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Proper Way to Install SSD's in a MP

S

SIRmisterD

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 8, 2013
67
2
Hello,

I am about to purchase a Samsung 850 EVO 2.5" SSD for my 2009 Mac Pro and I just want to be sure about what I need. I know that I'll need a different "drive bay holder," for a lack of better words, to hold it. I would like to know what is my best option for this because I'm seeing some that are full cases with an adapter, but then I'm also seeing a blue one that is much simpler. If someone could link me to the one I would need and would work the best (amazon preferrably), it would be greatly appreciated along with anything else I might need (I don't think there is, but just to be safe).

Thank you!
 
SIRmisterD said:
Hello,

I am about to purchase a Samsung 850 EVO 2.5" SSD for my 2009 Mac Pro and I just want to be sure about what I need. I know that I'll need a different "drive bay holder," for a lack of better words, to hold it. I would like to know what is my best option for this because I'm seeing some that are full cases with an adapter, but then I'm also seeing a blue one that is much simpler. If someone could link me to the one I would need and would work the best (amazon preferrably), it would be greatly appreciated along with anything else I might need (I don't think there is, but just to be safe).

Thank you!
Click to expand...

Before I moved my SSD to a PCIe card I tried two methods. First I attached it with one screw to an OWC adapter meant for 5.25" hard drives, a.k.a one of those blue things.

Finally I attached it to the SATA cable and let it hang against the bottom of the lower bay. That worked just fine since an SSD weighs almost nothing and does not vibrate.

If I had decided to leave it on the lower bay SATA 2 buss I would have ordered the correct bracket from OWC.
 
I suggest these:

http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/i...sk-drives-for-mac-pro-internal-drive-bays.cfm

Important to order ones for your Mac Pro 1,1/2,1/3,1 use one length, 4,1/5,4 use other.

What I like about them is that they take up as little space as possible leaving more room for your hands and air to move around GPUs and other PCIE cards.

Even possible to use the early ones in later machine with a SATA card.

Mods: I have no affiliation, etc.
 
What's the benefit of going with one of the ones from maxupgrades, over an OWC one that scottsjack suggested?
 
SIRmisterD said:
What's the benefit of going with one of the ones from maxupgrades, over an OWC one that scottsjack suggested?
Click to expand...

As I mentioned, the other choices take up more space.

Pretty sure the OWC ones replicate the drop down handle of OEM, blocking access.

Icy Dock are even worse, taking up acres of space for no reason.
 
If you want SATA III speed you could go with a PCI Apricorn Velocity card adapter. It's about 100MB/sec faster in real world performance than the SATA II hard drive bays in the Mac Pro 4,1. Just plug and play, bootable.
 
What I'm thinking right now, is that I will go with an OWC one because I can't seem to find the maxupgrades one on amazon. Althought, if I did, I would definitely go with it. Another thing, is that I'll stick with SATA II for now, and get the Velocity in the future. Does anyone have a link to the correct OWC bay?
 
If there is such a thing as a PCIE card that can run 4 SATA 3 drives I can think of a better idea.

But I haven't played with such cards so don't know anything about them.
 
MacVidCards said:
If there is such a thing as a PCIE card that can run 4 SATA 3 drives I can think of a better idea.

But I haven't played with such cards so don't know anything about them.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't put all my drives in a PCIE card to achieve SATA 3. I'll look more into putting the SSD in one when I am looking to buy one as an upgrade.
 
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What I was getting at is that if you used the maxconnect sleds for a 1,1 in a 4,1 you could have drives up top but run cables to them from a card, so the cards wouldn't have to have the drives piggybacked on them physically. Would be a neater solution
 
Oh, I see what you were trying to say now. A thought that just came to me, is that do I really need a mount for an SSD? Can't I plug in the SSD and slide in the existing 5.25" standard Mac Pro mount so that the SSD lies on the mount? Or even if the mount was too low for the SSD to rest on, could I place something under it to level it out?
 
Last edited:
crjackson2134 said:
Actually there was one, but it was discontinued due to poor sales. I can't find it on Google search anymore, so it's long gone I guess.

The one I'm talking about was an actual 4 drive caddy.

FOUND IT:

http://www.apricorn.com/product-sup...rage/pcie-board-with-4-mlc-128gb-wd-ssds.html
Click to expand...

I had the PCI-X version installed in a PC at one time. I was looking for a copy of the PCIe version when I switched to a 2009 Mac Pro, but later read that it could not be used as a bootable array. I was surprised at the time that it could not be found on eBay.
 
+1 for the ones mentioned by 666sheep, these can be bought for very little money. for my own machines I prefer the ones from Apple (part # 922-9629). they look very nice and as a plus there are no additional connectors between the SSD and the backplane.
 
Thank you all for your replies. I've looked into all the suggestions and what I think I will be doing is what DPUser suggested. It makes the most sense to me because I will most likely move the SSD to a PCIE connection to gain the SATA 3 speeds in the future. As for right now, I don't see the point in buying a separate mount just to hold the SSD if I can just do this method. I've already moved my current optical drive to the bottom slot and I tested the connection with a 2.5" hard drive that I had lying around. Sure enough, it works just as expected.
 
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