I'm looking at getting my first Mac Pro. Probably the original 1,1. The one I'm looking at only has an 80gb hdd. I have larger drives but they're 2.5". I know there's adapters to go from 3.5 to 2.5 for the sled but my question is this, Can I use the 2.5 drive without an adapter or anything extra? I've done it in a power mac G5 before but this will be the first Mac Pro I've ever worked with.
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2.5" Hard Drive in Mac Pro
- Thread starter littlecody8
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I mounted an SSD using velcro cable ties secured to a couple vents on the bottom of the power supply in my 5,1. You could probably do something similar with the sled slots if you don't want to buy an ICYdock or similar adapter.
FWIW, I would recommend not buying anything older than a 2008 model. 1,1 2006 is pretty inadequate for anything outside of general computing. You could get a newer mac mini for about the same price that will deliver better performance.
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Thanks for the advice. I've been debating it. I'd be replacing my Mac mini 2,1. Which I'm mainly using as a media sever and general computing. Just want something slightly faster. Never had a Mac Pro so I thought give it a try. The Pro 1,1 on eBay I'm looking at would be $260 shipped. Is this a good price? Looks like all the others are around that or higher. There's also one that I could wait 8 days and try bidding on one for pick up in LA that's newer and upgraded. Probably going to be out of my price range though.
It's OK.
It will work great as a server, with plenty of expansion space (up to 16 TB HDDs + two additional SATA ports for boot/scratch disks). I personally would use 2.5 disks for the OS X and data and RAID the four 3.5 disks.
If you want to run Mavericks, there's a thread for you. It works beautifully (and while I have two Minis, I still need to wait for an 8-core one).
Price seems reasonable to see what they are selling for click the sold listings on a search page. One thing to look out for is older than a 4,1 if that 2.5" drive is SATA then you will need to use the internal HD bays or run a cable from the spare SATA connectors (not sure if 2,1 or 1,1 have these) on the logic board up into the DVD bay. With a 4,1 and newer there is a spare connector already in there. There you would need a molex to SATA power adapter to get the power for a 2.5" SATA drive.
You can probably get a single socket 2008 model with upgrades for around $500. EDIT: Yes you can - Link
When the new Mac Pro becomes widely available, a lot of folks will dump their older rigs to upgrade. Theoretically this should create a buyer's market, ergo lower prices.
If it's just a media server and general computing, I would say this $260 model is safe. Buy a few 1-2TB HDDs and an SSD, should get you by for a few years.
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Had to go into work. Just went back on eBay to purchase it and it's already gone. I'm going to keep an eye on the one in LA that's pickup only, hoping it will be a lower because of this. It's a 2010 with 16gb ram so a bit better. I'll keep looking around for others as well. Thank you everyone for all the info.