SSD drive into 2008 Mac Pro?

[wfriedwald]

thanks JedNZ (New Zealand?) - that's something to think about.

For me the simplest option is just to put an SSD drive in one of the drive bays (using

The idea of using a PCIe card is also worth considering, as you say.... I am not sure if I have an open slot in there ... but then I think I do have not one but possibly two slots taken up by eSATA cards, and I haven't really used eSATA much since the advent of USB3.

However, the most direct question is: since it's clear that I want to start using an SSD Drive as my system drive, I need to know

* what capacity drive should I get?
* does anyone have any recommendations?
* conversely, are there are any SSD drives / manufacturers that I should avoid?

thanks again!

w

 

[wfriedwald]

I thought that I posted a reply, but it seems to have disappeared - will try again.

Okay, for the time being, it seems like using the internal drive bays and an adapter is the easiest way to go. (I'm not as much of a master of hardware reconfiguration as the rest of you!)

My question re SSD Drives:
1. what capacity will I need to hold my whole operating system + all the applications?
2. what drive manufacturers do you recommend?
3. conversely, which drive manufacturers should I shun?

thanks - I hope this response gets up there!

will

 

[jbarley]

My question re SSD Drives:
1. what capacity will I need to hold my whole operating system + all the applications?
2. what drive manufacturers do you recommend?
3. conversely, which drive manufacturers should I shun?

thanks - I hope this response gets up there!

will

For an answer to #1, click on the Apple, top-left menubar, now select "Storage", the results here should help you decide.
For #2, anything that can be had for the best price.
Lastly #3, I haven't had any negative experience with any I've tried, plus I've seen no published information to indicate any are worse then others.

Answers to your last 2 questions will be more of a mixed bag of personal opinions, as are mine.

 

[wfriedwald]

apologies - I see that my original response did NOT disappear, it just was pushed back to a second page. thanks & sorry!

and thanks, as always, JB for the tip!

w

 

[mryingster]

I thought that I posted a reply, but it seems to have disappeared - will try again.

Okay, for the time being, it seems like using the internal drive bays and an adapter is the easiest way to go. (I'm not as much of a master of hardware reconfiguration as the rest of you!)

My question re SSD Drives:
1. what capacity will I need to hold my whole operating system + all the applications?
2. what drive manufacturers do you recommend?
3. conversely, which drive manufacturers should I shun?

thanks - I hope this response gets up there!

will

Ha. I just replied to your thread in the MacMini forum.

I use this PCI adaptor for my SSD:
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/SSDACL6G.S/

I originally had my SSD in the second optical drive bay, and ran up a SATA cable (there are two unused SATA ports on the motherboard beneath one of the fans) but the onboard SATA is only SATA 2, not SATA 3, so I got to PCI card to ensure I was getting best performance.

I bought a Samsung SSD. 128 GB for boot and applications only. I keep everything else on the four spinning drives. When I first did the upgrade, my boot time went down to 12 seconds, but that was I think that was when I was running Mountain Lion. Things have only gone downhill from there performance-wise... Everything is quicker. I am not unhappy with the computer's performance despite being 8 years old.

 

[wfriedwald]

Ha. I just replied to your thread in the MacMini forum.

I use this PCI adaptor for my SSD:
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/SSDACL6G.S/

I originally had my SSD in the second optical drive bay, and ran up a SATA cable (there are two unused SATA ports on the motherboard beneath one of the fans) but the onboard SATA is only SATA 2, not SATA 3, so I got to PCI card to ensure I was getting best performance.

I bought a Samsung SSD. 128 GB for boot and applications only. I keep everything else on the four spinning drives. When I first did the upgrade, my boot time went down to 12 seconds, but that was I think that was when I was running Mountain Lion. Things have only gone downhill from there performance-wise... Everything is quicker. I am not unhappy with the computer's performance despite being 8 years old.

---

Immediate response - I never realized there was a second optical drive bay! I guess that I have been letting it sit empty for all these years. Holy Cannoli!

12 seconds to boot! Holy guacamole! Even 12 minutes would be an improvement for me.

Okay, will read further and ponder... thanks!

w

 

[fridgeymonster3]

I added a PCI card and rigged two SSDs under the bays and connected them there. I had them in the optical bay drive but added a blu-ray drive. I think I posted this question a long long time ago and added pictures. I have to find that thread to see if there were pictures because I haven't had the mac pro in several years.

