Upgraded to a SSD on my Mac Mini mid 2010, but SATA 1 speed only...

[efegue]

Hello,

I've upgraded my mini to a SSD Disk today but it's only working in SATA 1, it doesn't work in SATA 2, 3Gbit.
I've already tried SMC / NVRAM reset and didn't have any luck.

The SSD is a Mushkin Chronos 180GB SATA 3 (MKNSSDCR180GB).

Does anyone know how to make it working in SATA 2 mode?

Thanks!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Is the SSD's firmware up to date?
Have you checked the manufacturer's support section/forum for help/advise?

I got a Vertex 3 for my 2009 MBP with S-ATA 3.0 Gbps (S-ATA II) interface and the negotiated link speed was S-ATA 1.5 Gbps (S-ATA I).
After a bit of searching, I found that I needed a firmware update, which helped.

 

[efegue]

Yes, I have the most up to date firmware (3.3.2). I've made a topic on the Mushkin forums anyway.

I'm disappointed, because I was looking forward to a great update, and now I'm about to sell the mac mini, because the drive works fine in a windows machine.

 

[philipma1957]

samsung series 470/830 works at full speed. can you humor me just a bit and run an xbench test.


http://xbench.com/ go to the upper right and click on the down load.

I just ran 2 xbench tests on my 2.4 mini from 2010. one was using the samsung in snow leopard the other was using the samsung in lion.

i would be interested to see your scores. if you use the machine for anything except long copies you will not suffer that much. I would like to see if your xbench scores are close to mine.

 

[efegue]

It's not about suffering or something like that. You can get mechanical HDD's to saturate a SATA 1 channel and they are much more cheaper.

Right now, my SSD looks like a good 7200RPM drive. The difference is that it cost much more!

 

[philipma1957]

your key numbers are still unaffected, unless you are cloning this drive.


your key numbers are


random


uncached write 86.16 mb/sec 4k blocks

and


uncached read 10.82 4k blocks


compare them to my numbers on a 3 gb connection


my numbers are 76 mb on a 4k random write and 8.5 mb on a random 4k read.


these random write /read speeds are what makes you machine quick.


think of a small light duty motorcycle in heavy city traffic it moves in and out quickly . these random w/r are all your key files for programs. no 7200 rpm drive is close to you 4k numbers your ssd is 10x to 20x faster then any 7200rpm drive in the 4k random read write numbers.


now if you clone the whole drive and it has 100gb info on it with a few larger files( 4mb photos a movie a song)

then the speed loss will be detected. I have a good ssd with a 3gb connection and I would only be faster on a long clone. your drive would win in most real world tests.


BTW THANK YOU for testing the gear like I asked.

look at this 7200 rpm test for the 4k read write. 1.53 and .69 you are 86 and 10.8 that is very fast no 7200 or even 10000 hdd will get your speeds.


I would still be annoyed that the firmware does not match up. I am only trying to explain that you are not losing that much speed in most cases.

 

[Ccrew]

It's clear by the System Information screenshot the drive's negotiated at SATA I speed Sure the SMC/NVRAM reset was done correctly the install?? Stranger things have happened.

 

[Stan Mikulenka]

Hi,
here is my SSD in Mini:

 

[efegue]

BTW THANK YOU for testing the gear like I asked.

look at this 7200 rpm test for the 4k read write. 1.53 and .69 you are 86 and 10.8 that is very fast no 7200 or even 10000 hdd will get your speeds.


I would still be annoyed that the firmware does not match up. I am only trying to explain that you are not losing that much speed in most cases.

Thank you for your explanation. Yup, I'm aware that it's still faster, even if doesn't match up the speeds of the SATA 2 channel. SSD's have faster access time and are brutally faster in small reads/writes as we can see.

Anyway like you said, I'm still annoyed it doesn't work in SATA 2. I'll try to do the SMC reset again. When we do the SMC reset something happens like when the PRAM reset does a second "mac opening sound". I want to be sure I've done it correctly.

Thanks everyone!

EDIT: Tried to reset SMC 2 times already, no luck, still SATA 1.
I even tried booting only with the SSD and the SSD on the SATA channel of the SuperDrive, no luck too.

