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Installing an SSD in an early 2008 Mac Pro

tomscott1988

tomscott1988

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 14, 2009
715
706
UK
Hi,

I have an early 2008 Mac Pro. I currently have all the hard drive bays full but want to add an SSD as my boot drive. But i dont want to remove any of the current drives, so i want to add it under the optical drive. Now problems.. the early 2008 mac pro isnt sata ready in the optical drive bay, like the 2009 model, and i know you can route a sata cable from the motherboard. But how do i route power to the drive? because the drive is a 2.5" also any suggestions to caddies to place the drive into the drive bay? and how long the sata cable should be?. Any help would be appreciated.
:D
 
tomscott1988 said:
Hi,

I have an early 2008 Mac Pro. I currently have all the hard drive bays full but want to add an SSD as my boot drive. But i dont want to remove any of the current drives, so i want to add it under the optical drive. Now problems.. the early 2008 mac pro isnt sata ready in the optical drive bay, like the 2009 model, and i know you can route a sata cable from the motherboard. But how do i route power to the drive? because the drive is a 2.5" also any suggestions to caddies to place the drive into the drive bay? and how long the sata cable should be?. Any help would be appreciated.
:D
Click to expand...

For power you will need a molex "Y" connector and then a molex to sata convertor cable - short on both since there's not a lot of room there.
 
why waste the effort putting a SSD in the optical bay? They have no moving parts, just stick it in the case somewhere and let it hang, or tape it down on the fan housings.
 
Thank you for the suggestions! well if it comes down to £20-£40 for a bracket id rather it be secure than moving about in the case, wouldnt want it or the pro being damaged. I have seen them and there pretty cheap just wondering if anyone had purchased one?
 
tomscott1988 said:
Thank you for the suggestions! well if it comes down to £20-£40 for a bracket id rather it be secure than moving about in the case, wouldnt want it or the pro being damaged. I have seen them and there pretty cheap just wondering if anyone had purchased one?
Click to expand...

I have my two (raid 0) wedged between the last two hard drives and the memory cage using model railroad rubber roadbed. They are not going anywhere.
 
thank you

So i have tried with just a 2.5 250gb 5400rpm drive that came out of my old macbook Just for a test, before i take the plunge and buy an SSD. The distance you have to play with between the fan assembly and the logic board is only 1.6cm (or 16mm) so it makes sense to use a 90 degree sata cable to ensure the fan assembly fits back in. The original cable i used was a standard sata cable which fit but just, the head of the cable is 17mm so was abit of a squeeze, and basically screwing the fan assembly half what it should be as not to put pressure on the logic board.
Another tip is to buy a sata cable with plenty of length, it is a tight fit so one between 12-18 inches long would be more appropriate. The one i used was 10" and only just fit with alot of re-jigging with the cables already there (IDE molar etc). Also with a single sata going into the drive not a power+sata combo, the cable is loose (doesnt click in like it would with a power+sata combo connector) so every time the drive bay caddy comes out it comes out of the drive and is a pain to push back in the pro with it staying attached. So buy a cable with plenty of play and you wont have these problems ;).
I did use velcro as a make shift option just to try, problems faced by this.. the bottom of the drive caddy has large holes in it so it had to be attached in an awkward way, awkward but acceptible. The mac pro is a stationary device so as long as your not planning on moving it too much should be fine! :)
Last note if you are thinking of attaching a 2.5" or 3.5" HDD not SSD to the drive bay buy a 5.25" - 3.5" or 2.5" converter. Attaching the drive via velcro means the drive is in contact with the metal drive caddy so reverberates through the mac pro making it audiable. If you are used to your pro being silent (like i am) then this will really anoy you!
This is my take on the cost - If you have just spent a significant amount of money on your machine £2000 plus, it is worth spending the money to keep it high quality. The caddys are less than £40 and continues the high quality feel of the pro (no vibration/noise, drive fits in without problems and is secure) and means if you are a person who moves the pro around abit that you wont have to worry!
Thank you to everyone in the thread, and hope this helps anyone wanting to install a 2.5" or 3.5" drive into their 2008 Mac Pro.
:apple:
 
I recently put in a 285GTX which uses the 2nd power source from the optical reserve. Will there be a way to add 2 SSD in a Raid0 without sacrificing any drives? Mine are all populated.

I'm also not sure which ones are good for performance as I imagine any SSD will blow away what I currently have which are SATA drives.

I'm looking to spend no more than $150 per drive. Any suggestions?
 
i have had my intel g2 160gb hanging for 2years now. works like charm. used some naj-wire, it does the job nicely.
 
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