SSD Question for Tower Upgrade

Apple Final Cut Pro

SSD Question for Tower Upgrade

Posted by Michael Hadley on January 3, 2014 at 4:24 pm

Looking to beef up my 2009 dual quad core tower (before my new Mac Pro arrives). Was going to install an OWC 480 gb SSD as my main boot drive. But the the Crucial M500 960 GB caught my eye. Not much more expensive and a lot more space.

Has anyone used one? Problems? Issues? Recommendation?

Thanks as always.

Tim Jones replied 12 years, 4 months ago 3 Members · 5 Replies
5 Replies

Doug Metz
January 3, 2014 at 4:55 pm

I’d recommend saving some cash and getting a smaller SSD for boot / apps. I don’t edit on the boot drive.

I got the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G for my 2009 Mac Pro (120GB), and it’s been great! I’ve got the other 3 bays set up with 2TB drives in RAID0 and work from those – backing up and transferring to externals / NAS as necessary.

Doug Metz

Anode

EDIT: Corrected 2GB to 2TB… big difference! ;o)
Michael Hadley
January 3, 2014 at 5:11 pm

Thanks. Glad you like the OWC drive. FWIW, I don’t edit on the boot drive either–but it’s currently 580 GB of stuff. Have a lot of legacy FCP7 project plus app and other junk. A lot to delete. The issue with moving the old FCP7 projects is that they need to stay on the internal boot drive to be usable. (Although I really haven’t touched them in the 2 years since I moved to FCPX). Thus, the larger Crucial SSD was enticing since I wouldn’t have to clear off 100+GB of stuff on my current internal.

BTW, as I understand, the 2009 towers are only capable of 3G speed. You can use a 6G, just can’t fully maximize it.
Doug Metz
January 3, 2014 at 6:11 pm

[Michael Hadley] “BTW, as I understand, the 2009 towers are only capable of 3G speed. You can use a 6G, just can’t fully maximize it.”

Yeah… I wanted to maximize the useful lifespan of the SSD in a world without a giant aluminum tower next to my leg. When my nMP arrives, this SSD will likely end up in my laptop’s optical drive bay.

Doug Metz

Anode
Michael Hadley
January 3, 2014 at 6:17 pm

Nice! Makes perfect sense.
Tim Jones
January 3, 2014 at 6:21 pm

I’m not saying any other drive is bad, but I use the SamSung EVO 840 series SSDs both for the boot drive and for a striped array in my 4,1. I use the 500GB drive for boot and 3, 1TB units for the array. The performance is amazing.

I was using the OCZ Vertex 4’s, but there’s still no 1TB option from OCZ.

When I move to the new Mac Pro, I’ll buy a 4th 1TB unit and use those in a TB chassis. Right now, I’m leaning towards this Drobo chassis:

Drobo 4 bay Storage Array on Amazon

Tim
—
Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters!

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