OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD

[TheEvilZeppelin]

I've been thinking of putting a SSD into my Mac Pro... and I liked what I saw from the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD (http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/internal_storage/Mercury_Extreme_SSD_Sandforce) check out the shoot out! just looks like a great upgrade but the price has me on the fence.

[MCHR]

I hear nothing but good things about SSDs for boot drives. The OWC Mercury has impressive specs.

[rkmac]

Well I have just ordered one for my macbook pro, as it seemed the best deal out there in combo with an adapter to replace the optical drive.
Ive upgraded to a SSD for the OS and applications, so I only got the 60GB one. The prices on SSDs are still a bit high, but for me the benefits outweighed the cost.
You just need to think what you want to use it for and whether the price is too high for those benefits.

[TheEvilZeppelin]

Well I have just ordered one for my macbook pro, as it seemed the best deal out there in combo with an adapter to replace the optical drive.
Ive upgraded to a SSD for the OS and applications, so I only got the 60GB one. The prices on SSDs are still a bit high, but for me the benefits outweighed the cost.
You just need to think what you want to use it for and whether the price is too high for those benefits.

I use my Pro for CS5 and a bunch of Blizzard games...

[strausd]

I got one and love it!

[Rad]

I have the 200 GB version in my Mac Pro. Runs great, although I was running RAID 0 Raptors before - the improvement has been relatively modest in real life.

[WardC]

I have a 120GB OWC Mercury Pro Extreme SSD in my Mac Pro, use it as the boot disk. I also have two 7200rpm 1TB Seagate Barracuda drives in a RAID-0 array. The transfer of files between the RAID and the SSD is over 200MB per second!! It's really amazing. And my machine seems quick as lightning. Boot time is just about 10 seconds. It's really fast. The drive was about $319.00 when I bought it, but I've seen 256GB Samsung SSDs on eBay for the same price. Your best bet on an SSD might be on eBay. They have a bunch of OCZ Vertex drives on there as well.

[Ravich]

You can get a vertex II 60GB for 130$ after rebate in case you're interested.

[covrc]

How large does the SSD need to be to work as a boot drive for the OS and Photoshop and Lightroom etc?

[WardC]

How large does the SSD need to be to work as a boot drive for the OS and Photoshop and Lightroom etc?

a 60GB can hold all you need, the OS needs about 14GB and Photoshop needs less than 5GB, Lightroom probably less than 10GB.

But...I got the 120GB which is plenty for me because I like to save files to my desktop sometimes. All my music, videos, and downloads go straight to my 2TB RAID 0 array.

To give you an idea, I have my OS and all my apps on my 120GB SSD currently and I have 63.33GB of free space at the moment. So you would be better getting a 100GB or 120GB or even a 256GB if you can afford it. You can find 256GB Samsung SSDs for around $325 on eBay.

[MT0227]

...I got the 120GB which is plenty for me because I like to save files to my desktop sometimes.

Why not move your entire Home dir to your 2TB HD...wouldn't that move your desktop as well? This would give you even more room on your SSD.

[covrc]

Thanks for the replay Ward.

I too keep files I am currently working on on my desktop, however I am learning that in doing so, if I have worked on folder full of images in Lighrroom and then move the folder to a storage partition, Lightroom can no long find the cataloge. So, I have to change my work flow regarding using desktop. Thanks for the feedback.

[whwang]

Hi All,

I heard many good things about the OWC Mercury SSDs. Unfortunately, they are not directly available in my country. So instead, I plan to get a Corsair Force 120 GB SSD. It uses the same SandForce controller as the OWC ones, so perhaps it is equally good. I plan to use it in my MacPro2010.

Has anyone heard any negative things about this SSD in a MacPro? Any potential issue?

Thanks.

[theBigD23]

If I use the ssd as a boot drive, does time machine just backup the boot and not my files?

Also, for iTunes, do I just point the library to the larger external drive? Doesn't this defeat the purpose of speed?

[smurf]

Hi All,

I heard many good things about the OWC Mercury SSDs. Unfortunately, they are not directly available in my country. So instead, I plan to get a Corsair Force 120 GB SSD. It uses the same SandForce controller as the OWC ones, so perhaps it is equally good. I plan to use it in my MacPro2010.

