A Mac mini, MacBook, or 13” MacBook Pro from 2010Īt this time, 16GB MAXRam Certified Support is being Expanded to now include specifically these three 2010 models: the proper specification memory modulesĪs there is the possibility of confusion here, let’s elaborate on those requirements.the latest EFI firmware update for your system.In the case of the 2010 Macs, here’s what you must have: Just like with those Late 2008 MBP models, your Mac needs to meet specific criteria for this to work. A while back, we had a similar instance with the Late 2008 MacBook Pros, wherein having the proper OS version and a particular firmware update allowed you to max your RAM out at 8GB vs. This isn’t the first time something like this happened, however, after the fact enabling such a benefit. ![]() While these systems were originally factory limited to 8GB, the right Apple OS version, current EFI update(s), and correct spec/build memory modules now enable them to support and have the full benefit from up to 16GB of installed memory. These Macs are now OWC MaxRAM Certified for up to 16GB with this OWC 16GB Memory Kit available now and specifically qualified just for these Mac models. But until then, unless your drive has the jumper, my previous suggestion is probably the best you can do.īTW, none of the current mechanical drives available for laptops can saturate a SATA-1 bus except for brief bursts from the drive's buffer, so the real loss in performance of running a single SATA-II drive at SATA-1 speeds is almost negligible, something you might notice in a benchmark but not in real-world use.Do you have a 2010 Mac mini, 13” MacBook or 13” MacBook Pro? Can you benefit from more than 8GB of memory? If you answered yes to both, you will be pleased to know that extensive qualification in our test lab has concluded. Hopefully, Apple will take another 'swing' at this & either provide that reversion strategy or a new update that at least allows the controller to work more reliably with the faster interface. ![]() So I agree that Apple dropped the ball, but not necessarily the way you might think: it should have made it very clear that the firmware update implemented an unsupported interface speed, that it might cause problems, & (most importantly) provided a reversion strategy to the former firmware if it did. This includes not just the controllers Apple has been using but those in many PC's as well. How this compatibility problem came about, & why the jumper is required, is complicated but the short version is that at least four different specification bodies had some responsibility in producing SATA specifications, & not all controllers were designed to the same standards. Some SATA-II drives have a jumper to force the slower speed if auto negotiation doesn't work some do not. The problem is how some controllers implement auto negotiation, which is supposed to tell the drive to fall back to SATA-1 speeds with the slower controllers. Supposed to be compatible with SATA-II drives, but many of them are not. I believe posting relevant facts is productive, & a very relevant fact here is that you are trying to use a drive with an interface (SATA-II) that Apple does not currently support in its laptops. ![]() There is more to it than this of course, but the result is that bigger "slower" drives are often better for day-to-day use as startup drives than smaller, "faster" ones when both contain large amounts of data.īecause of the above, the best use for the Hitachi might be as a secondary drive (in an e-SATA case & paired with an e-SATA ExpressCard), used for applications in which random R/W performance is not as important as sustained sequential performance. 5400 rpm ones, but it is small compared to typical seek times, so seek times tend to dominate real-world data transfer patterns. (This is why published comparison benchmarks are typically run on near empty drives.) 7200 rpm drives have a small inherent latency advantage vs. 5400 rpm for the stock one, but as drives fill up their average real-world performance tends to decline because average seek times increase. While this update allows drives to use transfer rates greater than 1.5Gbps, Apple has not qualified or offered these drives for Mac notebooks and _their use is unsupported_."Īlso, if I'm reading the specs correctly, the Travelstar 7K320 is offered in no more than 320 GB capacities while the new MBP comes with a 500 GB drive installed, so I'm not sure why users would choose to replace the stock drive with a smaller one. "MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.7 addresses an issue reported by a small number of customers using drives based on the SATA 3Gbps specification with the June 2009 MacBook Pro. It would appear that this is not a supported drive.
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