MacPro 5.1 & high capacity hard drives

[14UG]

I'm in the market for a couple of 4TB SATA SSDs to use as a work archive in RAID 1 in the regular drive bays of my cMP. Can anyone recommend a model that doesn't suffer from the +3.3V power-pin-not-mounted-after-warm-boot bug (sorry I don't know what people are calling this!).

I'd go for the 870 EVO for future proofing if that works without taping the pin (even though it's a bit of overkill for cMP's SATA 2.0 slots) but happy to hear any other recommendations.

If I have to tape the pin I might try to find a cheaper drive as a stopgap for a year or two.

Thanks in advance!

 

[AlexMaximus]

I'm in the market for a couple of 4TB SATA SSDs to use as a work archive in RAID 1 in the regular drive bays of my cMP. Can anyone recommend a model that doesn't suffer from the +3.3V power-pin-not-mounted-after-warm-boot bug (sorry I don't know what people are calling this!).

I'd go for the 870 EVO for future proofing if that works without taping the pin (even though it's a bit of overkill for cMP's SATA 2.0 slots) but happy to hear any other recommendations.

If I have to tape the pin I might try to find a cheaper drive as a stopgap for a year or two.

Thanks in advance!

Uhh that sounds nice, you will be very happy. Sounds like a disk for all the projects you do and not really one for boot up. If that's the case and since you consider two SSD's, I would have a look into Sonnet's last dual SATA SSD PCIe card, IF you have a free slot left. If not,- of course only SATA SSDs will do the trick as you have mentioned.

Fusion Dual 2.5-inch SSD RAID - SONNETTECH

Dual 2.5-inch SSD PCIe 3.0 card with hardware RAID controller, plus 10Gbps USB-C port. Add your own choice of SSDs.

www.sonnettech.com

WINGS X2 - Expandable PCIe SSD with RAID | Angelbird

The Angelbird WINGS X2 is an expandable PCIe SSD Hardware RAID adapter. TRIM Support and driverless operation. Connect 2.5in Solid State Drives or Hard Drives

www.angelbird.com

Other than that, I would always prefer Samsung SSDs as you have already mentioned. They are the most reliable.
But if you are in doubt, you may consider OWC SSDs as well. They are proven to be designed for Mac Pro and Apple users in general. This way you can be sure to get a product that works.
Looking at the wings card, I guess it would be a pretty nice look to have two blue OWC SSD's with the blue Wings card, mentioned above.

Actually, they are on sale with the adapter. Using those 4TB SSDs AND selling those adapters on eBay might get you a pretty sweet deal and one nice blue marvel inside your cMP

OWC DIY Upgrade Bundle: Accelsior S + 4.0TB Mercury... at MacSales.com

SSDACL6GE4TB DIY Upgrade Bundle: OWC Accelsior S + 4.0TB OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD. Storage expansion with a speed boost. No drivers required.

eshop.macsales.com

 

[14UG]

Uhh that sounds nice, you will be very happy. Sounds like a disk for all the projects you do and not really one for boot up. If that's the case and since you consider two SSD's, I would have a look into Sonnet's last dual SATA SSD PCIe card, IF you have a free slot left. If not,- of course only SATA SSDs will do the trick as you have mentioned.

Fusion Dual 2.5-inch SSD RAID - SONNETTECH

Dual 2.5-inch SSD PCIe 3.0 card with hardware RAID controller, plus 10Gbps USB-C port. Add your own choice of SSDs.

www.sonnettech.com

WINGS X2 - Expandable PCIe SSD with RAID | Angelbird

The Angelbird WINGS X2 is an expandable PCIe SSD Hardware RAID adapter. TRIM Support and driverless operation. Connect 2.5in Solid State Drives or Hard Drives

www.angelbird.com

Other than that, I would always prefer Samsung SSDs as you have already mentioned. They are the most reliable.
But if you are in doubt, you may consider OWC SSDs as well. They are proven to be designed for Mac Pro and Apple users in general. This way you can be sure to get a product that works.
Looking at the wings card, I guess it would be a pretty nice look to have two blue OWC SSD's with the blue Wings card, mentioned above.

