Blu-Ray in Mac Pro 2008

[Spacedust]

I would like to replace one of my old Superdrives (Sony Nec Optiarc AD-7170A) with Blu-Ray combo drive.

The problem is all of them got SATA ports.

What is better option ? Connect the drive to the ODD port on the motherboard or use a SATA to IDE converter ?

Will it slow down the drive (burning DVD/CD's, reading BD/DVD/CD etc) ?

 

[flatfoot]

Use one of the ODD ports. No additional investment necessary.
The only downside is that an optical drive connected to one of these ports is not bootable. But you'll still have your other IDE drive in case you need to boot from a DVD.

 

[nanofrog]

Use one of the ODD ports. No additional investment necessary.
The only downside is that an optical drive connected to one of these ports is not bootable. But you'll still have your other IDE drive in case you need to boot from a DVD.

Yep.

But if, the OP wants to be able to boot/install Windows or Linux media, then there is a solution; SATA to IDE adapter & necessary power cable for the adapter.

 

[Roman23]

No

He should make use of the odd ports and use ahci drivers for windows 7 and or linux. Thats what I did and it works perfectly, though the odd ports are not bootable into non mac related systems.

Yep.

But if, the OP wants to be able to boot/install Windows or Linux media, then there is a solution; SATA to IDE adapter & necessary power cable for the adapter.

 

[Spacedust]

I will install SATA to IDE adapter I've bought used Pioneer BDC-202BK.

It will be a nice pair with my current Pioneer DVD-111L (flashed from DVR-111D).

 

[Roman23]

2009 mac pro

This was one of the main CRITICAL factors which forced me to goto a 2009 mac pro. For the money I spent at OWC for an external optical drive booting using USB, it was not worth it and therefore decided to move to the 2009. There isn't anything wrong with the 2008 harpertown I have, just that it has SEVERE limitations not found on earlier mac pros.

The one benefit the 2008's do have -->EFI64 = Video cards for the future are guarenteed to work on the 08's if they work on the 09's.. and possibly 10's..

I will install SATA to IDE adapter I've bought used Pioneer BDC-202BK.

It will be a nice pair with my current Pioneer DVD-111L (flashed from DVR-111D).

 

[Spacedust]

This was one of the main CRITICAL factors which forced me to goto a 2009 mac pro. For the money I spent at OWC for an external optical drive booting using USB, it was not worth it and therefore decided to move to the 2009. There isn't anything wrong with the 2008 harpertown I have, just that it has SEVERE limitations not found on earlier mac pros.

The one benefit the 2008's do have -->EFI64 = Video cards for the future are guarenteed to work on the 08's if they work on the 09's.. and possibly 10's..

I've changed my Mac Pro 2006 mostly because of EFI32 and it's bad smell :/

 

[Roman23]

This is preceisly why...

I got rid of the 2008 mac pro.. Make no bones about it... its a great machine, but it has SEVERE limitations and Apple is to blame for crippling its firmware..I will outline the flaws currently:

1. SATA ODD_Ports - usable on the Mac side(anything mac or mac os x, diskwarrior etc).. BUT NOT USABLE on windows - MAJOR reason for my switch.
2. VT-X - This was supposed to be fixed in Mac Pro(Early 2008) firmware 1.3 but failed to do that.. I phoned Apple a while ago and they duplicated the problem with the vt-x being disabled on the 2008. They promised a firmware update called 1.3.1 - NEVER CAME ABOUT.
3. IDE - While on the mac side you can use the odd_ports for hooking up two sata drives, you are still LIMITED to booting off them while under Mac OS X or Mac EFI boot screen, otherwise to make use of the odd ports under windows, you MUST install the AHCI drivers, but don't expect windows to finally boot from them once those are installed. While Windows recognized the odd ports finally, still booting from them is not fixed.

THE ONLY GREAT feature that the 2008 has and why it is surviving much longer than anticipated is EFI64 which you don't have on the mac pro EFI32 only system.. but you do have the ability to boot from the ODD ports into any OS you wish - Apple didn't mess up the firmware on 2006-2007 machines, but you are stuck FOREVER with EFI32 and only one graphics card from Apple will work: ATI Radeon 4870 HD.

The 2009 mac pro so far from what I have been told has no major limitations.. except it boots the windows installer in legacy mode.. AHCI is needed here.

I've changed my Mac Pro 2006 mostly because of EFI32 and it's bad smell :/