Mac Pro SSD upgrade - very impressed!

[seadragon]

My 2009 Mac Pro (4,1) 2.66 GHz 8 core has served me very well over the years. My main use is Final Cut Pro X, Logic Pro, and Lightroom/Photoshop, hobby use only. I debated getting a new computer, but really my only complaint with the current was the slow boot up , file access times and slow app launching. The processors are still decent IMO and it's an 8 core so I wanted to look into perhaps an upgrade rather than replace and spend a few thousand dollars.

Having heard about the difference an SSD can make in an older machine, I took the plunge and installed 2 x 1 TB Crucial MX200s using 2 x Apricorn Solo X2 cards I bought from Amazon.

Installation was a snap and I really cannot believe the difference it has made in the machine. The boot time is so fast now. Black Magic Disk Speed Test reports approx. 480 Read and Write speeds compared to the ~72 I was getting with the spinning drives.

All of my apps launch almost instantly now. I'm just not used to that kind of speed. Wow! It really feels like a brand new machine again.

I still kept 2 spinning drives, Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TBs mounted in the SATA bays for less used files and storage.

The "cheese grater" Mac Pro is still so impressive. Such quality construction and design. They're built like a tank and I really wish Apple had continued making them.

 

[IowaLynn]

And for more speed, using two SSDs as RAID0 for Lightroom or scratch... and then there are the SM951s waiting you to sample 1100-1500MB/sec read/write off PCIe-SSD blade.

A nice GTX perhaps along with 5670 or above taking it to 3.2-3.4GHz down the road?

 

[flowrider]

Having heard about the difference an SSD can make in an older machine, I took the plunge and installed 2 x 1 TB Crucial MX200s using 2 x Apricorn Solo X2 cards I bought from Amazon.

Yep, I have a 5,1 Mac Pro with two Duo x2s and Samsung SSDs. I'm very pleased.

Lou

 

[buster84]

My 2009 Mac Pro (4,1) 2.66 GHz 8 core has served me very well over the years. My main use is Final Cut Pro X, Logic Pro, and Lightroom/Photoshop, hobby use only. I debated getting a new computer, but really my only complaint with the current was the slow boot up , file access times and slow app launching. The processors are still decent IMO and it's an 8 core so I wanted to look into perhaps an upgrade rather than replace and spend a few thousand dollars.

Having heard about the difference an SSD can make in an older machine, I took the plunge and installed 2 x 1 TB Crucial MX200s using 2 x Apricorn Solo X2 cards I bought from Amazon.

Installation was a snap and I really cannot believe the difference it has made in the machine. The boot time is so fast now. Black Magic Disk Speed Test reports approx. 480 Read and Write speeds compared to the ~72 I was getting with the spinning drives.

All of my apps launch almost instantly now. I'm just not used to that kind of speed. Wow! It really feels like a brand new machine again.

I still kept 2 spinning drives, Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TBs mounted in the SATA bays for less used files and storage.

The "cheese grater" Mac Pro is still so impressive. Such quality construction and design. They're built like a tank and I really wish Apple had continued making them.

Its good that your happy, but im surprised that you choose those ssd's over the blade setup thats 3x faster... Its possible that you didnt see it, i know that when i was going to an ssd upgrade i almost did what you did but then i found this thread and man does the speed make a difference especially when using my 1gbps connection for downloading 50gb blu-rays.

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...the-09-macpro-bootable-ngff-pcie-ssd.1685821/

You could have ended up with 3x more speed (although at a slightly higher cost per GB) if you went with an apple ssd ssubx with apple pci adapater, or the alternative sm951 with lycom adapter for 1300mbps write and 1500mbps read

This is a speed test from an SSUBX apple SSD on our mac pro's.

 

[flowrider]

Yes, I know that blades are a lot faster, but I've had my setup for awhile now. Bought just before the emergence of the blades. And what I have now is so much faster than HDDs or my SSHD that I'm a happy guy and will keep what I have, at least for awhile.

Lou

 

[ActionableMango]

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...the-09-macpro-bootable-ngff-pcie-ssd.1685821/

You could have ended up with 3x more speed (although at a slightly higher cost per GB) if you went with an apple ssd ssubx with apple pci adapater, or the alternative sm951 with lycom adapter for 1300mbps write and 1500mbps read

A 256GB SSD on Amazon is about $100. The slowest 256GB blade setup in your link costs 3x as much. So although I would love one of these, I wouldn't call 300% a slightly higher cost, unless I'm missing something really important...maybe the prices in the first post are really out of date?

 

[nigelbb]

A 256GB SSD on Amazon is about $100. The slowest 256GB blade setup in your link costs 3x as much. So although I would love one of these, I wouldn't call 300% a slightly higher cost, unless I'm missing something really important...maybe the prices in the first post are really out of date?

AFAIK you cannot purchase a new Apple blade whereas a Crucial SSD will come with 3 year warranty. This may be a small point but I would be reluctant to shell out over $1000 (including shipping & tax) for what is a used system pull with effectively no warranty.

 

[dollystereo]

The speed difference between your setup and the sm951 is in sequential write and read. The real world performance benefit is negligible.
Having SSD drives is great, welcome to the future.

 

[crjackson2134]

AFAIK you cannot purchase a new Apple blade

Yes you can, but it's not sold by Apple and doesn't have Apple warranty. Many of the blades people are buying are brand new, never installed, not even tested but are factory sealed. I purchased one such blade and there were many more available. It's not hard to check the SMART status to verify that it's unused.

Replacement warranty is different that being new. You're kind of out in the cold on that one.