EDIT: Found what I had.

I had this http://barefeats.com/hard128.html

It was a sleek way to house SSDs that were connected to a PCIe sata card. I think it was like $120-$130 and not sure if you can get them anymore used somewhere. I had all 4 bays and the two optical drives full so it was one of my only options.

 

[JedNZ]

Just one experience I've had recently, when I had my macOS SSD in the optical drive bay, was that on a reset the system started up the first OS it found from amongst my direct connect bays. I had to manually set the startup disk to my SSD in the OD bay. And when I put my spare SSD in the same OD bay with Win10 on it, it wouldn't boot Windows unless I booted into another drive elsewhere and then did a restart. I don't think the OD bay allows for cold start boots to Windows. Someone might be able to confirm/refute this as a technical contraindication.

 

[wfriedwald]

PS: by the way, I just came across this little beauty
<https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Oth...tm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_campaign=Criteo>

it seems to be a PCI card that holds an SSD drive and also gives you two eSATA ports? If I am looking at it correctly...

(Of course, I haven't really used eSATA in a while - more USB3 ports might be more useful.)

thanks!

w

 

[MSastre]

PS: by the way, I just came across this little beauty
<https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/SSDPHW2ES2UP/?utm_source=Criteo&utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_campaign=Criteo>

it seems to be a PCI card that holds an SSD drive and also gives you two eSATA ports? If I am looking at it correctly...

(Of course, I haven't really used eSATA in a while - more USB3 ports might be more useful.)

thanks!

w[/QUOTE

I have the same unit in my 210 MacPro, plus a couple more SSDs in drive bay adapters form OWC. They work great! Using a couple different OSs on them.

[doublepost=1483555931][/doublepost]Highly recommend SSD's and adapters from OWC

 

[JedNZ]

As far as recommending an SSD, I would go for the Samsung 850 EVO. I've got two (500GB models) - one for macOS and one for WIn10 and they are rock solid, hard working units.

I did sell my sole and tried a Crucial MX300 750GB, but it failed within days (3!). Won't be a typical experience, but it made me stick with the Samsung 850 EVOs.

As for size, how much data have you got? Regardless, get the largest SSD you can afford with 50% spare space than you have data for, for future expansion. If you've got more than 500G of data, consider creating a Fusion Drive (FD) with a SSD and a HDD. basically you join virtually the two drives to make one bigger one. You get the benefits of speed that SSD can bring, plus the cheaper cost of GB/$ from a HDD.

I have 1.8TB of User data, but couldn't afford to buy a 2TB SSD. So I have a 500GB SSD for my boot macOS, and a 3TB Seagate HDD for my User data. I chose not to FD them as I don't know if I can as the SSD is in an Accelsior S PCIe card that gives me SATA 3 (6Gbps) speed. I'm currently asking in another thread if I can FD a M.2 PCIe NVMe with a HDD - its only for my User data, so doesn't need to boot (I'd use the Accelsior S PCIe SSD to boot the macOS). Don't you hate first world dilemmas and issues like this?!

 

[Ph.D.]

Be aware that, with a 3,1 (2008), you will not likely get the same SSD performance if you use a PCI card in other than slots 0 or 1 (your graphics card slot and the one next to it). Only two slots are likely to be fast enough to provide full performance. The others are PCI 1, not PCI 2. When I put my RAID array in the slower slots, the performance dropped dramatically, as expected.

I also recommend Samsung 850 Evo (I have 2x 1TB). They may be a little pricier than their competition, but they are the current industry leader. While OWC is a good citizen (I have 2 of their older 500GB drives), theirs are almost certainly rebadged drives from other unknown manufacturers.

Side note: A problem with this forum - like most larger tech forums - is that one simple question gets 12 different answers, with participants all adamant that their solution is the best (I'm not immune to that either). But from the content of your questions, etc., I'd suggest sticking with a simple solution. You can always add an expensive PCI card later if desired. Furthermore, routing cables behind the optical drive cage is a huge pain (I know as I did it), and some more exotic solutions are either very expensive, have some compatibility issues, or are hard to source, or all of the above.

