MP 1,1-5,1 Help Me Spend Money

[michaelbirdart]

I received a $1000 shopping spree on Amazon and I decided to buy SSDs to replace the standard drives for my old MacPro4,1 (with upgraded firmware to 5,1). I'm running 10.12.6 as I need it for legacy files from the old Logic Pro 9. Boot ROM Version: MP51.0089.B00

I went to OWC and found the prices there a little... different from the prices I've been seeing for SSDs online. I had been looking at the Samsung 870 series until I read about the incompatibility issues. So now that I've summoned some intense fear of missteps I'm back on my research game. I have a all four HDD bays filled but only really want to replace three of them right now, with capacities of 1TB, 2TB and 8TB (I have a 6TB in that bay right now but they don't make that capacity in SSDs so more is more).

I went to the Definitive Classic Mac Pro Upgrade Guide, but I'm not a hardware tech and I lost the thread of what I was trying to figure several times. I only really know enough to get myself into trouble and I try to avoid it the best I can by asking for help. When I thought the 870 series was going to work, I thought I had my shopping list done. But now I'm back to the start. Can anyone help?

Please and Thank You in advance!

 

[MarkC426]

If sata 2 speeds are sufficient for your workflow (i.e. you don't need nvme), Samsung 860 evo/pro are a good choice.
Avoid 870's, although some people have them working, I wouldn't chance it.
Also avoid QVO drives.
You can get double the speed from a 2.5" ssd attached to a pcie card (sata 3).

Further reading on faster drives:

PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI

This is a general info thread for blade SSDs that can be used in the Mac Pro. This is a WikiPost so anyone with the proper credentials may edit it. NVMe SSDs can be used as a boot drive in the MP5,1 and MP6,1 with the latest firmware installed (beginning with version 140.0.0.0.0 for MP5,1 and...

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