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2008 Mac Pro UPGRADES!!

M

musycsmk

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 19, 2012
24
0
Los Angeles, CA
Hi Guys I just purchased a Mac Pro today for $975 (2008 3,1 2.8 8 core, 4GB or ram ddr2 667, 250GB HD, Nvidia 8800GT 512MB). Don't really know if that was a good price.

Looked around and checked posts regarding the ram speed and saw it isn't good to use a ddr2 667 on a 3,1 model. IDK if that's true...

Anyways i'm thinking about upgrading the harddrive to a OWC SSD Electra 120GB for main boot and use the extra HD for filing music productions and such.

If the ram is a problem or isn't good for the processors i'm going to swap it out to a OWC ram 4GB and buy more later on.

What do you guys think? HELP~
 
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That model uses DDR2 800MHz RAM, I believe it can use 667MHz RAM but it will simply run slower, to maximize performance you should use 800MHz RAM. You can certainly put an SSD drive in that Mac Pro however plugged into an onboard SATA port, it will only run at SATA 2 speeds. I put a SATA 3 card in my Mac Pro 2008 and connected a SATA 3 SSD to it as my boot drive, it runs great. This model Mac Pro also has two extra SATA ports that can be utilized as well although not for a boot drive.
 
musycsmk said:
Hi Guys I just purchased a Mac Pro today for $975 (2008 3,1 2.8 8 core, 4GB or ram ddr2 667, 250GB HD, Nvidia 8800GT 512MB). Don't really know if that was a good price.

Looked around and checked posts regarding the ram speed and saw it isn't good to use a ddr2 667 on a 3,1 model. IDK if that's true...

Anyways i'm thinking about upgrading the harddrive to a OWC SSD Electra 120GB for main boot and use the extra HD for filing music productions and such.

If the ram is a problem or isn't good for the processors i'm going to swap it out to a OWC ram 4GB and buy more later on.

What do you guys think? HELP~
Click to expand...

Congrats on getting your MacPro.

RAM - More ram is always good. I have 22Gb and that works out for me. My swap drive is nonexistant. I would recommend getting ram from Transint (http://www.transintl.com). It is cheaper than from OWC.

Hard Drives - I have a pair of OWC 3G ssds in a RAID 0 as my boot drive using the 2 unused SATA ports on my motherboard. I have been very, very pleased with how they performed. Another option is the Mercury Accelsior.

Useful items you didn't know you need. Drive Caddy from Transintl
On your motherboard, you have 2 SATA ports that are not used. You can replace the optical drive cage with the Drive Caddy and add 2 additional internal hard drives to your computer. That is how I got 6 hard drives in my computer.
 
ashman70 said:
That model uses DDR2 800MHz RAM, I believe it can use 667MHz RAM but it will simply run slower, to maximize performance you should use 800MHz RAM. You can certainly put an SSD drive in that Mac Pro however plugged into an onboard SATA port, it will only run at SATA 2 speeds. I put a SATA 3 card in my Mac Pro 2008 and connected a SATA 3 SSD to it as my boot drive, it runs great. This model Mac Pro also has two extra SATA ports that can be utilized as well although not for a boot drive.
Click to expand...

So it's possible to buy the sata 3 ssd and plug it but it won't run at it's maximum?
I can always buy sata 3 card later and use it with the sata 3 ssd for better performance right?
 
musycsmk said:
So it's possible to buy the sata 3 ssd and plug it but it won't run at it's maximum?
I can always buy sata 3 card later and use it with the sata 3 ssd for better performance right?
Click to expand...

The only way to get SATA 3 is via a card - that applies to all MacPros, even the "new" ones. So yes.
 
sata 2 speeds for ssd's are plenty fast enough. If your used to booting from a HD, then the SSD will blow you away, even if its sata 2. :D

boot time for my MP is about 6 secs from cold boot.
 
Wow thanks a lot.
Well it seems like I need a 2.5" to 3.5" coverter drive sled any good place? I tried to find it at OWC didn't have any luck...

----------
VanneDC said:
sata 2 speeds for ssd's are plenty fast enough. If your used to booting from a HD, then the SSD will blow you away, even if its sata 2. :D

boot time for my MP is about 6 secs from cold boot.
Click to expand...

I'm going to also use it for booting and opening applications. Such as logic pro. Save those files on other HD. Would that be a huge upgrade?
 
OWC adapter for 2008
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/ADPTADRV/

That is what I bought, but now I wish I had seen this:

http://www.transintl.com/store/category.cfm?Category=2787&RequestTimeOut=500
I WOULD HAVE GOTTEN THIS INSTEAD ! ! ! !
Exactly what they should be. Perfect.

