Straight swap bluray drive?

[Ommid]

Hi

Have looked around the forum and cant seem to find a straight swap bluray drive for the 3,1 Mac Pro.

Any luck anyone?

 

[ActionableMango]

No such thing as a straight swap BD drive for your 3,1. 3,1 optical drive cabling is IDE and BD drives are SATA.

You have get a SATA BD drive, a SATA cable to run to your logicboard, and an adapter to convert the molex power to SATA power. Not a big deal really.

 

[Varmann]

I did that swap 3 weeks ago on my 3.1.

As ActionableMango mentioned you need an extra data cable to the data connector on your logic board as well as a converter for the power cable.

In addition I had some issues getting the tray to eject easily out of the case opening. The original dvd-drive has a thinner tray while the model I bought had a "standard thickness". I ended up taking out the drive again and carve off a few mm´s of the excess plastic and then it worked nicely. It is probably possible to find drives with a nice fit from the start.

So far I have had no problems with it. Even got to rip my blu-ray movies before putting them in a box in the attic.

Good luck

 

[Ommid]

The physics I am OK with, I have the SATA lead and molex converter.

I wondered which drive is more compatible with the said system more than anything.

Ideally don't want to have to hack the drive to bits so that is the first point to consider, secondly don't want to be fiddling with firmware or having limitations, i.e. not being able to read certain discs/write certain discs/play using x softwre

 

[Varmann]

Since my BR drive was less than optimal (the plastic carving) and you want minimal hassle, I would suggest you find a "macfriendly" supplier. OWC has so far never let me down, and at least in my experience, their support is very good. I normally use them for components where international shipping won't be the major part of the price, like it would be in this case.

Their items are probably tested for MacPros but you can always send their support a question, if in doubt.
They are however not the cheapest alternative, but I gladly pay a premium for good support and tested products. 🙂

 

[ActionableMango]

OWC is good advice.

Also you can just do a search in the Mac Pro forum for blu-ray and see what models other people have installed.

 

[alphaod]

I have tried many Bluray drives and I've never had any issues with any of them. Currently I'm using a Pioneer BDR-206M (which supports XL media, a pointless functionality seeing discs are like $90 each), but works even so.

Just make sure the one you buy has a removable tray bezel.

 

[ragu]

LG Bluray Drive works great in MP3.1

I just installed 2 SATA drives in my MP3.1
LG's BH12LS38 Bluray and also a regular SATA DVDRW
and found out that Sata drives are not bootable so I reinstalled the original IDE drive but left The BluRay in and everything is Hunky Dorry😛

 

[Ommid]

I have sat here a brand new BDR-S06XLB!!

Will update as I change it etc, but anyone have any experience with this drive?

 

[Ommid]

Quick update:

1)Bezel popped off Pioneer
2)Installed and wired to second drive bay
3)Worked straight away with no problems


Doesn't work when waking from sleep, requires a complete system reset every time.

So far have used MakeMKV and Blu-Ray player which are excellent softwares!

Any idea how to fix the sleep issue anyone?

 

[CaptainChunk]

No such thing as a straight swap BD drive for your 3,1. 3,1 optical drive cabling is IDE and BD drives are SATA.

Actually, MCE Technologies still makes ATAPI/IDE BD drives exactly for this purpose. However, buying a LG or Pioneer kit (includes an angled SATA cable) from OWC makes a lot more sense to most for $70 less.