2008 Mac pro octo 2.8

[50wyldeman]

I have a 2008 Mac pro 3,1 It's a dual 2.8 machine, I have upgraded slightly.

as she is now
Dual quad core 2.8
12 gig ram4 ea 1gig from apple, 4 ea 2 gig owc
Ati 4870 512 meg gpu.
OS is 10.5.8

Mainly used for Photoshop and Dreamweaver,some video editing and dvd authoring .

My questions for you all are as follows:

I was curious as to how to get the most performance wise out of the system, I am about to do a re-install of the os and am planning on finally installing snow Leopard.

Would it make sense to go with an ssd from owc for the os/application drive? (I am thinking of their 114 gig drive) coupled with a small(40 gig) ssd for the dedicated scratch disk. I would then install a 1tb partitioned into to 500 gig partitions for my data and a clone of some sort as a backup.

Is there going to be a noticeable improvement if I was to go to 16 of ram?
Would upgrading the video card to a 5770 or 5870 be worthwhile?

Currently my main frustration is load times and performance in the adobe suite.

I like the new iMacs but HATE the bs with the hd power supply.
And I don't really think it would be any faster than what im using now, I'm sure there are os and ps tweaks I have yet to learn that are leaving a bit of my performance on the table......


Thanks for taking the time to read my post.

 

[gotzero]

The SSD makes a big difference for me. I had a Corsair P128 in a 2008 machine with striped data drives and it screamed. Give it a shot.

 

[tamvly]

My requirements are a bit different than yours. I have the same basic system as yours with:

80GB Intel SSD for boot
320GB 7200rpm disk for user data (the original boot disk)
500GB 7200rpm disk for Time Machine
500GB 7200rpm disk for Bootcamp (Win7)

The SSD drive has more than enough space for OS + apps.

Your configuration seems thoughtfully laid out.

 

[gpzjock]

I run an Octo 2.8 MP with 16 GB RAM, Sapphire 5870 1 GB GFXcard (flashed),
OWC 128 GB SSD (Snow Leopard boot and apps only) and 1.4 TB of HDD storage.
It boots in about 15 seconds and runs Geekbench scores around 11000.
I'm very happy with it.

 

[bearcatrp]

I had the same setup with 24gb ram. Sold it not long ago. The ssd route would be your next step to boost performance unless you want to bump up your processors to 3.2ghz. Doable but unless you get a sweet heart deal on a pair, not cost effective to do. Better to save up some cash, sell yours, and grab a refurb.

 

[nanofrog]

I had the same setup with 24gb ram. Sold it not long ago. The ssd route would be your next step to boost performance unless you want to bump up your processors to 3.2ghz. Doable but unless you get a sweet heart deal on a pair, not cost effective to do. Better to save up some cash, sell yours, and grab a refurb.

It's far more likely that an upgrade on storage to improve the disk I/O will be of more benefit than upgrading the processors though, as that tends to be a system's biggest bottleneck (plenty of CPU power and memory, but the software chokes on a single mechanical disk in terms of moving data, as it's the slowest link in the chain).

 

[50wyldeman]

Thank you all for your replies, I believe I will be trying the dual SSD setup, one thing I didn't mention earlier , is that I run 32 bit currently. I would FINALLY make the move to snow leopard and it's 64 bit goodness. I would hope that will bring I/O performance up a bit?? I use the CS5 suite which supposedly takes advantage of all available ram when ran in 64 bit mode. I still have a mind full of questions , but the only real question I have for you all here is, does it make sense to buy a 40 gig ssd just to use as a scratch disk or is that wasteful would a partition on the Data disk suffice??

Sorry for the wordy post
Thanks again

 

[nanofrog]

I would hope that will bring I/O performance up a bit??

It's main benefit is that you have the potential access more memory than you could with 32bit applications. For floating point calculations, you can achive additional precision.

...does it make sense to buy a 40 gig ssd just to use as a scratch disk or is that wasteful would a partition on the Data disk suffice??

Yes, the SSD for scratch will improve your performance.

Sharing the scratch space on the data disk (via separate partitions) still uses the same disk for two different purposes simultaneously, which tends to actually slow you down a tad (heads have to move around even more). Now between using a separate mechanical and SSD disk for scratch, the SSD is faster (more than 2x faster for sequential access than mechanical). And as you don't actually need that much, you can get it for the magic $100 mark. So it's not the sting it was not that long ago.

