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Although the mounting may not be standard, you could hook this up in a 3.5 to 5.25" bay, if you don't have a second superdrive and use the mysterious extra hidden SATA ports.
 
Because in addition to the hard drive a $600-$900 SAS controller card is needed.

Not to mention the fact that those drives are outrageously expensive... and with much lower capacities due to 15K RPM spindle speeds... and aren't necessarily faster (actually, they're slower) for non-workstation/fileserver applications, which is what many of you'd be buying it for.

Was that a joke? Lol.
 
I might pick one up when they're released and mod one of my external SATA cases for this drive. I've got the PowerLogix eSATA cable/port doohickie attached to my machine on the extra two SATA headers, so I'm set with the external ports.
 
I Installed one . . .

I posted a reply concerning the Velociraptor to another thread, but I'll go ahead and double post.

I installed it in the sled, yes in the sled, with 1 simple modification - I removed the SATA/POWER connector from its mount and plugged it in BY HAND! The shame of it! :eek:

The only thing you lose by doing this is the ability to slide the tray out. This being said how often do you need to change the system drive? For me "not very often" which is why I had no problem making the modification to accommodate the Velociraptor. I would rather have the speed day in and day out and "suffer" the inconvenience of having an extra step or two to change the drive out when it requires it. :p
 
I installed it in the sled, yes in the sled, with 1 simple modification - I removed the SATA/POWER connector from its mount and plugged it in BY HAND! :p

Interesting. Did you remove the IcePack before mounting in into the sled?
 
No need . . .

The IcePack is what gives the drive its 3.5" form factor. If you take the heatsink off, two things will most likely happen. 1) The drive will cook itself within a day and 2) You void your 5 year warranty from WD.

The is no need to remove it though; if you did there would be no way to attach it to the sled - the holes would not line up.

I can try and post some pictures later if anyone wants them.
 
Came across this thread while searching for a solution... Needless to say, I've just ordered two Velociraptors and the MaxUpgrade 2-drive expansion hardware.. I'll figure out how to install it by trial and error since I've not been able to get anything on-line that goes thru it step by step... maybe the MaxUpgrade guys will send good directions!

Anyway, this will allow me to keep my 4 internal drives as they are and just switch my system disk to the new RAID 0 pair..
 
The IcePack is what gives the drive its 3.5" form factor. If you take the heatsink off, two things will most likely happen. 1) The drive will cook itself within a day and 2) You void your 5 year warranty from WD.

The is no need to remove it though; if you did there would be no way to attach it to the sled - the holes would not line up.

I can try and post some pictures later if anyone wants them.
Please do post pics; if it is doable then I'm in!
 
Here are some quick shots . . .

Some people asked for some pictures, so here we go.

This was honestly, from start to finish, a 10 minute modification.

Remove power from your system before doing any work on it.
Remove all 4 drive sleds to make room to work.


The first shot is a look at the "Logic Board" with drive sleds 2-4 removed, and my video card pulled out to make some room for the camera.
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Next is a close up shot of one of the 4 SATA/POWER connectors in your MacPro. As you can see they are held on their mounts by #2 phillips head screws.
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A shot of the "IcePack" on my Velociraptor peeking out from behind the fan mount. As you can see, once the connector is unmounted you have about 2" of play in the cables.
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A shot of the unmounted SATA/POWER connector plugged into the Velociraptor.
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The first screw you have to remove to remove the fan assembly from the front of the machine. No fears, there are only 2 screws, and nothing to unplug.
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Remove the magnetic cover from the processors.
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Once the cover is removed it will reveal the second screw holding the fan assembly in.
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Once both screw have been removed simply lift the fan assembly straight up - it should slide right out. Here is another view of the logic board once the fan assembly has been removed.
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Now that the fan assembly is out of the way remove the 2 phillips screws holding the connector in place.
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Mount your Velociraptor in Sled one and slide it into the machine. Plugin the connector you freed in the previous step into the back of the drive before you slide it all the way it.
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When you go to return the fan assembly into the case it will be a bit snug. I found that as I slid the base in I put pressure on the tab we removed the screw from that held it to the logic board and things went easier. ;)

As you can see, once the drive is connected and installed it fits flush, the same as any other drive.

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Awesome. Good pics. Can you get one of the back of the Velociraptor plugged in? I'm curious as to how much tension there is on the freed connector.
 
I've read other places that sled 2 is the best one to remove and replace. Does anyone else have an opinion on this... I think the photos show the procedure for sled 1? Or am I confused...
 
In retrospect . . .

Now that you mention it any sled other than 1 would be much easier to swap out. Just my OCD kicking in telling me the OS drive *MUST* be drive one. In reality it could be any. :D
 
Thanks dude. This is by far the best description of the process I've seen!
 
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