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Getting ready to roll! Mac Pro comes in Thursday a few ???'s

Jbgloss

Jbgloss

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 20, 2011
98
0
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
New Mac Pro 3.33 Heading this way on Thursday!!! With 2 Displays.

I have coming in from OWC 2 120 GB SSD’s with Icy Docks and 1 TB WD Caviar Black HD - 16 GB Ram - 2 extension cables for the displays.

I will be upgrading from my 2.2 Macbook Pro

A couple questions. I am trying to do as clean of install as possible.


I will install the SSDs and The Caviar first.

2. Should I wait to do the RAM after I get everything rolling or do that next?

Then I am wondering if I should use the Migrate or just install Snow Leopard on the SSD?

I want to make sure Boot and Applications are on the SSD and Caviar has Home.

I am really not too concerned about what I have on the old CPU there are a few applications but I am thinking about pulling them individually to where needed either home or if they are video files I use a bunch I will put on the second SSD.

I will be installing CS5, FCE, LS all by disc

The other applications I have on my system I was thinking of using CCC and just manually put in the rest of the APPs? Not sure if this is a good idea?

I just want to do as CLEAN of install as I can.

Any HELP would be great. Thank You :)
 
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Keep it simple.

I would not migrate the laptop personally or migrate it first to the standard Apple drive in bay 1 before the upgrades.
I would install the OS and your chosen apps on the SSD then manually cherry pick your personal files from the lappie onto the Caviar.
Fit the RAM along with the drives, it takes minutes. I assume you will have a standard Apple install drive in there already. It will boot happily till you are ready to switch to the SSDs.
RAID 0 the pair of SSDs and use the 1 TB Caviar as a file server storage drive. The OS and Apps will boot in seconds, the files will fly too.
Keep the Apple standard boot drive as a backup/recovery/maintenance system with something useful like Drive Genius 3 on it.
 
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Thank you!

Perfect!!

That is what I needed. I know there are tons of threads on this, but I want to make sure this initial setup is good. Pretty heavy investment but I am truly pumped.

Thank you for the help - I am printing it out and getting all the information on each step so I can take it step by step.

Thanks a lot!!

JB
 
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I like to check that the RAM modules all work first.
 
something else that you can do before you do anything else with file management (you may already be planning this) is to install your SSD and then use CCC to copy the stock apple drive onto your SSD boot drive. This will save time over reinstalling osx dvd onto the SSD. After you CCC the stock 1tb disc onto the SSD you can delete the stock disc then move your home folder back onto it (or the 1TB you got from OWC).

From the programs that you are listing that you are using I would not raid the SSDs, I would keep them separate and use the first one as your boot and the second one as your scratch disc. Each of your programs preference panel will give you the option to select your scratch disc. I cannot imagine you needing 240GB for Boot there would be absolutely no advantage to any other type of raid considering the speed of the SSD as it is..to me this and just a waste of space you could use and actually notice!

You could then use your 1 tb drive as your main data and run a back up program nightly on it. I use CCC at 400hour every morning to do my data back ups.

My internal back ups are as follows

I copy my SSD boot drive onto the stock 1tb disc at 400
I copy my 3tb data drive at this time daily as well to a second 3 tb drive.
I do not back up my SSD scratch disc
 
Hold

I would seriously wait on the Mac Pro. Apple is about to refresh them since it seems like iPad is going to have a light peak connection. I'd give it a few weeks maximum, unless you need it immediately. I don't see why one would spend all that money on a machine without high speed connection and Apple doesn't support USB 3 yet (Will probably next year).
 
clibinarius said:
I would seriously wait on the Mac Pro. Apple is about to refresh them since it seems like iPad is going to have a light peak connection. I'd give it a few weeks maximum, unless you need it immediately. I don't see why one would spend all that money on a machine without high speed connection and Apple doesn't support USB 3 yet (Will probably next year).
Click to expand...

