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G5 SSD question

firelighter487

firelighter487

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 30, 2014
385
238
The Netherlands
so i dug out my old dusty Powermac G5 dual 2.0, which i have not powered up in years.

i put a 60gb ssd in it, nothing fancy, and i plan to install leopard. but i heard leopard doesn't have support for something to do with ssd's. what is that and should i be worried?

this system will only have software installed on it to use with a midi keyboard. it won't be connected to the internet or used for anything else. so the ssd should get very little use. just bootup and launching that software.
 
firelighter487 said:
so i dug out my old dusty Powermac G5 dual 2.0, which i have not powered up in years.

i put a 60gb ssd in it, nothing fancy, and i plan to install leopard. but i heard leopard doesn't have support for something to do with ssd's. what is that and should i be worried?

this system will only have software installed on it to use with a midi keyboard. it won't be connected to the internet or used for anything else. so the ssd should get very little use. just bootup and launching that software.
Click to expand...

Leopard lacks TRIM support - depending on your SSD , it might already be provided for at hardware level - so would be fine.
 
I've got an old Samsung PM800 SSD in my dual core 2.0ghz G5 (same as yours, I'm assuming) with Leopard installed, and I have no issues. I'll be cloning my install on occasion to a backup drive installed in slot B and will clone it back over if any arise, but I think with sporadic use, you should be alright.
 
I've been using an SSD in my PowerBook G4 on Leopard for the last 9 months or so with no noticeable degradation in performance. With the G5s having SATA, an SSD would be my #1 priority upgrade if I had one. (...maybe someday. :p)
 
firelighter487 said:
if it isn't, is that a big problem?
Click to expand...

RTM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_(computing)

As others have said here, this is very likely to be a non-issue, but if you're serious about using any PPC based mac with a Flash-based hard drive, I would recommend:
- always buy the newest compatible solid state solution
- do not expect to get bandwidth. You are forever limited by the ancient technology on your logic board. What you will get is responsiveness, lowered noise and less power consumption. In general, I've always found it a worthwhile upgrade.

Some added notes for those PPC-users without SATA:
- no not buy a PATA-attached SSD. These are usually el-cheapo solutions made from lower quality silicon (manufacturers know they can get away with it as users do not expect high performance. What users get is low reliability).
- Build your own solution, using a modern SSD and a suitable adapter (for PPC portables, look for an m.2 => IDE adapter; for PPC G4 desktops any IDE-SATA adapter will do. Check for independent reviews.

RGDS,
 
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firelighter487 said:
so i dug out my old dusty Powermac G5 dual 2.0, which i have not powered up in years.

i put a 60gb ssd in it, nothing fancy, and i plan to install leopard. but i heard leopard doesn't have support for something to do with ssd's. what is that and should i be worried?

this system will only have software installed on it to use with a midi keyboard. it won't be connected to the internet or used for anything else. so the ssd should get very little use. just bootup and launching that software.
Click to expand...
I run my G5 with the signature specs, the SSD is chugging along fine. ;)
 
Lack of TRIM support could be a minor concern if the hardware doesn't perform its own equivalent functions. But probably only a minor concern; unless this G5 is a major driver of your daily usage an SSD will probably still last many years without it. Based on your stated use case I wouldn't worry about TRIM.

You have more options with a SATA interface than with an IDE. Some people report issues with using SATA-2 and SATA-3 SSDs with this model though the hardware is supposed to be backward compatible. Frankly, if it works SATA-3 is probably best because (a) it's faster if you repurpose the drive in the future, and (b) they are actually cheaper than most SATA or SATA-2 volumes you can find.
 
Can anyone confirm if any other Intel SSD series besides 320 work with G5 (2005 PCIe models)?

I don’t see too many offerings of 320 series, but there are 330, 510 etc., visually all look pretty much identical. But I don’t want to buy something that won’t work LOL
 
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