to the spinning rust would bring the Mac closer to OEM condition. Alternately, finding a decent 2.5" SATA-to-m.2 adapter and using a SATA m.2 SSD is a solution I use for my older gear. I prefer this over a 2.5" SATA SSD because the options for the m.2 form factor these days is generally broader and the pricing per GB tends to be slightly better. That said, the WD Green SATA SSDs are a pretty good value.

Lastly, if you haven’t bought another SSD solution, you could probably save extra money by forgoing high-demand premium brands like Intel or Samsung for a Mac which will probably not return to daily driver duty. Brands from the PRC, like Zheino, Dogfish, and Recdata, have been on the market for a while, and their overall quality has generally been positive with community members here (in fact, my PowerBook G4s have been using Dogfish m.2 SSDs since 2019 without any trouble). Both are set to hibernate mode when I put them to sleep, and they restore to wake much faster than an HDD would.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Unless I was mistaken, the spirit of the PowerPC forum (and the Early Intel forum) strives to dispel idle speculation or uninformed guesses with folks trying out new solutions, providing how-tos, and sharing that knowledge with the community so that other folks can benefit. Atop all this, offering encouragement to community members who take the initiative to make things happen on their gear is kind of central to the lifeblood of this community.

Intell’s remarks weren’t being very helpful here, and honestly I lack a lot of patience for naysayers when they’re not, at least, trying different things with their own equipment and reporting on their findings.

As for your iMac G5, returning to the spinning rust would bring the Mac closer to OEM condition. Alternately, finding a decent 2.5" SATA-to-m.2 adapter and using a SATA m.2 SSD is a solution I use for my older gear. I prefer this over a 2.5" SATA SSD because the options for the m.2 form factor these days is generally broader and the pricing per GB tends to be slightly better. That said, the WD Green SATA SSDs are a pretty good value.

Lastly, if you haven’t bought another SSD solution, you could probably save extra money by forgoing high-demand premium brands like Intel or Samsung for a Mac which will probably not return to daily driver duty. Brands from the PRC, like Zheino, Dogfish, and Recdata, have been on the market for a while, and their overall quality has generally been positive with community members here (in fact, my PowerBook G4s have been using Dogfish m.2 SSDs since 2019 without any trouble). Both are set to hibernate mode when I put them to sleep, and they restore to wake much faster than an HDD would.

I understand your point, and I appreciate the detailed response.

I was not aware that users were installing M.2 SSDs in their PowerPC Macs; it sounds attractive. There is still one issue, however, which I assume is inescapable: the abnormal behavior of the SMC. Call me obsessive, but I like any given computer to fall asleep as one would normally. The odd thing about the concept of the sleep function is that it appears its usefulness is determined in a subjective manner; some people overlook the function altogether, with a few purposefully disabling it; others leave well alone and use their computer as one would normally. Furthermore, I notice among Windows users in particular a pattern of disregard for the sleep function — likely because Windows and its associated hardware historically has had such rudimentary power management, that a properly functioning sleep mode is just not something that a user would expect from the computer. (Seriously, ask a Windows user why his computer does not sleep, and you will find more than not that he will respond by saying he has no clue why, himself.)

I guess what I am indicating is that I will not ever use a computer that does not sleep, regardless of whether it is a daily or is less than tertiary in my fleet. I understand that hibernation functions quite well, but I cannot seem to get past the fact that the sleep mode is disturbed. I have found a 7200RPM 2.5" drive, and I am considering installing it while I have my iMac disassembled here. (I would install a quiet 3.5" WDC Green, but, as I had mentioned, I have lost the mounting hardware.)

 

[B S Magnet]

I understand your point, and I appreciate the detailed response.

I was not aware that users were installing M.2 SSDs in their PowerPC Macs; it sounds attractive. There is still one issue, however, which I assume is inescapable: the abnormal behavior of the SMC. Call me obsessive, but I like any given computer to fall asleep as one would normally. The odd thing about the concept of the sleep function is that it appears its usefulness is determined in a subjective manner; some people overlook the function altogether, with a few purposefully disabling it; others leave well alone and use their computer as one would normally. Furthermore, I notice among Windows users in particular a pattern of disregard for the sleep function — likely because Windows and its associated hardware historically has had such rudimentary power management, that a properly functioning sleep mode is just not something that a user would expect from the computer. (Seriously, ask a Windows user why his computer does not sleep, and you will find more than not that he will respond by saying he has no clue why, himself.)

I guess what I am indicating is that I will not ever use a computer that does not sleep, regardless of whether it is a daily or is less than tertiary in my fleet. I understand that hibernation functions quite well, but I cannot seem to get past the fact that the sleep mode is disturbed. I have found a 7200RPM 2.5" drive, and I am considering installing it while I have my iMac disassembled here. (I would install a quiet 3.5" WDC Green, but, as I had mentioned, I have lost the mounting hardware.)

The Power Mac G5 DP I described earlier in the thread, the one using an OWC 128GB 2.5" SSD, is not set to use a hibernate mode because that feature was only bundled with later G4 portables. For what it’s worth, it has no trouble sleeping and waking from sleep (which I’ve had to do a lot more of late because the logic board, for reasons unrelated to storage, is failing and I need to replace it). I wake it when I need something off the file server and then return it to sleep, to conserve remaining usable life out of the logic board.

With the right SSD drive set-up, I imagine sleep and wake would work for your iMac G5.

 

[NathanJHill]

Yes, I've never heard installing a SSD as blocking sleep function, but I've seen some weird behavior where SSDs just would not be recognized and make the whole machine seem like it was dying. Remove the SSD - and it goes back to a more normal operation. So so so strange.

