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Mac Pro 3,1: Fitting SSDs in Australia

Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 3, 2007
1,202
0
Melbourne, Australia
Hi guys,

Been a while since I've posted on here, but I've decided it's finally time to put an SSD in the old warhorse (see signature). A couple of questions:

1) How to fit an SSD in a 3,1
So there are two options, in one of the sleds or the optical drive bay. Both require brackets as far as I can tell, which is a problem as I can't seem to source any in Australia (if there are any aussies on here who've found one locally, I'd be grateful). Otherwise, if I have to import a bracket, this one looks to do the best job - http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MM352A52MP/

Is there anything obvious I'm overlooking or missing?

2) Which SSD (the fun bit)
I've got 4 on the shortlist, and will likely be buying a 250-256GB. If anyone has experience with any, that would be great.
- Intel 530 series
- Crucial M550
- Samsung 840 EVO
- Samsung 840 PRO

Thanks guys,
- Michael
 
In the past three months I have purchased the following Samsung 840 EVO drives:

2 x 1TB 2.5" in a RAID0
8 x 250GB 2.5"
1 x 120GB 2.5"
1 x 500GB mSATA

I have been very happy with the Samsung 840 EVO drives and would highly recommend them.
 
Last edited:
I, too, am looking to put a SSD in MP3,1. Problem is that the MP3,1 has support for only SATA II. So, I'm gonna put one of my older, SSDs in it to start with.

The best SSDs IMO are the SanDisk Extreme series. I've got several ranging from 128GB to 490GB. I'm also using a Crucial M500 960GB in my 2011 17" MBP; the M500 with TRIM enabled is working great; I used TRIM Enabler to get TRIM working. I also have a new Samsung 840 EVO 250GB which is currently in a hackintosh.

With respect to mounting the SSD, you can put it in the optical bay using some Velcro as the SSD doesn't get hot enough to require a $50 USD mounting bracket unless you are going to put a 3.5 and an SSD in the optical bay. The MP's fan in the upper part of the case will cool the SSD adequately.

For me, my biggest question is how to get a SATA III connection w/o spending a lot of money for a SATA III PCIe card.
 
Actually there are three options for mounting an SSD. The third is mounting it on a PCIe SATA III card like the Apricorn Velocity Solo x2. It is faster then SATA II of your other two options. And, another plus, it is really not expensive.

IMHO, there from experience and all I have read the fastest and most reliable brand os SSD is Samsung. And the best value in the Samsung line is the EVO.

Lou
 
1) You don't need anything to fit the SSD. Since there is no mechanical moving parts, you can simply put the SSD in the optical drive and connect via SATA 2 connector. I run my 840 Evo like that for more than a months (before I get my TempoSSD), no problem at all. Of course, you can't get the SATA 3 speed. However, you can still benefit from the high IOPS of the SSD.

2) My personal preference, 840Evo. It's not the best performance SSD, but not bad at all. However, it's price to size ratio is really good.
 
h9826790 said:
1) You don't need anything to fit the SSD. Since there is no mechanical moving parts, you can simply put the SSD in the optical drive and connect via SATA 2 connector.
Click to expand...


Just for clarification:

The OP has a 3,1 Mac Pro so the optical drive and spare cable will be PATA IDE, not SATA in the optical bay area. However, there are 2 spare SATA connectors on the motherboard which can be used with appropriate cables to thread up into the optical bay cavity where they can be used for SSD or hard drives. The user will also have to purchase a power adapter cable to convert from the Molex 4-pin which is there, to 1 or 2 SATA power plugs. These cables should be cheap and readily available.

Probably the best and easiest solution if PCIe slot #2 is available is to get the previously mentioned Solo x2 card and mount the SSD on that for maximum speed. The 840 EVO suggestion is a good one and will perform well at a reasonable cost.
 
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If he is in Aussie land, he could go with RamCity and their Xp941 deal

In a 3,1 it has to be in slot 1 or 2 to get full speed

Obviously this costs more than other options but gives you nMP disk speed
 
The Stork said:
With respect to mounting the SSD, you can put it in the optical bay using some Velcro as the SSD doesn't get hot enough to require a $50 USD mounting bracket unless you are going to put a 3.5 and an SSD in the optical bay. The MP's fan in the upper part of the case will cool the SSD adequately.
Click to expand...

Haha, I had come across the zip tie/velcro method, but would like something easier to pull drives in and out/move Mac Pro around


flowrider said:
Actually there are three options for mounting an SSD. The third is mounting it on a PCIe SATA III card like the Apricorn Velocity Solo x2. It is faster then SATA II of your other two options. And, another plus, it is really not expensive.
Click to expand...
mikeboss said:
I like the SAMSUNG XP941 (eliminates the S-ATA bottleneck, too).
Click to expand...
MacVidCards said:
If he is in Aussie land, he could go with RamCity and their Xp941 deal

In a 3,1 it has to be in slot 1 or 2 to get full speed

Obviously this costs more than other options but gives you nMP disk speed
Click to expand...

Thanks for the 'third way' guys, I wasn't aware of it. It's getting close to twice as much as the 'import bracket/buy SSD' option, but would be the fastest possible boot drive, yes?

I may need to think about that...
 
yes, the XP941 is faster than any other (single) drive. even the cheaper PLEXTOR M6e is faster than any S-ATA bound SSD. I'm getting something around 700+MB/Sec with the plextor and 1200+MB/Sec with the SAMSUNG XP941 (512GB model) when doing large filetransfers. I suggest that you read this thread ->

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1685821/
 
Genghis Khan said:
1) How to fit an SSD in a 3,1
So there are two options, in one of the sleds or the optical drive bay. Both require brackets as far as I can tell, which is a problem as I can't seem to source any in Australia (if there are any aussies on here who've found one locally, I'd be grateful). Otherwise, if I have to import a bracket, this one looks to do the best job - http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MM352A52MP/

Is there anything obvious I'm overlooking or missing?
Click to expand...
I have a Mac Pro 3,1. Several years ago I replaced my system disk with an SSD. I can't remember the exact year but it was the year that Apple started compressing all OS X software installed on your system disk.

http://eshop.macsales.com/owcpages/multimount/

I used one of the first two trays to mount the SSD in one of the hard drive bay trays. Also, I bought a 120 GB OWC Mercury Electra 3G SSD. Except for one emergency admin account, there are no user accounts on the SSD. It still has almost 50% of the volume free.
 
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