I want to add 2 - 4TB internal hard drives: 1 will act as my Time Machine or Raid backup.
I have never set up a raid and I need to know if there are problems with running 2 4TB drives in my 2010 build 5,1?
Currently I have 2 - 2TB internal drives & 1 - 3TB I am pulling the 3TB & 1 of the 2TB and holding for use if needed in the future.
Any feedback or recommendations are greatly appreciated.
[Email Edited by Moderator]
In the US, vendor OWC at MacSales.com provides a broad line of such devices for sale. The company has always been Mac-centric, and prides themselves in their Mac support.
Their drives are good choices in every category. They are not always the fastest, and not always the absolute cheapest, but are generally a good value and trouble-free.
Their site has the ability for you to specify your model Mac, and see only upgrades that will work in your exact model Mac.
Even if you eventually buy elsewhere, it is a great site to look at to see the whole range of Mac-specific possibilities. Their selection is limited by what is trouble-free in a Mac, because they do not want to sell or support any 'stinkers'.
In the US, vendor OWC at MacSales.com provides a broad line of such devices for sale. The company has always been Mac-centric, and prides themselves in their Mac support.
Their drives are good choices in every category. They are not always the fastest, and not always the absolute cheapest, but are generally a good value and trouble-free.
Their site has the ability for you to specify your model Mac, and see only upgrades that will work in your exact model Mac.
Even if you eventually buy elsewhere, it is a great site to look at to see the whole range of Mac-specific possibilities. Their selection is limited by what is trouble-free in a Mac, because they do not want to sell or support any 'stinkers'.
MacOS solved the "drives larger than 2.2TB" issue in 10.4 Tiger. Your Mac Pro was released after that, so it has always supported larger drives.
The current limit for drive size is over 8 million Terabytes, far larger than any drive you can buy today.
--------
If Drive SPEED is what you seek, there are Solid State Drives SSD drives you could install in a drive bay for comparable amounts of money that can attain nominal 550 M Bytes/sec speeds, about 10 times faster than the fastest Rotating Magnetic drives.
Next higher is a simple x4 PCIe card (under US$30 for the empty card) that could provide nominal 1500 M Bytes/sec in your Mac Pro 5,1. Installation is slightly more complex, because you must apply heat transfer tape to the SSD card and bolt on a heatsink (included in the kits).
ThunderBolt Macs can get up to nominal 2500 M Bytes/sec on an SSD drive in a ThunderBolt-3 enclosure. PCIe-3 Macs like the 2019 MacPro may get nominal 3,500 M Bytes/sec in a PCIe-slot card SSD, provided the drive is fast enough.
RAID is not a subject you should bring up lightly or in passing. MacOS will not BOOT from a RAID set. RAID is complex and its paybacks are often limited in unexpected ways. You should definitely start a new discussion about your plans for RAID.
Having been a Mac user since 1992, I agree!
OWC who I had known as MacSales has been my go to source for Drives, Ram, and PCI slot add-ons. The last time I had even visited either site was back in 2008 & 9 when I was upgrading my then aging 2001 G4 Desktop. I even still own that machine which used to operate as my Fax machine when I had a land line for my Photo Restoration and Image Editing business. I am also looking at options for the G4 but for now my Primary focus is my G5 and the operational options so I can Install Mt. Lion via Parallels 18. If I am able to do this I will be able to run My version of Adobe Creative Suite 5.
Again, I thank you for your feedback. You reminded me that I had not even visited OWC since it had been some 14 years since I even looked at upgrading a computer.
john
Thank you VERY much. I am appreciative of your recommendation.
Help with Internal Hard Drive expansion in my Mac Pro 5,1 2010 build
