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I have the WD Blue 500GB drive (SATA II according to WD) in both a 2007 Mac Mini and an early 2008 17" MBP. Both report Link Speed & Negotiated Link Speed of 1.5Gb after the update. Silly me, I did not check before the upgrade. While 1.5Gb might be normal for the Mini, I thought that the MBP would do 3Gb.
 
13" uMBP, 10.6.3 update w aftermarket Toshiba 500 gb HDD;

Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit


13" uMB, 10.6.3 update w stock Apple/Fujitsu 320 gb HDD;

Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit
 
Just to add, after updating to 10.6.3, i notice the following results with my Intel 160 GB G2 SSD:
Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.20 Supported



Also, I did an Xbench speedtest, and here are the results with my Intel 160 GB G2 SSD (latest 02HD FW):


305.99 for Disk Test. Is that good or not?????
 

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Just to add, after updating to 10.6.3, i notice the following results with my Intel 160 GB G2 SSD:
Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.20 Supported



Also, I did an Xbench speedtest, and here are the results with my Intel 160 GB G2 SSD (latest 02HD FW):


305.99 for Disk Test. Is that good or not?????

Yes, VERY good. Best I've ever gotten with my 80GB G2 with latest firmware was around 265 when the drive was brand new (under 10.6.2), so I'd say 305 is great! Now after a month of using it, it has slowed down a bit and I typically get Xbench scores in the 200-230 range (under 10.6.3)

Is your drive brand new or something? SSDs typically slow down over time as the disk gets used more & more, although these Intel models are supposed to be better than most in this area. The only way to fix the issue is to back them up to another drive and then do a secure erase of the drive (restoring to factory conditions) and then restore the backup onto the SSD. Supposedly TRIM support will practically extinguish the slowdown problems that plague SSDs over time, but it's only supported in Win7 and not OS X.
 
Yes, VERY good. Best I've ever gotten with my 80GB G2 with latest firmware was around 265 when the drive was brand new (under 10.6.2), so I'd say 305 is great! Now after a month of using it, it has slowed down a bit and I typically get Xbench scores in the 200-230 range (under 10.6.3)

Is your drive brand new or something? SSDs typically slow down over time as the disk gets used more & more, although these Intel models are supposed to be better than most in this area. The only way to fix the issue is to back them up to another drive and then do a secure erase of the drive (restoring to factory conditions) and then restore the backup onto the SSD. Supposedly TRIM support will practically extinguish the slowdown problems that plague SSDs over time, but it's only supported in Win7 and not OS X.

Thanks!! *BLUSH*

Yes, i heard from a few others a score of 305.99 is impressive. The secret is indeed its brand new. It cost me an arm and a leg to afford, but I went with the top of the end Intel 160 GB G2 SSD. It originally came with an earlier firmware and I wasn't scoring so high in Xbench, but once i updated to 02HD, I firmly clock over 305+ in Xbench, with 13 second boot-ups (even under 10.6.3) ;);)

Yes, i'm dreading the eventually slowdown from normal-use fragmentation. Actually, about your strategy to secure erase once or twice a year to return it to virgin pristine performance, I debunked that theory in another thread. That does NOT work. Read my post here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/712557/
(Scroll down towards the end for a long post by me, it is Post #90)
 
here is mine after 10.6.3 update:

Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit

late 2009 2.53ghz mac mini with stock hard drive. 320gig 5400rpm
 
Thanks!! *BLUSH*

Yes, i heard from a few others a score of 305.99 is impressive. The secret is indeed its brand new. It cost me an arm and a leg to afford, but I went with the top of the end Intel 160 GB G2 SSD. It originally came with an earlier firmware and I wasn't scoring so high in Xbench, but once i updated to 02HD, I firmly clock over 305+ in Xbench, with 13 second boot-ups (even under 10.6.3) ;);)

Yes, i'm dreading the eventually slowdown from normal-use fragmentation. Actually, about your strategy to secure erase once or twice a year to return it to virgin pristine performance, I debunked that theory in another thread. That does NOT work. Read my post here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/712557/
(Scroll down towards the end for a long post by me, it is Post #90)

Yes, but you were talking about formatting the drive and not "secure erase" (disk utility and others cannot do this). Several people who noticed SSD slowdowns over time have had success in performing a secure erase and then restoring from a backup. They reported that benchmarking scores returned to "like new" numbers afterward.

