Hardware Update for Mac Pro

[kalony]

I own a Mac Pro (Mid2010) and i bought some stuff to make him a lil bit up to date...Ram, USB 3.0 and SSD Drives...including a clean install.

My question is as follows...The Mac Pro has 4 slots for storage drives.
I used 2 Slots and i want to renew these two. The System drive and my Data drive...As i found out on google, it seems to make some differences, wich slot i usw for system drive. Looks like slot 1 (the far left one) should be the system drive. is that right? and why?

i would like to plug in the new SSD into slot 3...than i would like to start from the old drive...install everything i need on the new ssd, shut down, remove the old drive and move the ssd from slot 3 to slot 1...

is that making sense? so i dont need a bootable usb stick or whatever and i can format the new drive while i started on the old system drive and so on...that sounds more easy to me....as long as i can move it later from slot 3 to slot 1....


Cheers and good evening

kalony

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by kalony

I own a Mac Pro (Mid2010) and i bought some stuff to make him a lil bit up to date...Ram, USB 3.0 and SSD Drives...including a clean install.

My question is as follows...The Mac Pro has 4 slots for storage drives.
I used 2 Slots and i want to renew these two. The System drive and my Data drive...As i found out on google, it seems to make some differences, wich slot i usw for system drive. Looks like slot 1 (the far left one) should be the system drive. is that right? and why?

i would like to plug in the new SSD into slot 3...than i would like to start from the old drive...install everything i need on the new ssd, shut down, remove the old drive and move the ssd from slot 3 to slot 1...

is that making sense? so i dont need a bootable usb stick or whatever and i can format the new drive while i started on the old system drive and so on...that sounds more easy to me....as long as i can move it later from slot 3 to slot 1....


Cheers and good evening

kalony

I don't quite understand when you say that you used 2 slots and want to renew those two. What do you mean by 'renew'? To tell the truth I don't it matters which slot gets used for the system drive. What I would do being that you're putting in an ssd for the system drive is to get from OWC an Accelsior S card (just the card with no drive on it) to put your ssd on and put that in one of the open pcie slots. The MacPro has 4 card slots one of which is taken up by the video card. Put the Accelsior S card with the ssd mounted on it in one of the empty pcie slots. Since you're talking about doing a clean install put the OSX you want to use on the ssd and clean install all programs. Do NOT use Migration Assistant (commonly known around here as Migration Assassin) to do anything more than bring data over from your old drives. You'll still need to start from the old drive to do this.

If you really want to put an ssd into one of the more traditional drive bays at the top of the case you're going to need an adapter to mount to the carrier to accept the ssd. The reason I'm saying to put the ssd in one of the pcie slots is it is it'll be about twice as fast as that same ssd in a drive bay.

I'm doing the above on my 2012 MacPro (moving the ssd system drive to a pcie slot) for the speed increase and when money permits will; be getting a 2 TB ssd for samples. My current ssd system drive is a 1 TB Samsung 850 EVO; don't waste money on the Pro model as the only real difference is the warranty. There are faster options but those cost way more money.

Ram - how much are you putting in? MacPros use what's called triple-channel memory which means you actually get faster memory access with three ram modules in a single cpu MacPro versus filling up all four slots.

Back to the positions in the drive bays - I don't think it matters where the system drive goes. And you don't need to fill the drives from front to back. My current setup has the system ssd in bay one; bay two is empty; bays 3 and 4 have 4 TB 7200 rpm WD Black drives for samples and PT sessions.

[kalony]

hey there and thanks for your reply...

yes i bought 2 SSD and 2 adapters for Sata slots.
I will think about your words and maybe buy an SSD adapter for the PCI slot. I was looking now at amazon...the adapter will be around 70 euro...could be worth it...
but i read, that only PCI slot 1+2 are faster than Sata...can you prove that?
and if 1 slot is for the graphic card, i will have only 1 fast one left. would you prefere the system in there or the data drive?

your thoughts about Ram confusing me...i have a Mac Pro 3,2 GHz Quad Core (mid 2010) with now 2x4GB Ram and i now bought 2 more, to have 16 GB finaly...but you say, to use 3 only is faster than using 4???

