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Mac Pro - Optimisation advice

A

Anashel

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 5, 2011
1
0
Hi!

I am coming from the PC world, so I have not many clue on how things are different on mac. I had a custom rig that I built with Raid 0 SSD + overclock CPU 4.5 GHZ.

I decided to switch to mac because I was fedup with virus, windows update and application crash.

I love my new mac, the OS is incredible and the thing simply work flawlessly. My only disappointment is the hard drive. 7.2k RPM is a major bottleneck for such a great computer.

Any advice on how I can boost my performance?

Here is my current spec:
MAc Pro 5.1
2 Processors / 8 Core @ 2.4 GHZ
6 GB RAM (2 empty slot)
1 TB @ 7.2k RPM
ATI RAdeon HD 5770

MONEY IS NO ISSUE. Fire away the best advice on the topic. Any advice is welcome, beyond my main issue of the Hard Drive. Top upgrade for the Ram, VideoCard, etc...

PS: Sorry for my english.
 
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Yeah, if you're unhappy with the speed of the HD, throw some SSD's in there. Seems like a simple enough fix. :)
 
The OCZ R2 Drive that akadmon recommended will not work since OCZ is obviously unable to deliver a driver for OSX. The "coming soon for OSX" announcement was on their website for over 6 month and is now removed, although Newegg was obviously not updating the specs in their shop.

I would recommend to go with either an Intel 510 SSD or a Vertex 3, for both you can find reviews on Anandtech.com

If you want an easy setup just connect one of these to the free Sata cable in your second optical bay. If you want to have it faster you can use a RAID 0 array, however I doubt if a software RAID 0 (in disc utility of OSX) would bring you double speed since the SATA bus will be the bottleneck. The only way to get more speed is using a hardware RAID card (like Areca or Atto), but this is more complex concerning cabeling and could also be a hassle concerning drivers etc. You will find quite a lot of threads here were this was discussed in detail. Good luck !
 
Anashel said:
Hi!

I am coming from the PC world, so I have not many clue on how things are different on mac. I had a custom rig that I built with Raid 0 SSD + overclock CPU 4.5 GHZ.

I decided to switch to mac because I was fedup with virus, windows update and application crash.

I love my new mac, the OS is incredible and the thing simply work flawlessly. My only disappointment is the hard drive. 7.2k RPM is a major bottleneck for such a great computer.

Any advice on how I can boost my performance?

Here is my current spec:
MAc Pro 5.1
2 Processors / 8 Core @ 2.4 GHZ
6 GB RAM (2 empty slot)
1 TB @ 7.2k RPM
ATI RAdeon HD 5770

MONEY IS NO ISSUE. Fire away the best advice on the topic. Any advice is welcome, beyond my main issue of the Hard Drive. Top upgrade for the Ram, VideoCard, etc...

PS: Sorry for my english.
Click to expand...

First off no one gave you the correct ssd to use in your mac pro. get a 600 gb intel ssd. here is a link for it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&cm_re=intel_ssd_600gb-_-20-167-061-_-Product



The failure rate is .59 percent.

9941 out of 10000 still work after 1 year

the failure rate for the ocz vertex is 2.71 percent

9729 out of 10000 still work after a year.

The ocz vertex is a type III sata the 2010 mac pro you own is a type II sata.

this means the vertex is faster then the connection.

the intel ssd I picked is a type II sata it matches the mac pro connection better.

I own two Intel ssds right now a 300gb and a 600gb they have been perfect.


You mention you want trouble free buy the intel.!!!!!!!!!!!

You mention money is no object buy the biggest Intel!!!!!


The tiny small bit of speed that the ocz vertex will have over the intel is at the price of 5x or 5 times the failure rate. Also you will like having a large 600gb ssd the vertex does not make one that big.

I base my pick on ownership. I have owned intel and ocz vertex.

I base my pick that money does not matter. Your words not mine.

I base my pick that you said you hate the trouble of windows.

Ocz vertex has many problems compared to intel.


For ram buy these sticks:


https://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=D3-13R8G4H&show=r

if money is not a problem buy 8 of them. I have 4 in my machine.



for video card I have a ati 5870 maybe some one else can give you a better pick




down the road in a year or so you can swap out the cpus right now you have an e5620 cpu in a set of two. the cpu upgrade takes under a hour if you want to go to dual hex cpus or 12 cores

you have the choice of x5600 series.


http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollection.aspx?series=47915

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=47921&processor=X5660&spec-codes=SLBV6

this one would be 1200 each 2400 total a big boost

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=52576&processor=X5690&spec-codes=SLBVX

this is top of the line it is 1663 each total 3326 = the biggest boost. these cpus can be found at lower prices. there are threads on swapping them.
pretty easy for your mac pro. other mac pros need more care and work.
 
Last edited:
gpzjock said:
It rather depends how many SSDs you are willing to buy.
Click to expand...

For sequential speeds, yes. If you want a fast OS drive (which I presume is the main reason the OP nagging about his machine), not so much.

The OS doesn't benefit from fast sequential speeds, but from random reads/writes. Unfortunately, random operations do not scale that good with RAID. If you're lucky the performance remains exactly the same, I've seen a lot of benchmarks though where random speeds decrease drastically with a striped array compared to a single drive.
 
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