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mSATA to ATA bus Macintosh (and also PCI Macintosh)

AlpineRaven

Well-known member
For last couple of days, I have been running lots of tests on this mSATA card in sATA case. Benchmarking and stability tests, copying/installing system software (ranging from System 7.5.5 - Mac OS 7.6.1/8.6/9.2.2 to 10.4.11 & 10.5...)

I purchased this Kingspec mSATA 128gb card from ebay, ideally to install it in PowerBook G3 to replace this untrusting 6gb IBM HDD, and before I did I thought I'd run some tests to see what the outcome was, I was blown away when I first put it in G4 MDD with Sonnet Tempo PCI SATA card, installed MacOS9.2.2 on it - and wow it flew, the startup time was hugely noticeable (happy mac blinks approx 1.5 seconds before Mac OS comes up then it goes away to load up the extensions - very quick - estimated approx 9-12 seconds to Finder) Anyway.. I've tested on 3 Macintosh models:

• Power Macintosh G4 Mirror Drive Doors, FW400 upgraded to dual 1.42ghz, 2gb RAM, Sonnet SATA Tempo card.
Tested: Kingspec 128gb mSATA against; Samsung EVO840 240gb SSD and Western Digital 120gb 7200rpm HDD. Kingspec has blown away both HDDs. (could not use SATA to IDE adapter due no cable select on the adapter, therefor MDD wouldn't see it) Tested in Mac OS 9.2.2

• Power Macintosh 5500/250mhz 64mb RAM, Western Digital 2gb HDD 5400rpm against; Kingspec 128gb via SATA to IDE adapter. While I was using it it felt snappier/quick in processing. Tested in Mac OS 8.1 in both HDDs.

• Power Macintosh 8600, PowerPC 604ev 250mhz, 1gb RAM, Seagate 18gb SCSI 7200rpm HDD & Kingspec 128gb via Sonnet Tempo SATA. Tested in Mac OS 7.6.1 in both HDDs (even 7.5.5 works as well)

• Apple PowerBook G3 Pismo 500mhz, 768mb RAM, 6gb Apple branded IBM Hard drive 4200 RPM against Kingspec 128gb SSD via 44pin to mSATA adapter, installed Mac OS 9.2.2.

As you can see the scores is noticeably very good, very good option to give new lease of life for your ATA/IDE based Macintosh, also monies worth to get.

A few months ago I have also tested IDE to SD adapter and ditched it as it caused a lot of crashes and it was unstable. Kingspec has been very stable on all 3 Macintoshes above and not even one bit of any type of errors.

I do believe this adapter will even work with System 7.1 in Macintosh LC series with ATA bus! Works very well from 7.1 to 9.2.2 and OSX, just as long it has ATA bus that works with Master settings and or SATA device.

Attached Pictures: Scores from Norton System Info benchmarks on Disk mode. Other item is a photo of the card for size comparison.
Update:

update: for PowerBook G3 Pismo 500mhz - 44pin to mSATA arrived yesterday, installed it and worked at first go and decided to benchmark it - I tested before and after (see chart) and 2nd test with mSATA hard drive installed - it increased by 2.5x much - I was blown away by the test as I wasnt expecting huge difference. OSX4.11 is so robust, smooth, sleek and runs really well as I've always didn't like using OSX on G3s, but this time for the first time it is enjoyable. Monies very well spent!!!

20157745_10155225633306226_3787802383789979601_o.jpg

 
Last edited by a moderator:

AlpineRaven

Well-known member
Giving new lease of life in old ATA bus with un-trusting spinning Hard Disks would be very good alternative option to upgrade it. Pricewise is well spent specially for PowerBook G3!!! Even MDD's performance as well. Ive ordered more and its on its way.
Cheers

AP

 

CC_333

Well-known member
If you run it on an OS with TRIM support (say, macOS 10.12 if you have a new enough Mac) and run a manual TRIM cycle, it might rejuvenate it some?

c

 

Cory5412

Daring Pioneer of the Future
Staff member
The 840 evo also may need a firmware update. If I remember correctly there was an issue with them slowing down a lot under certain conditions -- more slow than you could fix using TRIM.

TRIM shouldn't really matter on a vintage Mac to a modern SSD.

 
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