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Upgrading Mac Pro 2009 4.1

orph said:
dont mix up a GTX580 and a RX580 ;)
think sapphire is one of the brands most liked by osx?

RX 580 info, you will need two mac 6 pin to 6 pin (or 8 pin) cable to plug in to the card
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...x580-pulse-into-the-mac-edition-card.2101909/
Click to expand...
No worries there, I already have a mini 6-6 pin and a mini 6 to 8 pin cable. I'm using it with the GTX580 now.
I'm on the lookout on ebay for the RX580 but no good deals yet.... I guess I just have to be patient.
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XNorth said:
Increase your RAM as much as you can.
Click to expand...

Would you suggest Non-ECC? It's got 16GB of ECC in there now.

XNorth said:
You will also need fast RAID storage
Click to expand...

I'm setting up a RAID 0 of two 120GB SSD's. Would that be enough?
I bought the Sonnet Tempo Sata III card and mounted two Samsung 850 Evo's.

I just got it installed in the machine and was up till past midnight flashing the firmware and getting High Sierra installed.
I went to sleep before the install finished so I'll have to check and see if everything is functioning today.

OS and Apps will be on a M.2 card.
 
PurpleHillsMac said:
Would you suggest Non-ECC? It's got 16GB of ECC in there now.
Click to expand...

I would get at least 32GB, ECC.

I'm setting up a RAID 0 of two 120GB SSD's. Would that be enough?
I bought the Sonnet Tempo Sata III card and mounted two Samsung 850 Evo's.
Click to expand...

The Sonnet Temp 2.5" SSDs will give 900 MB/s, which should be fast enough for 4K video. 240GB holds about 4 hours of 4K 100 Mb/s video, so you might want to increase the capacity of your RAID if you have lots of footage and render files.

OS and Apps will be on a M.2 card.
Click to expand...
M.2 NVMe is not bootable without a workaround/hack, only AHCI is natively bootable for High Sierra. You will need a M.2 PCIe adapter card.
 
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XNorth said:
I would get at least 32GB, ECC.

The Sonnet Temp 2.5" SSDs will give 900 MB/s, which should be fast enough for 4K video. 240GB holds about 4 hours of 4K 100 Mb/s video, so you might want to increase the capacity of your RAID if you have lots of footage and render files.

M.2 NVMe is not bootable without a workaround/hack, only AHCI is natively bootable for High Sierra. You will need a M.2 PCIe adapter card.
Click to expand...

For info, the Sonnet Tempo SSD only deliver up to 660MB/s. Only the Sonnet Tempo SSD Pro can deliver up to 960MB/s.

PurpleHillsMac said:
I'm setting up a RAID 0 of two 120GB SSD's. Would that be enough?
I bought the Sonnet Tempo Sata III card and mounted two Samsung 850 Evo's.
Click to expand...

This is a single 840Evo mounted on a Sonnet Tempo SSD. ~500MB/s is already good enough for 4k 60FPS ProRes 422 HQ.
840 Evo.jpg
 
Thanks for the advice!

XNorth said:
only AHCI is natively bootable for High Sierra
Click to expand...

Yup, I got an AHCI 128GB M.2 SSD.
I checked on it at lunchtime and finished up the OS setup. So far it's looking good...

Status:
Booting from M.2 Card, no issues.
SSD RAID 0 also no issues.
2x 1TB HDDs online and working.

Next step, download FCPx and do some testing!

I'll post updates...
 
not read all the posts but if your shooting "4k drone footage" then id gess it's h264 ?

then disc speed is not a huge problem so raid is not needed unless your doing some crazy post work and relay not shore if you will do that in FCX.

your main slow downs will be
CPU
GPU
drive speed
(and only ram if your on a massive complex project)

as FCX can make proxy's on the fly (if you want) then cash drive speed or the project drive speed will be the only drive that actually needs to be fast for responsive timeline fun.

a 512GB or bigger (if needed smaller if practical to save £££ ) SSD (even on the sata 2 bus) for active FCX projects to store all the data and catch/proxy files (originals can stay on a slower archive drive) may be a nice option, SSD while not super fast at single file transfer compared to more fancy things (even on the slower sata 2 bus) will give a response speed that HD's find harder to achieve for snappy action in timeline etc.

o and have an external backup system worked out :D

ps im not relay in to the world of working on 4K yet but iv played with my gx80 100mb 4K h264 and FCX seems to be super smooth just working from a WD black with a 6c 3.33ghz and a gtx770 4gb resolve is a lot slower with my 4K over my 6D's 1080p 100mb files h264
 
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Good news! I got all my parts and installed them and got the system working.
So far it run fast and smooth ;)

I also landed on a new Sapphire Pulse 8GB for $350. Is this reasonable price?

I've just been really busy and haven't had time to work on the Mac, besides installing the OS.
Will keep you guys posted how FCPx works for me with the new card.

Is there any way to get the boot screen with the Pulse?
 
PurpleHillsMac said:
Good news! I got all my parts and installed them and got the system working.
So far it run fast and smooth ;)

I also landed on a new Sapphire Pulse 8GB for $350. Is this reasonable price?

I've just been really busy and haven't had time to work on the Mac, besides installing the OS.
Will keep you guys posted how FCPx works for me with the new card.

Is there any way to get the boot screen with the Pulse?
Click to expand...

This is a hard question. Reasonable or not is very personal. For info, this card's MSRP should be $229.
 
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Does anybody know how to keep make the Sata III card to be non-eject-able?
The M.2 card with the OS also comes up as eject-able.

I made a RAID 0 array and with the two SSD's on the SATA III card, but it periodically disconnects and tells me it wasn't ejected properly.

