The 2009 Macbook SATA drama

yashiro

yashiro

yashiro

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Assuming this thing gets legs and starts mooching around the web, here are what seems to be confirmed.
All the machines that were actually changed at WWDC seem to be reporting SATA I as their current ATA bus speed. (1.5Gbps).
So this means the new 13" and 15" Macbook Pros (SDCard revision).

The whitebook and the 17" report SATA II. As do the previous revision 15" MBPs.
The machines that report as SATA I under OSX, appear as SATA II under Windows 7.
Although some Win benchmarks say it's running at under 150Mbps (the SATA I limit).

So:
there's either a reporting tool issue or
the bus is limited in software under OSX or
the bus is lmited in firmware under all OS's.

Just thought I'd summarise all nonsense I've been reading on various forums. Chip in your own findings here.
 
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It's hard to think that it would be deliberate. Surely there is no costing saving to be made by doing this?
 
wush said:
It's hard to think that it would be deliberate. Surely there is no costing saving to be made by doing this?
Click to expand...

Unless they think lessening the performance would encourage upgrading? It's a bit of a mad idea but it wouldn't surprise me.

Other theories include the fact that Apple may have met the Energy Savings standards by this method.

Madness either way. I'm hoping an explanation and fix is given but I can't see that happening in a hurry.
 
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I thought that people who specifically order with an SSD have reported 3.0gbps? Isn't it only those who didn't select the upgraded hard disk option that are seeing 1.5gbps.

Pretty sure it's a bios/driver issue that will be resolved very quickly.

Huge thread about it over on macrumors.
 
Is this just the case with the HDD that you configure the Mac with at the time of purchase or will this be for any SATA HDD installed.

Also Rudeboy when you say 'those who did select the upgraded hard disk option', do you mean from SATA to SSD??
 
It's any and all the current machines that people have. (The reworked machines with the SD card on-board)
The wait time on an SSD BTO is 2 weeks. So someone with an SSD added it themselves.

It's either a bug or a quite remarkable downgrade.
 
allosunshine said:
Is this just the case with the HDD that you configure the Mac with at the time of purchase or will this be for any SATA HDD installed.

Also Rudeboy when you say 'those who did select the upgraded hard disk option', do you mean from SATA to SSD??
Click to expand...

Don't quote me 100%, but when I read the thread yesterday I got the picture that selecting an SSD on the original order seems to be giving people 3gbps.

Those who went for conventional mechanical disk and did their own swap out to an SSD seem to only be getting 1.5gbps.

Almost seems like Apple are shipping different systems depending on the drive that is selected at order.
 
yashiro said:
No one has a new pro with a factory fitted SSD yet so what you have interpreted is probably false.

The thread in question. http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=718516
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Yeah, seems you're right. The thread has grown a massive amount since I last looked at it, but there are a couple of responses in there from people who have played with the new models in Apple shops with SSD's fitted and report 3gbps (so they say). Posts in question are #544 and #579, but they don't seem to be able to back up their claims with any physical proof.
 
If you have a MacBook or MacBook Pro (any revision, any year), open About this Mac (click more info) / System Profiler and go to the following section..

Hardware​
Serial-ATA​

Now, click on your drive, and have a look what it says for speed.

An example of what it looks like is shown below.

attachment.png


Notice it says 1.5 Gigabit..

Perhaps they have been this way for a while, and no one has noticed?
 
EVH said:
If you have a MacBook or MacBook Pro (any revision, any year), open About this Mac (click more info) / System Profiler and go to the following section..

Hardware​
Serial-ATA​

Now, click on your drive, and have a look what it says for speed.

An example of what it looks like is shown below.

[IMG ]http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/7880/attachment.png[/IMG]

Notice it says 1.5 Gigabit..

Perhaps they have been this way for a while, and no one has noticed?
Click to expand...

Nope, my purchased-april macbook with the same ssd shows 3.0 and plenty of people have shown their pre WWDC macs with faster ssds are not saturating the bus but post WWDC are (I believe also one person had both and just swapped the ssd between the two to show it)
 
Read this on a few forums, Is it even an issue for most laptop hardrives?

1.5Gbit SATA = maximum of 187.5 megabytes per second maximum (1500/8)
3.0Gbit SATA = maximum of 375 megabytes per second maximum. (3000/8)

Does anyone here own a macbook/pro with disks with transfer speeds that fast? Certainly no mechanical drive on it's own would push that kind of speed that 1.5gbit limits you to, and without checking I don't think any SSD on it's own would push the 3.0 limit.

I have a 2008 macbook pro (non unibody). 1.5gbit limit. 7200rpm drive never seen it push above 35mb a sec sustained tbh (in activity monitor).


rp2000
 
Some of the fastest SSD drives currently available can get 220mb, so yes - 1.5Gbit SATA is a limitation.

Not to mention that the same SSD drives are getting faster all the time - it's a future upgrade issue as much as it is a current one.

Looks like mine will be going back. :(
 
I was asking mainly for those who DON'T have a SSD installed, as I am wondering if it's showing 1.5 Gigabits for non-SSD drives.

However, if it's showing 1.5 for SSD then I can't see why it wouldn't be a software update. Apple wouldn't do that intentionally (I hope!), not unless the SD card slot is using the bus, therefore slowing it down to the lowest common denominator.

@ Slogan.. why don't you keep it for a week, in case an update / official response is pushed out.
 
rp2000 said:
Read this on a few forums, Is it even an issue for most laptop hardrives?
Click to expand...

Nope. Of those with the 220/200 speed SSDs that are capped by this I have yet to see someone complain about a situation that this has affected them outside of benchmarks.
I'm not saying it's right just that no one has shown any real world problem this has caused them yet.
 
EVH said:
@ Slogan.. why don't you keep it for a week, in case an update / official response is pushed out.
Click to expand...

It hasn't even arrived yet. :D

But I don't want to be charged a restocking fee for it, so getting it out of the door rather than it sitting there (wanting to be opened) may be the best option.

It's not due to arrive until late this week/early next week - so if Apple don't have any statement out by then it'll be their own fault. They're very aware of the problem.
 
Do you have to pay a restocking fee if it isn't opened? ;)

EDIT: If it's not due to arrive by then, then I suppose it's fair enough.. depends if you feel it's going to cause you issues.
 
Slogan said:
But I don't want to be charged a restocking fee for it, so getting it out of the door rather than it sitting there (wanting to be opened) may be the best option.
Click to expand...
I didn't even think there was a restocking fee in the UK. The 10% thing is US-only, as far as I'm aware.

In the UK you get 14-days from delivery to contact Apple and initiate the returns process. After that you've got no come-back.
 
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