Mac Pro Hard Drive Advice.

[philip888]

I was given a Mac Pro 5.1 Mid 2010.

I need internal hard drives.

I have always used WD caviar black on PC's I have built. But what do you MAC guys suggest?

Need a System Drive, Pro Tools write to drive and drive for my sample and VI libraries.

Thank you

[Buccanears]

Pretty much anything you're used to on PC is AOK in a Mac Pro. WD Blacks are fine. I tend to go with the WD RE Enterprise series, mainly for the extended warranty. For system drive, an SSD will be faster for boot. VI's and samples are speedier on SSD, but a large mechanical may be better if you don't want to spend a bundle.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Buccanears

Pretty much anything you're used to on PC is AOK in a Mac Pro. WD Blacks are fine. I tend to go with the WD RE Enterprise series, mainly for the extended warranty. For system drive, an SSD will be faster for boot. VI's and samples are speedier on SSD, but a large mechanical may be better if you don't want to spend a bundle.

I'd go ssd for system drive which is where your vi's, etc will go. A second ssd for sample sets/libraries. And a spinner for PT to record to. The thing I would watch out for is to not overspend on interface protocol speed; IOW match the speed between the computer buss and drive. A faster throughput on the drive is a waste of money if the computer can't supply that speed.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by musicman691

IOW match the speed between the computer buss and drive. A faster throughput on the drive is a waste of money if the computer can't supply that speed.

This advise is mainly for SSD drives which may very well be lots faster than SATA buss. It is close to impossible to find a spinner that performs better than fastest SATA out there.

Fastest SSD you can install on a Mac Pro (cheesecrater) is a PCI-express card, avoiding SATA bottleneck and giving you easily ~1GBps performance.

[philip888]

so does the SSD's connect where the spinners go or do I need to get the pci-express adapter kits?

So is the best advice?
System Drive SSD
Sample Libraries SSD
WD Black spinner for the Pro Tools sessions Read and Write.

This rig will be mainly for mixing. Recording will be limited no more than 4 tracks at a time.

[Buccanears]

Yup. SSDs where the spinners go. Handy little sleds here:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MMP35T25/

You've got the right idea for the drives.