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Model A1311 / Mid 2010 / 3.06 & 3.2 GHz Core i3 or 3.6 GHz Core i5 Processor

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Replace superdrive with SSD SATA I or SATA II?

Hello,

I'm planning to upgrade my old mid 2010 21.5” iMac 3.06 GHz i3 by adding a SSD drive.

I was going to take out the optical bay drive and replace it with the SSD but I'm not sure if the SATA port is SATA I (1.5Gb/s) or SATA II (3.0 Gb/s)

I know for sure that the HDD port is SATA II but I'm wondering for the Super Drive SATA connector.

Apparently for the late 2009 iMac "The optical drive SATA port is only SATA I (1.5 Gb/s) unlike the HD's SATA port which is SATA II (3.0 Gb/s). The problem is the Platform Controller Hub chip used in this system." (as danj says over on ifitix.com)

Could someone that replaced the Super Drive with an 2010 iMac could check in the system preferences?

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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Ah! The confusion of SATA!

So lets see if we can clarify things a bit here as there are differences between what the system can offer, and what the device is able to perform here.

The systems SATA port is based on what the chip set it has. In the case of the Mid '10 iMac model has a SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) interface on both SATA ports. The optical drive its self is a SATA I (1.5 Gb/s) device.

You can see this within the About This Mac >> System Report option. Scroll down to SATA/SATA Express then Click on the chipset banner. Here you should see two entries the first Link Speed which is what the system can offer and the second the Negotiated Link Speed which is what the device is able to run at.

Just to be clear here, you can always use a device which is slower than the systems offering. You can't use a device that is FIXED at a higher speed than what the system can support. Yes! There are devices which have auto sense technology that can slow them selves down to match the systems SATA ports speed. But not all auto sense devices will work across all of the different SATA I/O speeds many have dropped support for SATA I (1.5 Gb/s).

Now what I've stated here above is all true with all dual and three SATA ported iMac's! In the case of MacBook Pro's there is a wrinkle!

The chip set Apple used in some of the MacBook Pro systems had a problem with the systems clock rate so it's unable to support SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) devices off of the optical drives SATA connection even though the SATA port speed is listed as SATA III (6.0 Gb/s). Here we need to use a FIXED SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) device. Most auto sense devices also won't work either as the ports signal timing confuses them.

I suspect what you've been reading was this chatter which confused you.

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good answer

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Firstly thank you for the depth of your explanation. This is a while ago but I wonder if you know which chipsets had the issue with optical drive speed? I have a Macbook Pro mid-2012 15inch with intel 7 series chipset and wanted to upgrade the optical drive to a SSD (with SATA III). On paper, like you have suggested, it should work.

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@Kirti Purohit - Here's a good write-up OWC did for their Data Doubler! Review the Red callouts.

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is sata super drive, sata1 or 2 or 3? or ssd?!!!

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Tel Test will be eternally grateful.
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