Anyway, here are your options laid out for you:

• Simple and super easy: One drive in a normal bay. You will already be impressed to the point that you will hate spinners for the rest of your life.
  
• Faster, almost as simple: Two drives in two normal bays in RAID 0. A noticable improvement, but not super dramatic.
  
• Same speeds, but annoying: Route cables too/from the optical bay. Remember - a 3,1 does NOT have optical drives that are compatible with SSDs (uses an older standard), so you need new cables and power adapters.
  
• About as fast as a RAID 0 in the normal bays: One fast SSD in an Apricorn Velocity X2 (must be in a PCI-E 2.0 slot). Costs an extra $50 or so. Might be cost effective if using a large drive or if you are out of bays.
  
• Faster still: Two drives in a Velocity X2 Duo in Raid 0. Costs over $100 extra. An improvement, but not super dramatically faster, in my opinion and experience (benchmarks aside).
  
• Even faster: Exotic PCI drives. Expensive!
  
• Ridiculously fast: Four AHCI drives in RAID 0 on a PCI card. Very expensive!

 

[wfriedwald]

thanks very much, PhD!

that is indeed my plan. to start one with SSD drive in one of the basic drive bays.

And there's no reason I can't proceed from there, down the road, I can get more storage by adding additional SSD drives via the PCI slots.

right now, the PCI's are used as follows:
slot 1 - Graphics
slot 2 - USB3
slot 3 - eSATA (two)
slot 4 - eSATA (two more)

I can definitely remove one of the eSATA cards, I have not gotten much use out of those recently.

yes! this is a very good plan! and a good way to start the new year!

Follow-up question:

this is the drive that has been recommended (250GB should accommodate my OS) - and Amazon is offering a bundle with a "Corsair Dual SSD Mounting Bracket 3.5" Bundle"
<https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-...403&sr=8-1&keywords=samsung+ssd+850+evo&th=1>

so I just wanted to ask - will this mounting bracket work in the Mac Pro 2008 (3,1) or should I go with the adapter recommended in this thread a day or so ago?

w

 

[LorenK]

Don't put the SSD in a drive bay using SATA cables, it is slower than if you get a PCIe card and put it in one of your PCIe slots. I have the Apricorn Velocity SSD upgrade card, and my 3,1 booted significantly faster than when I had the SSD in a drive bay. When I recently bought a 5,1, I was able to seamlessly move the card to the 5,1 and immediately boot up, and just as fast.

Research the PCIe cards that are out there and there are cards that take 1, two or four SSD cards, so you can have future flexibility. And you can get four port eSATA cards as well, so you don't lose your external drive capacity. (I moved my 4-port eSATA card, my 4-port USB 3.0 and my SSD card to the 5,1, with absolutely zero problems.)

 

[BeechFlyer]

I have the Apricorn Velocity SSD upgrade card, and my 3,1 booted significantly faster than when I had the SSD in a drive bay.

Can you make one of those SSDs the boot drive? How is that configured? And what is the best way to clone the existing boot drive onto a new SSD?

I have a MP 3,1 in case it matters.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[LorenK]

Can you make one of those SSDs the boot drive? How is that configured? And what is the best way to clone the existing boot drive onto a new SSD?

I have a MP 3,1 in case it matters.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Yes, that's the point, and that's why when you use a pcie card, it's so much faster booting. There are several free cloning software programs that are mentioned in other threads that you can use, but if your o/s is acting buggy, you should just do a clean install on the SSD, then set the start-up drive as the SSD. The two names most frequently mentioned are CarbonCopyCloner and SuperDuper. I think I've used both, and they're both easy to use. Have fun.

To change the start up drive, go to system preferences and click on start up disk icon and it will show possible boot disks.

 

[fourthtunz]

thanks very much, PhD!

that is indeed my plan. to start one with SSD drive in one of the basic drive bays.

And there's no reason I can't proceed from there, down the road, I can get more storage by adding additional SSD drives via the PCI slots.

right now, the PCI's are used as follows:
slot 1 - Graphics
slot 2 - USB3
slot 3 - eSATA (two)
slot 4 - eSATA (two more)

I can definitely remove one of the eSATA cards, I have not gotten much use out of those recently.

yes! this is a very good plan! and a good way to start the new year!

