Anyone have one of these in there mac pro? Thinking of putting the 120gb in my 2008 mac pro as my boot/app disk. If you have one, any issues?
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OCZ Colossus in Mac Pro
- Thread starter bearcatrp
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I'd like to know some info about it as well, thinking about ordering the same ssd but for a 2009 MP
yet no info on how those will work with mac pros
I've ordered one of those but I canceled the order... If you take a look in the OCZ forums you will see tons of people having some serious issues with the colossus series in their PCs, something related to Firmware problems. My reseller said I'd have to wait more then usual cuz they had to send their stock back to OCZ to be fixed, but after I red that some users still have problems after the upgrade I decided to cancel.
For now I'll stick to high speed mechanical drives until the ssd prices get more affordable and the its technology more mature.
EDIT: Just got really happy about not buying this SSD: http://discussions.info.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2288790&tstart=0
I've ordered one of those but I canceled the order... If you take a look in the OCZ forums you will see tons of people having some serious issues with the colossus series in their PCs, something related to Firmware problems. My reseller said I'd have to wait more then usual cuz they had to send their stock back to OCZ to be fixed, but after I red that some users still have problems after the upgrade I decided to cancel.
For now I'll stick to high speed mechanical drives until the ssd prices get more affordable and the its technology more mature.
EDIT: Just got really happy about not buying this SSD: http://discussions.info.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2288790&tstart=0
I have one on order and it will be interesting to see how it goes. It appears it is not hopeless from this post: http://www.hardmac.com/news/2010/01/07/ocz-ssd-colossus-tested-on-mac
Well, the 'extra' entries for Intel ESB2 AHCI I thought were from the Colossus were not. I've pulled the drive and they remain. Are they an artifact of running a software RAID?
In any case, although the drive appeared to seat properly, nothing was recognized by the OS.
In reading the fine print, it appears Amazon might charge me 15% for a return ($134). If that's the case, I'll probably try to format it in a PC and then install it and see if that works.
As it's probably ben 15 years since I had to format a HDD in Windows (and we all know Windows XP is the same as the old Windows 386
), what format parameters should be used in Windows XP to have the best shot at functionality in OS 10.5.8?
In case anyone wants hardware info for my MP:
In any case, although the drive appeared to seat properly, nothing was recognized by the OS.
In reading the fine print, it appears Amazon might charge me 15% for a return ($134). If that's the case, I'll probably try to format it in a PC and then install it and see if that works.
As it's probably ben 15 years since I had to format a HDD in Windows (and we all know Windows XP is the same as the old Windows 386
), what format parameters should be used in Windows XP to have the best shot at functionality in OS 10.5.8?In case anyone wants hardware info for my MP:
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Formatting it in a PC is unlikely to be much help. You could try formatting it with FAT32 in Windows so that the partition structure is there and then see if Disk Utility detects it for you to reformat the partition into HFS for Snow Leopard.
If I were you I would cut my losses and send it back. Maybe look into getting two 256GB 2.5" SSDs and a port multiplier sled. I know I've seen some for sale somewhere specifically for the Mac Pro. You can put two drives into one sled.
If I were you I would cut my losses and send it back. Maybe look into getting two 256GB 2.5" SSDs and a port multiplier sled. I know I've seen some for sale somewhere specifically for the Mac Pro. You can put two drives into one sled.
That device will throttle SSD's to ~200MB/s, according to Trans Int'l's site.
In general, PM chips typically hit the wall at 250MB/s, so PM + SSD is a bad idea in terms of high performance.
Thanks for the comments. My rationale is as follows:
If it formats in a PC, it's not a dead drive and there is hope. Failure to format in a PC means it's a defective drive not defective architecture for a Mac.
I don't run SL and am running 10.5.8 because not all my software will run in SL yet. I did an abortive upgrade a few months back with 10.6.0 and have not had the time to try 10.6.2 yet on the MP (I run 10.6.2 on my MBP). I think SoftRaid was the problem with the MP and I don't recall if PGP runs in SL yet either.
I was looking at the possibility of 2 INTEL G2 160 SSDs and a software RAID, but like the idea of the hardware RAID in a single package of the Colossus better than having to spend the time cabling and fitting the 2 2.5" dirves into the single bay I have available. I had problems with using a Apple software RAID to boot when I first got the MP1,1 (late '06) and have avoided a sofware RAID for the boot drive since. The Apple SW RAID issues it what forced me to SoftRaid to begin with. IT better now and I actually have both Apple and SoftRaid RAIDs on the current machine.
If it formats in a PC, it's not a dead drive and there is hope. Failure to format in a PC means it's a defective drive not defective architecture for a Mac.
I don't run SL and am running 10.5.8 because not all my software will run in SL yet. I did an abortive upgrade a few months back with 10.6.0 and have not had the time to try 10.6.2 yet on the MP (I run 10.6.2 on my MBP). I think SoftRaid was the problem with the MP and I don't recall if PGP runs in SL yet either.
