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New to PPCs with a Powermac G5-Looking for Hard Drive Suggestions

bunnspecial

bunnspecial

macrumors G3
Original poster
May 3, 2014
8,391
6,565
Kentucky
Hi Everyone,

I've gone "backwards" in my Mac ownership, as I started with a Intel Macbook Pro and have recently taken an interest in Power PC systems.

I have a Powermac G5 that I'm currently using as my desktop. The hard drive seems to be the current bottleneck in its performance, and it also is making enough noise that I'm afraid the drive may be on its way out.

So, with that in mind, I'm shopping for an upgrade. I'm probably looking for something around 1TB and don't mind to pay for a good quality drive, but at the same time don't want to waste money paying for speeds that the computer can't take advantage of.

I'm also considering possibly a smaller capacity SSD for the boot drive(maybe around 60gb) and then a 1TB drive as the second drive. I'd appreciate any thoughts on this combination, as well.

My computer is a Powermac G5 7,2, and has a single 1.8ghz processor as well as PCIx .

Could anyone point me toward any particular models of HDD that would suit my needs and be a good fit for the G5?
 
Anything Western Digital. I can't speak to SSDs, but you want SATA 1 or SATA 2. SATA 3 drives I understand are a big hit or miss with the G5s and even if you get one to work you won't get SATA 3 speeds.
 
bunnspecial said:
Hi Everyone,

I've gone "backwards" in my Mac ownership, as I started with a Intel Macbook Pro and have recently taken an interest in Power PC systems.

I have a Powermac G5 that I'm currently using as my desktop. The hard drive seems to be the current bottleneck in its performance, and it also is making enough noise that I'm afraid the drive may be on its way out.

So, with that in mind, I'm shopping for an upgrade. I'm probably looking for something around 1TB and don't mind to pay for a good quality drive, but at the same time don't want to waste money paying for speeds that the computer can't take advantage of.

I'm also considering possibly a smaller capacity SSD for the boot drive(maybe around 60gb) and then a 1TB drive as the second drive. I'd appreciate any thoughts on this combination, as well.

My computer is a Powermac G5 7,2, and has a single 1.8ghz processor as well as PCIx .

Could anyone point me toward any particular models of HDD that would suit my needs and be a good fit for the G5?
Click to expand...

Personally I prefer Western Digital hard drives by far! You could look at a hybrid drive with a SATA II interface to keep the storage you want with an affordable price.
 
I needed to format my WD RED 3TB (WD30EFRX) for NAS.....tried in sig G5, no problems. Properly detected and successfully erased. Very interesting :D

In this G5 i used:
WD:
-Black 1TB, SATA 2
-Blue 500GB, SATA 2
-Green 500GB, SATA 2
-Caviar SE (pre blue) 250 and 320GB
-Black 2TB, SATA 3 (with SATA 2 jumper)
-Red 3TB, SATA 3
 
If you are going to use a SATA 3 drive you have to use a jumper to make it run at SATA I. I am pretty sure every WD drive has a jumper layout for SATA I (at least mine do). Even though there are reports of SATA 3 drives not working properly I have yet to ever experience a problem.

As for SSDs, I would only use a SATA II with a Sandforce controller as 10.5.8 does not support TRIM, best bet is probably OWC.
 
WD Red (Sata 3 with Sata II jumper) 2TB
and
OWC 120gb SSD (the 3g one not 6g)

Its very snappy now :)
 
on my dp 2.5ghz g5 with 8gb of ram, i use a 120ssd sata II and WD HDD as 2nd drive as i have external hdd for all my files.

you will never regret using ssd.

p.s
before, my g5 makes a chirping sound. now, it's quiet.
 
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