 

[50wyldeman]

SO it looks like I will go with the ssd or dual ssd setup. The sales dude @ OWC recommends the icy dock, anyone have any experience with these? Thanks for your input Nanofrog, and to those that took the time to reply

 

[iBookG4user]

SO it looks like I will go with the ssd or dual ssd setup. The sales dude @ OWC recommends the icy dock, anyone have any experience with these? Thanks for your input Nanofrog, and to those that took the time to reply

I'm using three Icy Docks for the three SSD's that I have in my Mac Pro and it works fine

 

[nanofrog]

SO it looks like I will go with the ssd or dual ssd setup. The sales dude @ OWC recommends the icy dock, anyone have any experience with these? Thanks for your input Nanofrog, and to those that took the time to reply

There's mixed information on the Icy Docks, as some have reported problems (metal versions), while others haven't had issues at all (plastic).

I don't know if they've managed to sort out the production issues that led to the problems with the metal versions or not (i.e. dirty boards <still covered in flux residue = not cleaned> and bad solder joints).

I'm using three Icy Docks for the three SSD's that I have in my Mac Pro and it works fine

Are your Icy Docks metal or plastic?

 

[iBookG4user]

Are your Icy Docks metal or plastic?

They're the plastic ones.

 

[50wyldeman]

Well barring any bad luck the drives should arrive tomorrow, I ended up getting a 115 gig for boot and a 40 gig for scratch. This probably isn't the place to ask this, but I will and hope not to get to chastised . My boot drive will have OS. web design cs 5.5 and not much else, I am worried about two things, 1 How do I move my iTunes data from the drive it is currently on to the "data" drive I will be creating and I want to keep only the absolute bare necessities on my boot drive , should I move my downloads folder and other user specific items to the data drive or will the os freak out?
I'm psyched to see how this all goes , thanks for reading the post , I'm off to search the os and itunes specific areas!

 

[spiritlevel]

1. Simply copy your iTunes folder to the Data drive. Then go to iTunes prefs > Advanced where it allows you to select the media folder location (new path will look something like /Volumes/DataDrive/iTunes/iTunes Music. Then next time you start iTunes, do so holding the option key which will allow you to choose the iTunes library you want to use - choose the one you copied to the data drive. Now both your library and media will be on the data disk and you can remove the itunes folder from user/documents/music.

2. I just created a new folder on my data drive called downloads. Then in the prefs of apps which download like safari etc, I select that folder as my downloads folder. In other words, I still have the downloads folder in my home folder but it is not used. I don't know if there is a way of actually moving this user download folder to a data disk (as opposed to just using a different folder with the same name) but like you I was concerned about the system not liking it.

 

[bearcatrp]

Makes sure you have at least 20% or more space free on the OS drive to allow for the virtual disk or you will have issues. You can change it to another disk if your comfortable with terminal.

 

[50wyldeman]

Gotta love OWC ordered the Drives and adapters on wed, overnight shipping from Illinois to Cali for 13.00!!!! and they were in my hot little hands @ 14:45 on thursday!! Looks like tonight I will be doing the SL install on the 115, any suggestions to that end are welcome. I am very grateful to all who took the time to read my numerous posts here and advise me , I am confident this was a good purchase and look forward to a boost in performance.

I plan to only load the os,Adobe web design premium cs5.5, indesign 5.5,and toast on the 115 , furthermore i will delete the non essentials like garage band, and store all possible data on a 500 gig seagate 7200rpm drive(barracuda) So the way the system shakes out NOW is

115 gig ssd - Boot/Os/Apps
40 gig ssd - scratch for Photoshop
500 gig seagate 7200rpm - main data drive
1tb seagate 7200rpm - backup

Dual 2.8 quad core - Early '08
12 gig ram
512 meg radeon 4870
Snow Leopard


Again ~ thanks for taking the time to read and reply.

 

[50wyldeman]

Okay So I finally got the Adobe software I was waiting on, and did the complete re-install 2 nights ago I will say the system definitely seems snappier, photoshop opens the fastest it ever has, filter performance seems to be up 5-15 percent I will run the test and see if it is just wishful thinking or "Reality".

Of note I have a few pics I took during the process I will try and post them up if anyone wants just the drive sleds I used. They were Newer Tech metal ones, was a little nervous there was a small gap where the sled connected to the drive itself but all seems to be well.

As she sits now:
2008 octo dual 2.8
12 gigs ram (4x1 apple) (4x2 OWC)
Ati Radeon 4870 (512 meg)
115 OWC SSD boot Drive (OSX 10.6.7)
40 OWC SSD scratch for PS
Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm for data/ backup.

I am still considering off loading my user "home" directory etc to my data/backup drive but will see how long this install seems to keep chuggin along.

To all that took time to read my posts and reply thank you, I appreciate that I can look here to reassure myself that my thought processes aren't too off the mark.

Anyone have a suggestion for a monitor?