SATA II at SATA I speed on PMG5

[davidg4781]

I have a Power Mac G5, DC 2.3 Ghz. I remember reading that it has SATA I and if upgrading, I should stay away from SATA II drives and go to SATA III for compatibility.

My mom's old PC died and in it there was a 3.5" SATA II drive. There's a jumper on there to run it at SATA I speeds. Will this be ok in the PM or should I just get a SATA III drive?

In case anyone asks, it's a Seagate, 160 GB, maybe 7200 RPM. It does look like the jumper is currently on SATA I speeds, which is a bit annoying if we could've had better performance all these years.

 

[eyoungren]

My understanding is that it's a 50/50 proposition. It might work, it might not. Which is why the general suggestion is to avoid it.

But, you have nothing to lose in the trying. Worse case is that you find out it does not work.

 

[davidg4781]

Thanks. Will it work like as soon as it's installed or is it something like I'll find out there are issues later on?

 

[eyoungren]

If it works then it should work without an issue. If it doesn't work you should know right away. Drive not seen at all or slow speeds, drive being detected, then not, etc.

Based on what I've read here that seems to be what happens.

 

[Ih8reno]

I remember the opposite. I specifically bought a sata 2 ssd for my G5 Quad and it worked great.

 

[RedCroissant]

I remember the opposite. I specifically bought a sata 2 ssd for my G5 Quad and it worked great.

I agree with this! I have a G5 Quad and I definitely avoid SATA 3 drives. this goes for SSDs as well!

 

[weckart]

Pretty much all SATA II drives are backwards compatible. Not so much with SATA III.

 

[jbarley]

I remember the opposite. I specifically bought a sata 2 ssd for my G5 Quad and it worked great.

For this very reason, at one point a while back I stocked up up SATA II SSD's, messing with PPC is my hobby so what-the-hey!