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veryniceguy2002 · Sep 11, 2006, 06:58 AM

Does the Mac Pro allow to the use of internal SCSI (Ultra 320) drive, if I buy and install an Ultra 320 SCSI card into one of the PCI slot? Can one of the four hard drive bay allows me to put in the Ultra 320 drive, and then I route the SCSI cable into the hard drive bay?

baw · Sep 11, 2006, 07:22 AM

No idea. Any particular reason you want SCSI? The on-board SATA provides up to 3 gigabits of throughput, about the same as Ultra320 I believe.

veryniceguy2002 · Sep 11, 2006, 07:30 AM

Originally Posted by baw

No idea. Any particular reason you want SCSI? The on-board SATA provides up to 3 gigabits of throughput, about the same as Ultra320 I believe.

Got an old B&W G3 and I bought an additional Ultra320 drive 2 years ago. So if I buy the Mac Pro, I want to see if I can re-use my expensive but otherwise very good Ultra 320 drive.

Gregory · Sep 11, 2006, 07:33 AM

Get yourself some 150GB Raptors. You would also need PCIe ATTO UL5D - but the drive cages are designed for SATA only. No data or power cable needed, it pushes (clicks) into and makes contact making it easy.

baw · Sep 11, 2006, 07:40 AM

Originally Posted by veryniceguy2002

Got an old B&W G3 and I bought an additional Ultra320 drive 2 years ago. So if I buy the Mac Pro, I want to see if I can re-use my expensive but otherwise very good Ultra 320 drive.

Aye, makes sense. I had an Ultra160 setup in my old 450MHz G4. Gave me nothing but problems. The system would always randomly lock up even after a motherboard, harddrive and SCSI card and cable replacement.

veryniceguy2002 · Sep 11, 2006, 07:40 AM

Originally Posted by Gregory

Get yourself some 150GB Raptors. You would also need PCIe ATTO UL5D - but the drive cages are designed for SATA only. No data or power cable needed, it pushes (clicks) into and makes contact making it easy.

Don't quite get you on this... What Raptors are you talking about?? Also, what do you mean no data or power cable needed?

baw · Sep 11, 2006, 09:07 AM

I don't get it either. Western Digital doesn't list any Raptor drives on their website that have a SCSI interface.

mduell · Sep 11, 2006, 08:55 PM

The WD Raptor is a 10000RPM SATA drive. For the price you can get for your U320 drive on eBay, you can probably buy 2-3 times the capacity in Raptors.

veryniceguy2002 · Sep 12, 2006, 05:15 AM

Originally Posted by mduell

The WD Raptor is a 10000RPM SATA drive. For the price you can get for your U320 drive on eBay, you can probably buy 2-3 times the capacity in Raptors.

You have missed my point.

I have an Ultra 320 drive currently working happily in my current B&W G3, so I am not trying to get a new/2nd hand drive from eBay or anything else - so no additional expense to obtain the drive.

OreoCookie · Sep 12, 2006, 07:26 AM

You would have to get a new controller anyway. I think it is cheaper to sell the SCSI drive and the PCI card on ebay and get a Raptor or just another, regular harddrive.

What is the capacity of the drive anyway?

Gregory · Sep 12, 2006, 09:50 AM

Reading between the lines:

Mac Pro uses PCI Express, and the only controller support for SCSI is ATTO's $500 UL5D.

That the 10K SATA Raptor can easily match any 10K SCSI and even 15K for desktop use delivering 85MB/sec writes. Check out the reviews and drive comparions at StorageReview.

I've used the 36GB, the 74GB WD Raptor over the last 3 yrs, but I also have kept to SCSI (15K boot drive and 10K (4) for data in my G4. Not anymore.

The Mac Pro doesn't require or use cables for data and power for SATA drives. They plug into a backplane that lines up and connects to your drives. There is zero room in there for SCSI.

A very popular configuration the Mac Pro is to RAID a pair of 150GB Raptors. More for those needing to squeeze the most performance out of their systems for Photoshp and editing.

mduell · Sep 12, 2006, 06:47 PM

Originally Posted by veryniceguy2002

You have missed my point.

I have an Ultra 320 drive currently working happily in my current B&W G3, so I am not trying to get a new/2nd hand drive from eBay or anything else - so no additional expense to obtain the drive.

You have missed my point. I'm saying that from a financial, capacity, and possibly performance perspective, it makes more sense to sell your U320 drive and buy a Raptor.

newtech · Sep 12, 2006, 07:35 PM

You could cheat and put the SCSI drive in the lower optical bay using a 3.5 -> 5.25 adapter frame, though routing the cable could prove harrowing.

Also as above by the time you purchase a PCIe Ultra320 card you will have put more money in than just buying either a fast Raptor are a large cap, drive.