MP 1,1-5,1 MP3,1 optical drive

[flang]

would the OEM optical from a MP1,1 work in a MP3,1.
The dual Optiarc AD7170A in the MP3,1 are very hit and miss to mount commercial DVD.
or is there a driver or firmware issue? Or something that's a SATA retrofit that is from this century?
And what SATA cable would be needed if so.?

 

[ifrit05]

Yes, 1,1-3,1 used an OEM IDE/PATA drive as standard. You can just swap them out.

Alternatively, there are 2 unused SATA ports on 1,1-3,1 you can use to install SATA optical drives with, you'll just need a long enough SATA data cable and a MOLEX to SATA power adapter to power the drive. See attached photo of a 3,1 logic board. Blue circles are the unused SATA ports. Green is the SAS port used for the hard drives. Red is the IDE/PATA for the original optical drive.

Another alternative would be to use an external USB/FW400/FW800 drive.

 

[flang]

I'm thinking about the ext USB since I think the 3,1 may get retired late this year for a MM8,1.
And I'd want an ext opto with that.

 

[joevt]

The SATA ODD connectors wouldn't be usable for booting legacy BIOS installation media such as for Windows 10 and you don't want to try installing Windows with UEFI (it won't work without a lot of work or not at all).

I'm not sure about booting legacy BIOS using a USB DVD drive. If that is one of your use cases then I could give it a test.

My MacPro3,1's DVD drives have long stopped working. I tried replacing the rubber bands but that was not sufficient. DVD drive repair requires more steps.

MM8,1 is a nice machine. Even the Core i3 is faster than the MacPro3,1 and you can connect modern GPUs using an eGPU.
https://browser.geekbench.com/user/joevt
(the iMac in those tests is a GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 hackintosh)

 

[flang]

the most windows I'd ever go is 7. Unlikely anymore.
For the MM $ difference, I'd get at least an i5 but prolly an i7.