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Tony007

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 9, 2012
3
0
Hi there,
I would like to buy a new HDD and SSD for my Mac Pro 2009, I think about
Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB (WD5000AZRX)
and SSD
Intel SSD 330 120GB
Will these drives work fine with Mac Pro 2009?
 

Loa

macrumors 68000
May 5, 2003
1,725
75
Québec
Hello,

All sata HD/SSD will work on your Mac Pro. The 2 brands you listed are good, but then again if you stick to recent SSDs and big names for your HD, you won't have any problem with any brand. Look for deals on WD and Seagate for your HD, and deals for OCZ, Samsung and Intel for your SSD.

Loa
 

BlueBubba

macrumors member
Jan 5, 2012
59
4
AFAIK, and someone feel free to correct me, older Macs may have problems with SSD's that use SandForce which I believe the 330 does. Most Mac users recommend the Samsung 830, I myself am currently waiting for the new 840 pro to be stocked, supposedly the fastest SSD ever.
 

Tony007

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 9, 2012
3
0
Thanks for the answers.
Can anyone confirm that Samsung 830 works with Mac Pro 2009?
 

= bluntman =

macrumors regular
Sep 15, 2009
165
0
Toronto, Ontario
I have a 4,1 MacPro with a Sandisk Extreme 480GB installed as the boot drive and I don't have any problems. Of course, this drive won't run at SATA III since speeds since the MP only has a SATA II connector, but it still boots and launches programs quite a bit faster than it did with an HDD. I also have a couple of first generation WD Green 1.5TB drives in a software RAID installed in the same machine, again, no problems.
 

hfg

macrumors 68040
Dec 1, 2006
3,621
312
Cedar Rapids, IA. USA
I have an older 2008 3,1 Mac Pro and am using OWC drives (Sandforce) without any problems. To overcome the SATA-II bus speed limitations, I am using a pair of OWC 240 GB SSDs in RAID-0 for OS X and apps, and a pair of 1TB hard disks also in RAID-0 for data libraries (photo, music, video, etc). I use a separate OWC SSD for bootable Windows.


-howard
 

tamvly

macrumors 6502a
Nov 11, 2007
571
18
Huh? Most Mac users recommend the Samsung 830?

Probably not - just one alternative of many good alternatives. I am using three different Intel SSDs and they are all terrific and completely reliable.
 

Loa

macrumors 68000
May 5, 2003
1,725
75
Québec
older Macs

As sad as it may sound, the 2009 Mac Pro is only one firmware update away from current. The hardware itself is current, not "older".

Most Mac users recommend the Samsung 830

Replace "most" by "some". As I said, current SSDs are all pretty good these days.

the new 840 pro to be stocked, supposedly the fastest SSD ever.

Nope, there already are faster drives, especially if you want to use PCIe SSDs.

Loa
 

Lord Blackadder

macrumors P6
May 7, 2004
15,669
5,500
Sod off
Most Mac users recommend the Samsung 830

Replace "most" by "some". As I said, current SSDs are all pretty good these days.

I just bought a 128GB Samsung 830 from Microcenter - they are running a sale to get rid of their stock of 830 Series drives before bringing in the 840 Series drives. As a result, the 128GB 830 was a great bargain at $70. It's not the fastest drive out there, but it is still very fast and is a bargain at the moment.
 

adam9c1

macrumors 68000
May 2, 2012
1,881
311
Chicagoland
In my early 2008 Mac book I had Sandusky SSD, now sand force v2.
My early 2008 Mac pro has a Samsung OEM hd. Don't I ow what chipset.
 

Tony007

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 9, 2012
3
0
Just one question. Western Digital Caviar Green has some energy saving features like IntelliPower, IntelliSeek and IntelliPark. Does it work well with the Mac Pro?
 

d-m-a-x

macrumors 6502a
Aug 13, 2011
510
0
I have the crucial m4 128gb. The price is good, but i had a problem 3 months in. Apparently, you cant sleep the computer or put the drive to sleep - cutting power kills the drive. You guys know if it is just the crucial, or are other ssd's like this too?
 

derbothaus

macrumors 601
Jul 17, 2010
4,093
30
Just one question. Western Digital Caviar Green has some energy saving features like IntelliPower, IntelliSeek and IntelliPark. Does it work well with the Mac Pro?

