Adding a Mac Pro (2009) Second Optical Drive

[Shazaam!]

After reading about ATAPI interface standards I'm still confused about what the optical drive interface that is being used in the new Mac pro. I'd like to add a second drive but the Apple drive that came with the Mac Pro is so loud that I'd like to use a different manufacturer's unit.

Can someone (who has done it) please specify what unit will fit up to Apple's connector. Thank you

 

[iphong]

Any SATA drive will fit the Mac Pro.

 

[Shazaam!]

Have you looked at the connector? Doesn't look like SATA to me.

 

[kingkezz]

It's SATA.

 

[Tesselator]

Have you looked at the connector? Doesn't look like SATA to me.

This is the optical drive that comes with the 2008 2.8 Mac Pro - according to this: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/698503/
I believe the one in my 2006 Mac Pro is the same as this. And the cable is a flat ribbon cable with two of those connectors.

 

[Dark Dragoon]

the Apple drive that came with the Mac Pro is so loud that I'd like to use a different manufacturer's unit.

You will need to remove the bezel from any optical drive you buy, this will cause the drive to be a lot louder.
It is certainly the case with the Lite-On, Samsung and NEC drives I've had in my Mac Pro.

 

[hermanthekid]

The optical drive that comes in the 2009 version of the Mac Pro is a SATA drive. From what I have read, Pioneer is usually the OEM of Apple's SuperDrives, but any brand SATA optical drive should work just fine.

Earlier versions or the Mac Pro used PATA optical drives (like the one pictured above) that are connected with an IDE connector (flat ribbon cable).

 

[pkoch1]

I put in the LG Bu-Ray/HD-DVD drive (which is SATA) with no problems.

 

[Inconsequential]

Its 100% SATA in the 2009 MP.

 

[ncc1701d]

Sorry to hijack, but just wondering instead of replacing with another optical, can you easily add another hard drive?

My plan is to Raid 0 the 4 drives that come with the Mac Pro and add a 5th for Bootcamp running off the sata that would normally be for the 2nd superdrive.

If you can, will there be any performance issues if running games etc? and will it be just as easy to boot up as going to system pref, start up disc, selecting windows hard drive and restart?

 

[Shazaam!]

Thanks all.

What confused me is that Apple joins the separate data and power connectors together (for convenience) making it look like a single connector at a glance.

I finally decided on this optical drive that claims noise management firmware.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Samsung/SHS222LBEBS/

I know that my Samsung hard drives are close to being silent so I'm hopeful.

 

[nigel1210]

So any internal sata dvd writer will be detected by leopard?

 

[datanode]

I had a pioneer bdr-202bk working on 2009 mac pro 10.5.6

I installed a Pioneer BDR-202BK Bluray Writer into a 2009 octo MacPro. The drive worked fine using Toast 9 and Mac OSX 10.5.6. The firmware was as I bought the drive 1.04 2007. The recent 10.5.7 update rendered the drive incompatible with the O/S. I removed the drive and updated the firmware using PC to firmware 1.08 July 2008.

On resinstallation of the drive, it now registers as a compatible CD-ROM, but was no longer listed in the system info as a CD/DVD Writer, along with the existing Superdrive. I have since removed it and am waiting for a properly supported blu-ray drive.

I am a motorsport photographer for Audi and various series, this is used for secondary backup, due to my picture library from each shoot being roughly 10gb - 40gb. I am now using my dreaded PC again to get use of a blu-ray drive. Is anyone aware of when we might see a properly supported superdrive with blu-ray compatibility?

I would warn anyone of the same, others have reported some of the external drives to work in 10.5.7, although you have no guarantee on any unsupported drive with future updates for the better or the worse!

The lacie external drive is the only one available from Apples store and it is overpriced as expected being the only drive Apple currently support.