# vertex 3 ssd @ 3 gb/s NOT 6 gb/s - I didn't know!!



## kalch (Mar 22, 2012)

couple things:
i have a mid 2011 i5 3.1 GHz 27 inch iMac...
Took it in last week to have someone install a vertex 3 ssd (6gb/s).

He kept the main factory installed 1 TB hdd in the system, and installed the vertex in the optical bay and removed the dvr.

I did notice when he showed me the "about this mac" page that it was showing a 3 gb/s speed.

I did some research and found that although the sad drive does work, i'm stuck at 3 gb/s. This is because apparently, when apple did a EFi update for the board it did allow for 6 gb/s transfer, EXCEPT it didn't allow for 6 gb/s through the optical SATA, which is still stuck at 3 gb/s max.

Now, I have to go back to them and have them either a) just remove the 1 TB factory and put the ssd where the factory hdd is, or have them totally take out the motherboard and attach the SATA III cable to the board connector that is down near the bottom of the board.

Frustrating, but at least i figured out the problem.

Can someone point me to an article showing me any performance based differences between 3 gb/s and 6 gb/s ssd?


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## Paul82 (Sep 19, 2007)

I could easily be wrong, and it would depend on the particular ssd drive but I'm don't think you'll see much difference as the sdd's max read/write speed is likely below 3gb/s so the interface would not be the bottleneck here...


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## G-Mo (Sep 26, 2007)

kalch said:


> He kept the main factory installed 1 TB hdd in the system, and installed the vertex in the optical bay and removed the dvr.
> 
> ...
> 
> or have them totally take out the motherboard and attach the SATA III cable to the board connector that is down near the bottom of the board.


Remove the logic board and do a dual hard drive installation. It's what you should have had done in the first place, especially in the 27".


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## johnnydee (Feb 10, 2004)

I think Paul is right!
Just enjoy what you have now and you'll not even notice the difference!


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## John Clay (Jun 25, 2006)

johnnydee said:


> I think Paul is right!
> Just enjoy what you have now and you'll not even notice the difference!


Speak for yourself. The difference between a SATAII SSD and a SATA III SSD is huge.


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## kalch (Mar 22, 2012)

so, there appears to be a bit of debate as to whether the difference in SATA II or SATA III will really make a difference.

Im not doing anything heavy most of the time, so I don't see it really being a huge issue, but since I put in a 6 gb/s drive, i kinda wanted 6 gb/s performance.

im still not completely comfortable doing this myself, so any takers on doing it for me? That is reinstalling my optical drive, and putting the vertex 3 into the SATA III connector?


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## johnnydee (Feb 10, 2004)

John Clay said:


> Speak for yourself. The difference between a SATAII SSD and a SATA III SSD is huge.


Are you kidding me!!
Hardly noticeable on a day to day basis!
The difference between HDD and SDD is huge, the difference between SSD II and III is minute!


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## John Clay (Jun 25, 2006)

johnnydee said:


> Are you kidding me!!
> Hardly noticeable on a day to day basis!
> The difference between HDD and SDD is huge, the difference between SSD II and III is minute!


A good SATA II SSD is about 285MBps!!
A good SATA III SSD is about 500MBps!!!!

If you're loading a large app, or a large game, or copy files, that's a huge difference!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Average Joe isn't going to notice it, but Average Joe won't notice an SSD over a newer HDD, either!!!


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## johnnydee (Feb 10, 2004)

Oh now I see your point, something that might take 2 sec to open would now only take 1 second!
Thanks for clearing that up!


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## groovetube (Jan 2, 2003)

lol


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## screature (May 14, 2007)

John Clay said:


> A good SATA II SSD is about 285MBps!!
> A good SATA III SSD is about 500MBps!!!!
> 
> If you're loading a large app, or a large game, or copy files, that's a huge difference!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> ...


While I agree with you about the difference between 3G and 6G SSD's I can't say that Joe average wouldn't notice the difference between an SSD and even the newest HDD unless you are taking Hybrids. 

I guess it all depends on what we think Joe average is doing with his computer as these days even Joe average can be making home video's and ripping DVDs and the difference would definitely be noticeable on those fronts. For web and e-mail nope he wouldn't notice...


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## Andrew Pratt (Feb 16, 2007)

I don't know it the same applies to the iMac's as the laptops but Apple silently upgraded the SATA ports for the optical drives half way though the year from SATA II to SATA III. My laptop has the newer SATA III chip so my SSD runs at 6 speeds.


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## kalch (Mar 22, 2012)

thx everyone!

Regardless, i get it, 3 gb/s is really really fast, 6 gb/s is blazing fast (blazing is faster than really really fast)... Doubtful i'll be able to tell the difference in my daily work. 

This set-up sure is faster than my Commodore 64 using wordperfect.


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## johnnydee (Feb 10, 2004)

Stop worrying about it and enjoy!!


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## broad (Jun 2, 2009)

John Clay said:


> A good SATA II SSD is about 285MBps!!
> A good SATA III SSD is about 500MBps!!!!
> 
> If you're loading a large app, or a large game, or copy files, that's a huge difference!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> ...


!!!! :lmao:


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## 20DDan (May 2, 2005)

What generation laptop do you have? Also are you referring to the standard HD bay or are you referring to the optical bay? I know the early 2011 MacBook Pro's have SATA III for the Hard Drive bay but for the SuperDrive bay it's SATA II. I know this from bumping my head with it first hand.

MacBook Pro



Andrew Pratt said:


> I don't know it the same applies to the iMac's as the laptops but Apple silently upgraded the SATA ports for the optical drives half way though the year from SATA II to SATA III. My laptop has the newer SATA III chip so my SSD runs at 6 speeds.


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