What HD will work for G5

B

bigdoug

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i was wondering what hd's will work for my g5. i see its ATA...will SATA work? how do i know what to look for. thanks.

doug
 
There are two types of ATA drives: PATA ("parallel ATA"), which are commonly called just "ATA"... and there's SATA ("serial ATA"), which are different.

The G5 takes SATA drives. You can use PATA drives, but you'll need an adaptor and compatibility isn't guaranteed -- although 99% should work.
 
If I remember correctly, according to Apple the G5 only accepts true SATA harddisks, not ATA harddisks with a SATA converter.
 
shtjonathan said:
If I remember correctly, according to Apple the G5 only accepts true SATA harddisks, not ATA harddisks with a SATA converter.
Click to expand...

From http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/sep04/090904.html :

Latest G5 owner feedback on SerialATA/Parallel ATA adapters

Last year Apple posted a PowerMac G5 kbase doc saying there's no support for parallel-> SerialATA adapters, although several readers w/G5s last year tried them and they worked, most noted problems after waking from sleep with drive performance for instance. (see first report in Sept. 29th, 2003 news page.) Here's the latest G5 owner report on a SATA/PATA adapter in a new 'rev B' G5:

" Hi Mike, I can report success with using a Parallel to Serial ATA adaptor in my dual 2.5GHz G5 with OS X 10.3.5. The adaptor is a "SERILLEL2" made by ABIT Computer Corporation . I'm using it with an 80 GB Western Digital drive, model number WDC WD800JB-00DUA3 according to System Profiler.
It works fine and I can even boot from it, no issues noticed when waking from sleep either. (I asked to verify he's seen no performance issues-Mike) The documentation lists the core logic as being a "Silicon Image Sil3611 Parallel ATA to Serial ATA Bridge." It also claims to support hot-plugging, but I haven't tried it.
I used a Y-adaptor to get power to the hard drive from the optical drive's connector. The power cable runs through the PCI card space and up at the back of the case. It was a little bit of a stretch to get the stock SATA cable connected, but once it's in it isn't being strained.
Cheers, Josh "
Click to expand...

Apple says it ain't supported, but as far as the computer is concerned, if it thinks it's using a SATA drive and the converter works properly, there isn't any reason it shouldn't work...

But like you pointed out, Apple says there's no support for it so it's a "do at your own risk" kind of thing...
 
The only reason to even consider using a PATA drive would be if you ALREADY have one. SATA drives don't cost that much more at all. NewEgg has some 250GB SATA 150 drives for 99 bucks.
 
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