Actually, they are on sale with the adapter. Using those 4TB SSDs AND selling those adapters on eBay might get you a pretty sweet deal and one nice blue marvel inside your cMP

OWC DIY Upgrade Bundle: Accelsior S + 4.0TB Mercury... at MacSales.com

SSDACL6GE4TB DIY Upgrade Bundle: OWC Accelsior S + 4.0TB OWC Mercury Electra 6G SSD. Storage expansion with a speed boost. No drivers required.

eshop.macsales.com

Thanks for this. I’ve actually already got two crucial SSDs in one of the Sonnet Tempo cards already but they’re not used now and I was actually considering selling that card as I now have a Highpoint 7505 filled with 500GB Samsung 980 PROs that gives me boot & scratch drives.

These new high capacity SSDs are to replace two 2TB 7200rpm seagate(?) deskstars in RAID1 in the SATA slots. I suppose I could keep the Sonnet and put them there but because this is a work archive and I’ve got a dedicated super-fast scratch drive I don’t think I need the Sonnet anymore tbh. This RAID1 doesn’t even mount on boot I only mount it when archiving a project or recalling something.

I’m looking to replace them not so much for speed but more for noise & temps & because they’re at least 8 years old now and occasionally act up.

 

[MarkC426]

If it's for archiving, would it not be better to have a single ssd in the mac, and the other externally, rather than raid two. Seems a bit overkill for an archive disk.
Heaven forbid, if you mac was stolen your archive is gone also.

 

[14UG]

If it's for archiving, would it not be better to have a single ssd in the mac, and the other externally, rather than raid two. Seems a bit overkill for an archive disk.
Heaven forbid, if you mac was stolen your archive is gone also.

It's RAID1 in the Mac for device redundancy and backed up with TimeMachine over WiFi to a NAS in another room. TimeMachine probably not ideal for that volume of data and RAID1 is not back-up but between the two I've always felt pretty secure.

 

[Sean__Wong]

Hi All
Any Wisdom or comment on the Exos 16TB ?

Model TS16000NM001g


My Seagate 6 TB Drives from 5 years ago are starting to Flag some unreliable sectors
ST6000VN0001

They are 33% discounted so that makes quite a reasonable RAID set

Seagate Exos 16TB Enterprise HDD 7200 RPM 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - Newegg.com

Buy Seagate Exos 16TB Enterprise HDD X16 SATA 6Gb/s 512e/4Kn 7200 RPM 256MB Cache 3.5" Internal Hard Drive ST16000NM001G with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

 

[Sean__Wong]

Hi All
Any Wisdom or comment on the Exos 16TB ?

Model TS16000NM001g


My Seagate 6 TB Drives from 5 years ago are starting to Flag some unreliable sectors
ST6000VN0001

They are 33% discounted so that makes quite a reasonable RAID set

Seagate Exos 16TB Enterprise HDD 7200 RPM 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - Newegg.com

Buy Seagate Exos 16TB Enterprise HDD X16 SATA 6Gb/s 512e/4Kn 7200 RPM 256MB Cache 3.5" Internal Hard Drive ST16000NM001G with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

Went ahead and swapped my OLD for New

1. Power Consumption is down on the 12 V
2. Temperatures are down
3. Performance slightly better, despite marginally longer seek times
4. No Issues to report

Very happy after a week

 

[macstatic]

How's the noise level of that 16TB Exos drive?
I have the 10TB Exos and it's drive-seek noise is quite noticeable, but as far as I know this is common for all enterprise drives (and my Toshiba 12TB is even louder). An "enterprise" quality drive with a "consumer" noise level would be great, but I'm not sure such a device exists......

 

[Sean__Wong]

How's the noise level of that 16TB Exos drive?
I have the 10TB Exos and it's drive-seek noise is quite noticeable, but as far as I know this is common for all enterprise drives (and my Toshiba 12TB is even louder). An "enterprise" quality drive with a "consumer" noise level would be great, but I'm not sure such a device exists......

