Max. Harddisk Size for MacPro 2006

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Max. Harddisk Size for MacPro 2006

Hello to everybody

I got a real good offer for a used macpro xeon two Xeon 5150 "Woodcrest" Dual-Core processors 2,66 2006. right now i work with the late G5 Dual 2,3. For a software reason (Adobe Photoshop CS5) i need to buy a Intel Mac. i read in everymac.com Apple Mac Pro "Quad Core" 2.66 (Original) Specs. Apple formally supports up to 2 TB of storage with four 500 GB hard drives (one in each internal bay).

This is a problem for me becorse i need as a photographer much HDD space i use a Nikon D700. I use to HDD in my G5 one with 1.5 TB and one with 700GB. I like to use both of them in the (new) MacPro plus 2 new HDD in the other 2 HDD Holders minimum with 1,5 TB.

Did anybody know if the large HDD's work in the MacPro 2,66 ?

Thank you in advance for your Help!

Happy New Year and kind Regards

Julius

Apple MacPro 2,66 2006, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Dec 31, 2010 8:09 AM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Dec 31, 2010 9:24 AM in response to juliust

There is no limit. Intel and EFI uses GUID partitions, and there is no size limit.

Problem is those articles do get written, are based solely on what was available at the time, are never ever updated like other Apple tech articles, Docs and Dev Notes. Such as this:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2609

Memory and performance:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory#667-memory

One place that does have a major impact: SSDs for system, and more SSDs for scratch. In fact, there just aren't enough SATA ports, ever, to do an ideal setup - but - there are 6 x SATA ports: 4 sleds and 2 extra SATA (lower optical bay area, or run to external). Great for pair of SSDs for booting.

You can load up to 32GB RAM also, another think 'left out' in some articles. And install an ATI 5770 (but sadly not the nVidia GTX 285 or Quadro 4000 which both take advantage of CUDA and Mercury engine in CS5.

I would really look at the price of the machine, its value as far as work, and only if you just can't jump on newer 2008 or later. It is possible to upgrade to 8-core with X5355/5365 off ebay but that only makes sense ($800 ballpark) for people who have had theirs for years and want to get another year or two out of their Mac Pro.

Memory bandwidth has also come a long ways since '06 and 3-5x faster.

GPT supports in excess of the largest drive available, 3TB.

And drives have not usually needed more, rather less, in terms of power and heat, so it isn't that a 2TB drive with more platters uses power power either.

That said, there are (always) some people that had trouble. And there are always new models, new firmware, with of course, new bugs.

And there are people with 4-5-6 x 2TB drives for 8-12TB of internal storage.

That said, I hope it was a very very inexpensive good value. Else, I'd have said get the 2009/2010 4-core for $1995.

You'll always be able to add - and hope you do - PCIe SATA controller (RAID6 even) and be able to attach or hang up to 20 drives even.

Your G5 drives - off load the files to another drive and reformat.
Don't leave drives in the older Apple Partition format, initialize as GUID.

You will be fine, and WD Black is very popular in 1 and 2TB.

http://discussions.apple.com/messageview.jspa?messageID=12758134&stqc=true

This site, if you go to index or topics, is a wealth of tips.
http://macperformanceguide.com/Storage-Drive-Hitachi-7K3000-3TB.html

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