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Installing a 5th Hard Drive into a new Mac Pro ‘Nehalem’

Friday, March 20th, 2009 | Author: OWC Michael

In response to a recent blog question we received: Yes, you can install a 5th hard drive into the new 2009 Mac Pro ‘Nehalem’ machines.  Simply use the second optical drive bay.  The SATA connection is the same for a hard drive as it is for an optical drive and both run off the same system BUS.

Adapter bracket attached to a 3.5" SATA hard drive.

Adapter bracket attached to a 3.5" SATA hard drive.

Now, the only issue you will run into is how to secure the drive. Simply put, Tab A is not supposed to go into Slot B.  How do you get a 3.5″ drive installed into a 5.25″ bay?  You use an adapter bracket.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/CLONESLED/

We do carry just such a bracket that will work – originally designed for the Mac clones and PC cases – it does functionally secure your drive in the bay.  However, if you use your Mac Pro in an audio-sensitive manner, be advised that suspended metal-on-metal provides no soundproofing.  While this will work for those that don’t mind the low hum of a drive spinning, this is not a solution for extra storage capacity if your Mac Pro is intended to be in the same room as your audio recording.

Hard Drive installed into the 2nd optical bay of a Mac Pro 'Nehalem' machine.

Hard Drive installed into the 2nd optical bay of a Mac Pro

For those audiophiles among you who must have a zero ambient noise environment, don’t fear … we’re working on it. Currently, we’re waiting on delivery of additional bracket systems and when we’re satisfied with their performance, we’ll be offering one or more solutions to you.  Watch the blog for developments on this and if you haven’t already, sign up for OWC Larry’s newsletters where the latest and greatest products are usually first announced.

UPDATE (4/17/9) - Well, the good news is that we have found a very elegant solution for installing 3.5″ drives into the optical bay of the Mac Pro that does reduce the hard drive noise as I mentioned back on the 6th of this month. The bad news is we’re still a few weeks out before we’ll have any stock on them. However, you can check out the X-Swing by (((NoiseBlocker))) and even pre-order.

X-Swing installed pics:

The optical and one hard drive installed.

Two hard drives installed.

 

Note:

Only the above two configurations will fit in the optical drive bay of the Mac Pro.  Two hard drives plus one optical drive combined is too large for the space.

Update: Since this article was posted, we’ve come up with several mounting solutions… See our blog post on Drive Adapters Galore—Which Is The Right One? for more information.

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Category: Product Spotlight, Random Thoughts & Topics, Tech Tips
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2009 Mac Pro “Nehalem” Initial Speed Tests

Friday, March 20th, 2009 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

In initial testing on the base processor speed of the new 8-Core Mac Pro, we’ve seen a much faster performance, up to 40%.

We used the TotalBenchmark product, developed by Media-Motion.TV. This test uses Adobe After Effects CS4 with multiprocessing enabled in the After Effects Preferences and no other programs running in the background. While the test was designed originally for After Effects 6 and updated for After Effects 7, it still runs under CS3 and CS4.

We also partnered with Bare Feats to push the new Mac Pro machines through speed tests for all five models. Bare Feats contends that six memory sticks are faster than eight in the 8-core Mac Pro, in terms of raw memory throughput as shown by the DigLloydTool memory stress test. The six sticks are 15% faster consistently.

That difference, however, doesn’t show up in the real world unless the application’s demand for memory transfers exceeds the bandwidth available. Rob at Bare Feats finds that “putting memory in the first three slots of each memory bank produces faster memory transfer speeds than filling all four slots on each bank.”

Bottom line: If you want the fastest rendering performance – get the most cores and upgrade memory to the max. As we’ve shown, certain applications, such as After Effects and Compressor, use subprocesses to grab as much as 3GB per core to deliver maximum performance. Take this a step further and you can run more applications and more processes concurrently. So, say goodbye spinning beach ball and hello to the local beach!

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Category: Benchmarking/Performance, Fresh from Apple
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Apple iPhone OS 3.0 Beta & SDK PR Event Recap

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

Today, Apple hosted an iPhone related press conference. Unfortunately, I couldn’t be there in the flesh, but I did scour the web for notable details to deliver to you.

