Personally believe it's completely overpriced at around $25 per sled, but there are very few other options that are as seamless as this. Finding eight from random sellers might end up costing you more. Some of the cheap ones have one unit in stock. Same with most eBay sellers.
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MP 1,1-5,1 MacPro 5.1 & high capacity hard drives
- Thread starter JM-Prod
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You can have those shipped from EU too, if that's were you live.
owcshop.eu (former macupgrade.eu).
Shipping does cost a lot stil in my opinion. But you don't have to worry about customs and VAT-stuff.As I remember it, they will add VAT to the price automatically.
Aha! Thanks for posting that link and photo. Says a more than many words
Yes, I would go for new sleds when upgrading to larger drives except for that the total cost for something like that will be quite high being outside the U.S. so I'm first looking for alternatives that can work.
At least now the screw mount mystery has been clarified!
Mikas: I saw your posting about OWC in Europe after posting.
I couldn't find any shipping info and it doesn't appear they leave out the VAT unless you're a non-Belgian company (not individual), and I don't know if this only applies to EU-countries or not (Norway isn't in the EU). So I might have to pay VAT twice, plus shipping and import duties.
Are there any alternatives out there? An adapter of some sort perhaps? I'm sure the new vs old screw pattern applies to PC owners as well.
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Depending on there you live you might want to try contacting local resellers. They might not carry all the items, some offer only a limited number of items, maybe just one. But go on and give them an email or a call.
www.owcshop.eu
They seem to be everywhere nowadays, I haven't realized that by myself either.
In Norway they have a lot of items, but not that one ijn question here, unfortunately. They did have that blue though, for 2,5" HDD / SSD. It's a good product for another need though. I've got couple of those.
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They seem to be everywhere nowadays, I haven't realized that by myself either.
In Norway they have a lot of items, but not that one ijn question here, unfortunately. They did have that blue though, for 2,5" HDD / SSD. It's a good product for another need though. I've got couple of those.
Yeah, I saw that reseller as well, but like you noticed they didn't have the sleds in question.
I solved for installing 2.5" SSDs by getting an adapter from a regular PC store without paying the usual OWC prices which I think in general are overpriced.
Unfortunately there's not much competition for what they can supply the Mac community so they can whatever they like (just about) for small pieces of metal or plastic which in the PC world would cost a fraction of that.
Does anyone know why the Mac Pro drive sleds are recessed around where the screw-holes are? Couldn't this whole issue be solved by just drilling an additional two holes for the "new style" hard drives?
I solved for installing 2.5" SSDs by getting an adapter from a regular PC store without paying the usual OWC prices which I think in general are overpriced.
Unfortunately there's not much competition for what they can supply the Mac community so they can whatever they like (just about) for small pieces of metal or plastic which in the PC world would cost a fraction of that.
Does anyone know why the Mac Pro drive sleds are recessed around where the screw-holes are? Couldn't this whole issue be solved by just drilling an additional two holes for the "new style" hard drives?
Look at the photo posted in #172.
You can clearly see there is the "bump" down that is the same style as the OEM authentic screw style. Theoretically you could drill into your OEM sled and use some plastic washers for offset, but they would require longer screws.
For the effort required and sourcing those parts (without a 100% guarantee you'll line them up exactly), I'd spend the cash on whatever is needed for a "real" sled or find 3D printed ones vs. damaging the OEM sleds.
Yes - it is what's required to set the drive to the exact height such that the the SATA connectors line up.
If you're handy, you could measure the required height, stack washers, drill a hole, and get a longer screw. All with such precision that you don't stress or otherwise damage the SATA connectors.
Or, you could find some 3D print plans - I'm pretty sure I've seen them - and see if the price meets your requirements.
Or...OWC. I'm not a fan of them. Though I have ordered from them and generally satisfied with their products. But they've done the investment and work on these.
Mac Pro 4,1 and 5,1 Universal 3.5" HDD Sled by hnzxdv
A replacement 3.5" hard drive sled for 2009 and 2010 Mac Pros with mounting holes for both older SATA drive mounting patterns (1.75 in, 44.45 mm) and the newer pattern (3.00 in, 76.20 mm) featured on helium-filled 6, 8, 10+ TB drives, such as the HGST Ultrastar He8.Addressing Common...
www.thingiverse.com
I just had to order 3 pcs of those, just for the sake of having some spares for future use of my cMPs.
I don't know procedures for norway with customs and VAT, but that above sum is calculated for 21% VAT, no customs collected.In Finland that would be 24% though, and I think they will change that for the final bill. For me it will be 75,50€ total, 25,16€ per piece. (Nope, they put it through with only 21% of VAT).
In my opinion 140$ sounds a bit steep (it's at 127€ today I think).
I don't know procedures for norway with customs and VAT, but that above sum is calculated for 21% VAT, no customs collected.
In my opinion 140$ sounds a bit steep (it's at 127€ today I think).
Yes, I agree the price is a bit steep for some pieces of metal.