Has anyone heard any negative things about this SSD in a MacPro? Any potential issue?

Thanks.

Hi, I use Corsair Force 120 GB SSD in my MacPro 2010, no issues so far. I put the SSD in "Icy Dock 2.5" to 3.5" SATA / SSD HDD Converter Tray".

[Einz]

If I use the ssd as a boot drive, does time machine just backup the boot and not my files?

Also, for iTunes, do I just point the library to the larger external drive? Doesn't this defeat the purpose of speed?


TM will back up any mounted internal drives.

Yes, just point the tune library to the drive it's on. If your SSD is big enough then keep it on the SSD.

[reel2reel]

Has anyone done a firmware upgrade on an OWC SSD?

[2contagious]

TM will back up any mounted internal drives.

Yes, just point the tune library to the drive it's on. If your SSD is big enough then keep it on the SSD.

What's the fuss about putting your homefolder onto an HDD anyway? Is it just to save space, is it just to BE safe if the boot drive fails or is it actually better for the SSD ?

[VirtualRain]

What's the fuss about putting your homefolder onto an HDD anyway? Is it just to save space, is it just to BE safe if the boot drive fails or is it actually better for the SSD ?

It most certainly comes down to a lack of budget (or misplaced priorities! :p).

The obvious path to top performance is to have enough SSD storage for all your OS/Apps/Data but that's not always practical.

It should be everyone's aspiration though. :D

[strausd]

Why not move your entire Home dir to your 2TB HD...wouldn't that move your desktop as well? This would give you even more room on your SSD.

Thats what I did. I read on a website that suggested against moving your home folder, but I have not had a single problem. When I work on video stuff, audio stuff, Photoshop, and pretty much anything really, I constantly drag stuff to my desktop. I moved my home folder cause I don't want that to cause my SSD to degrade. I explained it a little more here (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1001280&highlight=mac+pro+ssd#10).

[WardC]

If I use the ssd as a boot drive, does time machine just backup the boot and not my files?

Also, for iTunes, do I just point the library to the larger external drive? Doesn't this defeat the purpose of speed?

What I did is to make an Alias for my iTunes folder in my "Music" folder. This iTunes folder is actually on my 2TB RAID array, and the Alias is called "iTunes" and it is in my music folder.

Users/home/Music/iTunes

The iTunes folder in this directory is an alias called "iTunes" of the folder "iTunes" which is my music library, on my RAID array. That way I can store hundreds of gigs of music and movies and not take up one byte of space on my SSD.

[reel2reel]

Thats what I did. I read on a website that suggested against moving your home folder, but I have not had a single problem. When I work on video stuff, audio stuff, Photoshop, and pretty much anything really, I constantly drag stuff to my desktop. I moved my home folder cause I don't want that to cause my SSD to degrade. I explained it a little more here (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1001280&highlight=mac+pro+ssd#10).

This is what I'm going to do, too. I can't see any reason *not* to move my Home folder. My Desktop, like yours, has become like a temporary scratch disk. I don't want to clutter my SSD with all that.

[Rad]

I did a firmware upgrade for my OWC Mercury Extreme Pro RE 200 GB SSD to the June 2010 update at:

http://eshop.macsales.com/Customized_Pages/Framework.cfm?page=sf_firmware.html

The Windows version does not recognize any Mac partition. I had to clone the drive to another disk, reformat it in the Mac OS to Windows FAT32 so there was no problem for Windows to deal with it. Then I had to run the updater in Windows under Bootcamp. Then I had to go back for the Mac OS, reformat to a Mac partition and clone back the drive. There was supposed to be a Mac version last month but it has not yet been released.

[ahavriluk]

I did a firmware upgrade for my OWC Mercury Extreme Pro RE 200 GB SSD to the June 2010 update at:

http://eshop.macsales.com/Customized_Pages/Framework.cfm?page=sf_firmware.html

The Windows version does not recognize any Mac partition. I had to clone the drive to another disk, reformat it in the Mac OS to Windows FAT32 so there was no problem for Windows to deal with it. Then I had to run the updater in Windows under Bootcamp. Then I had to go back for the Mac OS, reformat to a Mac partition and clone back the drive. There was supposed to be a Mac version last month but it has not yet been released.