Quality of coverage on the web is varied and I’m ashamed to admit that the best text coverage I found is not on a traditional Apple site. Eric Savitz in the Tech Trader Daily section of Barron’s Online types like the wind and caught everything delivered from the stage. Although the text is very sparse on TechCrunch, they did link to video of the event from Sam Levin. Ars Technica also had live coverage, but I was unable to access the site. I did notice after the event, Ars has some nice photos though.

The real news, delivered by Scott Forstall, SVP for iPhone software, is the new operating system: iPhone OS 3.0. The iPhone SDK, released a year ago, includes tools and frameworks to build great iPhone apps. This next generation of the SDK includes 1000 APIs for developers. For example, requested features such as magazine subscription applications and the ability to add game modules from within a game, in short, the ability to sell add-ons from within an application; called In App Purchase, is now possible. This is all tied into the iTunes Store purchasing system. The developer still sets the price and 70% of revenue goes to the Developer monthly. Selected features include:

Peer to peer connectivity: A standard system panel will find others who are using the same application in near proximity and form a connection; so you can now play Backgammon and other games with other users. They claim this is seamless with automatic discovery wirelessly over Bluetooth, no pairing for developer and end user. Bonjour is the technology behind it. It works for any peer-to-peer application, not just games.

Accessories: Speakers are among the most popular. The new SDK allows developers to build applications that talk to the accessories. For example, you can use an Equalizer if the speaker manufacturer builds that in or an FM transmitter that automatically find the best FM station to use.

Maps: Using Google maps, service developers can embed maps with multiple views.

Push Notification: Instant Message apps really take a toll on battery life; but with push notification, you can choose text or audio alerts to notify you of incoming messages. This helps with battery life and overall iPhone performance.

Apple invited a variety of vendors to show off new applications, such as Meebo for instant messaging, games from Electronic Arts, Oracle with business indicators, ESPN to deliver media, and health-related glucose monitoring from Johnson and Johnson’s Lifescan company, and more.

Judging from responses online to various live blogs and an iPhone twit, the new customer features, such as cut, copy, and paste are the hit of the press conference. Other requested features implemented include Landscape mode for all applications, plus support for MMS (multimedia messaging service), so you can send your photos or contact info. easily, CALDav for Calendar app, and Spotlight Search.

The iPhone 3.0 SDK works for all the iPhones and iPod touch; but not all the features are available, depending on your model. While the iPhone 3.0 SDK is available now, the end-user software should be available this summer.

How do the developers like this new software? Well, StuFF mc, Lead iPhone Developer at Pomcast.biz in Germany told me: “We’re thrilled with the new possibilities that the iPhone OS 3.0 offers us. As a matter of fact, we are already seeing tons of ways we can make one app we developed better, thanks to the Email panel and the Push notification services. We’re also very happy about the new streaming possibilities and the Pay in App. As day to day users of the iPhone, we’re also very happy about Copy, Paste, and other very neat stuff Cupertino just gave us a sneak peak at!”

Now, I’m not there to confirm or deny any of the above, but I’ve tried to give you the basics of today’s announcement for your reading pleasure. Please comment below if I missed your favorite new feature.

Oh, and the latest news: Apple has posted a video of the press conference online!

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Category: Fresh from Apple
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Upgrade Your Mac Mini (Early 2009)

Monday, March 16th, 2009 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

Lloyd Chambers of diglloyd.com has posted a comprehensive upgrade guide to the newest Mac mini (Early 2009), titled: Apple Mac Mini 2009 — the Green machine. This new Mac mini offers the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics card, the same as was introduced with the aluminum “Unibody” MacBooks.

Apple touts it as “the world’s most energy efficient desktop, drawing less than 13 watts of power when idle.” Lloyd takes it out for a ride and confirms the lower power use when the base RAM is installed, but notes energy consumption is a bit higher when you max out the memory.

The article gives you all the information you need to turn your new Mac mini into a server or to upgrade it with a faster hard drive and more RAM. We make it easy to do these upgrades with a one-stop-shop page complete with installation videos.

The best news is the missing MacBook FireWire ports are found as an 800-FireWire port on the new Mac mini. Using all the OWC tools, RAM, and hard drive updates options; this machine comes highly recommended for many types of needs.

Plus, if you’re missing FireWire 400 ports for those legacy desktop accessories, no problem, our miniStack line gives you plug and play connectivity for those devices plus external storage.

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Category: Fresh from Apple, Tech Tips
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It’s like “30 Minute Abs” for Your New Mac.