Norway is outside of the EU, so I suppose they exclude the EU VAT, but I will have to pay local 25% VAT when it arrives (of everything including shipping costs) and customs fees. That, and a bad exchange rate because of the Corona makes it quite expensive.
I'm contacting the European OWC online store to ask how they handle VAT for customers from Norway. Hopefully they remove EU VAT, or else the US version of OWC might be cheaper. We'll see.
Bsbeamer: those plastic sleds look like a great alternative, but despite the lower price I don't know if I'd trust plastic to hold up my drives (especially when heated, and when held hanging as I was recently made aware of) as I don't know what kind of plastic they even use for those 3D-printers.
I guess you get what you pay for and it's basically an investment for keeping your drives firmly placed in their bays, but I had to complain a bit about the costs
Norway is outside of the EU, so I suppose they exclude the EU VAT, but I will have to pay local 25% VAT when it arrives (of everything including shipping costs) and customs fees. That, and a bad exchange rate because of the Corona makes it quite expensive.
I'm contacting the European OWC online store to ask how they handle VAT for customers from Norway. Hopefully they remove EU VAT, or else the US version of OWC might be cheaper. We'll see.
Bsbeamer: those plastic sleds look like a great alternative, but despite the lower price I don't know if I'd trust plastic to hold up my drives (especially when heated, and when held hanging as I was recently made aware of) as I don't know what kind of plastic they even use for those 3D-printers.
I guess you get what you pay for and it's basically an investment for keeping your drives firmly placed in their bays, but I had to complain a bit about the costs
You do know it is going to be physically impossible to bend a hard drive so it will not line up properly. Especially since the most important screws for that alignment, the closest to the connectors, are used with the old sled. I still think a plastic zip tie used to snug the drive up to the existing depressions will keep everything working correctly and lining up.
It was quick enough, 48 hours delivered to my front door.
I have to say it's not an exact machinery with it though. I believe it's going to work ok, but if you look at the picture, they did not get it just right, did they.
I haven't tried it yet, but there are small differences in dimensions. Cover plate part is offset something like a material thickness, roughly 1,5 mm or so. The screws too are a little bit offset, you can probably see it in the picture. I'll try it later then I have a chance to shutdown one of my machines. Surely it's gonna work, no doubt. It just leaves it a little bit not complete.
I have to say it's not an exact machinery with it though. I believe it's going to work ok, but if you look at the picture, they did not get it just right, did they.
I haven't tried it yet, but there are small differences in dimensions. Cover plate part is offset something like a material thickness, roughly 1,5 mm or so. The screws too are a little bit offset, you can probably see it in the picture. I'll try it later then I have a chance to shutdown one of my machines. Surely it's gonna work, no doubt. It just leaves it a little bit not complete.
I'm pretty sure that a hard drive can't be bent
- though in these quarantined days it might be an interesting experiment: Will it bend?My thinking is the 2 rows of screws determine the angle at which the drive connector intersects with the motherboard connector. For example, if the two closest to the connector remain constant, decreasing the length of the back 2 will raise the connector, and increasing will lower. What level of tolerance Apple engineers designed into this is unknown, at least to me. Not something *I* want to experiment with in any event.
I'm not a fan of zip ties for things that move or vibrate. I get that people use them, though. But it's been demonstrated that vibration increases seek errors (performance) in spinning drives.
Working with older machines, it's always a tradeoff on how much you want to spend.
I'm pretty sure that a hard drive can't be bent
My thinking is the 2 rows of screws determine the angle at which the drive connector intersects with the motherboard connector. For example, if the two closest to the connector remain constant, decreasing the length of the back 2 will raise the connector, and increasing will lower. What level of tolerance Apple engineers designed into this is unknown, at least to me. Not something *I* want to experiment with in any event.
I'm not a fan of zip ties for things that move or vibrate. I get that people use them, though. But it's been demonstrated that vibration increases seek errors (performance) in spinning drives.
Working with older machines, it's always a tradeoff on how much you want to spend.
My thinking was it would have to be a very loose screw(s) at the front to allow it to move at all. The way the tray is there it is even a flat area beneath them screws so when snugged up tightly it has to pivot from that mini platform to even have the chance to get out of line. My use of the ties if needed would be my normal, me being a cheap SOB.
I'm very interested in hearing how those (not perfectly aligned) OWC sleds fit with the drive and Mac Pro as I'll probably end up buying two or three myself (I figure I want to do it properly the first time).
Getting back to the drives I'm having a hard time figuring out what to go for as it's a jungle finding something that doesn't potentially cause problems, work unreliably, won't last for long or simply doesn't work in a Mac Pro.
I read somewhere (I think in the Mac Performance guide) that Toshiba drives turned out to be very reliable. But I also read that some of their consumer drives were sold under withheld information about them being "archive drives" in reality, and not normal drives -I don't fully understand the technical details, but it's not good.