@macstatic
Objectively: I did check the Bel ratings on the spec sheets, was negligible for the increase from my 6TB to 16 TB per drive jump it was acceptable. I also operate using a Professional HEPA filter so I've got background noise that overlays the cMP.

Subjectively: I noticed the seek noise increase during the RAID rebuilds and during Volume to Volume Copies. I'd say its a comforting noise for me as I can hear the drives doing what I've asked for. The cMP does have some extra vibration Noticible when placing my hand on the front handle.

 

[dickiedunn]

I'm looking for a quiet, low power HD in the 10-12 TB range for an internal Time Machine drive on my Mac Pro 5,1 (Mid-2012). So speed is not important. Low power and noise are. I suppose I will need to purchase one of the new OWC sleds due to the change in mounting holes.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Sean__Wong]

I'm looking for a quiet, low power HD in the 10-12 TB range for an internal Time Machine drive on my Mac Pro 5,1 (Mid-2012). So speed is not important. Low power and noise are. I suppose I will need to purchase one of the new OWC sleds due to the change in mounting holes.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Check out the Seagate Iron Wolf

1.A 12V Power and therefore heat will be down too. bear in mind Drive caddy 4 gets a good 5ºC higher temp than Bay1
3.2 Bels ( 32 DB) Sound for 10-12 TB
3. The OWC Optical 5.25 > 3.5" adapter is quite sturdy and I've had a drive in there for some years.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...US-en_US.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2IRtzEwpyiu-aoWvMxADL5

 

[woohall]

I am new to this forum. I have an old 2003 Power Mac 5,1. I have successfully used an 8Tb WD Black drive in this machine, not in a Raid but as a stand-alone hard drive. Can anyone recommend a 16Tb or 18Tb drive that will work in this machine?

 

[MarkC426]

Do you mean a 2010 Mac Pro (5.1)?

 

[woohall]

Sorry, it is is a 2009 Mac Pro.

 

[MarkC426]

Refer to posts #160, #221, they talk about 16tb drives.

 

[macstatic]

Yes, getting back to 16TB drives....

@macstatic
Objectively: I did check the Bel ratings on the spec sheets, was negligible for the increase from my 6TB to 16 TB per drive jump it was acceptable. I also operate using a Professional HEPA filter so I've got background noise that overlays the cMP.

Subjectively: I noticed the seek noise increase during the RAID rebuilds and during Volume to Volume Copies. I'd say its a comforting noise for me as I can hear the drives doing what I've asked for. The cMP does have some extra vibration Noticible when placing my hand on the front handle.

Does anyone have the specific dB rating for that 16TB drive (Seagate Exos X16, ST16000NM001G)?
I found the Exos X16 spec sheet on Seagate's website, but (as far as I can see) there's no mention of the noise level. Usually I'd translate this into meaning it's "unmentionably" high, possibly damaging its sales), and according to this thread the noise levels are indeed very high.

Now, I already have a 10TB Seagate Exos X10 (ST10000NM0016), but I was surprised to see that the datasheet doesn't mention any noise levels either, meaning it's hard to compare. I already posted about that drive a while back in this thread, along with the 12TB Toshiba (MG07ACA12TE) which is used as a Time Machine backup drive. Both drives are mounted internally in my cMP 5,1 and unfortunately both make a lot of noise.

I must stress that the noise I'm talking about is drive-seek noise and not the spinning of the motor. The "tick" sounds whenever the drive is doing something is quite noticeable on both, and if I'm not mistaken (it's been a while since I opened up the machine and did a proper comparison) I think I concluded that the drive-seek noise is a little louder on the Toshiba, but I may be wrong (it's pretty irritating whenever a Time Machine backup starts as this means a lot of drive activity and thus a lot of "ttrttrtrttrtrttrtrtrttrtrtrtrtrtrtrtr" sounds. Both drives' "tick" sounds are very clearly heard when mounted in their usual drive bays/sleds, but a simple experiment of holding them in my hand or placing them on something soft changed that immediately! So when I receive my 3.5" to 2.5" drive adapters (Newertech Adaptadrive) so that I can place my SSDs in regular Mac Pro sleds (they're now in the optical drive bay) I'll see about moving those two HDDs over to the optical drive bay instead, placing them on some vibration-damping rubber mounts or whatever. I'm not sure if I can place two 3.5" drives in the lower optical drive bay, but at least one of them can go there. I digress

