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mac pro hardrive upgrade

M

mac cruiser

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 5, 2009
14
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Hello everyone. this is my first post and i am new to mac.

i always search before posting thread but cannot find a specific answer.

i have a mac pro 8 core. it only has 350 gb hardrive. i also have final cut studio 3, but before installing wanted to know about the hardrive config.

if i was to install the final cut studio on my current 350gig hardrive, and use another internal hardrive for the actual editing and savings of file, is that ok. i hav also read that using a external hardrive is better. im confused.'

does anyone have specific knowledge in this field.

also it only has 2 x 1gb ram. i am aware of ram configuration but wanted to know if it is more beneficial to have 2 x4gb extra ram or 4 x 2gb ram
Thanks...much appreciated
 
It is always better to have a dedicated hard drive (HDD) just for editing videos. It's called a scratch disk, where all the media files should go, so that your Operating System (OS) and Final Cut Pro (or any other editing application) accessing the video files, don't get "confused" or overloaded accessing the same physical HDD.

Also having 4 sticks of 2GB RAM modules might be cheaper than having 2 sticks of 4GB RAM modules.
There might be a little advantage of having less sticks with more memory, but that should be negligible.
 
mac cruiser said:
Hello everyone. this is my first post and i am new to mac.

i always search before posting thread but cannot find a specific answer.

i have a mac pro 8 core. it only has 350 gb hardrive. i also have final cut studio 3, but before installing wanted to know about the hardrive config.

if i was to install the final cut studio on my current 350gig hardrive, and use another internal hardrive for the actual editing and savings of file, is that ok. i hav also read that using a external hardrive is better. im confused.'

does anyone have specific knowledge in this field.

also it only has 2 x 1gb ram. i am aware of ram configuration but wanted to know if it is more beneficial to have 2 x4gb extra ram or 4 x 2gb ram
Thanks...much appreciated
Click to expand...

As for the RAM question, 4x2gb will probably be cheaper right now, and also it is much cheaper to replace one of the memory sticks if it goes bad. There is no difference between 2 sticks and 4 sticks with the same total capacity.
 
right some solid answers there...thank you.

but what about the internal or external hardrive. which should it be?

so final cut sudio should be installed on the same disc as the opertating system.

so if i was to add an additional hardrive as stated which should it be as i have heard that external is better but i dn undersand how.
 
It's a MacPro, Throw 2 or 3 1-1.5 Tb Seagate Hd's in it.
I personally would get at least 8 gb ram also 2x4gb sticks are reasonable as price is declining on them. It also allows for maxing the ram.
 
im new to this forum...what a response. you folks are real quick with theses questions and answers
 
so what about the make of the hardisk...should i get the same as the one installed by default, but a 1tb or more
 
The make can be anything, from Seagate to Maxtor to Toshiba or Western Digital.

As long it is a 3.5" SATA 1.5 Gbps or SATA 3.0 Gbps (also known as SATA I and SATA II) drive with 7.200RPM or even more, it will work.
 
mac cruiser said:
right some solid answers there...thank you.

but what about the internal or external hardrive. which should it be?

so final cut sudio should be installed on the same disc as the opertating system.

so if i was to add an additional hardrive as stated which should it be as i have heard that external is better but i dn undersand how.
Click to expand...

Internal, internal, internal!


Unless you have the eSATA extendor cable from OWC and an eSATA external. You need the 3 Gbit/s, trust me.
 
can i fit this hard disk...as i am looking for the best

HITACHI HDD 15000RPM HDD 300GB U320 SCSI SCA-2 40pin

response apprieciated
 
A link would have been nice.

I suppose you mean this HDD: http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/en/menuitem.f7da5b80da420cb0483bad24eac4f0a0/

It's not recommended, and I think not possible, to connect an SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) drive to an S-ATA backbone/port on the logic board.

You may need a SAS adapter card, but I don't know if such exists.


You can just use a S-ATA drive with maybe 10.000 RPM (there is a model called Velociraptor), as even the 7200 RPM drives are fast enough to use with editing HD, unless you want to play 10 video tracks at the same time all the time.


You can also use two 1TB S-ATA drives, and RAID them via the MacPro.


MRoogle might give you some answers.
 
right ok i think i will stick to the sata drive then. i got the information about the serial attched hard disk from apple:

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP11

that is the mac pro i have.

also, as im a newbies should i install FCS on the other hard druive separate to operating system. or shall i install on same hardrive as operating system.

i used to be a windows user, and if i was to use final cut studio which is installed on one hardrive but then access files/read/store files on another hardisk, that takes alot of time, as tha data has to transfer from one hard disk to the other hardisk where FCS is installed.

once again, im totally new to mac, so i might be totally wrong

cheers
 
You're right. I haven't looked at the document you have linked, and I would trust that more than the information I dug up somewhere. so it seems you can use the SAS drive you linked to.

As for using another internal drive for the FCS contents, you can do that.
But keep that content away from the drive you want to use as scratch disk.
 
mac cruiser said:
can i fit this hard disk...as i am looking for the best

HITACHI HDD 15000RPM HDD 300GB U320 SCSI SCA-2 40pin

response apprieciated
Click to expand...

-mac cruiser

Wow. You don't mess around. There's a reason why they call that the "Ultrastar". I would put this into the category of "Overkill" but you'd probably never need to upgrade it.
 
i believe you need a raid card for the sas drive to work, its not just plug and play

so i guess im confused again...
 
yep, u definately need a raid card to support the sas disk.

so i finally have my answers, once my hard disk arrives and in the set up process if i have diffculty i shall inform u guys

what a forum...

Thank you
 
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