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by kalony

hey there and thanks for your reply...

yes i bought 2 SSD and 2 adapters for Sata slots.
I will think about your words and maybe buy an SSD adapter for the PCI slot. I was looking now at amazon...the adapter will be around 70 euro...could be worth it...
but i read, that only PCI slot 1+2 are faster than Sata...can you prove that?
and if 1 slot is for the graphic card, i will have only 1 fast one left. would you prefere the system in there or the data drive?

your thoughts about Ram confusing me...i have a Mac Pro 3,2 GHz Quad Core (mid 2010) with now 2x4GB Ram and i now bought 2 more, to have 16 GB finaly...but you say, to use 3 only is faster than using 4???

Card slots - I Googled and found this page direct from Apple: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7652626 Thing is whatever slot(s) you use for the adapter cards will be faster than anything in the regular drive bays at the top of the computer. So yeah the bottom two slots are the fastest and there is only one (at the time that page was posted) pcie adapter that won't take advantage of that super speed. By the way when you see the term cheesegrater it's referring to the MacPro like you and I have as it looks like that old kitchen tool for grating cheese and other foods.

I know it's confusing as regards the 4 versus 3 slot speed but it's all down to the triple channel ram setup used in the machines we have. Google to the rescue here as well; the link mentions a dual cpu MacPro but the concepts are the same for the single and dual cpu models: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2756745

[kalony]

i checked the links you posted...since it is a pretty technical english, i was not able to understand everything. but i will plugin just one more 4GB ram, so that i have 3 pieces at all.

and i ordered 1 pci adapter. i will use the sata adapter for my the new system ssd and the pci adapter for the data ssd drive. (2 pci adapters were too expensive for now. maybe later)

and i bought this usb 3.0 pci card. do you think, its importamt, wich slot i use for this card?

i know, a lot of questions, but its pretty technical and most answers in the www are made by english talking nerds, wich is hard to understand for me :)

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by kalony

i checked the links you posted...since it is a pretty technical english, i was not able to understand everything. but i will plugin just one more 4GB ram, so that i have 3 pieces at all.

and i ordered 1 pci adapter. i will use the sata adapter for my the new system ssd and the pci adapter for the data ssd drive. (2 pci adapters were too expensive for now. maybe later)

and i bought this usb 3.0 pci card. do you think, its importamt, wich slot i use for this card?

i know, a lot of questions, but its pretty technical and most answers in the www are made by english talking nerds, wich is hard to understand for me :)

Can't answer about the USB3 card - sorry about that. Have no need for one right now.

Curious - what is your native language? Tech stuff can be difficult even for native English speakers.

[kalony]

I am from Germany...Dresden. South-east.

i will tell you how it went...guess i will open my mac next week.

cheers and thanks alot so far.

kalony

[kalony]

I was doing the switch 3 days ago, and everything went well.

only problem was, that the sata adapter did not fit realy...i improvised with ducktape :)))

now i have a new system on the sata ssd (with ducktape ),
and a pci ssd for my data.
guess i will spend another 60 euro for another pci-adapter to switch with the system ssd to pci as well.

PT 2018 works well on ssd and with high sierra...no probs at all so far.

so thanks for your help!!!

Kalony


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[musicman691]

Originally Posted by kalony

I was doing the switch 3 days ago, and everything went well.

only problem was, that the sata adapter did not fit realy...i improvised with ducktape :)))

now i have a new system on the sata ssd (with ducktape ),
and a pci ssd for my data.
guess i will spend another 60 euro for another pci-adapter to switch with the system ssd to pci as well.

PT 2018 works well on ssd and with high sierra...no probs at all so far.

so thanks for your help!!!

Kalony


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What do you mean the sata adapter did not fit easily? Did it not fit into the slot in the card cage? It should have. Which specific adapter did you use? Duct tape is not the answer and I suggest you get this straightened out right away. How did you use the tape?