SSD drive on 2010 Mac Pro?

[NealF]

Hi,
My 2010 Mac Pro has an SSD drive as the main drive.
My second drive is an old disk drive that I'm using to record onto.
I'm concerned it'll go sometime soon since it's over 10 years old.

Can I use an SSD drive for the recording (apps are on the main drive)? I know they have no disks so I'm assuming speed has nothing to do with it.

If so, I'm looking at a 1 or 2 TB OWC 1.0TB Mercury Electra 6G SSD 2.5" Serial-ATA 7mm Solid State Drive.
Is this a good choice?

Thanks.

[mikehalloran]

Hi,
My 2010 Mac Pro has an SSD drive as the main drive.
My second drive is an old disk drive that I'm using to record onto.
I'm concerned it'll go sometime soon since it's over 10 years old.

Can I use an SSD drive for the recording (apps are on the main drive)? I know they have no disks so I'm assuming speed has nothing to do with it.

Yes. Way too many threads on this subject.

If so, I'm looking at a 1 or 2 TB OWC 1.0TB Mercury Electra 6G SSD 2.5" Serial-ATA 7mm Solid State Drive.
Is this a good choice?

No. Way too expensive for what you get. The 860 EVO is $100 less for a 2TB and is available up to 4TB. The WD/SanDisk 3D is another $90 less. The MX500 is another good choice in the middle at $230. You want 3D NAND and a 5 year warranty from a company with excellent customer support. Here are three choices that check all three boxes.
https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Inch-Int ... 213&sr=8-4

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-SSD-PLUS ... ref=sr_1_3

https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX500-NA ... r_1_1_sspa

I really like the 4TB 860 EVO — you can do a lot of consolidating. Use your old SSD as a VI drive. Spinners are for Time Machine.

You will get better performance if your active projects are on the boot drive — especially with the SATA II bus on your 5.1. You're likely to notice it the most with BTD. Running a separate projects drive last made sense on the G4.

[NealF]

Wow!
I am behind the times. Good to know.
Thanks for the great info.

BTW, what is BTD?
And I'm assuming there's a sled adapter for the drive, too?

[NealF]

One last thing.

I've got my VIs on a 1TB disk drive (internal).
But if I understand you, it looks like I should switch the main ssd boot drive to be my VI drive, and get a 4TB ssd for my new boot drive and keep my programs and files on that one.
Am I getting that correct?

Thanks.

[HCMarkus]

One last thing.

I've got my VIs on a 1TB disk drive (internal).
But if I understand you, it looks like I should switch the main ssd boot drive to be my VI drive, and get a 4TB ssd for my new boot drive and keep my programs and files on that one.
Am I getting that correct?

Thanks.

Sounds like a good plan. Also, enable Trim if you haven't already done so.

You don't need a sled... connect to the spare Optical Bay SATA/power jack and simply rest the SSD there. That said, you will get faster data transfer if you also invest in a SATA3 PCIe card. There are many, some as cheap as $10.

BTD = Bounce To Disk

[mikehalloran]

If you have tons of room on that 4TB, there's no reason not to install your VIs onto it.

There's actually a Default location. it's Users/Shared/ If you run the installers for Native Instruments, SampleTank etc. that's where they will install unless you direct otherwise. With SSDs being so expensive till recently, we all changed the install path to external drives.

you will get faster data transfer if you also invest in a SATA3 PCIe card. There are many, some as cheap as $10.

Absolutely. Despite lofty specs to the contrary, a SATA III bus is not twice as fast as SATA II but those SSDs are SATA III. You might as well get the speed you are paying for.

Last year after I got my iMac Pro, I did some large data transfers where I isolated the difference to a SATA III bus vs. a SATA II using the same drives. I was able to get a 66%–69% speed bump consistently.

[NealF]

Now I'm really noticing how far behind the times I've become.
I've got some homework to do. Not familiar with some of the suggestions. Don't know what the Trim is and I thought the only way to instal an ssd drive in my 2010 Mac Pro was with a sled (which is what my main drive has.)
"You don't need a sled... connect to the spare Optical Bay SATA/power jack and simply rest the SSD there." That's something I need to look up, as well.

I don't want to take up any more of your time. You guys have been very helpful. I'll do some searching to figure this out and refer back to your answers. I'm sure there's already a lot of info on this forum about all this.

Thanks.

[HCMarkus]

Check out the Mac Pro Forum at Macrumors.com for loads of info.

[mikehalloran]

… Don't know what the Trim is and I thought the only way to instal an ssd drive in my 2010 Mac Pro was with a sled (which is what my main drive has.)…

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=68002&hilit=trim

[NealF]

Thanks, Mike and HC.

[NealF]

Been reading more about the Trim support.
Even though I've been getting that error from the Terminal pgm., I checked my system report and it says YES for trim support.

So it looks like I've got it, despite the errors.

[NealF]

You don't need a sled... connect to the spare Optical Bay SATA/power jack and simply rest the SSD there.

If I do this, will the optical cable work to hook up to the ssd?
Or do I need to somehow get the drive cable over to the optical bay? If that's even possible.

Just want to make sure before I order it that I'm not in for any surprises.
(Can you tell I've never done this before?)

[HCMarkus]

You don't need a sled... connect to the spare Optical Bay SATA/power jack and simply rest the SSD there.

If I do this, will the optical cable work to hook up to the ssd?
Or do I need to somehow get the drive cable over to the optical bay? If that's even possible.

Just want to make sure before I order it that I'm not in for any surprises.
(Can you tell I've never done this before?)

There are two SATA2/Power cables available in the optical bay. One is probably occupied by the CD Drive. The second should be free and ready to plug into your SSD. Simple!

You can, if you wish, move the CD Drive to the lower slot in the bay and sit the SSD on top.

[NealF]

Aha!
Sounds simple enough for even me to do.
I just wasn't sure if the cable for the optical would work for the ssd.

Thanks.

[NealF]

Is there a post somewhere that explains the best way to switch boot up drives?
I'm ordering the new 2TB ssd with the PCIe card. My thinking is that I should use my time capsule to restore the whole disk to the new one.

Is that correct? And do I have to be concerned about what slot it should go in?
I have a graphics card in slot one right now. Do I need to change this?

Thanks.