SSD Blade Drive for "Classic" Mac Pro

Barefeets tested the Samsung 941 and reported that for the Mac Pro 3,1 (early 2008), one must use one of the 2 PCIe 2.0 x 16 slots (which are double width by the way); however, even on the 4 lane PCIe 1.0 slots, they achieved read/write speeds of 742/588 MB/s. The 512 version of the 941 achieved 1170/950 speeds. Supposedly, the 951 is much faster.

I'm anxious to upgrade, but can't get enough information to feel comfortable with a purchase. The blade market is supposed to be coming on strong in the second half of 2015 and El Capitan is alleged to enable Trim on non-Apple SSDs.

It's all too confusing for the 3,1 as to which adapter and blade to use. There are two widths of blades, different M2 interfaces, yadda, yadda. Looking and waiting for clarity with dollars in hand.

It's all too confusing for the 3,1 as to which adapter and blade to use.

Use Sintech for Apple/Mac, http://www.amazon.com/Sintech-Adapter-Sandisk-SD6PQ4M-2013-2014/dp/B00O27NBS0/re f=sr_1_sc_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1436026302&sr=1-2-spell&keywords=sintec+ss d+adapter

Use Lycom for Samsung. http://www.amazon.com/Lycom-DT-120-PCIe-Adapter-Support/dp/B00MYCQP38

Thanks for helping to clear things up. In addition to the HD, I was thinking about purchasing a GTX 970 (PC version) graphics card. This 3,1 already has an 8800 GT.

Would this be the best configuation:

Slot 1: GTX 970

Slot 2: Apricorn Velocity Duo with two 256 GB EVO 850s in Raid 0 (or an Apple or Samsung flash drive)

Slot 3: 8800 GT (Apple OEM)

Slot 4: Spare

That's very helpful. Still debating blade versus EVO in this 3,1.

Hey abfsc,

I have just bought a mac pro (3.33Ghx 6 core) and am using it for audio.

I'd like to know what exact setup you used for optimal SSD performance, would you mind sharing what exact parts you used for those blistering speeds please?

Many thanks...

Andrew

I do not understand what the "Trim" is. I use my Mac Pro (Early 2009) for photos and videos. I want to upgrade my computer, but I am not sure what exactly to upgrade?

I want to buy 8 (4gb memory) which would add 32gb. Is this OK? I think this will be easy to install. After doing alot of reading I would like to add the 480 SSD and the Airport Extreme. But now with everyones help here I am really confused on what I need to purchase. It seems that adding a PCIe would be the best way to go, but it looks to be very difficult to install.

I appreciate all the help. I will go to all the links and read everything that was sent to me. Hopefully I will understand and be able to purchase the items I need.

Thanks for everything, it's amazing how Mac owners are so helpful.

If you use an SSD, you should enable TRIM. TRIM allows the drive to get notified when blocks are deleted. Without TRIM, an SSD drive carries all the old deleted blocks along, re-organizes them, and works hard to preserve them. With TRIM it chucks them out when deleted.

The quad core Mac pro 2009 has four memory sockets. Only the 8-core has eight sockets. You can install one two three or four modules on each side. If the price of 8GB modules is close to the price of two 4GB modules, buy fewer of the 8GB modules. This will allow you to expand again, and has no downside that I can see. [16GB Modules are "Registered", and do not play nice with others.]

an SSD on a drive sled is also difficult to install, because it is a 2.5 Inch format drive. You would need an adapter-sled, but OWC sells those.

The nice thing about that Mac is that you can upgrade one part at a time.

Hi All, I don't want to start new topic here or hijack this thread.

I started some new (I think) interesting thread here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7387678

Would be great if people who wrote here, would share some their wisdom, experiences and advices 😊

Greetings,

Maciek

I have a question about advising me to buy an adapter + SSD in my Mac Pro 5.1.

I use the default configuration MacPro.

My work is a UI Designer, working with large files above 50MB, with lots of layers 8000+ in the PSD file.

At the end - I put interactions in InVision.

And here the question:

• Is this adapter Sinetch: http://www.amazon.com/Sintech-Adapter-Sandisk-SD6PQ4M-2013-2014/dp/B00O27NBS0/re f=sr_1_sc_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=14… with the SSD: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Apple-512GB-Flash-SSD-SSUBX-SM951-655-1859-for-Mac-P ro-iMac-MacBook-Pro-Air-/331695132520?ha… It allows me to reach speeds of writing around 1400 Mb/s?
• This disc would be the only one in the Mac Pro, so I would like to be bootable.

Based on this review

Verified Purchase

I say it will boot but yo will not get high speeds. The blader SSDs in the Mac laptops are not that fast

Thanks Ilass,

So make sure you get 1400 Mb/s write should buy this SSD?: http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-2015-Apple-Samsung-1TB-PCIe-SSD-for-MacBook-Pro-iMac -MacPro-Late-2013-2015-/151605593746?has…

There is a thread started bt handheldgames at MacRumours that should be read, many details.

Has "NGFF" and "M2" in the title IIRC.

Hi there,

I was was wondering if anyone could help me with my pcie SSD?

Firstly I should say that I am a Pro Tools (AVID) user and have 4 separate OSX boot drives (over 2 partitioned HD drives) for testing updates etc.

My Samsung V-NAND SSD 950 pro M.2 NVM Express is plugged into a Lycom DT-120 PCIe 3.0 x4 Host Adapter for M.2 NGFF PCIe SSD and inserted in pcie slot 2 (which is a x4 lane) above the video card in slot 1

The problem is that my mac is not seeing the SSD I get these msg's in pcie (About This Mac) "There was an error while gathering PCI card information".

I get the same msg's for OSX S.L, OSX M.L & OSX Mavericks

But get the below information in OSX Yosemite but still no drive showing in disk utility;

acording to Lycom & Samsung there are no drivers for their pcie adapter or SSD

Any help would be much appreciated