It will not be a few weeks for a refresh and if someone needs something they need it. This is not a macbook pro that the guy is getting so he can run geekbench scores (i hope) There are no thunderbolt accessories available as of today and if he were to wait he could get thunderbolt and then a year later he would not have lightningbolt or whatever it is that will be 3x faster than TB.

Also I would rather have my TB in a Card that I can easily swap around and upgrade later on so Ill be happy with my 2010 as it is whats working wonderfully for me. I am not crying over the need for a faster external port:)
 
Awesome

This forum has been amazing so far....

Thanks for the concern on buying too early but I am need for video and audio production.

@rmitchell248 thank you on the SSD set up I was thinking the same as not Raid but use them as BOOT/APPS and Scratch.

Then the 1TB Caviar as Home ie Data

Back up all with the Stock drive using CCC - I hope that makes sense.

SO - For now the gameplan is:

1. Put in RAM boot the system and check that RAM is OK
2. Put in 3 Drives
3. Copy the Stock 1T with CCC onto the Primary SSD
4. Move the home folder to the Caviar Black 1TB
5. Clean the Stock disc for Backups etc....
6. Install all the programs either by disk or by CCC on my current external.
7. Manually bring in video files, websites, etc into my system
8. Assign Scratch disk in programs to the 2nd SSD

I think I am feeling good about this. I can always grab other drives and or Ram. I think for me 16GB will work great my Video requirements are minimal. My heavy production is done by my Pro video guy. This is for my personal recording and video work which are quick videos on youtube, vimeo etc...

Just fyi my business is motivational. I started 4 years ago with a podcast - recording on a PC with Soundforge. It hit number 1 in iTunes Self-Help quickly and has stayed there for 4 years. I obviously switched to a Mac a few years ago as the business was building.

I now do A LOT of content myself all self taught. But boy it is nice to be able to do it on my own. I have some pros around me, but when you put out as much content as I do you need to be able to. This Monday is my 1115th Podcast!!! I do a video every week and I need this machine :)

I am not worried about Benchmarks - truly it is about my production and getting my content out as fast as possible so I can go PLAY!!!!

Love this forum. I was really worried about setting this CPU up right as I do not do this full time. I mean I am not a pro. I just produce a MASSIVE amount of content. This is another tool in my tool box and I think it is going to be massive for me. Everything will be more quality and I will be able to spend more time doing what I do. Help people.

Thank you to everyone that is posting. I need the help, but I will for sure pass on the learning once I have acquired it.

Thank you very much!!

JB
 
clibinarius said:
I would seriously wait on the Mac Pro. Apple is about to refresh them since it seems like iPad is going to have a light peak connection. I'd give it a few weeks maximum, unless you need it immediately. I don't see why one would spend all that money on a machine without high speed connection and Apple doesn't support USB 3 yet (Will probably next year).
Click to expand...

I wouldn't think the Mac Pros would be refreshed until the Sandy Bridge Xeons are shipped that will go in them. That's not until much later in the year.
 
Hey jb ghat looks great. Would definitely install your apps from original dvd disks so that you don't miss any folders when trying to Copy them over this will provide you a much much cleaner install! I treat any update in machines as a fresh start aside from data and personal settings.

I would also add that immediately after Nummer 5 so let's say Nummer 5a you may want to consider setting a partition in your stock 1tb drive that is about 20gb larger than the used volume of your boot SSd and use that partition to back up the SSd

So lets say your boot drive ends up using 50gb space on the ssd you will have 2 partitions on your 1tb back up. The first being 930 gb as the data back up partition and the second as the 70 gb SSd back up. This will then allow you to do 100% clones of each drive and store them in their own partition of the drive keeping the files separate and still bootable if you ever had a main drive failure.

I hope this makes sense to you. I suggest this as I feel CCC works the best and will be most accurate for you if it's cloning drives one for one on your regular basis back ups wether they truly are 1 individual drive to one individual drive or three individual drives to three partitions of one drive! This will also make it much simpler if say your boot drive fails and you replace the SSD. Now You can just do a 100% CCC of The boot drive back up partition to your replacement and your running in minutes. Otherwise your sitting there
Sorting through folders that need to go on the boot drive......

