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Author Topic: SSD for 2010 Mac Pro  (Read 1668 times)

Chris L

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SSD for 2010 Mac Pro
« on: February 11, 2021, 05:34:28 pm »

hi I have a 2010 Mac Pro running Mojave and 2 x 2.66 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon, 128 GB 1333 MHz DDR3, and Radeon RX 580 8 GB. Currently I work off an internal 4TB data disk HD. I want to buy an SSD to store my jobs on while I work on them ( Video and Stills ) to make things faster. I use Resolve, FCPx, Capture One, Bridge and Photoshop. I do not use RAID and am not interested in using RAID. Is working off an external or internal 8 TB SSD my best option?

I have heard about the PCI card options but I do not want to use RAID which sounds like you need to use to get best results. Thanks in advance everyone.

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kers

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Re: SSD for 2010 Mac Pro
« Reply #1 on: February 12, 2021, 03:15:23 am »

Internally and if possible on a PCi slot, that would make it the fastest ( more than sata 2= 600mb/sec )
You have to check out what will work best and what speed PCI-slot is required- at least a 4x PCI-slot, but maybe more ( you can experiment what works best).
In the end it will be fast, but not as fast as it could since you have an older motherboard that prevents it to be faster.

some information can be found here
https://barefeats.com/
« Last Edit: February 12, 2021, 03:19:04 am by kers »
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Pieter Kers
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francois

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Re: SSD for 2010 Mac Pro
« Reply #2 on: February 12, 2021, 07:40:11 am »

I'm using such a PCi card on my old Mac Pro 2010 and it works very well. I cannot remember wehre I got it what brand it is but barefeats.com is a good source of information: How to upgrade the hard rives to SSD, scroll down and look for SSD PCIe 2.0 Card Installation Options (Highest Performance). I don't use any RAID configuration, FWIW.
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Francois

bdkphoto

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Re: SSD for 2010 Mac Pro
« Reply #3 on: February 12, 2021, 08:46:27 am »

hi I have a 2010 Mac Pro running Mojave and 2 x 2.66 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon, 128 GB 1333 MHz DDR3, and Radeon RX 580 8 GB. Currently I work off an internal 4TB data disk HD. I want to buy an SSD to store my jobs on while I work on them ( Video and Stills ) to make things faster. I use Resolve, FCPx, Capture One, Bridge and Photoshop. I do not use RAID and am not interested in using RAID. Is working off an external or internal 8 TB SSD my best option?

I have heard about the PCI card options but I do not want to use RAID which sounds like you need to use to get best results. Thanks in advance everyone.

I had a 2009 mac pro hacked to 2010 5.1 running Mojave - I used a pci card from OWC that I used a crucial 1 tb SSD on for my boot disk and used the other drive bays for data storage and backups. The ssd did provide some improved performance. If you are considering the Accelsior nvme -https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/mac-pro/2009-2012 the are very expensive per TB and not worth it in my opinion. For that investment i would ( and did) move to the mac mini m1 silicon which offers amazing performance. For clarity this is what I used in my Mac pro -https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/SSDACL6GE1TB/
« Last Edit: February 12, 2021, 09:07:29 am by bdkphoto »
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Chris L

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Re: SSD for 2010 Mac Pro
« Reply #4 on: February 12, 2021, 11:43:14 am »

I had a 2009 mac pro hacked to 2010 5.1 running Mojave - I used a pci card from OWC that I used a crucial 1 tb SSD on for my boot disk and used the other drive bays for data storage and backups. The ssd did provide some improved performance. If you are considering the Accelsior nvme -https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/mac-pro/2009-2012 the are very expensive per TB and not worth it in my opinion. For that investment i would ( and did) move to the mac mini m1 silicon which offers amazing performance. For clarity this is what I used in my Mac pro -https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/SSDACL6GE1TB/

Thanks for the link to the 1TB SSD/ PCI card DIY kit. It is only $168 so it looks appealing. Just so I am clear, you used this as your boot disk but did you also use it to load the photo files from jobs on as you worked on them? Or did you put the photo files on a separate drive?
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Chris L

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Re: SSD for 2010 Mac Pro
« Reply #5 on: February 12, 2021, 11:44:11 am »

I'm using such a PCi card on my old Mac Pro 2010 and it works very well. I cannot remember wehre I got it what brand it is but barefeats.com is a good source of information: How to upgrade the hard rives to SSD, scroll down and look for SSD PCIe 2.0 Card Installation Options (Highest Performance). I don't use any RAID configuration, FWIW.