Follow-up question:

this is the drive that has been recommended (250GB should accommodate my OS) - and Amazon is offering a bundle with a "Corsair Dual SSD Mounting Bracket 3.5" Bundle"
<https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E250B-AM/dp/B01MCXQFBK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483562403&sr=8-1&keywords=samsung+ssd+850+evo&th=1>

so I just wanted to ask - will this mounting bracket work in the Mac Pro 2008 (3,1) or should I go with the adapter recommended in this thread a day or so ago?

w

This is a great drive and the price is right! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M8ABHVQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[wfriedwald]

oh wow --- thanks ... that looks great, but I don't need that much capacity just for the operating system & APPs - I'm thinking 250 is more than enough. (I can't put everything on SSD drives, I have many, many terabytes worth of content.... many many!)

my immediate question: Amazon is offering a bundle with a Corsair Dual SSD Mounting Bracket 3.5" - can anyone tell me one way or another if this bracket will work in my 2008 Mac Pro 3,1 (I'm talking about the standard drive bay, of course, though my next step will be to experiment with putting one or more in the PCI slots.)

"Corsair Dual SSD Mounting Bracket 3.5" Bundle"
<http://amzn.to/2iFINed>

thanks yet again!

w

 

[jbarley]

"Corsair Dual SSD Mounting Bracket 3.5" Bundle"
<https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-...403&sr=8-1&keywords=samsung+ssd+850+evo&th=1>

thanks yet again!

w

Your link as posted is not working for me, this is what I get...

 

[wfriedwald]

Your link as posted is not working for me, this is what I get...

sorry - try this <http://amzn.to/2iFINed>

 

[Ph.D.]

Follow-up question:

this is the drive that has been recommended (250GB should accommodate my OS) - and Amazon is offering a bundle with a "Corsair Dual SSD Mounting Bracket 3.5" Bundle"
<https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E250B-AM/dp/B01MCXQFBK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483562403&sr=8-1&keywords=samsung+ssd+850+evo&th=1>

so I just wanted to ask - will this mounting bracket work in the Mac Pro 2008 (3,1) or should I go with the adapter recommended in this thread a day or so ago?

w

Yes, that is a good SSD (Samsung 850 Evo). You want an adapter that will hold the drive in the correct position so that the sled will just slide in with the drive plugging in properly. That absolutely won't work with two drives in one sled, as this adapter suggests is possible. It may work with one drive, though I probably wouldn't get this adapter unless you don't mind returning it in the eventuality that it doesn't work.
[doublepost=1483578990][/doublepost]

Can you make one of those SSDs the boot drive? How is that configured? And what is the best way to clone the existing boot drive onto a new SSD?

I have a MP 3,1 in case it matters.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Yes, it can be bootable, e.g. by cloning. It will be faster than a normal drive bay in a 3,1 so long as it's in the first two slots (graphic card slot or the one next to it). You will not gain much if any speed if it's in the last two slots. It will cost more, of course, which is why I'd suggest a PCI card only with a larger SSD.

 

[wfriedwald]

okay, I think I'm going to grab this adapter - I am assured that this works in the Mac Pro.
<http://amzn.to/2hSOjNh>

I shall order these parts herewith and report back to everyone! thanks again!

w

 

[nigelbb]

The IcyDock adapter is fine. I used one before I got an Apricorn Velocity Duo PCIe card. Prior to that as the ultimate low cost optio I just used a bit of gaffer tape to hold the SSD in place as they are so light that is all that is required.

 

[wfriedwald]

not sure if I should start a new thread for this:

the new SSD hard drive is due to arrive tom'w.

to actually install the OS on it, should I use the repair partition (something I haven't used in a while ... I even forget how to restart from that ... hold down the option key?) or something else?

what's the best way to install the OS onto the new hard drive, once it's actually inside the Mac Pro 3,1?

thanks!

w

 

[orph]

in my 2008 i stuck an ssd just in to the first slot, it saged a bit but worked fine, if you want you cane tape it or use a cable tie to keep it on.

im not fancy so i just left it there worded fine for me

the simplest way to install the os is to keep your old boot drive in
download the os installer from the apple app
open the installer and point at your SSD
when you install you have the option to transfer files, import them from your old os drive if you want

(you can also do that later, the migration app is in the utility folder)

thats how i did it