Soft/Hardware Upgrade Order?

[MacChuck]

Hi, I hope this is a good place to ask this...

I think of myself as, if my computer were a car, I could change the oil, not much more :^(
But I can drive hard! And it always starts. But I want to drive faster in my video editing, so here I am.
So anybody with equal parts knowledge/patience, please help me out...

Currently:
2010 MacPro 5,1
OSX 10.9.5
6 x 3.33 CPU
GTX 570 GPU
32 GB RAM

Upgrading to:
Sonnet Temp Pro Plus PCI-E
2 Samsung 860 EVOs 1TB in RAID 0
GTX 980 Ti 6GB
High Sierra

So (1)
What is the best order???
Sonnet
EVOs/format RAID 0 in Disk Utility
High Sierra
GTX 980 (then drivers)?

or another order?

and (2) (and most baffling to my slow brain...)
How do I get High Sierra on the EVOs, while still running 10.9?
I've read about bootable thumb drives, but are these just for backup, or part of the process of getting the new OS on the new drives?

I will have apps and video on the RAID.
What do I need to do about partitions? Never done them before...

Once running on the Sonnet/EVOs, do I need to remove the HDD that has OSX 10.9?

And at what stage do I make a bootable thumb drive?

Thanking some kind soul in advance for your assistance, it will be greatly appreciated!
(and help my stress level)

 

[MacChuck]

Can anyone please help me with this?

 

[orph]

you want to install osx, just grab it from the app shop and double click on it to open/install.
i just installed osx 10.11 on a imac ruining osx10.8 so cant see why you cant install osx10.13 on a osx10.9 instal

if you want grab a 16GB+ usb stick use the osx installer to install osx on to the usb stick then drag the installer on to the usb stick to, boot in to the usb stick then double click on the osx installer.
thats the simplest way to make a boot usb drive.
i use bootble usb sticks for a variety for troubleshooting mostly, handy to have.

install the nvidia video drivers before you gtx980, without the drivers you will have no display.

ps are you installing the os on the RAID with your video files?
for me it's always easier to have osx on a single drive that has only apps/osx no personal/work files, just makes life easy if you have any problems.

i keep life simple
-OS drive
-scratch drive
-media drive (for live projects, faster drive)
-storage drive (for recent projects that are not active but i may need to go back to, as projects get older there moved to external drives, bigger drive)

 

[MacChuck]

Thanks for the reply and tips, orph!

My uncertainty about the OS is that it's an initial, clean install of High Sierra, and that it's onto a different drive, not an update of the existing OS.

Thanks for the driver reminder...

Yes, I'm going to have OS and video on the RAID (just current project)- I'm trying to maximize speed here, though it's bit risky, and get around the SATA 2 speed bottleneck (even for SSDs).

So what are your thoughts on getting a new high Sierra on a new drive?

Thanks in advance!

 

[ActionableMango]

and (2) (and most baffling to my slow brain...)
How do I get High Sierra on the EVOs, while still running 10.9?

I don't understand what the issue is or why we are talking about bootable USB thumbsticks. Just download the installer from the app store and run it. Pick whatever drive you want as the destination, which I guess would be the new SSD(s).

I think it's really as easy as that. Am I missing something important here? Can you not pick destination drives in High Sierra?

 

[bsbeamer]

If you want to install TWO versions of an OS, you will need at least TWO separate partitions. This can be on the same physical drive (if space allows) or on separate drives. Personally recommend separate physical drives. If you cannot figure that step out, this is going to be very difficult.

I would HIGHLY recommend Carbon Copy Cloner and cloning your 10.9.X system drive (or partition) to the destination where you want 10.13.X to reside. While you're at it, I would also recommend cloning your system to an external/USB drive before beginning any upgrades/updates. Multiple backups is safer than none.

Simply opening the installer and running it without an existing clone will (likely) upgrade 10.9.X > 10.13.X and you will NOT be able to get 10.9.X back.

If keeping the drives physically separate, you will want to boot into the OS/partition that you want to update. I'd recommend removing the 10.9.X drive you want to keep "as-is" and label it as such. Then run the 10.13.X installer on the drive (clone) that remains.

If you setup as these two partitions, then you "should" be able to dual boot 10.9.X and 10.13.X without issues.

Bootable thumb drives can be made at any time, but those are only installers. They are little help if you have a system drive issue. Clone your system drive(s) with Carbon Copy Cloner and keep versioned backups. You'll (likely) never need the USB installer if those are on hand.

 

[barmann]

Thanks for the reply and tips, orph!

My uncertainty about the OS is that it's an initial, clean install of High Sierra, and that it's onto a different drive, not an update of the existing OS.

Thanks for the driver reminder...

Yes, I'm going to have OS and video on the RAID (just current project)- I'm trying to maximize speed here, though it's bit risky, and get around the SATA 2 speed bottleneck (even for SSDs).

So what are your thoughts on getting a new high Sierra on a new drive?

Thanks in advance!

As said above, you can install OSX on any drive you want to ; the current ones are full installers, not incremental backups .
User data, programs and such can be moved to the new OS during installation or after, using migration assistant .

And yes, you want to keep a clone or the old drive with your old system around , and not install a new OS over your old one without having a full bootable backup .
Carbon Copy Cloner, Super Duper and Disc Utility can do that ( the latter getting mixed reports ).

As for going to High Sierra from your current Mavericks OS, you might want to research possible compatibility issues with your programs .
After Mavericks ( 10.9.x ) a bunch of apps/ older app versions you might prefer to use were no longer supported, or need some tweaking to run .