How to move my Mac Pro 5,1 configuration to Mac Studio?

[kucharsk]

Here's my current config:

Mac Pro 5,1:
========
Two internal Apple SATA SuperDrives (HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GH61N)
Hitachi 2 TB SATA HD x 2 (Old Media, safety clone of boot drive)
Hitachi 3 TB SATA HD (Time Machine Drive)
WD 10 TB SATA HD (Media Drive for iTunes containing my iTunes Library - 29,000 songs, most ripped from CD in Apple Lossless format, Library size 520 GB)

OWC Accelsior 1M2 with 2 TB OWC M.2 NVMe SSD (Boot and Lightroom 6 Catalog/Media Drive)
OWC Mercury Accelsior S + OWC Mercury 6G 2 TB SSD (Online backup for Lightroom 6 Media)

Radeon RX 580 driving two 30" Apple Studio Displays, one via an Apple Mini DisplayPort To Dual-Link DVI Adapter, the other via Dual-Link DVI directly.

I'd like to move all of this over to using a Mac Studio instead, but am unsure as to the best way to drive the 30" Apple Cinema Displays and retain the two SuperDrives as I still use this machine to rip new CDs (I purchase physical media exclusively, I don't stream and rarely buy from the Apple Music store).

Solutions like the OWC Thunderbay or Sabrent USB-3 towers would handle the existing HDs, but neither seem to support an open face for the optical drives.

I could replace all the SATA HDs with a single larger capacity one, but as I recently lost a Seagate 8 TB drive after only just two years where the Hitachis have been running for thirteen…

I also have three FW800 drives and video hardware (a Sony DSR-20 DVCAM deck I use to import SD video from DVCAM as well as SVHS) I'd need to support.

Note the Mac Pro 5,1 is working wonderfully, but of course I'm stuck on Mojave 10.14.6 and neither Safari nor Google Chrome are updated for this OS any more.

The 30" Cinema Displays are calibrated and working properly, so there's no need to replace them with Studio Displays or an XDR Display.

I could keep using the Mac Pro 5,1 for just iTunes, but as the main Mac hardware is now thirteen years old I'm reticent to rely upon it much longer.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[CrazyNurse]

I also finally retired my 4,1/5,1 and donated it to charity. I moved all the data from my internal drives to a Synology NAS and used the TM drive w/migration assistant to keep my settings and other user profiles. Since the Studio and NAS have 10gbe ports I’ll probably pick up a multi-gig switch to put between them.

 

[kucharsk]

I also finally retired my 4,1/5,1 and donated it to charity. I moved all the data from my internal drives to a Synology NAS and used the TM drive w/migration assistant to keep my settings and other user profiles. Since the Studio and NAS have 10gbe ports I’ll probably pick up a multi-gig switch to put between them.

A NAS is way too much of a hassle for my situation as those disks will only ever be accessed by that single machine even though I have multiple machines on my network.

I prefer local drives.

 

[ColdCase]

I also have three FW800 drives and video hardware (a Sony DSR-20 DVCAM deck I use to import SD video from DVCAM as well as SVHS) I'd need to support.

Note the Mac Pro 5,1 is working wonderfully, but of course I'm stuck on Mojave 10.14.6 and neither Safari nor Google Chrome are updated for this OS any more.

I'd suggest keeping the old computer around just for this. Especially if you do any DVD authoring. I picked up a used 3,1 a couple years ago and stashed it away for a spare.

 

[wdhpgx]

For my 3,1 to studio transition, I:

• moved my two internal 3.5" drives (data, and time machine) to a couple external usb enclosures
  • https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UAA4J6G
• moved an internal 2.5" ssd to an external usb enclosure I already had
  • https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FCLG65U
• connect my two dell dvi monitors via:
  • one using builtin hdmi, to dvi
    • https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QMFKY1C
  • one using usbc hub hdmi, to dvi
    • https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09CYJGVGR
• use a usb bluray drive I originally bought for my macbook
  • https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JJGFRIQ
• but bought also an external enclosure for the internal blu-ray drive
  • https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XRCCV44/
  • although:
    • I haven't moved the drive yet from the 3,1 to the enclosure, and still boot up the 3,1 to for discs that aren't reading successfully in the usb drive
    • from what I've read, my drive is just a little too deep for what the enclosure fits, so I'll have to manually secure it (but from what I've read is not a big problem)
• didn't have any pci cards (other than usb3 cards)
• didn't have any nvme cards, although I've picked up one since then and use it in a usb enclosure

 

[CWallace]

You can get an external enclosure for the SuperDrives. Vantec make some that connect to the Studio via a USB-A connector.

StarTeck makes a DualLink-DVI to USB-C connector so two of those will handle the Apple Cinema Displays.

As for the SSDs/HDDs, probably the easiest is one USB-C or Thunderbolt enclosure for each type configured for RAID-1 with a single SSD/HDD with sufficient capacity to handle everything. That way all the data is cloned across two drives so if one fails, you have a backup. I use an OWC 2-port USB-C enclosure with two 8TB HDDs for all my media and select folder backups.