Mac Pro Hard Drive? [Archive]

gallinger

Sep 7, 2006, 10:45 AM

slughead

Sep 7, 2006, 10:57 AM

Hey I am looking at buying a 320 gig hard drive to put in my mac pro. Im just wondering and I want to make sure that the one im looking at will work in it.
here it is.

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=196

Any SATA will do!

I'd recommend this one.. cheaper and it's seagate (seagate = better)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148140

Look around newegg.com's hard drive selection, divide the price by the amount of gigs and decide that way (lowest price/gig wins!)

Avoid Maxtor/Quantum and shy away from IBM/Hitachi

robbieduncan

Sep 7, 2006, 11:31 AM

I'd recommend this one.. cheaper and it's seagate (seagate = better)
I'm not so sure of that at this point in time. Comparative tests between the Seagate 7200.10 and the WD 3200KS (both 320Gb SATA drives) came down in favour of the WD (http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2803). OK I've just re-read that and the Seagate wins, but the WD is almost as fast, quieter and cooler so I'd still buy it.

To the OP: any 3.5" SATA drive will work just fine. A website did find strange behaviour with 4x750Gb ones though...

Danksi

Sep 7, 2006, 12:02 PM

....A website did find strange behaviour with 4x750Gb ones though...

Is that based on the 2Tb limit that I read somewhere recently?

DXoverDY

Sep 7, 2006, 12:06 PM

I'm not so sure of that at this point in time. Comparative tests between the Seagate 7200.10 and the WD 3200KS (both 320Gb SATA drives) came down in favour of the WD (http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2803). OK I've just re-read that and the Seagate wins, but the WD is almost as fast, quieter and cooler so I'd still buy it.

To the OP: any 3.5" SATA drive will work just fine. A website did find strange behaviour with 4x750Gb ones though...

I'd say Seagate is better with their 5 year warranty. 1 year versus 5 years... no contest... Seagate is now my brand of choice.

gallinger

Sep 7, 2006, 12:08 PM

Thanks for the help. When I get it, Do I have to format it or anything?
Its just i was reading somewhere on this forum and people were saying it it got messed up cause they never formated it?

thanks

DXoverDY

Sep 7, 2006, 12:29 PM

Thanks for the help. When I get it, Do I have to format it or anything?
Its just i was reading somewhere on this forum and people were saying it it got messed up cause they never formated it?

thanks

Disk Utility, format it HFS+ if it's going to be used only on a Mac.

Schroedinger

Sep 7, 2006, 01:05 PM

I put that exact drive in Bay two and it blew up my computer. Just kidding.

It works really well and it's really fast.

gallinger

Sep 7, 2006, 01:22 PM

which hard drive did u put in? the western digital or the seagate

aiongiant

Sep 7, 2006, 01:27 PM

i bought the Seagate 7200.10 320GB SATA2
in Bay 2 of my Mac Pro
super fast!!
79MB/sec Speed unlike the WD that coems with my Mac Pro.. i get a mere 59MB/sec

chatin

Sep 7, 2006, 02:10 PM

My Mac Pro shipped with a WD so I bought another one like you!

Get it here for $30 cheaper.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136003

mus0r

Sep 8, 2006, 01:50 PM

I don't trust Seagate; I've had so many of them fail it's not even funny. A five year warranty is nice, but it doesn't prevent failure and it certainly doesn't get your data back. I'd rather stick with Maxtor and WD because I've had better luck with them. I've only had one of each brand fail in the 12 years or so I've been using them, and far more failures with Seagate. But your milage may vary.

EvilMonk

Sep 8, 2006, 02:30 PM

mus0r

Sep 8, 2006, 02:39 PM

Hey mate, guess who buyed maxtor, yeah Seagate:D

Them bastids buyed Maxtor? I is teh sad :(

EvilMonk

Sep 8, 2006, 02:56 PM

Them bastids buyed Maxtor? I is teh sad :(
What?:eek:
I dont understand:confused:

TheFuzz

Sep 8, 2006, 02:57 PM

i bought the Seagate 7200.10 320GB SATA2
in Bay 2 of my Mac Pro
super fast!!

me too, and it's sooooo quiet compared to the wd that shipped with my mac pro.

mus0r

Sep 8, 2006, 03:02 PM

What?:eek:
I dont understand:confused:

I was poking fun at you for using "buyed" rather than bought. "Buyed" is not a word. ;)

EvilMonk

Sep 8, 2006, 03:03 PM

I was poking fun at you for using "buyed" rather than bought. "Buyed" is not a word. ;)
Sorry french canadian inside, bought then;)

~Shard~

Sep 8, 2006, 03:06 PM

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/9475/grammartimeea8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Hey mate, guess who buyed maxtor, yeah Seagate :D

Kay, it's "bought", not "buyed" - yikes... But don't worry, that is nowhere near as bad as:

Them bastids buyed Maxtor? I is teh sad :(

How about: "Those bastards bought Maxtor? This makes me sad."

Even though it was in jest, thanks for giving me a chance to take on my Grammar Police role again guys, it's been a while. :D :cool:

thelowB

Sep 8, 2006, 03:29 PM

I love how these threads can turn into something completely different in about three entries.

~Shard~ read all the replies before dropping "The Grammer":D

To stay on topic, I find it interesting that most people seemed to get a WD when my Mac Pro came with a Seagate.

