Adding SSD to new Mac Pro- best procedure?

[ejosepha]

I have a new Mac Pro. I would like to just confirm the procedure that I plan on using to add a OWC Mercury Extreme 120GB drive that I have taken out of my Macbook Pro.
I bought the OWC adaptor tray to insert the drive in my Mac Pro. I plan on just inserting the SSD into the second HD slot.
Because I already have data on the SSD from the previous computer, I will in disk utility to do an erase and format. (I have been told not to do a secure erase but a simple erase and format on the SSD.)
My plan is to then use Carbon Copy Cloner and transfer the original contents of 1TB drive onto the SSD.
I presume from what I have read this will transfer everything, including accounts, etc.
Then I believe I can choose this new drive as the boot drive.
I have very little on the original drive in terms of space, maximum 50GB.
Does this sound like a reasonable way to go? I am not that tech savvy so I am looking for the simplest method.
Any advice would be aprreciated.

 

[Hellhammer]

That sounds good. Definitely the easiest way and since you want to transfer everything, it is probably the best way too.

 

[ejosepha]

That sounds good. Definitely the easiest way and since you want to transfer everything, it is probably the best way too.

Thanks. I don't want to lose performance on the SSD through erasing it but was told that with this drive not much risk of that as long as I don't zero out everything through a secure erase. Is that true?
Is there any advantage in changing the positions of the drives in the slots?
Is the startup disk in preferences as simple as choosing the new disk and that's it? Because once that is done I will erase the original 1TB disk and start to use it for storage.

 

[Hellhammer]

Thanks. I don't want to lose performance on the SSD through erasing it but was told that with this drive not much risk of that as long as I don't zero out everything through a secure erase. Is that true?

That is true. Secure erase will write to all blocks which means you have no empty blocks which are required in order to maintain the performance. The controller might solve the issue over time though but there is absolutely no reason to do zero erase.

Is there any advantage in changing the positions of the drives in the slots?

All are SATA 3Gb/s so not really.

Is the startup disk in preferences as simple as choosing the new disk and that's it? Because once that is done I will erase the original 1TB disk and start to use it for storage.

Yes, it is that simple. Boot from the SSD and test that everything works before erasing the 1TB though.

 

[Ommid]

Thats how I did mine

 

[cosmos]

For those Mac Pro owners who have all four of the drive slots filled with existing drives, don't forget that you can add SSDs to the Superdrive bays with brackets sold by OWC too.

 

[jetjaguar]

is there no point in getting a sata III ssd ? do the mac pros have a sataIII connector ?

 

[Cindori]

is there no point in getting a sata III ssd ? do the mac pros have a sataIII connector ?

no, no.

 

[cosmos]

is there no point in getting a sata III ssd ? do the mac pros have a sataIII connector ?

As Cindori said, the current Mac Pros are not SATA 3 interfaces. If the price were close between the two, you may want SATA 3 should you install the SSD at a later date in another system that supports it. Otherwise, I would spend the difference in a higher capacity drive.

 

[jetjaguar]

can you add a sataIII card to just run the ssd off of and maybe the sataiii caviar blacks ?

 

[philipma1957]

Won't boot!!


If you have a MAC PRO you want these ssds

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Intel-SSDSA...e_Internal&hash=item588dae1c02#ht_2405wt_1250

Intel 600gb ssd for 1079



http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Intel-SSDSA...e_Internal&hash=item588dc0850a#ht_2735wt_1250


Intel 300 gb for 529


http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Intel-SSDSA...e_Internal&hash=item588da5ee19#ht_2405wt_1250


Intel 160gb for 289

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Intel-SSDSA...e_Internal&hash=item5d2e5ff718#ht_2405wt_1250



intel 120gb for 219


this is the best set of ssds for mac pros. Yeah everyone will tell you but their ssd is good. These are what you want in a mac pro.

Unless you are doing a four sata III raid0 for scratch drive with large files.


I would use the intel because it would not break or crash as much even if I was at only 1000MB/s vs 1400MB/s for vertex 3 ssds.


for macbook pros use a sata III type as a single ssd.

 

[TomKing]

Hi-jacking another thread again...

But I've just ordered the base mac pro (2.8 quad xeon, 3GB ram etc) and an OCZ vertex 2 60GB to use as the boot drive....

Now i *may* of been a little drunk when purchasing it..so...

Is superduper! ok to clone the original drive, what about TRIM support, and also is 60GB enough... it swill only contain OSX, Logic 9 and really thats about it.

 

[blunti]

@philipma1957 : why not just go for the SandForce Vertex 2? They're really *really* fast. I'm not sure about these intel's regarding speed.
Might be more reliable(???) than Vertex 2, altho i personally never had problems with Vertex drives.

People looking for SSD drives mainly want speed increase. Vertex is simply unbeatable in speed.

 

[Hellhammer]

People looking for SSD drives mainly want speed increase. Vertex is simply unbeatable in speed.

I wouldn't say so: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/359?vs=152

In real world, the difference between Vertex 2 and Intel is not even noticeable.

 

[AppleLife]

SSD using OWC kit

I've just done this to my 13inch Macbook Pro.

The speed increase is really good, 4 days on and I am still blown away by how fast things open, even monster apps like photoshop.

Here's a blog post outlining what I did if you're interested - it outlines the process of adding an SSD to a Macbook pro using a OWC kit.