Anyway, does anyone have any experience with the Toshiba MG06ACA600E (6 TB enterprise drive)? Does it work well in a Mac Pro, is reliable, have a high performance and emit relatively low noise?
Getting back to the drives I'm having a hard time figuring out what to go for as it's a jungle finding something that doesn't potentially cause problems, work unreliably, won't last for long or simply doesn't work in a Mac Pro.
I read somewhere (I think in the Mac Performance guide) that Toshiba drives turned out to be very reliable. But I also read that some of their consumer drives were sold under withheld information about them being "archive drives" in reality, and not normal drives -I don't fully understand the technical details, but it's not good.
Anyway, does anyone have any experience with the Toshiba MG06ACA600E (6 TB enterprise drive)? Does it work well in a Mac Pro, is reliable, have a high performance and emit relatively low noise?
Yes, that's it!
I want to avoid that. So any opinions on the Toshiba MG06ACA600E 6TB enterprise drive? It'll replace my 3 TB main drive (user files).
I also need a Time Machine drive (8 TB should be good me thinks), so any opinions on that?
I assume I can go for a lower performance (and cheaper) type of drive than the above without any performance loss?
I want to avoid that. So any opinions on the Toshiba MG06ACA600E 6TB enterprise drive? It'll replace my 3 TB main drive (user files).
I also need a Time Machine drive (8 TB should be good me thinks), so any opinions on that?
I assume I can go for a lower performance (and cheaper) type of drive than the above without any performance loss?
I purchased four of the OWC sleds but currently only have one installed. What I found was more than one sled when installed in a MacPro 5,1 is in contact with the side door. In fact I had to put more pressure on the door than I would like to close the machine. Currently I have an RMA in place with OWC where they acted surprised about my finding, though I have yet to return the sleds that are most out of tolerance.
With respect to a drive I eventually decided on a Seagate given the experience of another user in this thread. At work we have >50 petabytes of Seagate spinning in RAIDs where the reliability seems to match what has been reported by backblaze. Said another way I decided I would rather not deal with compatibility questions to potentially pick up perhaps 1 or 2 percent better reliability, though I too initially considered a Toshiba enterprise drive given their reported very high MTBF and Seagate's reputation....
With respect to a drive I eventually decided on a Seagate given the experience of another user in this thread. At work we have >50 petabytes of Seagate spinning in RAIDs where the reliability seems to match what has been reported by backblaze. Said another way I decided I would rather not deal with compatibility questions to potentially pick up perhaps 1 or 2 percent better reliability, though I too initially considered a Toshiba enterprise drive given their reported very high MTBF and Seagate's reputation....
That's not good news at all!
So both you and Mikas (earlier in the thread) have the same experience of inaccurate designs. Do you think OWC would check for accuracy if I ask them before buying? Returning them would mean lots of hassle and be time consuming. I'll probably order from the European OWC store.
Which specific model did you go for?
I've currently got a 3TB Seagate as my main drive (ST3000DM001) and it's worked fine for many years, but things change, and the previous postings here appear to suggest not buying that brand. But they might be referring just to specific models, not the brand as a whole. Toshiba too apparently make crap drives (SMR technology) without clearly advertising the fact.
Unfortunately I have to concur. I just tried one sled without a drive, and it does touch the Mac Pro side cover. The latch do close, but you can feel it's in contact by gently pushing the side cover.
I haven't tried all four simultaneously like vsc.
The screws seem to be in right place and within the right distance from the triangle opening in the sled. I think they are the critical points which makes the drive "dock" to the sata-ports.
It's the cover plate of the sled that comes too far out (approx. 1,5 mm I would say).
I haven't tried all four simultaneously like vsc.
The screws seem to be in right place and within the right distance from the triangle opening in the sled. I think they are the critical points which makes the drive "dock" to the sata-ports.
It's the cover plate of the sled that comes too far out (approx. 1,5 mm I would say).
Sad to hear that. Have you contacted OWC about it?
If everybody who's experienced this tells them this they can't say it's only Vsc who's making it up. Also sending them photos like what's been done here will be helpful.
Has anyone reading bought those OWC sleds and experienced the opposite -that they fit like the original Apple sleds? The plastic 3D printed ones posted in this thread are tempting (though I don't have a 3D printer -I assume there are companies around where you can send them the files and buy the finished product), but for "critical" parts such as this I prefer something more sturdy: metal.
Of course with plastic it would be easy to enlarge the existing holes if they aren't perfect.
If everybody who's experienced this tells them this they can't say it's only Vsc who's making it up. Also sending them photos like what's been done here will be helpful.
Has anyone reading bought those OWC sleds and experienced the opposite -that they fit like the original Apple sleds? The plastic 3D printed ones posted in this thread are tempting (though I don't have a 3D printer -I assume there are companies around where you can send them the files and buy the finished product), but for "critical" parts such as this I prefer something more sturdy: metal.
Of course with plastic it would be easy to enlarge the existing holes if they aren't perfect.