Unfortunately, it seems that there is no way to secure erase a drive in OS X without removing it. Here are the steps that others have used, and I've posted in this thread as well:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/841182/
 
Just to add, after updating to 10.6.3, i notice the following results with my Intel 160 GB G2 SSD:
Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.20 Supported



Also, I did an Xbench speedtest, and here are the results with my Intel 160 GB G2 SSD (latest 02HD FW):


305.99 for Disk Test. Is that good or not?????

Highest I ever got was 294 with 10.6.1 ... I haven't reinstalled OSX since then, but now my scores are around 240-270.... definitely some loss of performance due to lack of TRIM, but not noticeable.
 
Thanks!! *BLUSH*

Yes, i heard from a few others a score of 305.99 is impressive. The secret is indeed its brand new. It cost me an arm and a leg to afford, but I went with the top of the end Intel 160 GB G2 SSD. It originally came with an earlier firmware and I wasn't scoring so high in Xbench, but once i updated to 02HD, I firmly clock over 305+ in Xbench, with 13 second boot-ups (even under 10.6.3) ;);)

Yes, i'm dreading the eventually slowdown from normal-use fragmentation. Actually, about your strategy to secure erase once or twice a year to return it to virgin pristine performance, I debunked that theory in another thread. That does NOT work. Read my post here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/712557/
(Scroll down towards the end for a long post by me, it is Post #90)

You're wrong. You're confusing a Disk Utility erase with the industry-standard ATA Secure Erase command. They are not the same thing by a long shot.

https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase

There's no way to invoke this command natively through OS X (Disk Utility doesn't do it.) You can use HDDerase or hdparm via Linux. This absolutely restores your SSD to its original write performance.
 
You're wrong. You're confusing a Disk Utility erase with the industry-standard ATA Secure Erase command. They are not the same thing by a long shot.

https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase

There's no way to invoke this command natively through OS X (Disk Utility doesn't do it.) You can use HDDerase or hdparm via Linux. This absolutely restores your SSD to its original write performance.

Yeah, i know. I never said it was not possible conclusively using any tool at all. I said it was not possible using the traditional way many people were talking about: OS X Disk Utility. I was only talking about what Disk Utility can do and cannot do. Disk Utility does have an "Secure Erase" option, but it does not actually issue the "ATA Secure Erase" command -- instead it simply overwrites your drive with 11111111111's multiple times. This effectively protects against using traditional tools (such as Data Rescue) to dig and mine the drive for data.

If you'd read further down, I agreed with another poster who said the only way to return our SSD's to a virgin pristine state is to physically take out our drives and put them in a PC and use the OEM official software (Intel SSD Toolbox in my case) or Linux hdparm to truly 'blank' the drive back to a factory 'new' performance. This i find is ridiculous, as i commented. Please read the rest of that thread.

What we desperately need is the ability to do this ATA Secure Erase in OS X...
 
here is mine after 10.6.3 update:

Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit

late 2009 2.53ghz mac mini with stock hard drive. 320gig 5400rpm
This is similar to mine, on a Hitachi 320GB 5400 RPM drive.

This is also what I am getting on my Seagate Momentus 500 GB 7200 RPM via a Optibay.

Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit
Description: AHCI Version 1.20 Supported
 
What we desperately need is the ability to do this ATA Secure Erase in OS X...

You can issue the ATA Secure Erase command on a Mac; you can't do it in the OS because then you won't have anything to boot off of.

What we do need is TRIM.
 
a note to the OP: your old-fashioned platter-based hard drive is not capable of moving data at 3 gigabits per second NOR 1.5 gigabits per second, so this doesn't matter. it can transfer data from the controller to the computer at those speeds, but COME ON - it's a 5400rpm hard disk drive. It could be running on EIDE and still not reach the bus limit.

in conclusion - don't worry about a little number. just use your computer. it's fine! pop in an SSD that CAN get over 1.5gbps and it'll negotiate at 3gbps.
 
You can issue the ATA Secure Erase command on a Mac; you can't do it in the OS because then you won't have anything to boot off of.

