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So I have this old MacBook from 2010 whose internal HDD can be swapped. Because the old HDD died, I bought a cheap 1TB SSD and threw it in there. Not even a brand I know or anything but I really just needed some storage in it to actually...be a usable thing. While browsing the depths of Youtube, I discovered SD to SATA converters and even whole microSD RAID 0 to SATA cards and that got me thinking:

Which SD card spec (SD, SDHC, SDXC) and class would actually satisfy SATA2 to a point where I could consider dropping that into my MacBook and using the - actually SATA3 capable - SSD in my desktop?

Even my older Mac Mini Server from 2007 seems to only do SATA2 but has two internal ports. It's only use is to act as a local server and be tunneled through a remote server through SISH. Thus, it does not need a ton of storage.

I know that there are SD to SATA2 adapters out there, but I am just not sure what type of SD card I would have to go shopping for in order to make this (admittedly really stupid) idea work.

Thank you in advance! ^.^

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  • This is no correlation between SD card specifications and SATA specifications. Any relevant specs/requirements would be only specific to each individual SD-to-SATA adapter, or more correctly, its embedded interface converter.
    – sawdust
    Commented Mar 1, 2020 at 22:13
  • @sawdust I am aware of that. But I know that some SD specs also specify the speeds they are intended to run in and there is only so much SATA 2 can process. So if I match the right spec to SATA 2, all I need to do is find an adapter that actually does this exact spec too. That is why I am looking for which SD spec to look for.
    – Ingwie Phoenix
    Commented Mar 3, 2020 at 0:35
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    There is no need to try to match speeds. The data between the interfaces can be (or is always) buffered so that any speed difference is irrelevant. FYI there is a lot more buffering than you probably realize in storage and network transfers.
    – sawdust
    Commented Mar 3, 2020 at 7:59
  • @sawdust I see. No, I am not quite aware... I thought matching the specs to the itnerface would make sure that I can essentially use an older spec but still be able to satisfy the interface's required speed. Any good article that talks about the buffering?
    – Ingwie Phoenix
    Commented Mar 4, 2020 at 10:20
  • I doubt that's there's "article that talks about the buffering" since it's a common technique. Computer hardware is designed for memory to device (write) transfers, or device to memory (read) transfers. Direct device to device transfer bypassing memory is rarely supported by hardware, and error recovery is overly complex. Sometimes the buffering is simply required, e.g. in order to perform error validation (and correction) on data just read or received. Regarding network switches, check out the difference between cut-through versus store-and-forward (i.e. partial vs full buffering).
    – sawdust
    Commented Mar 7, 2020 at 1:52

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