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Hard Drive brands in New Mac Pros?
- Thread starter kirkbross
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Hrm, did you open the computer to see? It might have both IDE and SATA connections. I know that the logic board has 2 extra SATA connections for optical drives, for a total of 6.
Out of interest, I checked the drives on my old macpro..
The 250gb it came with is a Seagate Barracuda with a 8mb Cache, the two 500gb are barracuda's with 16mb caches, though..
The 250gb it came with is a Seagate Barracuda with a 8mb Cache, the two 500gb are barracuda's with 16mb caches, though..
Ordered my Mac Pro 8core 2.8 today, and I already ordered a 500GB Western Digital Caviar SE16 SATA-II 16MB Cache 7200rpm separately. Should I reformat the stock 320 and relegate it to some other duty and re-install leopard on the new drive? Will the performance be noticeable?
May be better as a WD, though not my favorite brand. I read in a MacWorld review that the Seagate drive slows down the system...
Quote from a Macworld Review after testing the 2.8...
What's the best brand of HDD to cram into the pro? The Seagate Barracuda 32mb 500gb 7200rpm drive has lots of performance and reliability issues. The Samsung spinpoint 16mb F1's 7200rpm's look like they fail frequently. 
Those were the two I've most frequently seen being used. I'm going with a Raid 0 setup, raptors are out of the question as well.
Those were the two I've most frequently seen being used. I'm going with a Raid 0 setup, raptors are out of the question as well.
heh, didn't know that. There's also a physical button inside the cover of the drive that can be pressed with a paper clip or the like.
my hard drive that came with mine is also a Western Digital... luckily it's the exact same model as the one that I had in an external enclosure... yay for RAID.
I thought that. The one here is a ST3320620AS. But then a 2008 MP
in the Apple shop had a ST3320820AS in it. So maybe if you're lucky
you get one of those (assuming they don't keep the good stuff for their
in-store setups)
.The Samsung spinpoint 16mb F1's 7200rpm's look like they fail frequently.
Where did you get this info? Lot's of reviews talks very good about the F1's...
Tell me more, please, because tomorrow I should be ordering 3 F1's 500Gb...
Thanks in advance,
WP
I think replacing the HDD's in Mac Pro's is sound advice... Apple seems to go pretty low end with them. I'm almost glad that they do to bring the Mac Pro price in at a reasonable level, but it is a tiny bit annoying.
When I bought my Mac Pro (the original version) I had the 250 and the 500. The 500 was Hitachi and failed before long, so I replaced it with a workstation class Seagate. The 250... well, I've had to do a few minor repairs in disk utility, but it's backed up so hey ho. In future I'd definitely just get the stock drive, remove it before even switching the machine on, and fit my own choice of HDD's. The Mac Pro makes it so easy, and it's the cheaper route anyway!
When I bought my Mac Pro (the original version) I had the 250 and the 500. The 500 was Hitachi and failed before long, so I replaced it with a workstation class Seagate. The 250... well, I've had to do a few minor repairs in disk utility, but it's backed up so hey ho. In future I'd definitely just get the stock drive, remove it before even switching the machine on, and fit my own choice of HDD's. The Mac Pro makes it so easy, and it's the cheaper route anyway!
Is that possible? Replace the drive even before you switch it on? I mean is the installed drive completely empty?
And what if you start making modifications to your original setup and then you turn on your computer and it doesn't work properly. And when you call or take your computer to Apple for support, and when Apple asked you how did it work before you made any modifications, then what will you say? And even if what modifications you made should have no effect on the computer, then you are just leaving yourself open for Apple to say that you caused the problem.
I would check everything out first and see that the original setup worked, then I would start doing modifications to the original setup.
My Pro came with a Seagate Barracuda drive - granted I ordered the machine with a 750 GB drive (the biggest drive Apple offered with the Pro a year ago when I ordered it); I wonder if those high capacity drives are built better?
I would play with the MP for a day or two without changing/modifying anything. I'll gauge specifically in the speed of the stock boot drive to see if the speed is a concern to me. I think the speed of the stock 320GB should be faster enough for most people. You never know.
I'll proceed to order a new hard drive if necessary however.
:S If the damn thing didn't work then it'd be easy enough to shove the original HDD back in and check it/send it back?
Sticking HDD's in the Mac Pro isn't going to void any warranty or anything like that, the thing is designed specifically to have user replaceable disks. I could understand your paranoia if we were talking about a Macbook Pro...