Processor upgrade options for MP 5,1

I don't see 1333MHz RAM as that important - maybe an audiophile looksing for zero latency but then SSD would still come first.

Does 6 or 12 cores matter?

An SSD and a PCIe blade espec8ally for your one remaining open slot, or SATA III will most certainly be useful for system, scratch, any plug-ins, or libraries.

Even SATA II is one heck better than any rotating drive with slow seeks and more latency.

They said $1500 for 500GB SATA II SSD was too much, or $1000 for those old 10MB (and later the 100MB hdd).

500GB 500MB/sec SSD today $200.

Besides www.barefeats.com a good site www.macperformanceguide.com

steveyager wrote:

Maybe this would be more worth my time then. Looks like it adds SATA III functionality to the drive bays, or am I wrong?

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/MXPRMS6G1E1I/

That is part of what would be required i.e. a SATAIII card, but you would also need the following

http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_i d=189%20

The above provides special drive bay sleds and cable to link to a SATAIII PCI card.

Note: The card you linked to does not support booting in to OS X. Other makes of card do, you need a card that has an internal miniSAS connector.

The card you linked to from MacSales supports booting in to Windows via Boot Camp but does not support booting in to OS X. I believe some HighPoint RocketRaid cards support booting in to OS X like the 4520 but have not used one myself. I have used the following card which does support booting in to OS X, see http://www.startech.com/uk/Cards-Adapters/HDD-Controllers/SATA-Cards/PCI-Express -SATA-III-RAID-Controller-Card-Mini-SAS-SFF-8087~PEXSAT34SFF

However the StarTech card is a cheaper card and offers correspondingly less performance than other makes, it is only 2-lanes more expensive cards have 8-lanes this means the StarTech card cannot drive all four drives at full speed. There are also other makes such as ATTO which in theory support booting in to OS X and offer higher performance like the RocketRaid 4520

The MaxUpgrades kit I linked to replaces the normal Apple drive sleds/carriers with special ones. These special sleds use the standard power connections in the built-in drive bays but re-route the data connections so you can then connect them via a miniSAS cable to a SATAIII PCI card. So to upgrade the drive bays you need the MaxUpgrades kit and a PCI card which has a miniSAS connector. MaxUpgrades also sell Areca SATAIII PCI cards of various models and performance and can sell you a complete bundle of drive sleds, cable, and an Areca card. See http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category _ID=351

• The StarTech card does support booting in to OS X but does not appear to support Boot Camp
• HighPoint RocketRaid 2721 does not support booting in to OS X, however you can still use it for accessing data on the drives
• HighPoint RocketRaid 4520, this appears to be otherwise identical to the 4522 except the 4520 has the internal miniSAS connector you need, however I believe officially HighPoint do not support Macs for the 4520. I believe this is because normally there is no way to utilise a miniSAS connection in a Mac Pro, remember for this you need the special MaxUpgrades drive sleds which HighPoint are probably unaware of. As you can see here http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series_rr4520-Overview.htm apart from the connectors the 4520 and 4522 are identical so I think the 4520 will work, the 4522 would connect to up to 8 external drives
• ATTO R644 does support booting in to OS X, you might need to update the firmware
• Areca cards like the ARC-1214-4I appear to support booting OS X and MaxUpgrades who sell the special (and needed) replacement drive sleds resell Areca cards, see http://www.areca.com.tw/products/pcie.htm
• OWC/NewerTech/MacSales card does not support booting in to OS X but does claim support for booting in to Windows via Boot Camp

There are probably others in addition to the above.

Update: This Addonics card looks identical to the StarTech card including being only 2-lanes. See http://www.addonics.com/products/adms6gpx2.php