What we do need is TRIM.

Really? What Mac application do you think does this? Assume you're booted to a clone of your boot drive, which application to do use to issue the command?

I would love to hear of a native way to issue this command but I'm unaware of a Mac application that does it.
 
You can issue the ATA Secure Erase command on a Mac; you can't do it in the OS because then you won't have anything to boot off of.

What we do need is TRIM.

Like MBHockey said above, this is exactly what I want actually. Yes obviously if you Secure Erase (or any kind of erase) your boot drive your computer wont boot. In fact OS X wont allow you to erase your boot drive period. However, I have my internal SSD cloned to an External USB HDD. I can then boot my MacBook Pro using this External USB HDD, thus rendering the internal SSD completely unused. In fact, at this point I can fully erase the SSD using Disk Utility. It is at this point (while booted from my USB HDD) that I would love to be able to issue the ATA Secure Erase Command on the internal SSD. Again, this point bears repeating: I would be issuing the ATA Secure Erase command to the internal SSD, NOT my OS Boot drive (which is on the external USB HDD).

So in this common scenario, is there any way or means possible to actually Secure Erase a disk from OS X?? Do you in fact know a program or little utility to do this?? It would be a treasure...
 
Like MBHockey said above, this is exactly what I want actually. Yes obviously if you Secure Erase (or any kind of erase) your boot drive your computer wont boot. In fact OS X wont allow you to erase your boot drive period. However, I have my internal SSD cloned to an External USB HDD. I can then boot my MacBook Pro using this External USB HDD, thus rendering the internal SSD completely unused. In fact, at this point I can fully erase the SSD using Disk Utility. It is at this point (while booted from my USB HDD) that I would love to be able to issue the ATA Secure Erase Command on the internal SSD. Again, this point bears repeating: I would be issuing the ATA Secure Erase command to the internal SSD, NOT my OS Boot drive (which is on the external USB HDD).

So in this common scenario, is there any way or means possible to actually Secure Erase a disk from OS X?? Do you in fact know a program or little utility to do this?? It would be a treasure...

I don't think he knew what he was talking about, unfortunately.
 
Really? What Mac application do you think does this? Assume you're booted to a clone of your boot drive, which application to do use to issue the command?

I would love to hear of a native way to issue this command but I'm unaware of a Mac application that does it.

HDD Erase 3.3 boots on a Mac and can issue Secure Erase to the SSDs.
 
HDD Erase 3.3 boots on a Mac and can issue Secure Erase to the SSDs.

The viability of using HDDErase.exe was covered in another thread concerning this exact same topic. If I remember correctly, it was suggested that PC users could create a DOS boot floppy disk with the HDDERASE.EXE 3.3 to do the needful. However, as pointed out in a number of websites, HDDERASE.exe requires you to access your PC BIOS to disable AHCI for the utility to work. Is this possible on a Mac?? Provided we get a Mac to boot from a USB Floppy disk drive loaded with a DOS boot disk, would the HDDERASE.EXE actually find the internal SSD on the SATA bus?? Have you verified this yourself or are you assuming it works in theory?
 
Not only is that not native, it doesn't even work on a Mac

Why would alphaod say that HDDERASE.EXE 3.3 works on a Mac then ?? :confused:

Alphaod, what model Mac have you successfully booted a DOS boot floppy and run HDD Erase 3.3 on an internal SSD??
 
Why would alphaod say that HDDERASE.EXE 3.3 works on a Mac then ?? :confused:

What model Mac have you successfully booted a DOS boot floppy and run HDD Erase 3.3 on an internal SSD??

Because it sounds like it should work but anyone who has tried it knows it doesn't for the reasons you explained above.
 
Same here, macbook pro late 2009 came with segate momentus 7200.4 500gb

Snow leopard latest update = negoziated speed 1.5
 
Now in 2011, does anyone have an answer about this? I didn't think there were 6 busses in the Mac Pro (2006/7), and I heard three (1 for the four bays and 1 each for the other two ports), so I wondered if a selection of 1.5 or 3.0 makes a different for other connections. I have some enterprise Seagate SATA II drives that individually can't likely breach 1.5, but together the drives certainly could. Ideas?
 
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