Sounds like it is pain in a$$ to upgrade firmware on SSDs.

[reel2reel]

I did a firmware upgrade for my OWC Mercury Extreme Pro RE 200 GB SSD to the June 2010 update at:

http://eshop.macsales.com/Customized_Pages/Framework.cfm?page=sf_firmware.html

The Windows version does not recognize any Mac partition. I had to clone the drive to another disk, reformat it in the Mac OS to Windows FAT32 so there was no problem for Windows to deal with it. Then I had to run the updater in Windows under Bootcamp. Then I had to go back for the Mac OS, reformat to a Mac partition and clone back the drive. There was supposed to be a Mac version last month but it has not yet been released.

Ugh. Thanks for the info. I'm glad the OWC comes with an enclosure. Did you just use disk utility to format to FAT32?

[covrc]

Can a SSD be installed as my boot drive in my second optical drive and thus saving me Bay#1 for a larger hard drive and more options?

[gretschRB]

Can a SSD be installed as my boot drive in my second optical drive and thus saving me Bay#1 for a larger hard drive and more options?

Yes

http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-InstallingSSD.html

[covrc]

Just was reading My LLoyds. Thanks

[LuckyButtons]

I just called MacMall before reading this thread to see what SSDs would be usable with the 2010 Mac Pros and they said anything that is SATA and 3.5".

Aren't the OWC Mercury Extreme SSDs 2.5"?

I'm not savvy in this area, so any info on how to make this work would be great!

[Sean Dempsey]

I just called MacMall before reading this thread to see what SSDs would be usable with the 2010 Mac Pros and they said anything that is SATA and 3.5".

Aren't the OWC Mercury Extreme SSDs 2.5"?

I'm not savvy in this area, so any info on how to make this work would be great!

Icy Dock - Tray makes any 2.5 a 3.5, works in a Mac Pro.

[LuckyButtons]

ah ha!

[Sean Dempsey]

ah ha!

I forgot to link this, buy it from OWC. Great company, support them:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/IcyDock/MB882SP1S2B/

[LuckyButtons]

Icy Dock - Tray makes any 2.5 a 3.5, works in a Mac Pro.

Does putting in a non-Apple SSD cause Apple Care to no longer apply to the system?

[Sean Dempsey]

Does putting in a non-Apple SSD cause Apple Care to no longer apply to the system?

No.

Applecare covers apple products, but you can install in appropriate device in the Mac Pro.

Right now, I have an OWC SSD, 2 Seagate SATA drives, and 1 Hitachi SATA drive.

They aren't going to fix the non-apple stuff, but they don't expect you to only use Apple parts... and the Apple SSD is a Toshiba, if I recall correctly. Maybe not.


But you're fine.

[LuckyButtons]

I see. So then say I order the 6 core with 2 1Tb drives, and buy a OWC SSD...

would I wipe the drive in Bay 1 clean, move it to Bay 3, and then put the SSD in Bay 1 and load the System Software from the discs that come with the Mac Pro on that SSD? (so that i'm running the system and all my apps from there)

[Honumaui]

I see. So then say I order the 6 core with 2 1Tb drives, and buy a OWC SSD...

would I wipe the drive in Bay 1 clean, move it to Bay 3, and then put the SSD in Bay 1 and load the System Software from the discs that come with the Mac Pro on that SSD? (so that i'm running the system and all my apps from there)

I would order it with one HDD and order the other from Newegg and your SSD from OWC

depending on if you want to expand to more HDD later you also have the choice of putting the SSD up in the optical bay ? that is if you do not want to run twin DVD or a DVD and bluray etc..

you could just put the SSD in with a icydock in bay 1 and move the other HDD down to bay 2 and 3 ? if you dont care about the little numbers on the sleds matching up you do not even have to unscrew them etc. just swap them ? this will make more sense when you get the computer and see the inside :)

then use a program like Super Duper and clone it over to the SSD from your current boot that comes with the computer when you buy it ?

