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denisinternet

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 29, 2017
1
0
West Hollywood
Hello!

I have been browsing the forums and have seen many different recommendations for upgrading storage on a Mac Pro. I have looked at different websites including owc, amfeltec, sonnet, synology and more.

I am going to post my specs below and what I am trying to achieve, and I would very much appreciate your advice on which upgrade path I should take. I have built PCs in the past so I am not entirely illiterate on the subject but I am by no means an expert, so hopefully what I write below makes sense.

Software I use on a daily basis: Avid Media Composer, Pro Tools, Premiere, After Effects, Resolve, Photoshop and occasionally Cinema 4D (mostly to adjust incoming assets). Footage ranges from 1080 DSLR ProRes files to 4k stereo RED and DPX sequences (proxy editing) and have also edited some VR work in odd formats like 3840x1920, 4096 x 4096 (stereo) or even 5760 x 5760 (that export took forever bleh).

I have a Mac Pro 5,1 (Mid 2012)

Processor: 3.33 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon. (I am happy with this)
Memory: 32 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC (I am also happy with this)
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 TI 6144 MB (from MacVids)
Startup Disk: Apple SSD SM512E (for Programs/Apps only)
Second SSD: Samsung Evo 850 1TB (for Active Projects only, decent only for 1080p projects...)
Bootcamp: SanDisk Ultra II 960 GB running Windows 10 in UEFI (for limited VR editing in Oculus)
PCI: CalDigit USB3 Adapter

I have worked on a PC with an Asus X-99 Deluxe Mobo, 6900k CPU and a Intel 750 NVMe, and I loved it. I would love to upgrade my MacPro with a PCIe SSD but I am not sure what would be the best setup and hardware. For example, should I purchase a PCIe SSD set it up as a boot drive and use my current startup disk for cache only? Should I keep my current Startup SSD and use the PCIe SSD as a secondary for Active Projects? Max Budget 1,000.00 USD.

I very much appreciate any and all advice, if something doesn't make sense or is just plane wrong I am always happy to learn.

Thank you!
 
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