I've had some problems with my old HDD in this powerbook (and it's replacement) with both of them failing. Bunnspecial suggested me to buy an SSD, so I did (an msata crucial 128gb), and I bought the IDE adapter off eBay. Finally, no more worrying about moving my Powerbook too much. No more worrying about no hard drive shock detector, either. No more worrying about what happened last time.
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Just got my SSD 2.5" IDE enclosure for my PB and installed it, time to install OS X
- Thread starter hellothere231
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Good luck and let us know how it goes!
I've installed several of these in Powerbook G4s, and the benefits are numerous. Not only are they "snappier" but are I also get better battery life and the whole computer is overall quieter and just more enjoyable to use.
I've installed several of these in Powerbook G4s, and the benefits are numerous. Not only are they "snappier" but are I also get better battery life and the whole computer is overall quieter and just more enjoyable to use.
I would like to see updates on this too about how well it works and if you have any problems.
I'm seriously considering this for my powerbook 5,9. It has the optional 100gig 7200rpm drive and isnt slow by any means, but that drive is now 10 years old, and the ssd seems like a worthy replacement.
I'm seriously considering this for my powerbook 5,9. It has the optional 100gig 7200rpm drive and isnt slow by any means, but that drive is now 10 years old, and the ssd seems like a worthy replacement.
I just yesterday installed an OWC Mercury Legacy Pro into my 15" PowerBook 5,6.
It actually was relatively easy considering my arthritic fingers and those tiny case screws, many thanks for magnetic screwdrivers.
The difference in performance is immediately noticeable and pleasantly surprising.
It actually was relatively easy considering my arthritic fingers and those tiny case screws, many thanks for magnetic screwdrivers.
The difference in performance is immediately noticeable and pleasantly surprising.
Mac OS X's installed now, going to run Software Update to get to 10.5.8. Nothing bad happened, everything's a success so far.
Xbench tells me that sequential read will hit about 92mb/s on an ATA100 bus(as in the later PBs) with the mSATA adapters I've been using. They pretty consistently have an overhead of about 8mb/s-I also get 58mb/s on an ATA66 bus. Of course, real world performance isn't quite that good, but it's miles ahead of what even a good(power sucking) 7200rpm 2.5" ATA drive will do.
Your estimate is very close, here is my PB with SSD XBench disk results.
I notice XBench is reporting a 167MHz bus for my unit.
Attachments
The system bus speed is interesting but not all that surprising.
If yours is a non-DLSD, it uses PC-2700 RAM which is 167mhz. DLSDs use PC2-4200, which is 266 mhz. I haven't checked to see if the system bus actually reports at those speeds.
If yours is a non-DLSD, it uses PC-2700 RAM which is 167mhz. DLSDs use PC2-4200, which is 266 mhz. I haven't checked to see if the system bus actually reports at those speeds.
The updates are finally done, and the Powerbook has just boot up. Time to install my main programs again, hooray. It's noticeably faster, however.
All of my main applications have been installed now, and the SSD really makes a difference. Loading applications is faster, the computer makes virtually no sound except for the fans, battery life's improved, and the Powerbook isn't as hot.
hellothere231:
I have the same 15" 1.5GHz G4 (with the ug 128mb ati 9700) 1 gig ram (2x512)
-Can you link me to the adapter you bought on ebay?
-No problem with tight fit? (adapter and ssd)?
I have the same 15" 1.5GHz G4 (with the ug 128mb ati 9700) 1 gig ram (2x512)
-Can you link me to the adapter you bought on ebay?
-No problem with tight fit? (adapter and ssd)?
Here's the adapter on eBay (not mine, mods): http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Hot-Tested-m...337?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2edc8ea081
As for putting the SSD into the adapter, I didn't have any problems with a tight fit. It was pretty easy, just take out the two screws attached to the standoffs above the msata slot, put the SSD in at about a 45 degree angle (like you're installing laptop memory), push it back, and install the two screws where the SSD's holes line up.
I'm looking for a reliable SSD option for my PowerBook5,9. I tried OWC but the first one wasn't recognized at all. They replaced it and that was ok for about 2 months and died. Just got it replaced under warranty but this 3rd drive is like the first and doesn't come up at all. I'm not sold on OWC Mercury Legacy Pro drives at this point. If I put in my old ata drive, it boots consistently every time. Any other suggestions for something in the 500GB SSD range? Thanks.
All PowerBook G4s are IDE, which means no 500GB drives exist. If you want to go that large you will need to get hold of a 500GB mSATA drive and a suitable mSATA to IDE adapter. It will cost you more than your PowerBook is worth. 256GB is more affordable and probably enough for most purposes since old PPC software isn't nearly as bloated as current Intel offerings.
Are you sure you have a PowerBook5,9?
If you do then it's worth noting that it is not on the list of supported PowerBooks for OWCs Legacy SSDs.
That's another issue that I have with OWC tech support. I check prior to purchasing items for compatibility and get conflicting information. Maybe they just removed 5,9 in light of my recent problems. But the "bad" SSDs won't show up on a G5 or MacPro either.
The OWC Mercury Legacy SSD is a 480GB. I just rounded my request up to 500GB for alternatives. 256 is too small for all the stuff I have crammed into it. It's not the fastest kid on the block anymore but still can run FCP, DVD authoring, PhotoShop, etc. I also have XP installed with VirtualPC, now that is a bit slow, reminds me of running Windows95 on my Amiga. BTW, I have an Amiga emulator installed too. It all ads up to needing more than 256GB.
I'm currently running off a firewire800 back-up clone of my dead SSD at the moment. I may give crucial msata with adapter a try.
BTW, which compatibility list are you looking at? I just went back to their website and the Mercury Legacy Pro SSD does come up when I select my powerbook5,9 model from their "Select your mac by model ID" list.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC
FWIW, the Mercury Legacy Pro SSD is just a bare aura 1.8" SSD in a 2.5" case with adapter.
Aha. I haven't followed OWC since I am based in the UK but was just aware that the original MLP SSDs were only available in small capacities. 60GB seemed to be the most popular size. It seems as if OWC is now just repackaging mSATAs much as everyone else is doing.
If you can forgo your optical drive, you can replace it with a SATA to ATAPI adapter to house a standard SATA SSD for storage, although performance will probably be lacking as I think the ATAPI port might be a bit slower than the HDD IDE port.
Looks like the PowerBook5,9 is the first one listed there.
I've been reading about other people having problems with these drives too, on PC & Mac. Of course, I'm sure that I'd find people experiencing problems with other make/model SSDs too if I look. I may give Crucial a try if I can't get anywhere with the OWC.
I attached the replacement OWC Mercury Legacy Pro drive to my MacPro via external adapter. It does show up on the desktop. It appears to be formatted correctly but I reformatted it anyway with Apple Partition Mapping and am cloning my back-up to it, then I'll try it again with my PowerBook. The first clone attempt failed though. The disk just unexpected ejected. The 2nd clone attempt is further alone.
The OWC drive that failed on me doesn't show up at all when I tried it with the MacPro. I tried two different adapters and nada.
The OWC drive that failed on me doesn't show up at all when I tried it with the MacPro. I tried two different adapters and nada.
The replacement OWC SSD keeps ejecting itself before cloning can complete. I reformatted it on the MacPro with Apple Partition Mapping and reinstalled it in the PowerBook. The new OWC SSD appears this time on the PowerBook but suffers the same unexpected ejecting during cloning as it did on the MacPro and doesn't reappear after rebooting.