[Sean Dempsey]

It doesn't matter which has your system drive.

Like was said, install the SSD anywhere, and user SuperDuper to clone the existing system over. You'll want SuperDuper anyways in the future, so just buy it.

Never buy drives from Apple. Or RAM. Get them all from OWC after you buy the machine.

[Honumaui]

Can a SSD be installed as my boot drive in my second optical drive and thus saving me Bay#1 for a larger hard drive and more options?

I tried the Lian Li one and works well if you want a nicer adapter than just having em hang out up their :)
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1015412

[philipma1957]

also if buying none ssd's and you live in the usa buy western digital caviar blacks basically they have a killer RMA warranty program. 5 years you just need to ship the drive after you check the rma/warranty page at wd. the hdd is the receipt. If you are lucky they will die after 4 years and you will get a new one for shipping only.

[philipma1957]

Hard Drive - Bay 2
Configure the second drive bay with an additional hard drive or solid-state drive.
Learn more

None
1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive [Add $150.00]
2TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive [Add $300.00]
512GB solid-state drive [Add $1,400.00]

[LuckyButtons]

It doesn't matter which has your system drive.

Like was said, install the SSD anywhere, and user SuperDuper to clone the existing system over. You'll want SuperDuper anyways in the future, so just buy it.

Never buy drives from Apple. Or RAM. Get them all from OWC after you buy the machine.

Right, I will buy my SSD drive from OWC. And possibly another 1TB.

The question is how would I set up my drives for back up - Currently I have the G5, which is about to be replaced with the new 6 core. I have the regular 230gb drive, plus an external 512gb drive, which both get backed up to a partitioned 2tb external drive. What should the new set up look like? and doesn't the main backup have to be larger than the sum of all the other drives? ugh...it's all a bit confusing to me.

Oh! I'll have to look up SuperDuper - i'm clueless. Currently using Retrospect to run the backups.

[Honumaui]

Right, I will buy my SSD drive from OWC. And possibly another 1TB.

The question is how would I set up my drives for back up - Currently I have the G5, which is about to be replaced with the new 6 core. I have the regular 230gb drive, plus an external 512gb drive, which both get backed up to a partitioned 2tb external drive. What should the new set up look like? and doesn't the main backup have to be larger than the sum of all the other drives? ugh...it's all a bit confusing to me.

Oh! I'll have to look up SuperDuper - i'm clueless. Currently using Retrospect to run the backups.

one option
your SSD boot in bay 1 or optical ?

your one that came with the mac pro 1TB WD black use for storage

your 2TB external use for time machine

having a clone of your boot is not a bad idea ? so depending on use of that original 230 gig HDD ? you could use that ? but make sure you have all your stuff off it first ?

then budget in some new HDD to replace it maybe in the near future ?

lots of options to setup :)

[LuckyButtons]

If I am moving the SSD to Bay 1 and the 1TB HDD that the MP comes with to Bay 2, do I install the drives where I want them and then use the System Discs to load the System onto the SSD...and then erase what's on the 1B HDD?

THEN, if I do a migration from my G5 to the new MP, doesn't the SSD have to be big enough to hold all the data in the Home folder during said migration? There's no way it will all fit on the 100gb SSD (which I'm definitely going to get) In other words, can I do a migration without having to put all the music, photos, etc that are in the Home folder on the SSD?

I know I can move the Home folder off the SSD and onto another drive, but doesn't that have to happen AFTER I migrate everything?

[johnnymg]

I forgot to link this, buy it from OWC. Great company, support them:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/IcyDock/MB882SP1S2B/

I love it............ $20 for a 10cent piece of plastic. It's doubly ironic given how people complain about the price of Apple products. :p

cheers
JohnG

[Sean Dempsey]

I love it............ $20 for a 10cent piece of plastic. It's doubly ironic given how people complain about the price of Apple products. :p

cheers
JohnG

Really? You go with the whole "let's estimate the material cost of a product and claim that is the products worth, and then make a snide remark about how overpriced said product is, which actually only consists of a small monetary amount of physical product, ignoring R&D, manufacturing, fulfillment and shipping" chestnut?

