MP 1,1-5,1 Need larger HDDs: size/brand recommendations?

[macstatic]

My MP is running out of storage space and it's time to replace them with larger drives (spinning hard drives), but what sizes are available now (for a reasonable cost -this is for home use) and which brands/models do you recommend for reliability, good performance and low noise levels?
This is my current setup:

Hardware:
Mid-2010 Mac Pro 5,1 (2.8 GHz quad core)
24 GB RAM 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC (8 GB x 3 slots as recommended for highest performance)
ATI Radeon HD 5870 (1024 MB) graphic card
OS:
MacOS 10.11.6 (El Capitan)
Drives:
128 GB Samsung 830 SSD (Apps/MacOS)
128 GB Samsung 830 SSD (currently not in use, previously used as Photoshop cache)
3 TB Seagate ST3000DM001 (Users' areas -files, user settings etc)
3 TB Western Digital WD30EZRX (Time Machine backup)
3 TB Western Digital WD30EZRX (bootable Chronosync backup of users and MacOS/apps)

The machine is for home (non-professional) use. Apart from email, web-browsing and the usual everyday stuff I'm looking into setting up a DAW for making music, and possibly also some home-video editing. I'm not sure which software ot use for either. I also use it for Photoshop (CS4) and Lightroom (6.7 perpetual) which is why I can't run a later OS version.
I would probably need to replace all three 3TB drives with something bigger -what do you recommend I buy?

Last but not least: are there any size limitation for drives in my Mac and/or my OS (10.11)?

 

[Le_Cactus]

Hi macstatic,

Look this thread:

MacPro 5.1 & high capacity hard drives

I've run out of internal storage on my MacPro 5.1. And although I have a 24 bay NAS in the background, I need more high speed storage. I would think my cheapest option would be to upgrade to larger disks, as I currently run 4x2TB in Raid0. Does anyone have experience running larger disk, such...

forums.macrumors.com

Guillaume

 

[MarkC426]

Another consideration is which software your planning on using for Audio/Video.
I think you might struggle to find a ‘pro’ package that supports 10.11 (I.e. anything from Apple).

 

[macstatic]

Le_Cactus: Thanks! Interesting stuff. So people have had success with 6TB and even 10TB drives according to thread, so that's good. I didn't however know about certain drives having different screw mounting holes incompatible with the normal Mac Pro drive sleds, and more serious: some drives won't even power up in a Mac Pro!
I see the thread is 3-4 years old now, and I suppose some of those models aren't available any longer or there are new ones issued since then. Can anyone recommend any specific current models based on my criteria?

MarkC426: I'm not sure which apps I'm going to use for audio and video yet, though I see considering Apple's own Logic Pro (audio) and Final Cut Pro (video) is out of the question now as the currently available version won't work with MacOS 10.11, but there are others, though I have no preferences so far and am open for suggestions.

Perhaps, for video, even iMovie will do though I haven't used it for several years (I think I had iMovie HD 6 which had a great user interface but with limited and pretty basic features), and don't know if it has gained more advanced features since then or not.

 

[Snow Tiger]

With the appropriate Hard Disk Drive Carrier , each of the four SATA HDD Bays of your Nehalem cMP can mount mechanical drives as large as 16TB , currently .

Your factory drive carriers can only physically mount certain Hard Disk Drives as large as 6TB , though .

OWC has an universal 3.5" SATA HDD Carrier for Nehalem Mac Pros , good for any capacity drive . Look for the sleds with six screw mounting points :

OWC Hard Drive Tray / Sled / Bracket for Mac Pro (2009, 2010-2012)

OWC Hard Drive Tray / Sled for Mac Pro (2009, 2010-2012), compatible with all 3.5-inch drives, including 6TB-18TB drives with new (2014+) screw mount standard.

eshop.macsales.com

In as far as the make and model of the hard disk drives , I prefer to install whenever possible "like new" enterprise grade drives . Usually found on eBay at a discount . These drives are rejects from data centers because they failed one or two individual SMART tests out of the entire suite and so they sell these drives with maybe 20 or 30 hours of use on them . Basically , they are brand new and good enough for consumer and professional personal workstation use . They have remarkable endurance ratings and should last a very long time .

Here is an example of such a drive which is installable with your factory sleds :

6TB HGST HUS726060ALE610 .

HGST Ultrastar 7K6000 6 TB,Internal,7200 RPM,3.5" (0F23001) HDD for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for HGST Ultrastar 7K6000 6 TB,Internal,7200 RPM,3.5" (0F23001) HDD at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

 

[Le_Cactus]

I can add that maxupgrades.com sell Universal Brackets to connect SSD or Hard Drives in Sata 3, with a PCIE Raid card.
You can still use (in external or internal) your Sata 2 drives with the correct cables.

maxupgrades.com: MaxConnect (4-Drives-MiniSAS Cabling) BackPlane RAID Attachment for Mac Pro 2009 / 2010 / 2011 / 2012 [Model ID: 4,1 & 5,1] Models

default site description goes here

www.maxupgrades.com

WD Red 6To Hard Drives work with the original Brackets. See reference in the linked thread.

 

[kohlson]

I recently added some bigger drives to my 4/5,1 cMP. Learned a few things. Since I had a USB-3 PCIe card, I added 8TB external. Costco had them for $120. Pretty good GB/$$. Slow, but I use for redundant backup, so works for me.

I added a 4TB 7200 256MB cache drive. Perhaps 2x faster R/W than my other spinners. It was nice to squeeze out some better performance from the SATA2 interface. It's an enterprise model, and You can def hear it when it's working.

 

[macstatic]

Thanks for your suggestions and other info.
I think a good compromise would be to get a fast (7200 RPM) and reliable (and hopefully not too noisy) 6 TB drive for my user folders.
And ideally a little larger (8 TB?) internal Time Machine backup drive which doesn't need to be super-fast, but reliable and low-noise.

As for the 2nd internal backup drive (Chronosync bootable-backup) I haven't decided on just replacing it with a bigger (8 TB?) internal drive, or get an external drive instead (so as not to have "all my eggs in one basket" in case of theft, fire, floods etc.). It'll be more cumbersome, and since I back up my most important files to external drives now and then anyway I may just keep it as it is... we'll see.

A couple of things which I don't fully understand:

1) what's this deal about different mounting screws? Are the holes placed differently, hence the drives no longer line up with the backplane connectors? Getting multiple sleds from OWC plus shipping and import duties to Norway will become quite expensive, so other options would be welcome.
According to Snow Tiger and Le_Cactus I understand that this isn't an issue for any 6 TB drives (or smaller) but a new standard for drives beyond that? (thanks for the suggestion of 6 TB WD Red drives, Le_Cactus. I'll look into that)
So for the 8 TB backup drives, would this problem arise with any brand/model?

2) I read that some larger drives have boot issues and that some (all?) of those problems can be remedied by taping certain pins so they don't get contact with the backplane. Is this an issue with all larger drives, or just certain brands/models?

3) Le_Cactus suggests a PCIe SATA-RAID card by MaxConnect. If I understand correctly, this card will allow me to use current SATA drives which are much faster than what was available in 2010 when my Mac Pro came out, right? Alternatively, if I plug the same 2020 model SATA drives directly into the normal drive bays I will get a much slower performance, correct?
Unfortunately such a card with shipping to Norway and import duties will become very expensive, and as far as I know it's not sold locally. I do see many cheap PCIe SATA cards on eBay -while not expecting anything like the above MaxConnect card, will they be an improvement over just plugging in the drives as usual?