Anyway, I now plan on getting a third large HDD for weekly (or so) off-site backups along with an OWC USB-3.1 dual drive dock. At the moment the 16TB Exos is a little cheaper here than the smaller 14TB Exos and 12TB Toshiba, and just pocket-change more than the 14TB Exos and Toshiba 16TB. Funny how marketing goes...

Backing up the main cMP HDD (10TB Exos) to a 12TB Toshiba (Time Machine hourly/daily backups) and a 16TB Exos for more irregular archival off-site backups should be a good backup solution without juggling too many drives (I have too many 2TB and 3TB drives already!).
Sorry for the long post ?

 

[MarkC426]

Is there a drive size cut-off point when the mounting holes are in a different place?
I am looking at either a Seagate Barracuda 6tb or 8tb.
Amazon don't show the back of the drive.

Just found this on Page 3, is this still applicable?
What is a 3 and 4 disk model?

 

[zedex]

Does anyone use WD Golds in their mac pro? Do they run hot? What about noise?

Trying to decide between the Red Pros and WD Golds as they are almost equal in price.

Thanks

God I love the WD GOLDS (they do get hot tho). I run 4x 2TB. Sustained transfer speeds of 240MB/s pretty much match the SATA II ceiling so they really are perfect. Use iSTAT menus or similar software to manage HDD temps.

 

[TzunamiOSX]

WDC WD6003FZBX-00K5WB0 (Black 6TB) Temp 35°C
WDC WD6003FRYZ-01F0DB0 (Gold 6 TB) Temp 39°C

The drive located in bay 4 is always the warmest (here The Gold)

But I have to say that in very rare cases, the WD Black and Gold are not displayed after a reboot.
I would say around 1 of 70 reboots.

 

[macstatic]

Yes, getting back to 16TB drives....

Does anyone have the specific dB rating for that 16TB drive (Seagate Exos X16, ST16000NM001G)?
I found the Exos X16 spec sheet on Seagate's website, but (as far as I can see) there's no mention of the noise level. Usually I'd translate this into meaning it's "unmentionably" high, possibly damaging its sales), and according to this thread the noise levels are indeed very high.

I don't usually quote my own postings, but thought I'd chime in here because I've just bought and started using that 16TB Exos drive.
It'll be used as a backup drive and in the process I also went ahead and got myself an OWC USB-3 dual-drive dock.

(image source: Xfastest news)

I've only had it a couple of days, but my first impression is that it's very similar to my 10TB Seagate Exos in terms of noise levels. It appears to work just fine in the dock and I assume putting it inside the Mac Pro will work equally well.

 

[macstatic]

I've just written a review of the OWC drive dock shown in my previous posting.
You can find it here.

 

[PinPale]

Just read the whole thread. G!
According to you this drives works on both cold and warm reboot.. not including 8TB or less.. on a Mac Pro 5,1

WD Gold 12TB, WDC WD121KRYZ-01W0RB1
Seagate 16TB, ST16000NM001G
Toshiba 10TB, MG06ACA
Toshiba 12TB, MG07ACA12TE
Toshiba 14TB, MG07ACA14TE
WD Ultrastar 14TB, WUH721414ALE6L4

According to FB Group Mac Pro Users
Seagate Barracuda 14TB, ST14000DM001-2JC101

im going for Toshibas and will return to verify these.

Feel free to verify or add more drives that works both on cold and warm reboot



Not recommended
I got 3 (8tb) of WD red WD80EFAX, WD80EFBX and they only work on cold boots


Sled, caddy as 3D print can be found here.

Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1 Universal 3.5" HDD Sled by hnzxdv

A replacement 3.5" hard drive sled for 2009 and 2010 Mac Pros with mounting holes for both older SATA drive mounting patterns (1.75 in, 44.45 mm) and the newer pattern (3.00 in, 76.20 mm) featured on helium-filled 6, 8, 10+ TB drives, such as the HGST Ultrastar He8. Addressing Common...

www.thingiverse.com

Or bougt from OWC..


For those who like to try Apples TRIM that seems to reflect on ALL harddrives?

How to enable TRIM on macOS
Apple added a command called trimforce in Mac OS X 10.10.4, allowing Mac owners using third-party SSDs to enable TRIM. Earlier versions of OS X can use a third-party TRIM enabler utility to do the same. As your SSD fills up over time, enabling TRIM can speed up the write process.
1. Open the Terminal from /Applications/Utilities.
2. Type sudo trimforce enable and hit return or enter.
3. Carefully read the important notice and if you still wish to proceed, hit Y.
4. If you would like to disable TRIM, you can use the command sudo trimforce disable.

 

[PinPale]

That is weird H. Well I've cold and warm restarted it the machine a few times. No issue with the Seagate 10TB Iron Wolf or this 12TB Seagate (so far, knock wood)

Any modelnumber on these?

 

[Gigolo Joe]

Just read the whole thread. G!
According to you this drives works on both cold and warm reboot.. not including 8TB or less.. on a Mac Pro 5,1

WD Gold 12TB, WDC WD121KRYZ-01W0RB1
Seagate 16TB, ST16000NM001G
Toshiba 10TB, MG06ACA
Toshiba 12TB, MG07ACA12TE
Toshiba 14TB, MG07ACA14TE
WD Ultrastar 14TB, WUH721414ALE6L4

According to FB Group Mac Pro Users
Seagate Barracuda 14TB, ST14000DM001-2JC101

im going for Toshibas and will return to verify these.

Feel free to verify or add more drives that works both on cold and warm reboot



Not recommended
I got 3 (8tb) of WD red WD80EFAX, WD80EFBX and they only work on cold boots


Sled, caddy as 3D print can be found here.

Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1 Universal 3.5" HDD Sled by hnzxdv

A replacement 3.5" hard drive sled for 2009 and 2010 Mac Pros with mounting holes for both older SATA drive mounting patterns (1.75 in, 44.45 mm) and the newer pattern (3.00 in, 76.20 mm) featured on helium-filled 6, 8, 10+ TB drives, such as the HGST Ultrastar He8. Addressing Common...

www.thingiverse.com

Or bougt from OWC..


For those who like to try Apples TRIM that seems to reflect on ALL harddrives?

How to enable TRIM on macOS
Apple added a command called trimforce in Mac OS X 10.10.4, allowing Mac owners using third-party SSDs to enable TRIM. Earlier versions of OS X can use a third-party TRIM enabler utility to do the same. As your SSD fills up over time, enabling TRIM can speed up the write process.
1. Open the Terminal from /Applications/Utilities.
2. Type sudo trimforce enable and hit return or enter.
3. Carefully read the important notice and if you still wish to proceed, hit Y.
4. If you would like to disable TRIM, you can use the command sudo trimforce disable.

Given the current prices of these drives, and the incalculable costs of data loss, this really ought to be some kind of 'sticky' post, or an updatable list of drives - known to work - in a separate thread.

After reading this entire thread, I'm still taking a shot in the dark while having to decide what to buy, without ending up with noisy or unreliable storage.

 

[PinPale]

Given the current prices of these drives, and the incalculable costs of data loss, this really ought to be some kind of 'sticky' post, or an updatable list of drives - known to work - in a separate thread.

After reading this entire thread, I'm still taking a shot in the dark while having to decide what to buy, without ending up with noisy or unreliable storage.

I got you!

I tried 14TB Toshiba MG07ACA14TE!
It worked exellent so I bought another one. Works excellent both of them.