Power Mac G5 SSD Woes

[budude2]

I recently acquire a Power Mac G5 (A1177) 2.3 GHz Dual Core, and I'm trying to find a SSD that could work in it. I originally tried a 1 TB Crucial MX500, but the installer couldn't see it. I then tried a 128 GB Inland Professional which worked. Thinking I had found a brand that would work I bought a 512 GB Inland Professional, but that one is not seen. I also tried a 500 GB Crucial MX500 which also didn't work. Does anyone have a version that worked for them? I'd prefer something that's a lot bigger than a 128 GB.

(I've also got a 1 TB spinning drive that works, but I don't have any mounting hardware for it...)

 

[Unknown_K]

Spare black rounded screws were left inside the case screwed to the wall.

https://guide-images.cdn.ifixit.com/igi/dfsI5jafwD5dgsKs.medium

They are shown on the left unless somebody used them already. You put the screws into the side mounting holes and slide the drive into the rails. Of course you will need an adapter for a 2.5" SSD.

As far as SSD's and HDs go, you need one that works with the initial SATA 150 (SATA I) interface. Pretty much all spinning disks will downgrade to that but plenty of new SATA III (600) will not. Either find one that will downgrade or find a SATA II/III card that boots in a Power Mac G5.

 

[budude2]

Unfortunately it looks like the screws are gone. Not surprising though, when I got this it was missing all the ram and GPU for some reason.

 

[Byrd]

You can use any old chunky screw, the ones used on PC cases do the job. Alternately the 3.5" HD will slide in happily there if you don't move things too much.

 

[budude2]

Asked around in my local retro group, and someone said they were using a Crucial BX500 in theirs. Ordered a 1 TB one and it worked! Guess some of the lower end drives are more lenient?

 

[NeilKnows]

I've found Intel SSD 320 Series to be pretty compatible with SATA I and II devices. The capacities are more limited than newer drives however...

 

[gsteemso]

I bought a SSD for my 2004 PMG5 a few years ago. Other World Computing, very good brand, works great... but there's a weird and very noticeable delay before it responds to any given access, so the actual speedup over spinning rust is minimal in most scenarios.