All HDD's and SSD's work well with any Mac computer. Reformat and use.
 

Phrygian

macrumors regular
Nov 26, 2011
196
0
mac pro 3.1 early 2008 here.

I put in a crucial m4 256 and installed trim enabler. Has worked flawlessly so far (though i have sata 2, so i can't get those truly maxed out speeds).

If you get a sandforce based ssd, don't install trimm enabler.

I have the crucial m4 128gb. The price is good, but i had a problem 3 months in. Apparently, you cant sleep the computer or put the drive to sleep - cutting power kills the drive. You guys know if it is just the crucial, or are other ssd's like this too?

this happened to me only twice. Hasn't happened since the first week i have owned it. You can disable drive sleep if you want though, but its not very good if you have a HDD as well. Sadly i know of no way to set one sled to go to sleep, and the other sled not to.
 

ActionableMango

macrumors G3
Sep 21, 2010
9,612
6,907
Just one question. Western Digital Caviar Green has some energy saving features like IntelliPower, IntelliSeek and IntelliPark. Does it work well with the Mac Pro?

Don't use them in a RAID. I've had nothing but problems using the Greens in that scenario.
 

Canubis

macrumors 6502
Oct 22, 2008
425
524
Vienna, Austria
Don't use them in a RAID. I've had nothing but problems using the Greens in that scenario.

Could you go a bit more in detail about this, please? I am using one of them for backup in my Mac Pro, but also I am using several of them inside 3 WD MyBook Studio (which are used as RAIDs per definition). They are factory built-in there and also it's a hardware RAID system from WD. However, I planned to add 1-2 more of them to my Mac Pro for backup reasons and then use the OS X software RAID to be on the secure side. Not a good idea?
 

eawmp1

macrumors 601
Feb 19, 2008
4,158
91
FL
I have a 2009 Mac Pro.

I have an 830 boot drive, and a mixture of Caviar Blacks and a Green. All work well together. As far as energy savings, you have a Mac Pro. Hoping for significant energy savings by changing brand of spinning HD is like trying to make a tank aerodynamic to save on fuel.



Duh...just posted to a 6 week old thread.
 

nigelbb

macrumors 65816
Dec 22, 2012
1,141
265
mac pro 3.1 early 2008 here.

I put in a crucial m4 256 and installed trim enabler. Has worked flawlessly so far (though i have sata 2, so i can't get those truly maxed out speeds).
I have the same except I don't use TRIM enabler as my understanding is the Crucial drives have active garbage collection already. This drive maxes out the SATA-II interface at about 250MB/sec read & write. There is really no way of achieving higher throughput than this except by installing a SAS card & using an external RAID array.
 

Phrygian

macrumors regular
Nov 26, 2011
196
0
I have the same except I don't use TRIM enabler as my understanding is the Crucial drives have active garbage collection already. This drive maxes out the SATA-II interface at about 250MB/sec read & write. There is really no way of achieving higher throughput than this except by installing a SAS card & using an external RAID array.

From what i read, in was Sandforce architecture SSDs that did the garbage clean up. I didn't read anything about the crucial m4 doing the same.
 

derbothaus

macrumors 601
Jul 17, 2010
4,093
30
They have GC but it still likes some TRIM. Crucial has the least effective GC I have seen in practice. But the price makes up for it.
 

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
ALL SSDs do garbage collection, TRIM is just a part of that (tells the controller what LBAs are no longer in use so the controller can send those blocks for GC). Some rely heavily on idle GC (such as Crucial and Samsung) whereas others like to do it in real-time (like Intel and SandForce).
 

nigelbb

macrumors 65816
Dec 22, 2012
1,141
265
So is the consensus that it is worthwhile enabling for TRIM the Crucial m4? I also have an older Crucial C300 SSD in my MBP that I have never TRIM enabled.
 
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