2010 Mac Pro - a few tech questions

[lordbiggus]

Hi there, stupid question time (not very tech savvy):

1. I have a 2010 5,1 MacPro. Which ethernet cable should I use when connecting to another Mac? CAT5 or CAT6? I seem to recall trying CAT6 one day and it not working, but CAT5 did work.

2. I want to replace my system drive with an SSD - maybe a Samsung 840 512gb Pro series drive. Will this drive be able to fit into the HDD sliders, or do I need an adapter of some sort? Also, can I simply clone the current system drive to the SSD, then boot off the SSD once the copy has finished... and expect everything to run smoothly?

Any help would be hugely appreciated and rewarded with inventive old-skool smiley faces.

-Biggus

 

[MacUser2525]

1. I have a 2010 5,1 MacPro. Which ethernet cable should I use when connecting to another Mac? CAT5 or CAT6? I seem to recall trying CAT6 one day and it not working, but CAT5 did work.

Either should work although you do not really connect the cable to each machine most times your going through a router/switch.

2. I want to replace my system drive with an SSD - maybe a Samsung 840 512gb Pro series drive. Will this drive be able to fit into the HDD sliders, or do I need an adapter of some sort? Also, can I simply clone the current system drive to the SSD, then boot off the SSD once the copy has finished... and expect everything to run smoothly?

Any help would be hugely appreciated and rewarded with inventive old-skool smiley faces.

-Biggus

Cloning then booting is no problem depending on the operating system you have in place now you may want to use Carbon Copy Cloner so you get the recovery partition recreated on the new drive. You need adapter if you want it in the main drive bays. You can simply attach it to the extra cable beneath the DVD drive if you wish or if wanting to take full advantage of the extra speed of the drive put in a pci-e card that the ssd mounts on to get the SATAIII speed used.

 

[lordbiggus]

Thanks very much. Unfortunately, I can't make use of the full speed as I already have all PCI-e sockets occupied (Aja-kona, Caldigit Raid Card, Caldigit FASTA USB3 card, 680gtx graphics card).

Would be nice though.

 

[MacUser2525]

Thanks very much. Unfortunately, I can't make use of the full speed as I already have all PCI-e sockets occupied (Aja-kona, Caldigit Raid Card, Caldigit FASTA USB3 card, 680gtx graphics card).

Would be nice though.

Your welcome that sucks, then may as well hang it off the spare connector in the DVD bay saving a drive slot. If you do go drive slot then OWC is where you want to go to get the sled to allow you to mount the drive in there believe it was $20 for the one I put in my spare machine my brother uses.

 

[lordbiggus]

Haha, yes I see people are recommending that. I've already filled that second optical slot though with a blu-ray writer.

 

[flyingmanatee]

2.5 to 3.5 mounts are needed if you're looking to use the SSD on the internal drive bays.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005PZDVF6/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Also notable the Inateck KTU3FR-4P comes in a USB 3.0 + internal SATA combo variety, you can pull your current USB 3.0 card and use this guy if you're looking to get full SATA speeds.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1600453/

See the 5 Ports Rear & 20PIN Internal variety.
http://www.amazon.com/Inateck-Super...=1389858572&sr=1-1&keywords=Inateck+KTU3FR-4P