[Honumaui]

If I am moving the SSD to Bay 1 and the 1TB HDD that the MP comes with to Bay 2, do I install the drives where I want them and then use the System Discs to load the System onto the SSD...and then erase what's on the 1B HDD?

THEN, if I do a migration from my G5 to the new MP, doesn't the SSD have to be big enough to hold all the data in the Home folder during said migration? There's no way it will all fit on the 100gb SSD (which I'm definitely going to get) In other words, can I do a migration without having to put all the music, photos, etc that are in the Home folder on the SSD?

I know I can move the Home folder off the SSD and onto another drive, but doesn't that have to happen AFTER I migrate everything?

I dont mind the migration tool to much ? but I think I would start from scratch this time around since you were on a G5 !
its a pain for sure but might be the best way start clean and go down the list of things to install etc.. so here is how I would do it !

I would migrate everything over to the disc that is included with the mac !
then install the OS on the SSD fresh and start installing the programs and such drag over whats needed ? or reboot to the migrated drive to export things ? maybe FTP bookmarks from a program or settings from a program ? and keep going till yo are done ;) then I would still keep that around a bit longer to make sure everything was over I needed !!!!

also if you can keep the G5 around a bit till you know everything is off it you surely need !!!!!

think of it as spring cleaning :)

[LuckyButtons]

Thanks Honumaui.

So I would just use the System Discs that come with the MP to install the OS, correct?

Then how I do I get the Home to appear on the boot disc, WITHOUT the music and photos, etc. This may be more clear when I'm actually doing it, but right now I feel like it's going to be nuts to try to figure it all out for the first time.:)

Would it make sense to move all my music and photos to an external drive before I do anything and then reload them to the 1TB after everything is set up? Or does that just screw things up in the long run?

[Honumaui]

Thanks Honumaui.

So I would just use the System Discs that come with the MP to install the OS, correct?

Then how I do I get the Home to appear on the boot disc, WITHOUT the music and photos, etc. This may be more clear when I'm actually doing it, but right now I feel like it's going to be nuts to try to figure it all out for the first time.:)

Would it make sense to move all my music and photos to an external drive before I do anything and then reload them to the 1TB after everything is set up? Or does that just screw things up in the long run?

you can move them all now :)

the idea is you boot into your 1TB
then work on your SSD :)

you can create sym links or alias links and put those in place of the music folders and such

so you take your data drive it has your music create a alias and drag that alias and call it the same as your music folder their now :)
so you want on your data drive
Music
Movies
Pictures
Documents

and have alias files to move over and replace the SSD ones :)

not sure if that makes sense their was a post on this :) that might be more clear I dont write to well sadly :)

its pretty straight forward though and the idea you do this on your SSD while booted up with your 1TB that comes with the machine makes it easier for the permission thing :)

[LuckyButtons]

Another question - when people are talking about moving everything but the
System and Apps off the boot drive, they are using the "Library" folder as part of that list - but there seem to be 3 different Library folders - 1 on the main HDD, 1 in the Home Folder, and one in the System Folder - none of them completely match each other in content.

What's what? :confused:

[Honumaui]

Another question - when people are talking about moving everything but the
System and Apps off the boot drive, they are using the "Library" folder as part of that list - but there seem to be 3 different Library folders - 1 on the main HDD, 1 in the Home Folder, and one in the System Folder - none of them completely match each other in content.

What's what? :confused:

they are moving the home folder :)

you know how your mac folder has a name ? and its under User when you look at your boot drive ? that whole folder some move off ?

you can do it that way also ? that library contains your mail folder ? me I like the snap that mail has on a SSD since I do a lot of emails its nice to gain the advantage of that SSD if you are throwing the money at it :) I say just move a few folders not that whole user folder ?

I could care less how fast my mac boots ? or really how long a ap launches in ? not a big deal but things daily like mail and ftp and a few other aps its nice to have that snapy speed feel :)

[xgman]

I love it............ $20 for a 10cent piece of plastic. It's doubly ironic given how people complain about the price of Apple products. :p

cheers
JohnG

I don't imagine there is a huge market for these and so no large volume and so a higher price. There is more to a product than the cost of the plastic.