X Serve ... I clearly lost my mind

[dom_a2345]

Hi Guys

I clearly lost my mind last night and don't ask me why but bought a 2009 2.26 quad core x serve on ebay (£70) how could i resist!!!!

I am thinking of upgrading the logic board and cpu's to dual quad 2.26

But more importantly I have some hard drive questions?

I want to add an ssd. Can any ssd by used (samsung evo 850 250gb is what i probably will use.) I am going to buy the internal connectors and drive bay so it wont go in one of the hot swappable bays. Will a Sammy work does anyone know?

Also am I able to stick a wd red 2gb in the ADM or do I have to use apple certified disks?
Are you able to take the blanking plates out and put in ADM's to add more drives?

This isn't a production machine obvs.

 

[adam9c1]

score

 

[jamall]

If by "internal connectors and drive bay" you mean a PCIe expansion card that lets you mount a 2.5" SSD, then any that are advertised as being bootable in a Mac Pro will work with any SSD in an Xserve. The ADMs are a bit picky however - some drives work and some don't, and a drive that works in one particular caddy may not work in another. It's all trial and error I'm afraid.

 

[Waragainstsleep]

I've never found the ADMs to be picky but of course, Apple won't vouch for anything without an Apple log on its label. You are unlikely to have an issue unless you try to use RAID.
Samsung 850 should be fine to the best of my knowledge.

 

[N10248]

Ha, I bid on that one too!

The caddies in that one can take any SAS or SATA drives. BUT I've found that the Xserve itself will often ignore non Apple firmware drives. I have a load of perfectly good WD 160GB drives and none of them appear in the system profiler at all. But any that have an Apple logo on the sticker always seem to work OK.

The internal SSD bay can't take a standard SATA drive, you'll need a special ribbon cable and the same type of drive Apple would have used (which is also the exact same SSD as used in the very first MacBook Air).

You can add more caddies but I think they have to be the same as the 2 you have, as earlier models without the SAS port are not compatible (but the type you have will work on older models).

 

[dom_a2345]

Ha, I bid on that one too!

Well I actually have it back up for sale. I bought a mac pro (2008) instead and that came with 3 apple h/d in so have put two in the x-serve. It was just a bit to noisy for my front room, the missus wasn't best pleased. But if you are interested still I am sure we can come to an arrangement?

 

[nlistgarten]

Wow that's a lucky score! I have been able to sell my 2009 Xserves 1x2.26GHz for $400+!
Note that the motherboard for the single CPU version does not have the hardware to support a second CPU. You may have to try to find a new motherboard. It also might be possible to build the second hardware support onto the motherboard in the open holes, but that seems like it would be extremely difficult.

 

[rgfincher]

I recently started a Facebook group for X-Serve Owners.
At https://www.facebook.com/groups/1773247562908117/