Any Suggestions?
 
contact the PCI sata 3 card seller/manufacture for support?
what card is it? (assume you are on osx10.13?)
 
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Hi all,

Sorry for the long absence. I've been gathering parts for the Mac Pro and have almost completed my upgrades.

Current config:

3.33Ghz Quad-Core Xeon 3500 CPU
16GB of RAM
AMD Sapphire Pulse 8GB GPU :)
2x 1TB WD Black (1 is Time Machine Backup and one is Data (These are original))
2x 120GB Samsung 850 Evo (Mounted on Tempo SSD SATA III sled in Raid 0 as FCPx scratch disk)
128GB AHCI M.2 SSD (OS)
USB 3.1 card (USB-A x1 port, USB-C x1 port)

I'm using the dual mini 6-pin to 8-pin connector from ModDIY that was recommended on another post here.

I have to yet set up my screen on the wall (LG 34UM59-P) and then I'll be set and be able to do some testing and try out FCPx performance.

Yet to upgrade:
CPU
RAM
HDD (WD Black 6TB x1 or maybe eventually 2)
SSD (Thinking of upgrading the SSD's on the SATA III sled to 500GB Samsung Evos and using one 120GB for my bootcamp disk if I need to use Windows)

Will post pictures of the upgraded interior when finished setting up.

Does anybody know how to run the SATA power cable into the DVD drive bay? I'm pulling power for the USB 3.1 Card off HDD bay 4 but I'm eventually gonna add a HDD there so I'll need that port open.

Thanks for all the advice so far!;)
 
PurpleHillsMac said:
Hi all,

Sorry for the long absence. I've been gathering parts for the Mac Pro and have almost completed my upgrades.

Current config:

3.33Ghz Quad-Core Xeon 3500 CPU
16GB of RAM
AMD Sapphire Pulse 8GB GPU :)
2x 1TB WD Black (1 is Time Machine Backup and one is Data (These are original))
2x 120GB Samsung 850 Evo (Mounted on Tempo SSD SATA III sled in Raid 0 as FCPx scratch disk)
128GB AHCI M.2 SSD (OS)
USB 3.1 card (USB-A x1 port, USB-C x1 port)

I'm using the dual mini 6-pin to 8-pin connector from ModDIY that was recommended on another post here.

I have to yet set up my screen on the wall (LG 34UM59-P) and then I'll be set and be able to do some testing and try out FCPx performance.

Yet to upgrade:
CPU
RAM
HDD (WD Black 6TB x1 or maybe eventually 2)
SSD (Thinking of upgrading the SSD's on the SATA III sled to 500GB Samsung Evos and using one 120GB for my bootcamp disk if I need to use Windows)

Will post pictures of the upgraded interior when finished setting up.

Does anybody know how to run the SATA power cable into the DVD drive bay? I'm pulling power for the USB 3.1 Card off HDD bay 4 but I'm eventually gonna add a HDD there so I'll need that port open.

Thanks for all the advice so far!;)
Click to expand...

You may install the HDD in optical bay if that's easier than find a path for the cable.
 
It's so much easier to mount a large capacity HDD in optical bay then HDD bay. The HDD sled on the cMP only good for old small capacity HDD. For the new large capacity one, those mount points won't fit.

Buy an 5.25 to 3.5 adaptor is cheaper and easier. So that you don't have to worry about the incorrect mount points. AFAIK, the WD Black 6TB still use the "correct" mount points. But you better make sure that's the case if you want to install that into the HDD bay.
 
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h9826790 said:
It's so much easier to mount a large capacity HDD in optical bay then HDD bay. The HDD sled on the cMP only good for old small capacity HDD. For the new large capacity one, those mount points won't fit.

Buy an 5.25 to 3.5 adaptor is cheaper and easier. So that you don't have to worry about the incorrect mount points. AFAIK, the WD Black 6TB still use the "correct" mount points. But you better make sure that's the case if you want to install that into the HDD bay.
Click to expand...

Is there a limit as to how large of a HDD those old mounts can read? I never thought of checking the mount specs, thanks for the input!
 
PurpleHillsMac said:
Is there a limit as to how large of a HDD those old mounts can read? I never thought of checking the mount specs, thanks for the input!
Click to expand...

No specific capacity limit, vary between different part number. e.g. my WD Red 6TB can be mount on the cMP’s HDD sled. But someone reported their WD Red 6TB (seems like V2) come with the new mount points. So, even same series can have different mount points.
 
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Thanks to @h9826790 and @kohlson for the tips and advice.

Can you advise where is the best place to buy a W5690? From reading the forums, I gather that this is the best processor you can put in the 4,1 (firmware upgraded to 5,1)

It can be new or used, but I want to make sure I'm not buying from someplace that's ripping me off.

I came across this, is it a good deal?
[doublepost=1527142130][/doublepost]Also, I'm thinking about upgrading my RAM. I read that it's better to leave the 4th slot open.

I would want to get 3x16 GB 1333mhz RAM. I read the wiki on RAM but there are lots of conflicting suggestions on where to buy. I'd appreciate if somebody can let me know of a place that sells genuine and reasonably priced RAM for my 4,1.
 
I would urge you to read the many other threads on this. But to summarize:
- W or X5690 CPUs are typically obtained from Ebay. New ones are much more expensive than used. The Star Micro link you cited is about right. Memory can be from EBay, too.
- There is a 4-7% performance penalty for adding RAM to the 4th slot. Just keep in mind there is exactly a 88.725% performance penalty for hitting swap. My point is, configure your system with the memory needed for your work. If that fills 3 or 4 slots,, so be it.
 
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Do NVME SSD's work well now with the Mac Pro 2009? I understand that booting is still an issue but how would it work for just a data disk?
 
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