I am considering selling my OWC adapter, and selling my OEM sleds, and buying four of these from Trans.... Should be able to get around $80 out of my stuff (Should be able to get $20 for my adapter, and $15 each for my sleds) , so the investment will be pretty small to convert all 4.

Anyway... just my thoughts.
 
If you are mounting a SSD in the internal bays save yourself the $30 for a useless sled and just side mount the 3.5" adaptor onto the drive next to the bay you are putting the SSD into. Then slide the SSD onto the sled and click it into the SATA connection. It's supported by the sled and held in place by the connector. SSD's weigh next to nothing so it won't budge and there's no stress on the connector this way.
Quick free way to mount a SSD in your MacPro
 
Wirelessly posted

You may want to change your graphics card soon too. A lot of people are having their 8800GT die out. You can "bake" it to give it more life but may still die out again eventually. If you can get a used ATI 5770 or 5870 for cheap, go for it.
 
Just Placed an order to OWC.
120GB Mercury Electra 3G SSD 2.5" Serial-ATA 9.5mm 3Gb-s Solid State Drive
8.0GB Mac Pro Memory Matched Pair (2GB x 4) PC6400 DDR2 ECC 800MHz 240 Pin FB-D
Newer Technology AdaptaDrive 2.5" to 3.5" Drive Converter Bracket
Should be a big upgrade from what i had right? lol
 
musycsmk said:
Just Placed an order to OWC.
120GB Mercury Electra 3G SSD 2.5" Serial-ATA 9.5mm 3Gb-s Solid State Drive
8.0GB Mac Pro Memory Matched Pair (2GB x 4) PC6400 DDR2 ECC 800MHz 240 Pin FB-D
Newer Technology AdaptaDrive 2.5" to 3.5" Drive Converter Bracket
Should be a big upgrade from what i had right? lol
Click to expand...

For the Hard Drive cancelled OWC SSD and ordered
Corsair Force Series GT 120 GB SATA 2.5-Inch SATA III Solid State Drive (CSSD-F120GBGT-BK) Hows that?!
 
musycsmk said:
I was just curious if it was better to buy 2 x 4.0GB ram over 4 x 2.0GB Ram.
Any opinion?
Click to expand...

Price, and leaving slots available for future upgrades. Besides that no difference.


gazzared said:
Surely only one of you is correct? But which one?
Click to expand...

Any internal built in SATA port is bootable on the MacPro. Sadly they are just SATA II and not SATA III though. I'm not to sure about booting off a PCIe SATA III card. I do know that there are PCIe based SSD drives that are bootable, but expensive. (As in the SSD is ON the physical PCIe card, not connected to it via a SATA cable.)
 
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If you upgrade to Lion and install the updated Nvidia drivers you can replace your 8800gt with a newer Nvidia card (GTX560 or 570) from MacVidCards on eBay. I still use Snow Leopard on my 08 MP so I flashed a Sapphire HD5870 myself and saved a packet compared to Apple's extortionately priced version.
 
ashman70 said:
I have this card in my Mac Pro 2008 model with an OWC Sata III SSD attached to it as my main boot drive for OSX, works very well and fast. I have my SSD mounted in one of the optical bays with a long Sata cable connecting it to the card.

http://www.amazon.com/Crest-Port-SA...5?ie=UTF8&qid=1341272454&sr=8-5&keywords=syba
Click to expand...

Nice to know, and not that pricey. It's bootable and gives you full SATA III speeds off of it? I see it's PCIeX1, the '08 MacPro is PCIe 2.0 correct? So if memory serves a X1 slot will give you 500MB total bandwidth? 2 ports on the card would be bottlenecked no?
 
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Yes but you will not get full 6G speed. Closer to 400MB/s. Still better than the real world 270+MB/s off the SATA2 internally. I bought one because it is so cheap and I needed eSATA anyway. But there is no fooling myself I will have true SATA 6G speeds. You need 4x card for that.
 
derbothaus said:
Yes but you will not get full 6G speed. Closer to 400MB/s. Still better than the real world 270+MB/s off the SATA2 internally. I bought one because it is so cheap and I needed eSATA anyway. But there is no fooling myself I will have true SATA 6G speeds. You need 4x card for that.
Click to expand...

On that note, know any x4 cards that are bootable?
 
ashman70 said:
I have this card in my Mac Pro 2008 model with an OWC Sata III SSD attached to it as my main boot drive for OSX, works very well and fast. I have my SSD mounted in one of the optical bays with a long Sata cable connecting it to the card.

http://www.amazon.com/Crest-Port-SA...5?ie=UTF8&qid=1341272454&sr=8-5&keywords=syba
Click to expand...

Are you certain you are getting SATA3 speeds? I have the same card and it only gave me 270MB/s reads and 250MB/s writes which are identical to the built-in SATA2 ports. I got these results using Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. Thanks.
 
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