#Best video card for mac pro 2008 install#
#Best video card for mac pro 2008 full#
#Best video card for mac pro 2008 pro#
#Best video card for mac pro 2008 Pc#
#Best video card for mac pro 2008 series#

#Best video card for mac pro 2008 series#

To test the built-in card, we set all 4 drives up as a RAID 0 array using Disk Utility, then tested it using a series of benchmarking utilities (including ones from Intech, BlackMagic and Aja) running off the boot drive.Īs you can see, we more than doubled the card’s output with transfer rates topping out around 1600MB/s.

#Best video card for mac pro 2008 pro#

We set up an Early 2008 Mac Pro (MacPro3,1) with four OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 6G SSDs and booted from a standard SATA drive installed in the optical bay.

If you’re accessing a lot of information (like audio or video editing or possibly a local file server for a small company) this could be just what you’re looking for. The key benefit is in the ability to read/write large amounts of data. With all the effort you need to put into this sort of setup, you almost begin to wonder whether or not the speed boost is worth it. Whichever drive type and size you choose to put your OS on, we’ve got Multi-Mount bundles that include all the mounts and cables necessary to make installing it into the drive bay a simple process.

You’ll lose a lot of the speed advantage during booting and launching when you do it this way, but at least you still retain Boot Camp capability. In that instance, you’ll need to use an ATA hard drive hooked to the ATA connector in the drive bay. Apple doesn’t support Boot Camp on these “extra” connectors. There’s only one situation where this won’t work: if you happen to use Boot Camp to run Windows on your Mac.

#Best video card for mac pro 2008 install#

You can install the system on this “fifth” drive, and use your upgraded hard drive bays to set up a RAID array for maximum data transfer. If you don’t want to go the SSD route, you also have the option of hooking a standard SATA hard drive up much the same way. Just run a SATA cable from the drive to this connector on the logic board (you’ll probably have to remove the fan to do this) and use a SATA power converter cable to adapt the power from the drive bay for your SATA drive. You will need to put your OS on a drive installed in one of the optical bays.įor the best performance, we suggest getting an OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 3G SSD and attaching it via one of the “extra” SATA 2.0 connectors on the logic board, located near the front of the Mac Pro. Once connected, the four drive bays in the Mac Pro are now being controlled by the RAID card, making it capable of both high-speed data transfer and more advanced RAID options.Īt this point, we run into a bit of a problem the Highpoint card isn’t bootable in a Mac. This is easily remedied, however, by using a mini-SAS extender cable to bridge the distance. Once you install the Highpoint card in your Mac, you’ll notice that the mini-SAS cable that connects to the logic board is located near the front of the Mac Pro and the internal port on the card is located near the rear – much too far away from each other to connect. Not only does it feature six internal mini-SAS ports, it also has a built-in (hardware) RAID controller which supports RAID Level 0, 1, 5, 10, and 50 along with individual drive support and disk spanning, as well as an external port for more expansion options.īut we’re getting ahead of ourselves let’s concentrate on upgrading those drive bays. This Highpoint RocketRAID card fits the bill. The trick is to find one with that mini-SAS connector on the inside. The great thing is that mini-SAS is a fairly common connector for PCIe SATA controller cards. The backplane (where the drives in the bays are connected) consists of four pass-thru SATA connections which are, in turn, connected to the SATA controller on the logic board (located near the front of the Mac Pro) via a mini-SAS connector. On top of that, those RAID levels are all software-based, which can reduce overall performance.įortunately, if you happen to have a 2006-2008 Mac Pro, you can improve the performance in those bays, with only one small thing to lookout for. If you wish to put the drives in to a RAID array, you are limited to either a mirrored RAID 1, losing half your capacity, or a RAID 0, which is faster, but increases the risk of data loss. As they currently sit, they only move data at SATA 2.0 speeds, roughly three gigabits per second.

#Best video card for mac pro 2008 full#

Unfortunately, the fast evolution of technology means that, after a while, that older Mac may seem a little slow and may not be able to take full advantage of current tech.

#Best video card for mac pro 2008 Pc#

Most of the time, your average xpc has a longer useful life than its PC counterpart.