Maximum Storage capability

[misanthrophy]

Hi,

I was not able to find answer on the internet after a short search.

Is there any maximum of storage a Macpro 4.1 5.1 can handle? I mean regarding CPU and RAM there is a maximum. Does that apply for HDD's too?

Right now I am using 4x 6TB drives. Now with the new Ironwolf Series from Seagate with up to 14TB I am just wondering if the Mac would care if I replace them with 4x 14TB?

 

[bsbeamer]

There are limits with file system/format, but are you asking about theoretical single volume (RAID of some kind) or multiple volumes (each drive on its own)? Newer HDDs will likely require a different mounting bracket for the SATA sled since the screw patterns changed. Unsure if your current 6TB has that pattern or not.

 

[misanthrophy]

There are limits with file system/format, but are you asking about theoretical single volume (RAID of some kind) or multiple volumes (each drive on its own)?

For the RAID, I am using SoftRAID, thats no problem. I am totally fine with the JHFS+ format and there is no need for apfs. (Still need to figure out if I will/can upgrade to Mojave without issues, what would enable apfs to other harddrives like raid and fusion drives.)

Newer HDDs will likely require a different mounting bracket for the SATA sled since the screw patterns changed. Unsure if your current 6TB has that pattern or not.

My 6TB harddrives right now, do not fit completely into the bays. I can only mount 2 screws out of 4, but when the bay sleds into the tray the drives are fitting perfect and tight.

 

[h9826790]

I think the capacity of HDD won't cause any problem on the cMP. However, for large capacity HDD, you have very high chance to suffer from this pin 3 issue.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macpro-5-1-high-capacity-hard-drives.1971809/

So, let's say, the pin 3 issue won't affect this HDD. Then you can install at least 6x 14TB in the cMP without any help from PCIe card. And you can install even more if you have a USB 3.0 / (e)SATA cards. It isn't that hard to give the cMP over 100TB storage capacity via expansion (even not using NAS yet).