MacCurry

Sep 8, 2006, 03:46 PM

I've not tried the 320GB Seagate in the Mac Pro, but in my peecee its so hot you could cook an egg on it and can't touch it without 2nd degree burns, and that after it has good cooling and airflow. In my Mac Pro I put a 500GB Maxtor SATA-3 and its surprisingly cool. I do notice that it makes noises once in a while like its spinning when I'm not accessing it. Is it indexing or something?

~Shard~

Sep 8, 2006, 03:49 PM

~Shard~ read all the replies before dropping "The Grammer":D

I did, hence my last statement to clarify things. Evidently it wasn't clear enough that I did indeed realize the comments were made in jest (even though that's exactly what I said)... ;)

suneohair

Sep 8, 2006, 04:17 PM

I have never had a problem with Western Digital and actually prefer their drives.

I have never had one of those fail on me. Whereas Seagate, one could argue that they need the 5yr warranty otherwise there would be a lot of pissed off customers. I wont go there though.

Anyhow, I would recommened that everyone buy OEM drives. The OEM Western Digital drives have a 5yr warranty like this one here
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144408

The only difference between OEM is and retail is that with OEM you just get the drives, nothing else. I prefer this as I like to keep boxes around. This cuts down on that. Plus, since the Mac Pro is cableless you dont need the junk it comes with anyway.

Western Digitals replacement process is great as well. They send you a new drives you send the old one back in a prepaid box. Couldnt be better, and it is fast.

So, OEM is the way to go folks you get a longer warranty and less clutter!

EDIT: I made a mistake, that drive I linked is an enterprise class drive. Thus the 5yr warranty. Typical WD OEM drives have a 3yr. Like this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136003

briantology

Sep 8, 2006, 04:43 PM

Okay, this is one of those really weird coincidental things. It literally just happened. As I was visiting newegg.com and when I looked at the Seagate Barracuda hard drive, It reminded me of the song "Barracuda" by Heart, so I sang out "Barracuda!" and then literally less than a second later, the sang came on while on shuffle in iTunes. Maybe I should get a 320GB Barracuda HDD...

Schroedinger

Sep 8, 2006, 07:54 PM

Sorry I wasn't clear before, I put the WD 320 Gig in Bay 2 on my mac pro. It works just fine. Beyond that I couldn't say anything. I think I bought it b/c it was on sale and it was a really good price.

damado

Sep 8, 2006, 08:25 PM

I have the seagate 7200.9 that it came with and 2 320 WDs from newegg. They all work great and are silent. I also put in a 74 gig WD raptor drive to get some files off it and it's LOUD when it's seeking or whatever. Sounds like I'm getting shot at =P

cuestakid

Sep 20, 2006, 10:19 PM

on the apple site ,according to their do it yourself replacement manual, a SATA 3 Gb/s drive is required-doesnt the drive have to have that as well

here is the link
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/MacPro_HardDrive_DIY.pdf

daveporter

Sep 21, 2006, 11:15 AM

Does anyone know if the 1.5 GB/S jumper should be removed for use in a Mac Pro? Does the SATA controller support "autonegotation"?

Thanks,

Dave

Macinposh

Sep 21, 2006, 02:01 PM

Does anyone know if the 1.5 GB/S jumper should be removed for use in a Mac Pro? Does the SATA controller support "autonegotation"?

Thanks,

Dave

I run "tests" with xBench with and without the jumpers, and the results were the practically the same.

So apparently yes,the sata supports autonegation...

patrick0brien

Sep 21, 2006, 02:42 PM

...shy away from IBM/Hitachi

-slughead

Why? Hitachi is winning the accolades now.

And hasn't been IBM for 4 years (thinking of the 'DeathStar' incident?)

Yes, I work for them. But before you think 'bias', please try to look at it the other way around: there's a reason why I work for them (hint).

Mundy

Sep 21, 2006, 04:59 PM

-slughead

Why? Hitachi is winning the accolades now.

And hasn't been IBM for 4 years (thinking of the 'DeathStar' incident?)

Yes, I work for them. But before you think 'bias', please try to look at it the other way around: there's a reason why I work for them (hint).

Perhaps the drives have improved since Hitachi acquired IBM's storage business, but I've had very bad luck with IBM/Hitachi drives. And I don't normally have bad luck with hard drives. When it comes to Western Digital, Maxtor, or Seagate, I woud buy (and have bought) all of them. No problems, no complaints over the course of almost two decades. On the other hand, in the past five years I've owned two IBM drives and one Hitachi. They're all dead today.

I normally don't think there is much difference between the products of the major hard drive manufacturers. But my experience with IBM/Hitachi has left a bad taste in my mouth.

My Mac Pro will most likely be outfitted with Western Digital RE2-series drives.

patrick0brien

Sep 21, 2006, 05:14 PM

I've owned two IBM drives and one Hitachi. They're all dead today.

-Mundy

Wow. I'm sorry to hear that. Mind if I ask the specs - seriously. I'll run it up the flag pole to the guys.

As for us, we use our own drives - "eat our own dogfood" as it were, in our machines given the choice - many use them at home (would it surprise you to learn we don't get an employee discount?). I myself run 8 Hitachi drives on verious personal machines. And our failure rate is quite nice - and they're relatively cool. BTW- the last few mainstay iPods have been with our drives - including the 80.

But you are correct on the IBM drives, if you have them, you might want to phase them out. There are reasons we aren't called "IBM" anymore.

BTW myself and some coworkers are looking at acquiring Mac Pro's this spring. And we'll be supplying the HD's then.