Will any SSD work? Mac Pro 5,1 2010

[Yurtal]

Just as the title reads, probably a very stupid question, but with a 2.5"-3.5" 'sled' would any 2.5" SSD work in a Mac Pro? Im sure there are ssd's better than others, I'm kinda looking for the most economical one size/cost. One I have seen for example is a OCZ Vertex 4 512gb for $200 (Australian) second hand.

Really appreciate the help.
Cheers!

 

[IowaLynn]

Just as the title reads, probably a very stupid question, but with a 2.5"-3.5" 'sled' would any 2.5" SSD work in a Mac Pro? Im sure there are ssd's better than others, I'm kinda looking for the most economical one size/cost. One I have seen for example is a OCZ Vertex 4 512gb for $200 (Australian) second hand.

Really appreciate the help.
Cheers!

Ramcity is in Australia and seems to "specialize" in the PCIe blade adapters for the OEM Apple SSD and XP941 - those cost more but offer higher performance.

Yes you can get a boost using any SSD and put it on the native SATA II drive bays and get 250MB/sec, or use PCIe SATA III controller ($US50-90) and use your SSD (I switched to Samsung years ago, which would be the 850 EVO) for which a 128GB $US75 (Amazon USA).

That is small but enough for the system. 250GB is more popular size.

Size, price, adapter or controller. 512GB is huge for an SSD as nothing but the OS and apps need to go on it unless being used for: scratch, Lightroom or other intense disk I/O uses.

 

[Yurtal]

Awesome, thanks so much for your help.

 

[SDAVE]

definitely get a velo x1 or velo x2 and pop on a SSD. Big jump.

Honestly the PCIe blades are overkill. They won't benefit (technically they will) from the crazy performance and these older computers -- the bus, memory, etc are kind of old...and the CPU's don't have the same technology that newer ones have to take advantage of all the speeds that solid state memory has to offer. So stick with a simple SSD and a PCIe SATA III controller and it will last you for a while. In the future, you can just get a nMP or something that takes advantage of all the tech available.

I'm saying this because as much as you upgrade all the other components of a cMP, it is still a PCIe 2.0, 1333Mhz (Max) and older chipset type of technology. If you use an rMBP and a cMP you will notice how snappier (hate that word) the rMBP is because of it's superior memory speed.

 

[MacVidCards]

definitely get a velo x1 or velo x2 and pop on a SSD. Big jump.


I'm saying this because as much as you upgrade all the other components of a cMP, it is still a PCIe 2.0, .

Hey, just so you know.

The XP941 and Apple SSUAX ran FASTER in a cMP x4 slot then they do in a nMP.

And quite a bit faster then they do in most MacBooks, and certainly faster then they will in ANY TB chassis.

The PCIE 2.0 x4 interface is faster than a XP941. If they were designed to take advantage of x16, the drives could run 4x faster in cMP then they can anywhere else.

And 2 of them in a RAID 0 in cMP will run rings around any onboard storage in any current Mac.

You may be premature declaring cMP obsolete.

 

[SDAVE]

Hey, just so you know.

The XP941 and Apple SSUAX ran FASTER in a cMP x4 slot then they do in a nMP.

And quite a bit faster then they do in most MacBooks, and certainly faster then they will in ANY TB chassis.

The PCIE 2.0 x4 interface is faster than a XP941. If they were designed to take advantage of x16, the drives could run 4x faster in cMP then they can anywhere else.

And 2 of them in a RAID 0 in cMP will run rings around any onboard storage in any current Mac.

You may be premature declaring cMP obsolete.

I did not say cMP's are obsolete. I get 30k Geekbench scores on mine...but these older Mac Pro's are slower in single threaded applications and the chipsets are older. My point is technology changes very quickly and there are certainly new features like low power usage etc that I would like to take advantage in the future.

Also what are you doing that requires you 1,500MB/sec from your SSD? isn't 450-800MB/sec enough??

Also the new 13" MBP is getting 1,500MB/sec on it's SSD....that's where Apple storage is headed.