Thanks. what SSD did you connect to the PCi card?
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bdkphoto

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Re: SSD for 2010 Mac Pro
« Reply #6 on: February 12, 2021, 12:35:22 pm »

Thanks for the link to the 1TB SSD/ PCI card DIY kit. It is only $168 so it looks appealing. Just so I am clear, you used this as your boot disk but did you also use it to load the photo files from jobs on as you worked on them? Or did you put the photo files on a separate drive?

I used the SSD for boot/applications. File on a separate drive(s) I used 4tb hdd drives for data and backups. 

kers

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Re: SSD for 2010 Mac Pro
« Reply #7 on: February 12, 2021, 04:00:29 pm »

I use the Samsung evo 970 1TB nvme-pci - for system and another for working data;- in this way i never have to wait long when i am working on something.
The normal sata harddsisk are for archive and backup
The 970EVO plus seems to be working less well with mac.
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francois

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Re: SSD for 2010 Mac Pro
« Reply #8 on: February 13, 2021, 08:21:28 am »

Thanks. what SSD did you connect to the PCi card?

I used a Crucial SSD but don't remember the exact model and then later a Samsung Pro 860 1TB. Both worked perfectly and couldn't notice any speed difference. The PCi card was made by Apricorn (Solo 2X ???), if I remember correctly.
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Francois

Joe Towner

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Re: SSD for 2010 Mac Pro
« Reply #9 on: February 13, 2021, 09:41:11 am »

Keep in mind that the SATA SSD's on their own will be a HUGE improvement over the 4tb HDD.
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Chris L

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Re: SSD for 2010 Mac Pro
« Reply #10 on: February 13, 2021, 06:07:51 pm »

Keep in mind that the SATA SSD's on their own will be a HUGE improvement over the 4tb HDD.

I will prob go this route. No PCI card. For best results should I get 2 internal SATA SSDs; one for my boot and applications and one for my temporary files while I work on them?

I am looking at these:
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYMP9S3E1TB/
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Joe Towner

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Re: SSD for 2010 Mac Pro
« Reply #11 on: February 13, 2021, 08:45:53 pm »

Looks great & OWC will be able to assist if needed.
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kers

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Re: SSD for 2010 Mac Pro
« Reply #12 on: February 15, 2021, 07:27:08 pm »

I will prob go this route. No PCI card. For best results should I get 2 internal SATA SSDs; one for my boot and applications and one for my temporary files while I work on them?

I am looking at these:
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYMP9S3E1TB/

the electra uses 3G and is slower than possible on your computer

Why not get this one instead for DATA ( https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/SACL1M01/   ) and this 6G-one for your system (
(https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYMP9S6P1TB/  )  you loose only one pCI slot and one HD drive slot. The PCI NVME drive will be much faster for the data.)
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BobShaw

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Re: SSD for 2010 Mac Pro
« Reply #13 on: February 15, 2021, 10:37:36 pm »

For what it is worth, why bother? It is a decade old computer.
You are already at the end of working operating systems.
To me it is supercharging a horse.
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bdkphoto

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Re: SSD for 2010 Mac Pro
« Reply #14 on: February 16, 2021, 08:57:58 am »

For what it is worth, why bother? It is a decade old computer.
You are already at the end of working operating systems.
To me it is supercharging a horse.

I agree - my experience was that you got nowhere near the theoretical performance out of the best SSDs -  plus the I/O was limited to USB 3.  The upside was that I got 11+ years out of the machine and it was rock solid along the way. I decided to take the plunge and move to the m1 mini. The move was far smoother than I expected and everything just works better. Looking forward to the native LRC and PS.

greywolf

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Re: SSD for 2010 Mac Pro
« Reply #15 on: September 17, 2021, 02:07:36 am »

I use the Samsung evo 970 1TB nvme-pci - for system and another for working data;- in this way i never have to wait long when i am working on something.
The normal sata harddsisk are for archive and backup
The 970EVO plus seems to be working less well with mac.

970 EVO Plus has a recent firmware upgrade that enables reliable macOS booting (including Monterey beta 6) in all of several different mfr M.2 PCIe sleds I've accumulated, in MacPro5,1 (and MacPro4,1 with boot ROM upgrade). Very fast, and the Plus drive is currently significantly cheaper than the equivalent capacity 970 EVO at Amazon.
To an earlier comment from another member regarding PCIe RAID cards and macOS in the cMP: booting any version of macOS in RAID is not supported.
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