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RAM and HDD's -Proper Equip to Upgrade

M

macro

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 15, 2007
97
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I am about to purchase a Mac Pro for my studio photographies Post Processing.

I am confused as to what 3rd party RAM I should buy to get the machine to 5GB and what HDD's to buy to get up to 1000 GB memory. I am going with the stock MP and am going to change out the components myself. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I will be running, as to software, Photoshop CS 3 and Nikon Capture NX. I understand that the MAC is particular as to its operation with the wrong 3rd party hardware should I make an uninformed choice.

Price is an issue and that is why I have chosen to do this the way I am. I have worked on PC's and done change outs of hardware and I understand that MAC is much easier. Hope I don't sound ignorant as to this question, but, I certainly am concerning MAC. Haven't had one since '98.

Just wondering what the best manufacturer is concerning all the above is. What is better for a MAC that I can add which will work the best .
 
Thanks for the reply. what I am trying to figure out is which individual specs I need for the RAM and HDD so that I don't create problems by putting the wrong brands or improper specs into the machine.

IE, should I use Seagate for the HDDS or Western Digital?
Can I use the RAm that comes with the machine and add two 2 GIG to get a total of 5 GIGs or....../
 
If you have a look at those sites you will notice they have there own Mac Pro sections with all the items that work with the Mac Pro...

If you want to look elsewhere for ram there are a few factors to ensure that it works, with the ram I think it has to be a 240 pin FB-DIMM 667 MHz memory

and with the harddrive pretty much everything will work...
 
OK, I am ordering the $2499.00 stock mac pro desktop, as is, from the Apple store. It comes with 2 GB RAM. I want to immediately upgrade to at least 4 GB and probably 8 GB RAM. I am looking at the offers having to do with this page: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/53FB2GD4GBK/

As the MAC comes with who knows manufacturer of the dimms and I am looking at the dimms sold in the link provided above. How do I match them up as specified? Exact match to exact match if I interpret the verbage correctly. Should I order the proper amount to go to four or eight Gigs and replace the Apple 512's completely or should I use the Apple 512's x 4 and the aforementioned 3rd party dimms and all will be OK?

Am I making sense? I work on my PC way too much and am just trying to get across the line to MAC and the inherent problems of understanding the differences.

Oh yeah, once I have the RAM installed how do I test in on the MAC?
 
I am another one jumping on the Mac bandwagon next week. I had a question about the physical store. I wanted to get the 7200 HDD in a Macbook Pro, i know one can do that online but can i get it dont at the store ? Do they have models with it already or can i buy the upgrade from them at the store ?
thanks.
 
No, only ram can be upgraded in an apple store. The HDD install is quite difficult and installing OSX on the new drive can be slightly confusing (boot from disc, disk utility, etc). Also, Apple will not support the new drive, meaning, if you need to take it in for repair, they may ask you to install the stock HDD. Also, a HDD install is not a user-doable process and will void your warranty if anything goes wrong. With ram, i would suggest against Apple ram (apple charges $1000/$700 upgrade for 4GB of RAM when it could be purchased for $100). HDD upgrades should definitely be done through apple.com.
 
ankurr, please don't threadjack - your machine is completely different from the OPs and it confuses the replies.


OP: Your specs are: SATA-150 or SATA-300 3.5" hard drive, there are no specific compatibility issues with current drives.

The RAM is 667 MHz FB-DIMMs, I highly recommend that you purchase from a reputable, Mac-aware supplier and choose only guaranteed Mac Pro compatible memory. In the USA OWC is a good choice, as is Data Memory Systems.

There is a minor speed improvement in using 4 identical RAM sticks across A1 A2 B1 B2. If you go this route, then you would relocate the Apple 512's to A3 A4 B3 B4.

To test in the Mac Pro, you can run Rember (get it from versiontracker.com) and exercise the machine, or run some Final Cut projects if you have it. Then look in the Activity monitor and check for Correctible ECC errors. More than 4 correctible errors in 48 hours means the RAM should go back
 
Ok, got the RAM today. Tied my wrist strap to ground and found the notches (not nachos with cheese) I am now on line with the 9 GB's I purchased (8 +1).

If Jobs does nothing else he has had his engineers design a great ease of physical upgrade. This is Legos . I am not used to the slide out risers and the ease of plugging it in. Quite honestly, I was scared. As always, I bit the bullet and turned the machine on its side and pulled out the risers. 'Nough said. It worked and it was easy.

SSSiiiiigggghhhh. I'm loving this machine and its engineering. I think there is not enough said about the Mac Pro's design. That's just me though.
 
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