ashley karyl
Level 1 (34 points)
Desktops

Q: Mac Pro SSD upgrade

I have a mid 2010 8 Core 2.4GHz Mac Pro that is making use of all 4 internal SAT drive spaces. I would like to add an SSD to gain a bit of speed and from what I have read a 500gig drive would be correct. That would store my user data on the existing OS X SATA drive but leave enough space for the apps and OS on the SSD for more speed.

 

Does anybody have any advice on the best options and way to set this up?

Mac Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5)

Posted on Jul 13, 2016 4:29 AM

by lllaass,Solvedanswer
lllaass lllaass
Level 10 (187,607 points)
Desktops
A:

Best/fastest SSD

SSD Blade Drive for "Classic" Mac Pro

You can also get PCIe cards that accept a standard 2 1/2 inch SSD. Those will operate and SATA III speeds compared wit the SATA II bus in the Mac.

Also see:

User Tip: Creating a lean, fast Boot Drive

 

You can get a sled that accepts a standard 2 1/2 inch SSD. That will be faster than a rotating HD in a drive bay

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MPRODBKTLG6/

Posted on Jul 13, 2016 6:27 AM

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ashley karyl

Q: Mac Pro SSD upgrade

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  • by lllaass,Solvedanswer

    lllaass lllaass Jul 13, 2016 6:27 AM in response to ashley karyl
    Level 10 (187,607 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 13, 2016 6:27 AM in response to ashley karyl

    Best/fastest SSD

    SSD Blade Drive for "Classic" Mac Pro

    You can also get PCIe cards that accept a standard 2 1/2 inch SSD. Those will operate and SATA III speeds compared wit the SATA II bus in the Mac.

    Also see:

    User Tip: Creating a lean, fast Boot Drive

     

    You can get a sled that accepts a standard 2 1/2 inch SSD. That will be faster than a rotating HD in a drive bay

    http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MPRODBKTLG6/

  • by ashley karyl,

    ashley karyl ashley karyl Jul 13, 2016 6:28 AM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (34 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 13, 2016 6:28 AM in response to lllaass

    Thank you that's very helpful and I shall study this with interest. I know SSD drives have been around for a few years now but it's only lately that I figured it was worth getting a few more years out of the Mac Pro if possible rather than buying a new computer so an SSD looks like the right answer.

  • by ElPapa,Helpful

    ElPapa ElPapa Jul 13, 2016 8:02 AM in response to ashley karyl
    Level 1 (22 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 13, 2016 8:02 AM in response to ashley karyl

    I actually bought the following items from Amazon and just installed them into my 2012 Mac Pro. 

     

    The ICY DOCK EZConvert MB882SP-1S-2B Light Weight 2.5" to 3.5" SAS / SATA (22pin) HDD & SSD Converter / Mounting Kit

     

    The Crucial BX200 960GB SATA 2.5 Inch Internal Solid State Drive - CT960BX200SSD1

     

    Now you can probably go with a smaller drive if you change your home director to another disc (or at least relocate the bulk of your documents, photos, music, etc, elsewhere).

     

    Link to the ICY DOCK

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002Z2QDNE

     

    And to the Crucial SSD

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016JREG6Q

     

    I was up and running on the new drive in about an hour (including installing a fresh El Capitan) and my boot times went from 1 minute to around 20 seconds.

  • by ashley karyl,

    ashley karyl ashley karyl Jul 13, 2016 8:04 AM in response to ElPapa
    Level 1 (34 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 13, 2016 8:04 AM in response to ElPapa

    Thank you I am interested in all the options. I have several apps that load at startup and it's just ridiculously slow right now. After the initial login it seems to take about 3 minutes for Dropbox to get started and for everything else to settle down before I can use the computer normally. Up to that point trying to check something in Safari or Mail just means a very long wait while I listen to the hard drive making strange noises.

  • by ElPapa,

    ElPapa ElPapa Jul 13, 2016 8:08 AM in response to ashley karyl
    Level 1 (22 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 13, 2016 8:08 AM in response to ashley karyl

    Are you sure the hard drive isn't wearing out?  SMART Utility is a tool that I keep running on my macs and I've found invaluable at alerting me of imminent failure of my hard drives well before I lose any data:

    https://www.volitans-software.com/apps/smart-utility/

     

    Be sure to do a quick scan with Disk Utility and make sure your disc data structures are in working order as well.

  • by ashley karyl,

    ashley karyl ashley karyl Jul 13, 2016 8:14 AM in response to ElPapa
    Level 1 (34 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 13, 2016 8:14 AM in response to ElPapa

    I've been running SmartReporter for years and I am pretty sure the drives are still good, not least because daily backups with SuperDuper will also highlight problems. Disk utility is all good.

     

    It just seems to be very slow starting up but afterwards it all works normally. I just spent 5 days rendering a 3D animation in Maya where it was running 24/7 so if there was a problem it would have shown up I imagine.

  • by ElPapa,

    ElPapa ElPapa Jul 13, 2016 8:17 AM in response to ashley karyl
    Level 1 (22 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 13, 2016 8:17 AM in response to ashley karyl

    Ah.. SSD would definitely help with those performance issues.

  • by ashley karyl,

    ashley karyl ashley karyl Jul 18, 2016 10:19 AM in response to ElPapa
    Level 1 (34 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 18, 2016 10:19 AM in response to ElPapa

    I just ordered the SAMSUNG SM951 256GB, which is a PCI card mentioned above with write speeds of 1200mb/s and read speeds of up to 2100mb/s. It should be here in a couple of days and hopefully make the finder feel a good deal snappier. Cheaper than a new computer anyway.

     

    Apparently you can have 4 of these in a raid configuration with speeds up to 5.7gigs per second!