My gut has always been that when Apple designed these machines and their SATA specs, they used a sort of in house specification or particular version that changed or was modified or other companies interpreted differently. Apple was known to do that in the past.

Basically, Apple wanted finicky picky machines.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

The Power Mac G5 DP I described earlier in the thread, the one using an OWC 128GB 2.5" SSD, is not set to use a hibernate mode because that feature was only bundled with later G4 portables. For what it’s worth, it has no trouble sleeping and waking from sleep (which I’ve had to do a lot more of late because the logic board, for reasons unrelated to storage, is failing and I need to replace it). I wake it when I need something off the file server and then return it to sleep, to conserve remaining usable life out of the logic board.

With the right SSD drive set-up, I imagine sleep and wake would work for your iMac G5.

I would hope so. There is a secondary issue, by the way, which is the temperature sensor on the drive. I can't recall what it was like when I had the SSD in there, but I'd hope the associated fan would not freak out in lieu of the original HDD.

 

[PowerMac G4 MDD]

Yes, I've never heard installing a SSD as blocking sleep function, but I've seen some weird behavior where SSDs just would not be recognized and make the whole machine seem like it was dying. Remove the SSD - and it goes back to a more normal operation. So so so strange.

My gut has always been that when Apple designed these machines and their SATA specs, they used a sort of in house specification or particular version that changed or was modified or other companies interpreted differently. Apple was known to do that in the past.

Basically, Apple wanted finicky picky machines.

My iMac G5 no longer could sleep, following the installation of the SSD... then, eventually, the boot volume no longer could be found — it disappeared entirely.

After so many years, I decided I wanted to re-insert the old HDD; however, it seems I lost the mounting bracket (a huge shame), and so I instead used other means to mount a 2.5" 7200RPM drive I had lying around. Sleep works now, but the HDD fan is at 1400RPM by default. Not sure what the default RPMs are supposed to be, but they do sound rather loud right now. If this is the case, I guess it is an example of that aforementioned pickiness of these machines.

 

[Macbookprodude]

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

Видалено erased

 

[Macbookprodude]

My L is in my name. At the time, it was fairly accurate.

My L is in my name. At the time, it was fairly accurate.

I remember you ! Yes, it is accurate

 

[skinniezinho]

Sorry to revival such old thread, a Powermac G5 2x2GHz is going to join the stable.
I want to give it a bump to SSD.
Read the whole thread and this article and give it a search.
Would it be safe to say that a 840 Pro , Kingston A400 or SanDisk SSD Plus would boot ok on this powermac (maybe needing to be on the lower bay?)
honestly finding intel and ocz old drives is a pain and end up costing as much as newer items, so if I could go for something newer that is know to work would be perfect.
Also even at 20eur, it is half of what I will pay for the g5 with screen, so not keen on spending much more than that.

Thank you all

 

[wicknix]

I tested those cheap Netac SSD's and they work fine in a G5.

 

[zachiedoo]

All said and done, the early 2011 MacBook Pros do have one of the fussiest SATA3 controllers going around in current machines though.

Hmmm...I may have to replace the HD in an Early 2011 13" MBP. I'd chosen this one. The Crucial site confirmed it was compatible, but if I'm likely to have problems, I'll go elsewhere. What should I be looking for?

 

[Amethyst1]

What should I be looking for?

My 2011 13" MBP uses a SanDisk Ultra II. But the Crucial BX500 is also a solid choice (I have one in a 2007 MBP) and if their site says it's compatible, why not give it a shot?

 

[torvan]

My Dual 2Ghz G5 (11,2) is running fantastically fast (for me) using T-Force SSDs. I have two of them (2GB and 1GB) and am running like a dream.

TimeMachine is backing up at the moment, iTunes is playing, InterWebPPC is browsing (obviously), Photoshop is loaded (but not doing anything at the moment).

 

[Tratkazir_the_1st]

GB

..? Typo here?

 

[ToniCH]

I today received my late 2005 (A1117 EMC 2023) G5 Dual core 2.0GHz. It seems to work fine. I took an Apple 1TB spinner, originally out of my old Time Capsule and installed Leopard to it.

But... I have now tried to install several different SSDs to it but none of them are recognized if installed to the internal SATA-bus. They are fine in external USB or Firewire enclosures but do not become visible if installed internally. I have tried them also with adapters but no change there. The ones I have tried this far: Corsair Force 120GB SataIII, OWC Mecury Electra 6G 1TB, Verbatim Vi560 M.2 SataIII (with an adapter). So, it seems my G5 is rather picky about SSDs.

I even formatted and installed or cloned OS to them (while in external enclosures) to make sure its not a sw issue of any kind.

I guess I need to dig out more SSD-drives from enclosures or even computers to see if they become visible in the disk utility. All my Samsungs are in iMacs and MBP's. Will try one tomorrow.

Is there anything I should take into account while doing this? I haven't connected to net yet so the OS installation is a fresh 10.5.1 from the installation DVD. Should I update it before continuing?

 

[wicknix]

I confirmed those cheap Netac SSD's work.

 

[ToniCH]

I confirmed those cheap Netac SSD's work.

Yeah, I saw that but they are not that cheap as I cannot find that brand cheap in EU. Lots of sellers in UK, some in USA, some in China. If I buy it from UK that £10 becomes £35-45 before its in my hands. Super expensive shipping + VAT etc. you know. I can get top shelf brands for that price locally. Just need to find one that is compatible.