Mac Pro (2006) SSD Hard Drive Upgrade

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Level 1

4 points

Mac Pro (2006) SSD Hard Drive Upgrade

I have a Mac Pro from 2006, but it is running a but slow on the hard drive front. Plus, the drives are now seven years old and I do not want to chance the data failure possiblity. What is the format I need in order to get two or three new SSD drives which are compatible with my Mac Pro? Also, do I need to purchase any adapters or converters for the SSD drives to work within the machine? Finally, how do I copy my current primary drive to the new SSD drive so it could take the place of the current main SATA hard drive in the unit?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Feb 10, 2013 7:39 AM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Feb 10, 2013 7:55 AM in response to comptalk

You don't need more than one SSD.

You can buy WD 10K VelocityRaptors. $100 250GB / $125 500GB / 1TB ?

Or WD Black 1-2TB for data.

Memory is important

How To Install and Remove Memory Mac Pro

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT4433

2x2GB FBDIMM DDR2 667MHz @ $35

http://www.amazon.com/BUFFERED-PC2-5300-FB-DIMM-APPLE-Memory/dp/B002ORUUAC/

Yes you should replace and upgrade disk drives more like every two years. Yours (and mine) are 6 .5 yrs old now. And huge changes in capacity and performance.

To use an SSD it depends where you put it. There are 2 SATA ports unused on the logicboard you can access. An IcyDock for older Mac Pro only if you use the drive bays. I run the 2 ports out the back.

An ATI 5770 is a great upgrade for Lion.

Using Cloning as a Backup Strategy

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner

http://www.bombich.com/software/updates/ccc-3.5.html

OS X Lion Install to Different Drive

How to create an OS X Lion installation disc MacFixIt

Migration Assistant Update for Mac OS X Snow Leopard

http://www.apple.com/support/lion/installrecovery/

Create an OS X Lion Install disc

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20080989-263/how-to-create-an-os-x-lion-ins tallation-disc

How to clone your system:

http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone-backup.html

http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone.html

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner

http://www.macperformanceguide.com/blog/2012/20120711_2-MacPro-internal-clone-ba ckup.html

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Answer 2

comptalk Author

Level 1

4 points

Feb 10, 2013 10:31 AM in response to The hatter

I currently have three SATA III drives in use in the drive bays. I wish to remove them and add two SSDs. Would they just lock right in the drive bays with the icy dock? As for RAM, I upgrade to 12GB. Is that enough? It seems pretty fast, just when calling the data, there is some lag. The Mac Pro from 2006 seems to run faster/smoother than my new MBP i7. I am thinking because of the 4 GB in additional memory and the 7200 RPM drives vs the MBP's 5400 RPM drive.

I checked on Amazon, and the 10K VelocityRaptors, are SATA drives, not SSDs.

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