Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Building a MAX'ed out Mid 2010 MP

TheHerdForever

TheHerdForever

macrumors member
Original poster
May 11, 2012
83
1
Ladies/Gents:

After months of researching and asking for assistance on this Forum and others on how to upgrade a Mid 2010 MP, I have decided to start a thread that I hope will assist someone else that's doing, or planning on doing the same. If I cover a topic that's been covered before, I strongly apologize!! So here goes....

Parts I feel are worth upgrading to STAY WITH (OR AHEAD) of the nMP:
  • cpu
  • memory
  • storage
  • video card
  • monitor (Yes, I know it's not an important part to upgrade, but I'll say something anyways.)
  • keyboard and mouse

Before I begin, I'll let folks know that I'm taking a conservative approach to upgrading the Mid 2010, so some of the parts listed above will be discussed at a later date. With that being said, the first parts I've upgraded thus far is: video card, memory and storage (starting with a report on Blu Ray burners for Mac Pro's first). So here goes.....
 
Last edited:
Video Card for Mid 2010 MP

Folks, let's be real. IMO, there has been no one other that MavVidCards that has not only done the research, but also offers MANY flavors of video cards for the Mac Pro line. After I did NUMEROUS research online and here, I feel you'll be wasting time if you go with someone else other than MacVidCards. No, I am not his promo person. However, I am very gifted in the computer field, and when I come home to my Mac Pro, I don't want to think. Bottom line is, I wanted a reliable video card (and the BEST) for MY needs and I didn't want to spend a lot of time during what MacVidCards does. Therefore, I researched what MacVidCards (and Bare Feats I should add) did and decided to go with the GTX Titan using 2 x 6 pin PCI-E to PIC-e to power the Titan using the INTERNAL power supply. I should add that I am running Mavericks for all the parts I am installing and here the result of install the Titan using the for formentioned power cables (please see below).

I am running 3 x Samsung S27B970 (27") monitors with the Titan and all I can say is WOW!! Each one runs at 2560x1440 max and all three rival the Apple Cinema displays. As I've stated earlier, I was going to mention monitors here and now I did. Why? (1) Price for new Samsung $800 (could be found cheaper online), price for Apple Cinema Display $900 and (2) Samsung has more features such as built in speakers, 2 USB ports and support for different video ports (HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI and others).

Frank
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2013-11-03 at 1.05.40 AM.png
    Screen Shot 2013-11-03 at 1.05.40 AM.png
    47.5 KB · Views: 68
Last edited:
Memory for Mid 2010 MP

The maximum amount of memory you can put into the Mid 2010 MP is 128 GB. Therefore, I did. I got the memory at OWC because I've used them in the past for other Mac parts and I haven't had problems with support or the products they sell. Yes, you can get memory at cheaper places online, but I felt OWC memory is reliable enough for me and it supports the Apple Thermo specifications very nicely ..... and they are registered ..... another plus!! :D

Oh and before I forget, since I still have 2 x 2.4 GHz (each with 4 cores) cpu's in my MP, I can only get 1066 MHz speed out of them for now. When I upgrade my cpu's, I'll get 1333 MHz!! SOOOOoooo, you CAN run OWC (and others I'm sure) memory with the older cpu's just fine. When you upgrade your cpus to Westmere X56xx's, I believe the speed will increase to 1333MHz. Here is a screen shot of what I have now.

Frank
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2013-11-03 at 1.33.12 AM.png
    Screen Shot 2013-11-03 at 1.33.12 AM.png
    35.4 KB · Views: 67
Last edited:
Blu Ray Burner for Mid 2010 MP

A no brainer here folks! After researching the MacRumors.com forums, seems like LG was the vendor of choice by many. Since they have many models to choose from, I decided to get the top of the line LG Blu Ray player (which is the BH16NS40) and give it a try.

Boy was I surprised!! Talk about a easy installation!! It took me 3 minutes to add the LG BH16NS40 into the second DVD bay!! Mavericks was able to detect the BH16NS40 on boot up, BUT check this out:

Mavericks REPORTS IT CAN WRITE to the following disc formats:
BD-R (SL)
BD-RE (SL)
DVD±R (SL/DL)
DVD±RW
DVD-RAM
CD-R/RW

Mavericks DOESN’T REPORT IT CAN WRITE to the following disc formats:
BD-R (DL)
BD-RE (DL)
BD-R (SL LTH)
BD-R XL (3 Layer)
BD-R XL (4 Layer)
BD-RE (3 Layer)

LG BH16NS40 SUPPORTED WRITE disc formats:
BD-R (SL/DL)
BD-RE (SL/DL)
BD-R (SL LTH)
BD-R XL (3 Layer)
BD-R XL (4 Layer)
BD-RE (3 Layer)
DVD±R (SL/DL)
DVD±RW
DVD-RAM
CD-R/RW

Looks like I have some more work to do. :eek: Also, the jury is still out on what fancy media software can be used with this Blu Ray burner. I've heard Roxio Toast (I think that's the name), Cyberlink PowerDVD and there are some others. I was hoping someone here can shed some light on this and recommend what they are using AND is it reliable with the Blu Ray burners they have in their MP's. Here is a screen shot report of the LG.

Frank

P.S. Notice where Mavericks places the model of the lower disc drive. I wonder if this is a mistake, or by design. Comments? Thoughts?
 

Attachments

  • Screen Shot 2013-11-03 at 1.38.25 AM.png
    Screen Shot 2013-11-03 at 1.38.25 AM.png
    44.2 KB · Views: 73
TheHerdForever said:
P.S. Notice where Mavericks places the model of the lower disc drive. I wonder if this is a mistake, or by design. Comments? Thoughts?
Click to expand...

"HL-DT-ST" = Hitachi-LG Data Storage. It's a joint venture between LG and Hitachi since the beginning of 2001 to build optical drives.
 
I got a rare set of EVERY Columbo episode ever made on BR for my mom.

I wanted to back them all up because she has a cat. I found that Aurora had a backup ripper and then believe it or not I used Apple Disk Utility to burn. Very few coasters which is good because they were Dual Layer .

I got some rewritables to do test burns on. I have 2 BR burners. Large one in optic bay is Pioneer and I got an external one from Asus.

The Asus in nice as it is USB and can be connected to any Mac to play or burn any type disc. Not as pretty as official Apple ext SuperDrive but far more useful and no kext hacking to make work on MP.

I will get the model number for the Pioneer.

I had hoped to use 2 drives so that I wouldn't have to save disc images but it worked out that I know have a drive full of giant BR Disc images.

Once you pay for the software, the overall experience is good.

I accidentally bought a spindle of Single Layer but have used those to backup my reel clips (lots of 30/60 second commercials) and photo collections. 20 gb is a lot. (Remember 100mg Zip drives?)
 
MacVidCards said:
I got a rare set of EVERY Columbo episode ever made on BR for my mom.

I wanted to back them all up because she has a cat. I found that Aurora had a backup ripper and then believe it or not I used Apple Disk Utility to burn. Very few coasters which is good because they were Dual Layer .
Click to expand...

Aurora has backup??

I was using VLC's BluRay extensions to rip but found that several BluRays had DRM it couldn't handle. I got the new Batman trilogy to rip but not Cabin In The Woods. Does Aurora work as well as MakeMKV and some of the PC solutions?

I'd hate to pay $40 and run into the same issues.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back