Zip Tie SSD enclosure under HDD Bay

[fridgeymonster3]

I was wondering if anyone has zip tied a dual SSD enclosure underneath one of your 4 occupied hard drive bays? I already have a superdrive and internal blu-ray drive in my optical bays, and I really don't want to take up one of the four hard drive bays.

I was thinking of taking an enclosure like this (http://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=79) and then using a molex Y splitter and the ODD Sata ports for the SSD's.

This would also require me to buy an IDE to Sata converter (like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ZLM9IA/ref=ox_ya_os_product) to free up one of my ODD sata ports as I have my blu-ray drive using one right now.

Any thoughts? Anyone see any problems or done anything similar?

 

[JavaTheHut]

You could pull out your DVD drive and just use your BluRay drive and then you have room. Unless you do a lot of CD transfers?
2¢

 

[fridgeymonster3]

You could pull out your DVD drive and just use your BluRay drive and then you have room. Unless you do a lot of CD transfers?
2¢

Yeah I've considered doing that. My LG blu-ray drive is finicky though. I've never had a problem with the stock super-drive and I generally am a procrastinator when it comes to trouble shooting problems. If I just had the blu-ray drive and it acted up, my wife would hassle me until I fixed it.

 

[cutterman]

You can get an enclosure to convert the Bluray drive to external.

 

[ActionableMango]

Aren't you going to disable one of the ODDs anyway when you do this:

using a molex Y splitter and the ODD Sata ports for the SSD's.

 

[Loa]

Hello,

OP which Mac Pro do you have?

Loa

 

[fridgeymonster3]

Hello,

OP which Mac Pro do you have?

Loa

I have an early 2008 MP.

I'm pretty sure the ODD Sata ports are bootable in OS X. It's just that for windows you have to modify the MBR to have the computer boot in AHCI mode. I had done that in the past so my blu-ray drive that was connected to one of the Odd Sata ports was able to be seen in Windows.

 

[fridgeymonster3]

Since nobody seems to have any experience with trying to piggyback a regular 3.5" HDD and a dual SSD enclosure onto 1 hard drive sled, I guess I'll try to rig something up this weekend. I'll report back if I find something suitable.

 

[ActionableMango]

Well there's the DX4:
http://www.transintl.com/store/category.cfm?Category=2799&RequestTimeOut=500

I still don't understand why not use an optical bay. You state you need to keep both ODDs, but you also state that you will use one of the ODD's data cables for the SSD. That seems to conflict to me.

 

[fridgeymonster3]

Well there's the DX4:
http://www.transintl.com/store/category.cfm?Category=2799&RequestTimeOut=500

I still don't understand why not use an optical bay. You state you need to keep both ODDs, but you also state that you will use one of the ODD's data cables for the SSD. That seems to conflict to me.

I guess I haven't really been that clear. Here is my system configuration as it is now:

Mac Pro 3,1

Opt Bay 1: Superdrive
Opt Bay 2: Blu-Ray

HDD Bay 1: WD Caviar Black
HDD Bay 2: Samsung F3
HDD Bay 3: WD Caviar Green
HDD Bay 4: Hitachi

I want to leave the current configuration AS IS, but I want to utilize the 2 ODD Sata on the motherboard by adding 2 SSD's internally connected to them. I believe I can just take the sata power from the 2 Sata Optical connecters that I am not using (both drives are configured as PATA). Is there an easier way to gain power access?

Anyways, I don't want to buy something like the DX4, so I really want to know if anyone has rigged 2 SSD drives internally in their Mac Pro via zip ties, etc without using the optical bays or a HDD bay.

 

[Loa]

Hello,

It will be messy, and you'll have to find a path for the power wires, but zip ties should do the trick. SSDs don't much care about how they're mounted as there are no moving parts.

Let us know!

Loa

 

[fridgeymonster3]

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Hello,

It will be messy, and you'll have to find a path for the power wires, but zip ties should do the trick. SSDs don't much care about how they're mounted as there are no moving parts.

Let us know!

Loa

I tried several different options last night and finally threw in the towel around 2 AM. It was because I couldn't find a clean way to accomplish what I wanted. I ended up pulling a HDD as of right now, but I may just ditch one of my optical drives instead later. Oh well.