I have tested this, and there is almost no difference. Once you are on SSD, the HDD does not seem to to be the limiting factor anymore.
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Mac Pro CPU Upgrade
- Thread starter Zobrien
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I have tested this, and there is almost no difference. Once you are on SSD, the HDD does not seem to to be the limiting factor anymore.
I've done tests where the OS is on 1 SSD, and the data file is on another SSD/HDD/SAME SSD etc etc.... the difference is negligible. For example, RAW files are only around 30-50mb each? the time difference in reading the file is very small compared to the time it needs to process the file.
You definitely want an SSD, preferably mounted on a PCI-e card so you can get SATA III speeds. You need an adapter even to put the SSD into the SATA II bays in the Mac Pro, so it's worth spending a few extra bucks to get to SATA III. I like the Apricorn line.
This is not entirely correct. You can install an SSD into a cMP drive bay with a $10 mounting adapter that only holds the SSD in place, and in fact you can get by with no adapter at all if you're OK with letting it hang (or shim with a bit of cardboard). I generally agree that paying $50 or so for a SATA III adapter is a good idea, assuming that you have the slot for it, but you certainly don't need to spend anything.
I was sufficiently pleased by the speed improvement from simply replacing the original cMP drives with an SSD in a drive bay (running SATA II speeds), that I have deferred my planned PCIe SSD addition indefinitely. YMMV.
Umm, it's an opinion. Opinions aren't correct or incorrect.
That said, i agree with everything else you said in that paragraph. YMMV indeed--I compared SATA II with SATA III speeds, and I was displeased with the SATA II speeds. Depends on your budget, I guess....
That said, i agree with everything else you said in that paragraph. YMMV indeed--I compared SATA II with SATA III speeds, and I was displeased with the SATA II speeds. Depends on your budget, I guess....
You said OP need an adaptor even for SATA II speed (native port). This doesn't sounds like an opinion, but more like you want to stay a fact. kschendel is right, that's not entire correct.
I have the Tempo SSD card, and I end up just put that on the shelf, because there is no difference for my usage (I also use my Mac Pro to do some video editing, and photos work), I benefit a lot from the SSD's low latency (which perform exactly the same with just SATA II connection) but not much from the higher sequential speed. So, I prefer to free up the slot for my 2nd GPU, which gives me much more benefit on video editing.
Anyway, back to the topic, I am now only plug the 840 Evo in the empty optical bay's native SATA II port without any adaptor. The SSD just sits there and won't go any where, no stress on any connecting point either. So, there is no requirement to get any adaptor. And some of my friends just plug their SSD into the HDD bay's SATA II port (> 3 years ago), again, with zero extra support, and the SSD now still working flawlessly. So, there is definitely no requirement to get any adaptor. This is the fact.
However, I respect your opinion. And I totally agree that there is nothing wrong to get an adaptor / PCIe SATA III card if money is not an issue, or want more sequential speed.
Ok, so we have a misunderstanding. Maybe I should have said "you need a custom sled for your SSD, unless you want it to just dangle off a SATA II port in the cMP or put it in the optical bay. In my opinion, the $15 cost of a custom sled is close enough to the $40 I paid for my PCIe card that it's not worth doing the sled." In my original post, I was distinguishing between and adapter, i.e., a mechanical device, and a PCIe card, i.e., an electronic device. Apologies for the ambiguity.
Thanks guysafter reading what orph said, still think it's worth upgrading CPU's?
@orph makes some good points. It is difficult to know what will help the most without knowing what your bottlenecks might be, and that requires some investigation.
That's a much easier question. Dual x5690 CPUs, MVC Nvidia Titan X, 128GB of 1333 ram, AHCI M.2 storage in RAID, USB 3.1 card, two Blu-ray writers, 10Gb Ethernet card, 802.11AC, and Bluetooth 4.
Lol, if only I had the budget@orph makes some good points. It is difficult to know what will help the most without knowing what your bottlenecks might be, and that requires some investigation.
That's a much easier question. Dual x5690 CPUs, MVC Nvidia Titan X, 128GB of 1333 ram, AHCI M.2 storage in RAID, USB 3.1 card, two Blu-ray writers, 10Gb Ethernet card, 802.11AC, and Bluetooth 4.
definitely would buy all that if possible haha[doublepost=1486506655][/doublepost]
Thanks guys, you are the bomb
love this website already lol, great people and advice.^^ i do think that if you grab a 120GB or 250GB SSD and stick it in the second dvd drive slot bit (thats where my OS SSD is) then see what you need after that.
for day to day use a SSD will give you a big speed boost, now SATA 2 might be slower than SATA3 but i dont think you are doing anything that relay needs that speed.
after that then think about if you need a CPU upgrade as that's going to be more work to install and cost more than a SSD & from the apps you have mentioned i think you will get a higher speed gain from the SSD than from a cpu upgrade.
ps buy some caned air and give it a spray (short bursts never longer than 1-3 secs or you may give damage) ^^ i just did that and im amazed by the drop in temps. (or amazed how much dust there was)
the cpu upgrades will only get cheaper as time go's by (as the cpu's are so outdated now)
for day to day use a SSD will give you a big speed boost, now SATA 2 might be slower than SATA3 but i dont think you are doing anything that relay needs that speed.
after that then think about if you need a CPU upgrade as that's going to be more work to install and cost more than a SSD & from the apps you have mentioned i think you will get a higher speed gain from the SSD than from a cpu upgrade.
ps buy some caned air and give it a spray (short bursts never longer than 1-3 secs or you may give damage) ^^ i just did that and im amazed by the drop in temps. (or amazed how much dust there was)
the cpu upgrades will only get cheaper as time go's by (as the cpu's are so outdated now)
The CPU upgrade prices will continue to drop for a while as other servers are decommissioned and stripped for parts, but eventually, the prices will start to rise as the economics change. We all know there are limited set of CPUs that we can use, I would pick a CPU that fits your price / performance categories and watch prices, and buy when budget allows. I think anything with a clock rate over 3.0 GHz is worth watching a bit. I also agree that a boot SSD will give you the most immediate apparent performance boost.