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nano

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 13, 2006
66
0
I've had the octo 2.8 for a while and am just now getting around to letting go of my Rev A 2.0. The 2.0 has an extra drive in it (a couple years old). Both computers use SATA, right, or are they different?

Is the drive from the older computer compatible with the MP, or is it too out-of-date?

Thanks!
 
Should work just fine. The only thing that wouldn't work would be if you wanted to boot from it with the G5 OSX for PPC on it.
 
No, I just want to use it as a regular secondary drive, don't need to boot from it. (It will be especially handy to move stuff from the G5 to the MP--I can just transfer files directly in the G5 and then move the drive to the PM).

I just thought maybe it's a different spec since the MP drives mention being "3.0 SATA" whereas the older drive (from the PM G5) I don't recall being 3.0.


Any further insight on this much appreciated.
 
The interface speed on the drive may be a bit slower on the old drive, that's it. It will work just fine for your files.
 
The SATA controller on the G5 was about half the speed of the controller on the Octo, but the drive speeds themselves should be similar. As has been already said the drive should be fine with the newer machine.
 
The only problem might be going the other way. Some 3.0 drives apparently have trouble with some 1.5 controllers; the glitch is only in certain chipsets.
 
I just did what you are asking and actually had a minor problem with the hardware. The old drive has 4 rather large screw heads on the sides that were not counter sunk so when attempting to slide it in the new bays it would not fit. Luckily I was only using 2 bays so I could fit it in to the 4th bay but now the third bay is probably unusable until I find smaller mounting screws. No problem with it actually working thought.
 
I just thought maybe it's a different spec since the MP drives mention being "3.0 SATA" whereas the older drive (from the PM G5) I don't recall being 3.0.

Hi,

Did you mean SATA 3Gb/s or SATA III? SATA III (SATA 6Gb/s) isn't fully approved yet.

If you're meaning SATA 3Gb/s (= SATA II), the difference between 'an older' (if it's SATA I, 1.5 Gbit/s) and 'a newer' (if it's SATA II, 3 Gb/s) is quite substantial: Frequency: 1500 MHz vs 3000 MHz, Real speed: 150 MB/s vs 300 MB/s.

I would go for the faster drive.

sash
 
Not exactly. The benefit of the SATA II doesn't emerge so much in terms of single drive use. Even the fastest drives aren't much going to exceed 100MB/s;

Agreed, but SATA 3 Gbit/s is a newer and a better technology with some shortcomings of the SATA 1.5 Gbit/s worked out.
 
Agreed, but SATA 3 Gbit/s is a newer and a better technology with some shortcomings of the SATA 1.5 Gbit/s worked out.

Absolutely. The new standard addressed some issues.
A techie friend and I were discussing the first SATA when it was introduced being only slightly faster than ATA. I mentioned having dual SCSI drives and he said of course that was even better.
Now it's getting interesting.
 
I just did what you are asking and actually had a minor problem with the hardware. The old drive has 4 rather large screw heads on the sides that were not counter sunk so when attempting to slide it in the new bays it would not fit. Luckily I was only using 2 bays so I could fit it in to the 4th bay but now the third bay is probably unusable until I find smaller mounting screws. No problem with it actually working thought.

You are supposed to take those off. They are meant for the drive to work in the sled system of the G5.
 
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