Mac Pro 2010 Q's

[ggoerl]

Alright guys I have a couple of questions and am looking for opinions, feedback, etc. I just upgraded from my 2008 to a mid 2010. It currently has 32gb or ram, but I'm going to upgrade to 64gb cause I do music production, running protools with a heavy use of plugins, etc. So who, where and how much would be reasonable for 64gb? what can I expect to pay as to who makes good reliable ram. Currently I have 4gb sticks of crucial. I am aware of the big brands, kingston, crucial, etc but obviously they come with a price premium for the name but I know there are smaller brands that are just as reliable but cheaper so maybe I should just start scouring ebay?

Secondly, I have a 4gb fibre card I have no use for, what's a fair price to sell it for? is it even worth $50?

Lastly, the main important question is transferring my system drives over to my 2010 going to be a problem? I know the non-os drives will be fine, I'm referring to my OS drive because as of right now I am still running snow leopard and I don't think 2010's were shipped with SL? (I could be wrong?) So am I going to have to upgrade before swapping? Also, my system drive consists of two 256gb ssd's raid 0. Now that the 2010 has enough sata ports should I just go about it that way or should I look into the velocity cards or whatever is current right now? Would those maker a larger difference rather than going direct to sata? As well as will the 2010 recognize the two ssd's in raid when I connect them up? Or I will I lose everything and have to re-raid them and start fresh?

Thanks guys!

 

[fuchsdh]

Alright guys I have a couple of questions and am looking for opinions, feedback, etc. I just upgraded from my 2008 to a mid 2010. It currently has 32gb or ram, but I'm going to upgrade to 64gb cause I do music production, running protools with a heavy use of plugins, etc. So who, where and how much would be reasonable for 64gb? what can I expect to pay as to who makes good reliable ram. Currently I have 4gb sticks of crucial. I am aware of the big brands, kingston, crucial, etc but obviously they come with a price premium for the name but I know there are smaller brands that are just as reliable but cheaper so maybe I should just start scouring ebay?

Secondly, I have a 4gb fibre card I have no use for, what's a fair price to sell it for? is it even worth $50?

Lastly, the main important question is transferring my system drives over to my 2010 going to be a problem? I know the non-os drives will be fine, I'm referring to my OS drive because as of right now I am still running snow leopard and I don't think 2010's were shipped with SL? (I could be wrong?) So am I going to have to upgrade before swapping? Also, my system drive consists of two 256gb ssd's raid 0. Now that the 2010 has enough sata ports should I just go about it that way or should I look into the velocity cards or whatever is current right now? Would those maker a larger difference rather than going direct to sata? As well as will the 2010 recognize the two ssd's in raid when I connect them up? Or I will I lose everything and have to re-raid them and start fresh?

Thanks guys!

2010 Mac Pros shipped with 10.6.4, so as long as you've updated your SL to that or higher you can swap the drives (or even the sleds) with no issues into the new computer.

My dual-spinner RAID transferred to my 5,1 with no issues; I don't recall if I put them in the exact same order as my 3,1 but I'd try that.

I personally just have a single SATA SSD as a boot; for my needs I don't see there being a benefit (or at least enough of a benefit to cost) for using PCIe flash, especially since I've got other expansion cards to factor in.

The Fibre cards go from $35-$200 according to eBay.

 

[ggoerl]

I also have this card (the top one) but am not really sure what it is. It looks like it might be another display card not too sure? anyone enlighten me?

 

[1madman1]

It could be an SDI video interface of some sort, you'd need to remove the card and look for identifying information.

 

[ggoerl]

^^^ found out it was a capture card. Off to ebay it goes haha

still looking for thoughts and opinions on my original post regarding ram? Looking for some slick deals.

 

[sigmadog]

The 2010 can handle 128Gb RAM, so if you think you might eventually want that much, you might consider purchasing 4 x 16Gb RAM sticks, which will leave half the RAM slots available down the road.

Looks like the price for 64Gb 1333Mhz RAM is right around the $600 - $800 mark. I was checking this myself last week, but I only looked at OWC, and I didn't look any further.

 

[ggoerl]

The 2010 can handle 128Gb RAM, so if you think you might eventually want that much, you might consider purchasing 4 x 16Gb RAM sticks, which will leave half the RAM slots available down the road.

Looks like the price for 64Gb 1333Mhz RAM is right around the $600 - $800 mark. I was checking this myself last week, but I only looked at OWC, and I didn't look any further.

Yeah, I took a look at OWC, ebay had 64gb with freeshipping for about $664, I might hold off on the ram for a bit, hopefully the price will drop.