 

[mdgm]

With older Mac models that don't have SATA III but have SATA II it can be best to use SATA II SSDs as on some of these models SATA III SSDs run at SATA I speeds. If I upgrade my 09 Minis, I'm going to get SATA II SSDs for them.

 

[Acorn]

does anyone know if an crucial m4 SATA 3 will run at SATA 1 or SATA 2 speeds on a SATA 2 connection. Will it do the same and run at SATA 1.

 

[striatedglutes]

does anyone know if an crucial m4 SATA 3 will run at SATA 1 or SATA 2 speeds on a SATA 2 connection. Will it do the same and run at SATA 1.

Just finished installing mine and cloning over my old 10.7.3 install. It's running at SATA 2 (3.0gbps) as expected. Attached my xbench.

 

[alleggerita]

Just a quick question here, you guys know about the OCZ's bootable tools that can help to lock the SATA III SSDs to SATA II speeds so that your negotiated link speed rises to 3.0Gbps? I was wondering if my SSD that ain't from OCZ (but still using the same SandForce SF2281 controller) can actually use that bootable tool to solve this problem for my other-branded SSD using the same SF2281? Anybody tried? :X

 

[philipma1957]

I know that the ocz tools are hit or miss in keeping the ocz ssd's at sata II. So the best I can tell you is maybe with a non ocz since they are already a maybe with a ocz ssd.

 

[gvmelbrty]

With older Mac models that don't have SATA III but have SATA II it can be best to use SATA II SSDs as on some of these models SATA III SSDs run at SATA I speeds. If I upgrade my 09 Minis, I'm going to get SATA II SSDs for them.

I'm worried about encountering this same SATA I link speed when I get an SSD. ... I've got the same mid-2010 mac mini as the OP and was thinking about installing a Samsung 830, which is SATA III. If that's going to be an issue, can someone recommend a good 128gb SATA II SSD (and where to get it)?

Thxs, tom

 

[philipma1957]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Samsung...Disk_Drives&hash=item1c2a65a81b#ht_649wt_1200



you could try this seller.

 

[surroundfan]

The Samsung 830 should operate at 3gbps (at least it did happily on my folks' MBP and numerous other MacBooks with the Nvidia chipset)...

 

[flatfoot]

The problem with SATA 3 SSDs running at SATA 1 speeds on SATA 2 connectors only occurs with SandForce-based SSDs in conjunction with the NVidia SATA 2 chipset used in some Macs (see screenshot in first post).

Thus, if your Mac has the NVidia chipset, get an SSD that doesn't have a SandForce controller, e.g. a Samsung 830.

 

[gvmelbrty]

The problem with SATA 3 SSDs running at SATA 1 speeds on SATA 2 connectors only occurs with SandForce-based SSDs in conjunction with the NVidia SATA 2 chipset used in some Macs (see screenshot in first post).

Thus, if your Mac has the NVidia chipset, get an SSD that doesn't have a SandForce controller, e.g. a Samsung 830.

Thanks for this info. I'll pickup a 128gb 830.

Thanks everyone for your input.

 

[Stellbouz]

Hello! I have the same problem with user efegue
But when I reset the SMC and Mac mini opens founds sata 2 and if I shut it down and open it again founds sata 1
I am reseting again SMC and the system finds again sata 2, I restarted again finds sata 2 I shut it down and open finds sata 1...
Can anyone help me???
Thank you!

 

[mpantone]

Update the firmware or get a different drive.

I have an OCZ Vertex3 that negotiates at the 3.0Gbps SATA-II speed. Oh, and don't buy an OCZ. The company filed for bankruptcy (liquidation, not reorganization) a couple of days ago.

You can probably get some good SSD suggestions at AnandTech. They are pretty thorough in their product reviews.

 

[Stellbouz]

I have the corsair force gs 128gb sata3 and has the latest version of firmware, you think that I must get an ssd with sata2?

 

[mvmanolov]

Update the firmware or get a different drive.

I have an OCZ Vertex3 that negotiates at the 3.0Gbps SATA-II speed. Oh, and don't buy an OCZ. The company filed for bankruptcy (liquidation, not reorganization) a couple of days ago.

You can probably get some good SSD suggestions at AnandTech. They are pretty thorough in their product reviews.

indeed on the anand's recommendations. here is a link:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7545/best-ssds-holiday-2013