Rather a late comment to this , but its been going on years anyway.
If you look on the Apple iMac schematic diagram you will see that the series 5 Intel Chipset fitted in the late 2009 is capable of supporting 6 SATA ports at 3 Gigabit. The third port you see on the logic board is connected back to the controller chip , the missing components are not resistors they are 0.1uf surface mounting capacitors. When you examine through "about this Mac" your serial-ATA Device Tree you will only see SATA devices which are connected, normally the HDD and ODD.
Whilst I have not tried it I am fairly convinced if you could be troubled to fit the SATA connector, the needed 4x0.1uf capacitors and connect a third SATA device it would likely work. This would give you the potential for a Optical, HDD + SSD (possible fusion drive) all in the same case.
But why bother! The optical drive is rubbish, you are much better off fitting a SSD in place of the optical drive, putting in a 2GB SSD and a 7200rpm HDD setting it up as a fusion drive and if you need an optical drive get an external Blue Ray.
Much less hassle in the long run ...............
=== Update (03/07/2016) ===
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Couple of minor points my original post said Put in a 2GB Ssd I meant HDD and a 240GB SSD. Also if you want to set up a fusion drive you need to do it through Terminal in UNIX commands here's a link
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Couple of minor points my original post said: Put in a 2GB SSD I meant HDD and a 240GB SSD.
Also if you want to set up a Fusion Drive you need to do it through Terminal in UNIX commands here's a link: [http://www.macworld.com/article/2014011/storage-drives/how-to-make-your-own-fusion-drive.html|How to Make Your Own Fusion Drive]
Rather a late comment to this , but its been going on years anyway.
+
Rather a late comment to this , but its been going on years anyway.
If you look on the Apple iMac schematic diagram you will see that the series 5 Intel Chipset fitted in the late 2009 is capable of supporting 6 SATA ports at 3 Gigabit. The third port you see on the logic board is connected back to the controller chip , the missing components are not resistors they are 0.1uf surface mounting capacitors. When you examine through "about this Mac" your serial-ATA Device Tree you will only see SATA devices which are connected, normally the HDD and ODD.
Whilst I have not tried it I am fairly convinced if you could be troubled to fit the SATA connector, the needed 4x0.1uf capacitors and connect a third SATA device it would likely work. This would give you the potential for a Optical, HDD + SSD (possible fusion drive) all in the same case.
But why bother! The optical drive is rubbish, you are much better off fitting a SSD in place of the optical drive, putting in a 2GB SSD and a 7200rpm HDD setting it up as a fusion drive and if you need an optical drive get an external Blue Ray.
-
Much less hassle in the long run ...............
+
Much less hassle in the long run ...............
+
+
=== Update (03/07/2016) ===
+
+
Couple of minor points my original post said Put in a 2GB Ssd I meant HDD and a 240GB SSD. Also if you want to set up a fusion drive you need to do it through Terminal in UNIX commands here's a link
Rather a late comment to this , but its been going years anyway. If you look on the Apple imac schematic diagram you will see that the series 5 Intel Chipset fitted in the late 2009 is capable of supporting 6 Sata ports at 3 Gigabit. The third port you see on the logic board is connected back to the controller chip , the missing components are not resistors they are 0.1uf surface mounting capacitors. When you examine through "about this Mac" your serial-ATA Device Tree you will only see Sata devices which are connected , normally the HDD and ODD,
+
Rather a late comment to this , but its been going on years anyway.
-
Whilst I have not tried it I am fairly convinced if you could be troubled to fit the sata connector , 4x0.1uf capacitors on the serial in serial out ports and connect a third device it would work. This would give you the potential for a Optical HDD +SSD fusion drive all in the same case.
+
If you look on the Apple iMac schematic diagram you will see that the series 5 Intel Chipset fitted in the late 2009 is capable of supporting 6 SATA ports at 3 Gigabit. The third port you see on the logic board is connected back to the controller chip , the missing components are not resistors they are 0.1uf surface mounting capacitors. When you examine through "about this Mac" your serial-ATA Device Tree you will only see SATA devices which are connected, normally the HDD and ODD.
-
But why bother the optical drive is rubbish , you are much better fitting a SSD in the optical port place putting in a 2GB+ 7200rpm HDD setting up as a fusion drive and if you need an Optical drive get an external Blue Ray , much less hassle...............
+
Whilst I have not tried it I am fairly convinced if you could be troubled to fit the SATA connector, the needed 4x0.1uf capacitors and connect a third SATA device it would likely work. This would give you the potential for a Optical, HDD + SSD (possible fusion drive) all in the same case.
+
+
But why bother! The optical drive is rubbish, you are much better off fitting a SSD in place of the optical drive, putting in a 2GB SSD and a 7200rpm HDD setting it up as a fusion drive and if you need an optical drive get an external Blue Ray.
Rather a late comment to this , but its been going years anyway. If you look on the Apple imac schematic diagram you will see that the series 5 Intel Chipset fitted in the late 2009 is capable of supporting 6 Sata ports at 3 Gigabit. The third port you see on the logic board is connected back to the controller chip , the missing components are not resistors they are 0.1uf surface mounting capacitors. When you examine through "about this Mac" your serial-ATA Device Tree you will only see Sata devices which are connected , normally the HDD and ODD,
Whilst I have not tried it I am fairly convinced if you could be troubled to fit the sata connector , 4x0.1uf capacitors on the serial in serial out ports and connect a third device it would work. This would give you the potential for a Optical HDD +SSD fusion drive all in the same case.
But why bother the optical drive is rubbish , you are much better fitting a SSD in the optical port place putting in a 2GB+ 7200rpm HDD setting up as a fusion drive and if you need an Optical drive get an external Blue Ray , much less hassle...............