One nice affair about the G4 - establish Power Macs was that they had heaps of way in spite of appearance for things like internal hard drives . Then the Power Mac G5 arrive . Sure , the G5 featured improved Serial ATA ( SATA ) hard - drive technology — but it also halved the number of internal hard drives to two and made the outgrowth of set up them more complicated . The Mac Pro is a nice step forrader in both respect .
The received Mac Pro includes one 250 GB hard drive . Like the Power Mac G5 , the Mac Pro habituate SATA surd drives . But while the Power Mac supported SATA drive with a maximum bandwidth of 1.5 gigabits per second ( Gbps ) , the Mac Pro supports the second propagation of SATA cause — sometimes screw as SATA II or SATA-300 — which have a maximum potential bandwidth of 3 Gbps . ( For a reassessment of SATA drives , visit our Storage topic varlet , which include late reviews of the G - SATA 1 TB backbreaking cause , and WiebeTech ’s SilverSATA II SR 1 TB hard drive . ) However , this doesn ’ in reality interpret into doubled stop number — drive mechanism are n’t currently fast enough to pump out that much information in that amount of time .
Swimming in StorageIf you call for more inner storage but only want one crusade , Apple will bump that 250 GB push back up to 500 GB , for $ 200 . Or you could take advantage of the Mac Pro ’s four promiscuous - to - access hard - drive bay laurel and really load up on storage — filling each bay with one of Apple ’s 500 GB operose drives ( at $ 400 at piece ) will give you 2 TB ( terabytes)—that ’s 2,000GB — of memory board .
Speedmark 4.5 scores are relative to those of a 1.25GHz Mac mini, which is assigned a score of 100. Compressor, iPhoto, iTunes, and Finder scores are in minutes:seconds. All systems were running Mac OS X 10.4.7 and had 1GB of RAM. The standard configuration used one 250GB Western Digital WD2500JS Caviar SE drive. The RAID configuration used a striped RAID volume made up of two WD2500JS drives. We used Compressor to encode a 6-minute-and-26-second DV file using the DVD: Fastest Encode 120 minutes – 4:3 setting. We duplicated a 500MB file in the Finder. We expanded a Zip archive of a 1GB folder in the Finder. We imported 100 photos into iPhoto from the hard drive. We converted 45 minutes of AAC audio files to MP3 using iTunes’ High Quality setting. To compare Speedmark 4.5 scores for various Mac systems, visit our Apple Hardware Guide .—Macworld Lab testing by James Galbraith and Jerry Jung
Of course , you may do even good than that ( and drop less money ) if you take your business elsewhere . For example , you could buy aSeagate Barracuda 750 GB SATA heavy campaign — the largest single mechanics currently available — for around $ 335 online . That repel not only cost less than one of Apple ’s 500 GB drives , but also lets you increase your Mac Pro ’s total computer memory to 3 TB .
install cause in the Mac Pro is well-fixed than installing ride in any other recent Mac . Each empty gruelling - movement true laurel include a metal drive mailman . You only attach the movement to the newsboy with four screws and slide the common carrier back into place . The thrust connects directly to the motherboard , without messy data point or power cable . ( Just do n’t endeavor to slither them in and out when the Mac Pro is turned on ! Although the drive bays and letter carrier look similar to those in Apple ’s Xserve , the Mac Pro drives arenothot - swappable . )
raid PartyOf course , those four driveway bays give you more than just raw depot . With a little work , they can also speed up essential hard - drive labor . For example , you could utilise repulse Utility to set up your private road in a stripy RAID intensity — multiple drive configured so they pretend as one single , quick volume ( see below ) . If you ’re regard this setup , note that a inauguration parkway and multiple maraud work best .
You could also make a mirrored maraud — in which the same information is stored , ormirrored , on two drives — for an up - to - the - moment backup . ( Or , when Mac OS X Leopard go far , you could devote one campaign to the Time Machine backup utility.)—Jonathan Seff
RAID: The penny-pincher’s path to faster performance
Although the standard Mac Pro configuration has just one 250 GB hard campaign , you could install up to four SATA hard drives in it . One way to increase drive performance is to take multiple driveway and create one maraud 0 volume . This type of RAID , also referred to as a stripy regalia , reads and write data to and from all the drives at the same time , which can really speed things up . To see what form of performance encouragement we ’d get from this type of setup , we connected two 250 GB drives in a RAID 0 , installed OS X , and ran some of our standard tests on it . And the results were telling , to say the least . Adding just one drive ( available for $ 90 or less online ) give us a lot more kick for our buck than the $ 800 processor rising slope uncommitted from Apple . A 2.66GHz Mac Pro with a striped raiment was just 5 percent wearisome than a 3GHz Mac Pro without the striped RAID .
Mac Pro RAID Test
Best results inbold .
Speedmark 4.5 scores are proportional to those of a 1.25GHz Mac miniskirt , which is assigned a score of 100 . Compressor , iPhoto , iTunes , and Finder slews are in minutes : moment . All systems were running Mac OS X 10.4.7 and had 1 GB of RAM . The stock constellation used one 250 GB Western Digital WD2500JS Caviar SE movement . The RAID configuration used a striped maraud intensity made up of two WD2500JS drives . We used Compressor to encode a 6 - minute - and-26 - 2d DV data file using the videodisc : Fastest Encode 120 transactions – 4:3 setting . We duplicated a 500 MB file in the Finder . We expanded a Zip archive of a 1 GB booklet in the Finder . We import 100 pic into iPhoto from the hard effort . We convert 45 minutes of AAC audio Indian file to MP3 using iTunes ’ High Quality setting . To compare Speedmark 4.5 score for various Mac systems , visit our Apple Hardware Guide .—Macworld Lab testing by James Galbraith and Jerry Jung
Comparing performance on disc - intensive tasks , you ’ll see that the 2.66GHz RAID arrangement was 47 percent faster than the stock 2.66GHz organization at duplicating a 500 MB file , 27 percent faster at unzipping a 1 GB leaflet , and 34 per centum quicker at importing pictures into Apple ’s iPhoto . Some of our trial , such as 3 - D gambling , return in Maxon ’s Cinema 4D XL , and even MP3 encryption in Apple ’s iTunes , do n’t rely much on hard - disk performance , so we saw no great improvements there . However , the gain made in other areas seem well worth the price of set up a stripy RAID volume.—James Galbraith
[ Jonathan Seff isMacworld ’s senior intelligence editor . James Galbraith isMacworld ’s Lab Director . ]
