Mac Pro 1.1 RAM Issue and SSDs

[magendim]

Hello- I resurrected an old MacPro 1.1 that was upgraded to the quad core Xeon X5365's. It has 4 sticks of Mushkin 4GB PC2-5300 FBDIMM RAM (two on each riser, slots 1 & 2). Each Mushkin sticks is basically two 2GB modules back to back on one DIMM module.

When I first booted it, it only showed two dimms on riser 1 @ 2GB with Riser 2 showing no RAM at all. Pulled the risers and re-seated everything, now it sees all four DIMMs but still only sees each DIMM as 2GB for a total of 8GB when it should be 16GB. Currently running Leopard... Any ideas what's going on?

Also, this has pretty old 250GB hard drives but have access to some Intel 240GB SSDs so thinking of updating the boot drive to an SSD, putting in a large magnetic data drive (ie WD Black) and updating the OS to Lion. Any thoughts or gotcha's here? Do I just need a standard 2.5" to 3.5" adapter to physically mount the SSD in the drive tray?

 

[ashman70]

Do the Mushkin modules have heat spreaders on them? If you are using RAM that is not recommended but should be compatible, its hit and miss. The problem with these earlier Mac Pro's is the RAM is very expensive, so if you have to replace your RAM with proper RAM for this model, say from OWC, you are going to be looking at $434.99, otherwise you can take your chances with other kinds of RAM.

You can look here http://macsales.com for SSD sleds and adapters, but you should have no issues using SSD's drives in this model.

 

[magendim]

Yes, they have heat spreaders, looks exactly like these modules but with Mushkin labels: http://www.amazon.com/APPLE-MAC-PRO...4GB+FULLY+BUFFERED+PC2-5300+DDR2+ECC+(FB-DIMM