Friday, March 13th, 2009 | Author: OWC Chris S.

Just as we mentioned last week, we’re putting together a bunch of new instructional videos for upgrading the Macs released this month. They will be released over the coming weeks. This week, we’ve managed to pump out not one, but two instructional videos for you!

Head on over to our Tech Center or our YouTube channel and learn how to upgrade both the memory and the hard drive in that perennially upgrade-challenged Mac: the Mac mini. We must warn you: this upgrade is not for the faint-of-heart.

Don’t worry, though. If, after seeing the videos, you decide that you’d like to have the upgrade, but without the fuss of doing it yourself, we’ve got you covered there, too. Check out our upgrade service, where you can have these upgrades performed by our crack in-house technicians. You can think of them like personal trainers for your mini.

In the meantime, we’re going to keep cranking out the videos, so you can learn how to upgrade the rest of the updated Macs.

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Category: Installation Videos
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New Mac Pro Graphics Cards… In Older Mac Pros

Friday, March 13th, 2009 | Author: OWC Larry

Our back room gurus tested the NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 and the ATI Radeon HD 4870 graphics cards from the early 2009 Mac Pro in the 800MHz and 667MHz Mac Pro models with varying success. The quick results are: GT120 functions, in both ports, in 800MHz Mac Pro.

Mac Pro ’800MHz Memory Bus Models:
———-
4870 – Works A-OK via its DVI port. No-go via the miniDisplay Port.

GT120 – Works like a champ with both DisplayPort and DVI Port.

Mac Pro ’667MHZ Memory Bus Models:
————
No go with either of Video Cards from the new Mac Pros.

We’ll have more details later, but there’s a preliminary first look summary. If you have an 800MHz Mac Pro now – the GT120 ought to become a nice option all around… And the 4870 maybe too for those wanting that super video performance while not needing it to support two displays.

Update note 3/17/09 should note that testing was done under OS X 10.5.6 and was done with a Mini DisplayPort straight into a new display.UPDATE 8/27/10 We tested the Radeon 5870 and 5770 graphics cards with all model year (2006-2010) Mac Pros…see the results at this revealing post!

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Category: Fresh from Apple
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New Mac Mini Rammed

Friday, March 13th, 2009 | Author: OWC Larry

Apple says the new Mac mini is good for up to 4GB RAM max. Maybe you’ve read of people who’ve put 8GB in it. Well – yes, it will boot with 8GB installed, but 4GB is the true limit of these latest Mac minis. As soon as the system tries to use more than 4GB, everything goes to molasses. There are plenty of examples where Apple states one limit and you can actually go beyond said limits – But, this is not one of them. Anyway – you can check out all of the ‘right stuff’ for any generation of Mac mini with OWC’s Mac mini guide.

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Category: Fresh from Apple
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More Flash for Portable Photo Gallery

Friday, March 13th, 2009 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

A previous blog post by M. Chris Stevens gave you a tip to create your own portable HTML-based photo gallery using a keychain USB flash to tote around your photos. I also do that, but use already available solutions. I actually keep a tiny USB stick attached to my iPod case, which is a well-padded fabric case made by Booq. (My purse can be a dangerous place to store anything breakable!)

I love the Crucial Gizmo! Flash Drives that OWC sells and for carrying photos, a 2GB flash drive for $11.95 or 4GB for $17.49 are great deals. They easily can be put on a key chain also.

Funny thing though, LaCie just started selling keys with flash drives built-in. They’re supposedly scratch resistant, very sturdy, and comes in 3 different styles. One even uses micro-SD cards, so that you can interchange them. I got the imakey, which looks just like my car key without the computer rubber housing. The fob is very heavy though. It came with a small plastic cover over the USB connector, which I’m sure I’ll lose. Only time will tell whether it can survive my purse. In the meantime, the lighter-weight Crucial Gizmo wins out.

Oh, and by the way, if you prefer to show your photos in a slide show, complete with music, check out FotoMagico by Boinx Software, which is included in the new Roxio Toast 10 Titanium Pro and that is very cool. Of course, it’s Mac only, but a very easy to use tool to show off your photos in an entertaining way! I’ve tossed together long family slide shows in under an hour complete with my son’s original music. It came in very handy for a retrospective on my Dad’s life which I showed at his memorial service. Simple tools, fast solutions, things that work — don’t ya love it?

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Category: Random Thoughts & Topics
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