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Installing SSD in Mac Pro

P

Pantomimehorse

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 5, 2012
22
0
London
Hi

I've just won a Mac Pro on ebay, i want to install a SSD drive to replace the stock drive once it arrives. Im wondering if the mac is a SATA 1 or 2? I know if its were a 1 there would be issues using a SATA 3 SSD drive but find with a SATA 2 right?


the model number is A1186
 
S

strwrsfrk

macrumors regular
Mar 1, 2011
245
15
Arlington, VA, USA
You have a Mac Pro 3,1. It uses SATA 2.

Most OWC drives I've installed in models such as these reach about 180MB/s, or 350MB/s in RAID 0 (those numbers are approximate). Most HDDs I've installed see about 35 - 60MB/s. For that reason, an SSD is definitely worth it.

If you're going with new SSDs and price is not too much of an issue, I'd recommend these: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Mercury_Electra_6G/. That way, if you ever upgrade to a machine with SATA 3, these will show their full potential. These drives supposedly have better RAID support: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Mercury_Extreme_Pro_6G/, but I've used the Electra drives before with no problems.

Do not forget an adapter: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/ADPTADRV/ This adapter will allow any 2.5" ssd (OWC or any other brand) to function seamlessly with the drive sleds in your Pro.

Good luck!
 
derbothaus

derbothaus

macrumors 601
Jul 17, 2010
4,093
30
strwrsfrk said:
You have a Mac Pro 3,1. It uses SATA 2.

Most OWC drives I've installed in models such as these reach about 180MB/s, or 350MB/s in RAID 0 (those numbers are approximate). Most HDDs I've installed see about 35 - 60MB/s. For that reason, an SSD is definitely worth it.

If you're going with new SSDs and price is not too much of an issue, I'd recommend these: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Mercury_Electra_6G/. That way, if you ever upgrade to a machine with SATA 3, these will show their full potential. These drives supposedly have better RAID support: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Mercury_Extreme_Pro_6G/, but I've used the Electra drives before with no problems.

Do not forget an adapter: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/ADPTADRV/ This adapter will allow any 2.5" ssd (OWC or any other brand) to function seamlessly with the drive sleds in your Pro.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Does the 3,1 use some sub standard SATAII interface? I easily get up to 135-150MB/s with HDD (depending on manufacturer) and 250MB/s SSD r/w on SATAII no RAID0. Just wondering. I have a 3,1 at work with a new Caviar Black 1TB and it get's over 95MB/s. Your numbers seem super puny.
 
S

strwrsfrk

macrumors regular
Mar 1, 2011
245
15
Arlington, VA, USA
derbothaus said:
Does the 3,1 use some sub standard SATAII interface? I easily get up to 135-150MB/s with HDD (depending on manufacturer) and 250MB/s SSD r/w on SATAII no RAID0. Just wondering. I have a 3,1 at work with a new Caviar Black 1TB and it get's over 95MB/s. Your numbers seem super puny.
Click to expand...

I'm not that sure, to be honest. The benchmarks on the HDDs I've run are on original Apple 5400 RPM drives from 2008. So newer HDDs with better interfaces might be better.

Then again, I'm not getting anywhere near 250MB/s on the SSDs, and I'm using 6GB controllers on the OWC cards. Could be some settings somewhere. But since I've mostly just thrown the drives in to resell the Macs, I haven't really done much troubleshooting.

If I get another 3,1 and have some spare HDDs, maybe I'll run some tests.

But basically, the point stands: go SSD if you can afford it!
 
derbothaus

derbothaus

macrumors 601
Jul 17, 2010
4,093
30
strwrsfrk said:
But basically, the point stands: go SSD if you can afford it!
Click to expand...

Most definitely. Full bandwidth isn't even that important vs. the response times and 4K benefits SSD gets you. I was just curious on your numbers. 5400RPM makes more sense for me now. I always use 7200-10,000RPM for boot stuff. You may want to try plugging the SSD into a native SATAII link and test vs that 6G card. It may get better results. Elektra's are generally slower than the Mercury 6G I have but they should at least saturate SATAII at 260-280MB/s.
 
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