Is there any space limit for the 2008 mac pro, in terms of hard drive space. I might get 3, 2TB internal Hard drives. Are the SATA ports inside the mac pro limited to a certain amount?
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8TB of internal Hard drive space
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SilentPanda
Moderator emeritus
Not that I know of. The limit is mostly set by whatever the max hard drive size available was when the product launched.
just to check before I buy these drives, its SATA 3.0Gb/s not the slower speed right?
Spanky Deluxe
macrumors 603
Yes, its 3.0GB/s but its backwards compatible with the slower speeds. You can put 4 2TB drives into the four drive bays and if you want, you can also fit another one in the space for a second optical drive and if you're feeling really sadistic, you can remove the optical drive and put another one in for a total of 12TB. 😱
maybe I should just cut a hole in the side, and get an adapter and put 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 TB of hard drive space in.
There is no set tb limit. I used maxupgrades parts to put in 2 extra drives instead of a 2nd optical drive in my early 2008 mac pro. It was pretty easy to run wires from the 2 free sata ports up to the optical drive space.
Tesselator
macrumors 601
Hehehe, A man after my own heart! https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/707152/
BTW, There is a limit actually but it's huge and I dunno what it is. We're definitely safe for a few years yet. 😉
You know we are "this" close to asking you what you are doing with so much space... lolz
sparkie7
macrumors 68030
I was going to answer with a four letter word starting with P, and ending with N, but I don't feel like getting banned. And Im not a lier.
I plan on using 1 drive as a scratch disk, 1 for imported clips, and 1 for finished projects. I edit in HD and I film ALOT so i need the space.
A single SATA port can handle up to 15 drives with Port Multiplier chips, if that helps. 😉
So for a system using 6 SATA ports, you can get up to 90 drives on it. 😱 Using 2TB disks, you get a max of 180TB. 😀 Until even larger drives show up. 😉
Would that be enough capacity to tide you over for a few days? 😛
Tesselator
macrumors 601
In another thread you mentioned sleds with multiplayer chips. Do you have a link. Also I thought all that was needed were Y-Cables... It needs circuitry too?
It's the Pro Drive, which is just a Port Multiplier chip added to a sled that holds 2 * 2.5" drives. 🙂 But you can use PM enclosures that can operate up to 15 drives. Most I've come across however, operate 5 drives on a single port, and you can find enclosures that operate a pair (10 drives total).
You can use Y cables for power, but not data. 🙁
um that doesn't seem like enough. I need you 1800000000000000000000000000000000000000x10^100000000000 TB of data or Im not going to be happy! Im trying to download every song, sound, video, thought, idea, picture, and program ever made and ever will be made.
Tesselator
macrumors 601
Thanks man! Yeah I was under the impression that MP SATA was already PM'ed. 😛 Guess not. But what's the deal with the Max Capacity? It says:
Max Capacity 1TB (2 x 500GB)
That's for real or just the current state of HDDs at the time of writing? Oh, wait... 2.5"?? Notebook drives? Oh my! 😕 Dang I was hoping they were just hanging an extra desktop HDD off of the sled. Ah, oh-well. 😛
No problem. 🙂
As the PM chips (one per sled) would add cost to the board, I tend to think of a little bird... Cheap. Cheap. 😀 😛
As I understand it, the 2.5" models where due to space constraints. Not quite enough clearance for a pair of 3.5" drives. 🙁
Tesselator
macrumors 601
Agreed.
There is tho. For bays 2, 3, and 4 you can have multiple drives. As you hang more than just the intended single drive you start covering up PCIe slots but you only need a disclaimer notice to alert potential buyers to remedy that.
I guess they wanted a part that could operate in all 4 sleds, and may not have wanted to cause the loss of slot 4. Dunno for sure, but oh well.
Perhaps an industrious person will figure out a way to do it. 😉 Hint. Hint. 😀
Tesselator
macrumors 601
😀
I can do it for me. Not sure I'd want to create a product or not tho. I dunno how much demand there would be for it. I imagine not a whole lot. 😉
I wasn't thinking of a product for commercial production. Not as much fun that way. 😛 Just a good "How To" for those here on MR. 😀
Tesselator
macrumors 601
For sure! It'll be a month or more till I do it but I'll definitely photo-document the process!
😎 It could certainly help a few members, and possibly those interested in an internal RAID setup (clearance for power+data cables?). 😀
Tesselator
macrumors 601
It looks like there is if elbow connectors are used or if I use my own mountable connector caps - like Apple itself is using on that backplane brace bar thingy. 😀
I'll know more when I get into it.