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To buy or not to buy second hand Mac Pro.
- Thread starter technowar
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2006 Mac Pro should be $250. More if lots of RAM. Put four 4TB drives in each slot and 2 more drives in each optical bay. On the 1,1 2,1 and 3,1 systems those bays are PATA but there are two SATA headers on the motherboard. hard to get to but there for the taking. Power is already in the bays but you may need an adapter depending on the drives.
some pictures and details here,
http://macenstein.com/default/2007/...able-the-25-way-to-add-esata-to-your-mac-pro/
Instructions for a slightly different purpose but it get's you started. I've done it with a 1,1. PITA to be sure.
On the 4,1 5,1 machines the optical bays are SATA so it's even easier. I either case, you'll need to adapt 5.25" to 3.5".
some pictures and details here,
http://macenstein.com/default/2007/...able-the-25-way-to-add-esata-to-your-mac-pro/
Instructions for a slightly different purpose but it get's you started. I've done it with a 1,1. PITA to be sure.
On the 4,1 5,1 machines the optical bays are SATA so it's even easier. I either case, you'll need to adapt 5.25" to 3.5".
You can try adding 2 more HDs at the optical drive bay area though you will need IDE HDs. I think OWC still sells them. That should give you more storage room.
You don't need to go IDE for the optical bays on a 3,1. You can snake sata cables to the two sata ports on the motherboard behind the fan case next to the processor heat sinks. They also sell ide to sata converter chipsets if you want to keep with the ide cables in the optical bays. Lots of options for hds in a 3,1.
Thanks for the info. Yes I recall there are 2 extra SATA ports at the motherboard. This should provide more options to the thread starter.
Yes, you can add up to 2 more 3.5" drives inside DVD drive area by removing the optical drives and installing them in there using 5.25" to 3.5" adaptor rails.
The Mac Pro supports drives greater then 2TB. I currently have 5 3TB SATA drives in mine (plus some 2.5" drives).
You can use PATA in the optical drives more easily. 2 drives in a Master/Slave arrangement. Be aware that the largest PATA drives made for the public were 750GB, but they were rare, so 500-640GB drives will be what you are most likely to find available now, and if used they will be close to 10 years old by now.
You can also add more drives by using SATA expansion cards in the PCI-E slots. You can fit three of them in there. You can either fit anywhere from 4 to 8 laptop drives in the optical bay area using 5.25" to 2.5" adaptors. Running that many cables up to the PCI-E area would be a little tricky.
2.5" drives use very little power, so simply using a Molex to SATA breakout cable from the Molex in the optical drive area would be enough even for 8 drives.
You can also use PCI-E cards that hold 2.5" drives like the Apricorn Velocity Solo and Duo. They work real well. I use one to hold a drive to use as a Time Machine backup on mine.
Be aware that 2.5" drives do come in 1.5TB and 2TB capacities, but they are 2-3x the price of a 3.5" version.
What can be done with a 2006 Mac Pro
Hello everyone!
I bought a 2006 Mac Pro when it was first released and have been using it as my main computer ever since. It is getting a bit long in the tooth, but given the proper upgrades is reasonably fast and you can get work done.
First, I would go with 3TB Seagate drives, the 4TB Seagate drives changed the screw hole layout which is a problem for the drive sleds.
I'm using 2 3TB Seagate drives in a raid 1 for data, and in the other slots I have two Intel X25 80gb SSDs in a raid 0 for my osx boot and applications disk. Using raided SSDs, even older ones like these, give a tremendous performance boost, I couldn't still use the machine without it.
I have 10GB Ram, cheapest I found was Transcend and it was fine.
You can only upgrade as far as Lion, not Mountain Lion or Mavericks. Unless of course you want to use various hackintosh tricks. This link will show you how to do it.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1598176/
A final word. 2006 Mac Pro computer uses A LOT of electricity! If I leave the computer on 24 hours a day it costs a significant amount of money here in California, maybe $600 to $800 over a year by my calculation. I turn it off when I am not using it and eventually I will replace it for this reason.
Good Luck!
Joseph
Hello everyone!
I bought a 2006 Mac Pro when it was first released and have been using it as my main computer ever since. It is getting a bit long in the tooth, but given the proper upgrades is reasonably fast and you can get work done.
First, I would go with 3TB Seagate drives, the 4TB Seagate drives changed the screw hole layout which is a problem for the drive sleds.
I'm using 2 3TB Seagate drives in a raid 1 for data, and in the other slots I have two Intel X25 80gb SSDs in a raid 0 for my osx boot and applications disk. Using raided SSDs, even older ones like these, give a tremendous performance boost, I couldn't still use the machine without it.
I have 10GB Ram, cheapest I found was Transcend and it was fine.
You can only upgrade as far as Lion, not Mountain Lion or Mavericks. Unless of course you want to use various hackintosh tricks. This link will show you how to do it.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1598176/
A final word. 2006 Mac Pro computer uses A LOT of electricity! If I leave the computer on 24 hours a day it costs a significant amount of money here in California, maybe $600 to $800 over a year by my calculation. I turn it off when I am not using it and eventually I will replace it for this reason.
Good Luck!
Joseph