I was looking at the possibility of 2 INTEL G2 160 SSDs and a software RAID, but like the idea of the hardware RAID in a single package of the Colossus better than having to spend the time cabling and fitting the 2 2.5" dirves into the single bay I have available. I had problems with using a Apple software RAID to boot when I first got the MP1,1 (late '06) and have avoided a sofware RAID for the boot drive since. The Apple SW RAID issues it what forced me to SoftRaid to begin with. IT better now and I actually have both Apple and SoftRaid RAIDs on the current machine.
The MP (OS X) may not like what it sees across the SATA port (i.e. how the Colossus is created of 4x 250GB drives).
Well, the drive works fine with Widows XP, so it is not a malfunctioning drive.
Next step is to see if OS 10.5 will see it if I load it into my external enclosure using the SeriTek SATA controller instead of the Apple SATA controller on the motherboard. I'm not hopeful since I wanted it as a boot drive.
Next step is to see if OS 10.5 will see it if I load it into my external enclosure using the SeriTek SATA controller instead of the Apple SATA controller on the motherboard. I'm not hopeful since I wanted it as a boot drive.
It's really too bad that the Colossus has compatibility gremlins. I was thinking about it as a new boot drive.
I guess it's more prudent to wait until the next generation of Vertex or Intel drives right now.
I guess it's more prudent to wait until the next generation of Vertex or Intel drives right now.
If you just need a boot drive, consider a smaller OCZ drive. There are a bunch of us running towers from G5s to the current MacPros that are using 30gb-128gb versions of OCZ, Intel, Patriot, etc. as boot drives and they work just fine! It doesn't take much to set up your itunes and documents folders on a standard platter drive, and you get the same benefits (if not moreso, since you don't have as many writes happening) as you would with a larger SSD. At least for now...
Anyway, yeah, there has been a lot of discussions about various SSDs on here the past couple months, search around and read through some of them. I'm personally very happy with my SSD RAID0 (2X30gb OCZ Turbo) and am more than happy that when I finally upgrade to a macpro later this year I can take them with me.
Anyway, yeah, there has been a lot of discussions about various SSDs on here the past couple months, search around and read through some of them. I'm personally very happy with my SSD RAID0 (2X30gb OCZ Turbo) and am more than happy that when I finally upgrade to a macpro later this year I can take them with me.
Giving up.
Well, if I mount the drive in my SeriTek/5PM, the OS can see it and SoftRaid could initialize it. However, I could not get it to format with SoftRaid - I got a 'disk in use' error message. I put it back into the internal drive bay and it's no longer recognized. So the SeriTek 2SE2 SATA card can see it but the Apple MP1,1 motherboard can't.
Well, if I mount the drive in my SeriTek/5PM, the OS can see it and SoftRaid could initialize it. However, I could not get it to format with SoftRaid - I got a 'disk in use' error message. I put it back into the internal drive bay and it's no longer recognized. So the SeriTek 2SE2 SATA card can see it but the Apple MP1,1 motherboard can't.
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Maybe it's a firmware issue that only affects older Mac Pros? Would it be any more likely to work with the EFI 64 boards?
It's not the board, as you already indicated it works under Windows XP (that board uses the same components as any other PC board for CPU, North and Southbridge chips, and the SATA controller (ICH) is in the Southbridge. The SeriTek has it's own drivers, while the board has to use the OS X drivers written for the SouthBridge (ICH section is faulty).
It's not the board, or the firmware. See above.
Looks that way. If it were the drive (firmware or hardware), it wouldn't work in Windows either.
But that's not the case (at least the drive itself is functional). Unfortunately, I'm not sure if a solution will appear for OS X though, as it's going to be a very low priority to Apple IMO. It would almost certainly be up to OCZ to make a firmware change to solve the issue, and if that happens, it could blow Windows support in MP's (or PC's, if it were moved, until the firmware is re-flashed with a compatible version).
I came to the same conclusion as nanofrog (realize I was imprecise/incorrect saying the board instead of the firmware). Give to total lack of input or comment from OCZ on their support forum, I wasn't going to hold my breath. Amazon also promised a full refund despite the open box. It's not worth the hassle (to me) to try and make it work given the other solutions that are known to work well.
Best thing to do IMO.
At least Amazon's return policy is rather decent.
Had it been newegg, there would likely have been a loss due to shipping costs and a restocking fee, which is usually the case with most online retailers.Technically Amazon's policy is an 85% refund if the box is opened. I'm not sure if they allowed 100% in my case due to the volume of business I do with them or because I pointed out that neither their information nor OCZ'z information state it is not Mac compatible. I made sure I asked about getting a full refund before I sent it back.
My point was, is Amazon's willing to work with you, including the 3rd party sellers I've dealt with that advertise on Amazon.
It's likely due to the fact it didn't work with Mac, and there wasn't any statement to indicate it didn't. I'm not sure how easy that would be with others these days, including newegg given the current economy, even though they're fairly decent as well as I understand it (never had to send anything back to newegg, and only seen comments here and there). I have had to return things to Amazon recently, and it went well (once with Amazon - they sent the wrong item, once with a 3rd party seller - damaged). 100%, including the return shipping in both cases.