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Mac Pro 3.1 SSD upgrade

F

flyman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 28, 2004
114
0
Hi Everyone,

My poor old MP3.1 seems to be labouring especially now with El Capitan so I thought maybe I should start by upgrading to SSD's?

Below is how my Mac Pro is at the moment with my installed HD's as follows:

Bay 1
Western Digital Black WD6401AALS 640GB (Running Windows 10 and all other software)

Bay 2
Western Digital Black WD6401AALS 640GB (Running El Capitan and all other software)

Bay 3
Western Digital Green WD10EZRX 1TB (Used for Windows 10 backups)

Bay 4
Western Digital Caviar 3200KS 320GB (Time Machine Backups)

External USB
Western Digital Elements 500GB (Time Machine Backups)

The questions I have regarding this are:
  1. Should I purchase smaller capacity SSD's use them for just the operating system and store everything else ie photos, movies and music on existing HD's?
  2. Any additional software i.e. games etc should that be installed on the same disk as the operating system?
  3. Is it worth spending out in the latest top of the range SSD's?
If anyone one has any suggestions I'd love to know and many thanks in advance!
 
AidenShaw

AidenShaw

macrumors P6
Feb 8, 2003
18,667
4,677
The Peninsula
flyman said:
Should I purchase smaller capacity SSD's use them for just the operating system and store everything else ie photos, movies and music on existing HD's?
  1. Any additional software i.e. games etc should that be installed on the same disk as the operating system?
  2. Is it worth spending out in the latest top of the range SSD's?
If anyone one has any suggestions I'd love to know and many thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
First of all, the latest SSDs are surprisingly affordable even for performance near the top.


  • Samsung 850 EVO 2TB - $650
  • Samsung 850 EVO 1TB - $295
  • Samsung 850 EVO 500GB - $160


You'll never regret buying an SSD that's "too large" ;)

On the SSD I'd put:
  • OS & pagefile
  • all applications (possibly some huge apps on the spinners)
  • home directories
  • working project directories
  • Things that are annoying slow to load
On the spinners I'd put:
  • media files
  • archived projects
  • big stuff
 
F

flyman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 28, 2004
114
0
AidenShaw said:
First of all, the latest SSDs are surprisingly affordable even for performance near the top.


  • Samsung 850 EVO 2TB - $650
  • Samsung 850 EVO 1TB - $295
  • Samsung 850 EVO 500GB - $160


You'll never regret buying an SSD that's "too large" ;)

On the SSD I'd put:
  • OS & pagefile
  • all applications (possibly some huge apps on the spinners)
  • home directories
  • working project directories
  • Things that are annoying slow to load
On the spinners I'd put:
  • media files
  • archived projects
  • big stuff
Click to expand...

Your suggestion does seem like a sensible approach but would I need a PCI card in order to gain the full speed from the cards you've suggested - Just thinking there could potentially be a bottleneck to slow things down?

I really appreciate the feedback, thank you!
 
r6mile

r6mile

macrumors 65816
Feb 3, 2010
1,004
504
London, UK
F

flyman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 28, 2004
114
0
Thank you for that, I think the Apricorn Velocity could be the way to go.
I think I've read somewhere that it in a Mac Pro 3.1 you will need to use Slot No. 2, the only PCIe 2 slot, the other slots are PCIe 1 and will limit the speed increase.
That think presents a problem as I belive my graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670) is sitting in slot 2..need to check!?
 
r6mile

r6mile

macrumors 65816
Feb 3, 2010
1,004
504
London, UK
Yes - if you want to use the full PCIe speed it needs to be either in slot 1 or slot 2 which are PCIe x16. Slot 1 is dual-lane (for big fat graphics card), so you should put your GTX670 in there, and the Apricorn card in slot 2. I doubt your graphics card is in slot 2 because that would mean unnecessarily taking up slot 3. That's what I've done in mine - GTX680 in Slot 1, OWC Accelsior in Slot 2. The other slots are PCIe x4 so suitable for things like USB 3.0 cards.
 
S

scott.n

macrumors 6502
Dec 17, 2010
339
78
flyman said:
Thank you for that, I think the Apricorn Velocity could be the way to go.
I think I've read somewhere that it in a Mac Pro 3.1 you will need to use Slot No. 2, the only PCIe 2 slot, the other slots are PCIe 1 and will limit the speed increase.
That think presents a problem as I belive my graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670) is sitting in slot 2..need to check!?
Click to expand...

