MacPro4,1 2009 2.66GHz model. Have an Intel 240GB SSD in drive bay #4 now (OWC sled/adapter). Would there be any advantage to using it in Drive bay #1, or disadvantage with it in drive bay#4 as it is now? I am really not an expert on Mac Pros. 
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Which bay is best for SSD?
- Thread starter davidlv
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Won't make any difference which bay, or if you plug it into the second connector in the optical bay.
Hello
I have same mac pro than you. i put the sdd in a Velocity Solo X2 pcie card
The data port on mac pro is sata2 this give you sata3 speeds.
I can reach up to 490 Mb/s if you put in any drive bay of the mac pro the speed is about 300 Mb/s.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1418445/
I have same mac pro than you. i put the sdd in a Velocity Solo X2 pcie card
The data port on mac pro is sata2 this give you sata3 speeds.
I can reach up to 490 Mb/s if you put in any drive bay of the mac pro the speed is about 300 Mb/s.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1418445/
If you use any of the PCI-e SATA III cars such as the Apricorn, the Rocket 640L and so on you should see speeds of around 470 MB/s write and 490 MB/s read (if you attach a SATA III drive of course).
If you put the same SATA III drive in one of the sleds (or ODD bay) using an adapter you will be limited to SATA II which will top out at around 280MB/s. It is still very fast compared to an HDD though.
If you put the same SATA III drive in one of the sleds (or ODD bay) using an adapter you will be limited to SATA II which will top out at around 280MB/s. It is still very fast compared to an HDD though.
Not in terms of performance, but with my SSD I wanted to install Windows for dual booting, and personally I couldn't get Windows to boot except in bay #1 (it cites some bollocks about having to be the primary drive or some other Windows nonsense). May not be an issue for you, but for my early 2008 it just wouldn't work.
If you're not running Windows from it then the SSD can go anywhere you like that has a SATA connector, and it should run just fine