Excuse any typos I'm on my handy and it likes to spell correct in German;)
 
Once again thank you

@rmitchell248 Thanks a ton and a real good idea going to add that to the checklist!!

@philipma1957 Thanks for the heads up on the ICY Docks - will have to see if we can get them to work. It looks like they have a solution, I could just see myself sitting here going what am I doing wrong!!!

Huge help!

Thank you for everything!!

JB
 
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philipma1957 said:
icy dock has had problems with the ssd mounting correctly. So if the ssd acts wrong it may be the icy dock mount. maybe someone can find the link?

found the link so keep it in mind

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1087399/
Click to expand...

I also recently installed a couple icy docks on my 2010 mp and had no issues whatsoever with them. I think youll be just Fine!

If you end up gefront a 5th drive Ever, know that you can put it into the spare optical drive (bottom cd drive tray thats not being used) but it will require mounting brackets that OWC sells as well since it is 5.25 inches.
 
clibinarius said:
I would seriously wait on the Mac Pro. Apple is about to refresh them since it seems like iPad is going to have a light peak connection. I'd give it a few weeks maximum, unless you need it immediately. I don't see why one would spend all that money on a machine without high speed connection and Apple doesn't support USB 3 yet (Will probably next year).
Click to expand...

This is extremely bad advice. There will be NO new MP until 2012.

I would also caution against RAIDing 2 SSD's. It's not really needed and you will get more bang by using the second SSD as a separate scratch drive.

JohnG
 
johnnymg said:
This is extremely bad advice. There will be NO new MP until 2012.
Click to expand...

Also bad advise. No one knows this for sure. They could bump the line by 133MHz and shift things around. But there will be nothing earth shattering till late this year early next year.
 
I'm betting there won't be a Mac Pro till early or mid 2012. Lightpeak requires reworking the motherboard so that kind of design change won't happen quickly in an existing design. It also won't happen until Sandy Bridge makes its way to non consumer boards.

I have two OWC SSD's in a Raid 0 array and recommend it. I have a partion for scratch.

Just monitor your Icy Dock, there have been a few people on this board who have had problems with it.

I have mine plugged in the optical bay Sata connections and it works great.
 
johnnymg said:
This is extremely bad advice. There will be NO new MP until 2012.

I would also caution against RAIDing 2 SSD's. It's not really needed and you will get more bang by using the second SSD as a separate scratch drive.

JohnG
Click to expand...

I would tend to agree on the wait... why buy a heavy work horse now that you cannot upgrade without buying a complete new system. Thunderbolt cant be implemented in older machines in any way...........
Thunderbolt is simply too good not to have. And to the guy talking aboutt accessories; Lacie just came out with Little Big disk that supports thunderbolt.
 
legreve said:
I would tend to agree on the wait... why buy a heavy work horse now that you cannot upgrade without buying a complete new system. Thunderbolt cant be implemented in older machines in any way...........
Thunderbolt is simply too good not to have. And to the guy talking aboutt accessories; Lacie just came out with Little Big disk that supports thunderbolt.
Click to expand...

how do you know that it cannot be supported?
 
The non support on old machines is just speculation at the moment. Wait for facts on that one before you make any decisions.
 
Thanks everyone

I know that this machine will hold up for a few good years and I will get more then my money's worth out of it.

If Apple brings something out in 3 months that obsoletes this CPU, I would be highly surprised. It does get you thinking though! DAMN they are good!!! Apple that is!!

I am still up in the air on Raid0, good decision to have.....

Thanks everyone, time to move forward and maximize the new machine when it gets here later this week!!

If Apple surprises me I will adapt and adjust. But I feel this CPU is going to rock for the next 2 years at least - The end of the world is next year anyways so it should at least hold up until then!!! :)

Thanks everyone!!
:)
 
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