Speeding up an old mac pro

[tealemon]

I have an old mac pro 3,1 which I would like to speed up a little.
Currently it has 14GB 667MHz RAM in it, and a bunch of old-fashioned hard disks.

What would improve performance more - replacing the 667MHz RAM with 800MHz RAM (the fastest this computer can take), or replacing the system drive with an SSD?

Ideally both, I know but, sadly I have to choose.

 

[Harry Muff]

SSD.


I'm Running a 2006 1,1 with 12Gb of 667Mhz RAM, and a Crucial 512Gb M4 SSD (3Gb SATA).


It flies.


Best upgrade you can make to a Mac. Do it.

 

[pertusis1]

I second the motion. Best bang for your buck, for sure.

 

[Tom-Create-Pro]

Third . The difference an SSD makes is ridiculous, and it improves performance across the board.

 

[Gav Mack]

Fourthed. The RAM bus speed increase will be hardly noticable compared to the laugh your head off at how much quicker it is with an SSD - even in a sled.

Decent 2.5 inch sled adaptor like the NWT Adaptadrive highly recommended unlike the junk plastic icy boxes etc.

 

[mac8867]

+1 on the crucial SSD. If you google up crucial SSD, 500Gb, you can find them for right around $215 right now. I have that drive in my 4,1... world of difference

 

[nigelbb]

What would improve performance more - replacing the 667MHz RAM with 800MHz RAM (the fastest this computer can take), or replacing the system drive with an SSD?

I have seen benchmarks (sorry don't have a link ATM) that show barely any performance difference between using 667MHz & 800MHz FB-DIMMs. In real world usage there is no difference.

An SSD in a drive self is good but an SSD on a PCI-e card like the Apricom Velocity is even better as the SATA bus gets maxed out if you put it in a drive sled & you won't get full SATA III performance out of a modern SSD without putting it on a PCI-e card.