I want to add an SSD to my MacPro 1,1 - can I use any brand, specs?

Hi Grant. I've read your advice, and this thread, several times and I'm still not getting it 🙂 (my lack of knowledge - not your explanations)

I'm also looking to an SSD to improve my MacPro 1,1 machines performance. I have a boot drive with the system files and my home directory on it, but the most used data files (video (330gb) , itunes (210gb), photos (70gb)) are stored on a second internal drive. Both drives are traditional hard disks. I was planning on making my system drive an SSD and leaving the "data" on the traditonal hard drive. As my system drive is 250gb its relatively cheap for me to upgrade it.

As I already have my boot disk seperated from my data disk, do you think I'll see much of an improvement in perofrmance by using an SSD as a boot drive? Or do I really need to save up to make the data drive an SSD? (or make both SSDs? or combine them back again and have one big SSD?)

Thanks in advance

John

So it wasn't hype. and now you have a smalliish 40GB experiment sitting around!

WHAT are you using now? 2TB WD Black? pretty decent but over kill in price/size would have cost what SSD is.

Corsair m4 120GB $109 which is close to WD Black 1TB.

What do you do or use your system for? do you have 8GB RAM and ATI 5770 already?

No one can answer some questions as to what you will "feel" or whether it makes a big enough difference to hit you over the head with.

I use 10K VR and while most say that they see gain movinig even from these to SSD.... everyone using an SSD (98%) also separate - have to - system from user data.

With $200 for 240GB AND with the high prices hdd have suffered over the last 9 months has also played some role.

johnhelliwell-

I look at this problem using bottleneck analysis -- what is the limiting factor that is slowing performance.

Today's Mac Pros have tons of Compute Power, and except for calculating special effects transitions, have much more compute-power than is needed. The "low-hanging fruit" of improving their performance is first having enough real memory, then speeding up disk accesses.

The first thing to do, as described in other posts here, is to keep Mac OS X from moving the drive heads away from your data files. Establishing a Boot Drive to do this gets back most of that lost performance, and making it a really fast drive like a VelociRaptor or an SSD is incrementally better, but a diminishing return.

The next thing you can do is to separate your Source and Destination files onto separate drives. This keeps the writing of results from moving the read heads away from the input data file(s), optimizing read performance and eliminating seeks and their 20-ish milliseconds of dead time while the drive heads move. Fast drives would add a little performance, but this is also a diminishing return.

Once you have done all that, only then would I begin to explore RAID arrays for Destination or Source files. Having ONE RAID for both Source and Destination is a waste, because competition for the Read/Write heads from Destination writing will interfere with Source reading and kill the RAID performance.

Nope, is in my sons Mini. He hasn't got even close to filling it yet either, (has used about 20GB I think).

What does a MINI have to do here with SSD and Mac Pro (tower)... hijack out of the blue...

The hatter wrote:

What does a MINI have to do here with SSD and Mac Pro (tower)...

Go back to the first page of this discussion, (15th post). Then the third comment on this page. I'm staggered as I was replying to you.

The hatter wrote:

hijack out of the blue...

Not a bit of it.

Good day chaps, I'm done here.

I am in this boat as well. I have a Mac Pro 1,1

Dual-Core Intel Xeon

Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz

Number Of Processors: 2

Total Number Of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB

Memory: 8 GB

Bus Speed: 1.33 GHz

Boot ROM Version: MP11.005D.B00

I have upgraded the Graphics card to the ATI Radeon HD 5770

It is the original, 250 GB hard drive. I also have a 300 GB 7200 RPM HD and 2, 1TB 7200 RPM drives for

storage. The 300 GB is about 1/3 full and one 1TB is about 70% full. The other drive, which I had intended to

partition for a backup drive, is still unused.

I have my iTunes library on a dedicated external drive

I do work in Final Cut Pro on occasion as well as do some audio work. I use Photoshop as well, but not

extensively. I think my main drive is starting to go and I was thinking of replacing it with an SSD as you can

get a similar-sized (240-250 GB) drive fairly inexpensively now. I had planned on just cloning my startup disk to

the SSD and be on my way

So...

What are the recommended brands? Would I need to buy an adapter? It seems all SSD drives are 2.5"

I am also seeing stuff about making the main drive a boot drive only. I assume this means have NO data files

on it and just the OS and apps? I already have the iTunes folder on a separate drive (The one on the main HD

is empty). Would I need to move anything else and how would I do that if so? Is there a way to configure it so

downloads from the Internet don't end up in the downloads folder on the startup disc?

Because of the audio/video stuff, I generally have my computer set to never have the drives go to sleep too. Is

that OK?

Hope someone can help 🙂

Sorry for the goofy formatting on the last post. When I copied and pasted the info about my mac, it got all messed up and I can't figure out how to fix it

I'd stick with OWC personally, their own brand although they do have a Toshiba on specialright now, although google doesn't give that drive lots of brilliant reviews. For fitting, you'll need an Icy Dock converter too.

Thanks. This is all new to me. I always avoided SSDs because of the price, but now something comparable to the size I have is affordable.

Would I want the 6G or the 3G? Seems I read somewhere the 1,1 can't access a 6G, so would that be wasting money on something it won't use anyhow?

Also, as far as the boot drive, that would be OS and Applications on the startup disk and everything else somewhere else? I already have the iTunes on a separate drive and know enough to have my audio/video scratch disks on separate drives. What else would I need to move?

Finally, I am assuming that NO files would be stored on this disk, right? If that's the case, would I even need one the same size (250 GB?) or should I get that (or bigger) and partition it?

The biggest performance payback of anything you can do to a Mac Pro is to establish a Boot Drive, limited to System, Library, Applications, and the hidden unix files including paging/swap. To effect this, you move each User account's files (except the not-for-daily-use Owner/Admin account) to another drive:

japamac's Blog: Make Space for performance -- Moving the home folder

.

That seems easy enough. I already have my iTunes library on a dedicated drive that I would not be using for the rest of my home folder files. I have that drive in an external enclosure that I only turn on when I want to listen to music or add or delete files from my library. I assume that would still work as normal if I move my home folder, right?

Also, moving the home folder would still allow me to place items on the desktop, they just wouldn't be stored on the boot drive anymore, but rather the new drive, right?

Finally, is a 250GB drive too big for what I want to use it for? (Boot drive for OS and applications?)

I have been using a 30GB SSD in a Mac Pro on 10.6.8 for a few years now, but I am NOT running Windows or big Picture or Video editing software or Developer Tools. I have not had any problems, but I would not recommend a drive that small going forward. And prices are dropping.

120GB seems a good size for an ordinary Boot Drive, and I am starting to experiment with some that size now.

You can use an External for experimenting, but you will want to put that drive inside the cabinet or get an eSATA card to get faster access day-to-day.

------

Everything works the same when you move the Home Folder.

The "Desktop" you see when logged in to a specific account is an illusion Mac OS X maintains, uisng the contents of the folder:

/Users/<your_name>/Desktop

If you assign <your_name> to a different drive, the results are visually identical.

Thanks for all the help. If I were to go with one of those OWC drives, should I do the 6G or the 3G? I am on a 1,1 running 10.6.8. I have the Lion install USB, but have not yet installed it as I have some apps that are Rosetta dependent (Not many)