
- MACBOOK G4 SATA TO IDE ADAPTER INSTALL
- MACBOOK G4 SATA TO IDE ADAPTER PC
- MACBOOK G4 SATA TO IDE ADAPTER MAC
MACBOOK G4 SATA TO IDE ADAPTER MAC
The solution to put a fast SSD into a Mac mini G4 is to remove it from its case and use the IDE/SATA adapter: Some very large capacity SSDs use more space inside the SSD case. Most SSDs however are very small on the inside, half of the size of the case, or even more than half, could be empty. The only real solution was to get the SSD out of its 2.5 inch case. But even with the smallest IDE/SATA adapter the place is too scarce for a standard size 2.5 inch HDD/SSD. Thinking about it, this was to be expected. With the 2.5 inch ATA cable (44-pin) it is even worse. I tried at least two different IDE/SATA adapters, which were presumably as small as they can be, with and without using an additional cable. …will void the warranty of your SATA SSD.

MACBOOK G4 SATA TO IDE ADAPTER INSTALL
So I though that it might be a possible solution to install the SATA HDD/SSD turned by 180° with the connector towards the speaker in front. A show stopper would be if the adapter doesn’t fit in at all, because its connector is placed as such that the adapter is displaced in relation to the HDD/SSD, making it impossible to fit them both at the same time. Another problem could be the height of the adapter and the resulting displacement of the 2.5 inch HDD or SSD. Such an adapter would therefore have to be very small in dimensions. The problem: the Mac mini G4 doesn’t provide much space for additional adapters. So, a solution is to use an adapter to convert from 44-pin IDE to SATA. That is very unfortunate, especially since the Mac mini G4 came with drives of 40 to 80 GB capacity, which is not much compared to today’s standards (2015).īut, once you decide to upgrade, you face the current market situation, where IDE 44-pin 2.5 inch HDDs are much more expensive than regular 2.5 inch SATA HDDs or even 2.5 inch SATA SSDs! The strategy, in theory… From that perspective, this endeavor was clearly a success.One of the problems of the original Mac mini (2005, G4 PowerPC processor) is that it still uses 2.5 inch parallel ATA (PATA) drives. Then again much, like many of the best Raspberry Pi projects, installing a new component in an outdated Power Mac G4 is a lot less about convenience or improved performance as it is about fun and figuring out what's possible.
MACBOOK G4 SATA TO IDE ADAPTER PC
Of course, using a FireWire 400 (around 50 MB/s) connection would have been faster, but connecting a modern SSD over a FireWire interface to a 20-year-old PC would probably have been even trickier than using a PCI slot. And it is certainly easier to plug in a USB drive, but Apple's Power Mac G4 only features two USB 1.1 ports, which means a 12 Mb/s data rate (1.5 MB/s), an order of magnitude slower compared to what a 32-bit 33 MHz PCI interface provides. After all that, there will still be performance limitations, such as the 133 MB/s bandwidth supported by a 32-bit 33 MHz PCI bus (keep in mind that we are talking about a half-duplex interface here), but this is to be expected.Ī legitimate question about installing a new SSD into a system with such a performance-capping interface is whether it would be far easier and faster to just plug in an external SSD using a USB connection.