I think the setup described in this thread is much more interesting (and also cheaper) than an Apricorn card. (In fact, you could go without the cage and just stack the SSDs in the optibay.)
 
P

pdafan

macrumors regular
Aug 2, 2011
100
13
flyman said:
Thank you for that, I think the Apricorn Velocity could be the way to go.
I think I've read somewhere that it in a Mac Pro 3.1 you will need to use Slot No. 2, the only PCIe 2 slot, the other slots are PCIe 1 and will limit the speed increase.
That think presents a problem as I belive my graphics card (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670) is sitting in slot 2..need to check!?
Click to expand...

If you indeed have a free PCIe 2.0 slot avail, suggest you also look at PCIe x4 adapter (which is very cheap now e.g JZLL) for M.2 SSD (Samsung SM951 or XP941). Look Here. The total cost should be lower. And the read/write speed is beyond >1000MB/s.
 
F

flyman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 28, 2004
114
0
scott.n said:
I think the setup described in this thread is much more interesting (and also cheaper) than an Apricorn card. (In fact, you could go without the cage and just stack the SSDs in the optibay.)
Click to expand...

Hi Scott,

I'm a bit confused so please bare with me on this as computer tinkering isnt exactly my strong point!

Are you saying that I could place this in a cage?http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...+to+2.5&qid=1445795307&ref_=sr_1_102&sr=8-102

If so what cage and where? - Does it sit where the DVD drive is?
[doublepost=1456918938][/doublepost]
pdafan said:
If you indeed have a free PCIe 2.0 slot avail, suggest you also look at PCIe x4 adapter (which is very cheap now e.g JZLL) for M.2 SSD (Samsung SM951 or XP941). Look Here. The total cost should be lower. And the read/write speed is beyond >1000MB/s.
Click to expand...

Hi pdafan,

I'm a bit confused with the setup youre recommending!
As I want to have OS X and Windows 10 on separate drives will I still be able to do this without any bootup issues (keeping in mind my GTX670 isnt flashed so no EFI)
 
S

scott.n

macrumors 6502
Dec 17, 2010
339
78
flyman said:
Hi Scott,

I'm a bit confused so please bare with me on this as computer tinkering isnt exactly my strong point!

Are you saying that I could place this in a cage?http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...+to+2.5&qid=1445795307&ref_=sr_1_102&sr=8-102

If so what cage and where? - Does it sit where the DVD drive is?
Click to expand...
That part is the "cage". It would be installed in your optical bay below your existing optical drive and connected to the PCIe card mentioned in the other thread that I linked to. But again, with SSDs you wouldn't really need the cage. Just stack them on top of the optical drive (after moving it to the lower position) or on something like this and use a power splitter.

Honestly, between mounting the SSDs (cage or no) in the optical bay and the PCIe card and routing the SATA cables in between them, it's a little fiddly. If you're not comfortable tinkering and only want one or two SSDs, an Apricorn card might be the better option for you.
 
F

flyman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 28, 2004
114
0
Hi Guys,

As its not for a work environment and just for some heavy duty gaming I dont want to have issues booting between OS X & Windows - I just want to keep things fairly simple and know works!

For me I see that there are 3 or so possible options:

1.

Buy 2 of these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005PZDV...UTF8&colid=IMJPJ0V9W96C&coliid=I3613KC2UF4M5Y
and then add 2 of these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00P738M...olid=IMJPJ0V9W96C&coliid=I3TR08WFU2P5ZM&psc=1


2.

Buy 1 of these:
http://www.megamac.com/products/apricorn-velocity-duo-x2-vel-duo?variant=3449148229
and then add 2 of these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00P738M...olid=IMJPJ0V9W96C&coliid=I3TR08WFU2P5ZM&psc=1

3.

Buy 2 of these:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/lyc...m)-to-pcie-x4-host-adapter-board-pc-mac-linux

and 2 of these:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sams...state-drive-mzhpu512hcgl-00000-hd-205-sa.html

In terms of speed how would you rate these options?
 
r6mile

r6mile

macrumors 65816
Feb 3, 2010
1,004
504
London, UK
I would suggest go for the Apricorn Velocity, and the two 850 EVOs. Double the speed compared to option 1 since you're using PCIe, and it only uses 1 slot compared to option 3.
 
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