Other World Computing today announced the OWC Mount Pro drive sled for adding any 2.5″ Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk drive or Solid State Drive (SSD) to 2009 and later Apple Mac Pro ‘Nehalem’ & ‘Westmere’ models. Manufactured with the highest quality processes and materials including powder coated aircraft grade aluminum, the $24.99 MSRP bracket comes backed by a lifetime warranty.
Offers Plug & Play Addition Of Performance Boosting OWC SSD
Mac Pro owners seeking to dramatically increase system performance can use the Mount Pro to add one of the fastest SSDs on the market, the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD, and experience data rates up to 285MB/s. The bracket comes with four drive mounting screws and replaces an existing 3.5″ drive tray. The OWC Mount Pro perfectly aligns the SATA connector on the mounted 2.5″ drive into the back plane SATA ports on the Mac Pro.
Looks And Runs Cool
With a highly durable blue powder coated finish, the OWC Mount Pro looks great while also offering at a glance verification of which Mac Pro drive bays contain 2.5″ form factor drives. The open design of the Mount Pro aids in drive heat dissipation.
Proclaimed The “Best Solution” By Leading Mac Performance Site
Leading Mac testing and benchmarking site, MacPerformancGuide.com, called the OWC Mount Pro “By far the best mounting solution yet for installing up to four 2.5″ drives into a Mac Pro. The sled bolts the drive in securely and allows far superior air flow to any other design.”
Immediately Available At $24.99, SSDs Available From $99.97
The OWC Mount Pro is immediately available priced at $24.99 MSRP from Other World Computing at www.macsales.com. It is compatible with all 2009 and later Apple Mac Pros with Model ID MacPro4,1 or MacPro5,1.
“These high quality brackets really make adding a 2.5″ drive to a 2009 and later Mac Pro Plug and Play easy,” said Larry O’Connor, Founder and CEO, Other World Computing. “When you consider the dramatic results adding an OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD to a Mac Pro can achieve, the OWC Mount Pro is really the key to unlocking Mac Pro performance.”
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OK, I just compared my drive sled (Mac Pro 1,1) with the drive sled (Mac Pro 2,1) that has the narrow gap indentations for the newer screws w/ rubber grommets, and then with a 2009 Mac Pro’s drive sled from the Insanelygreatmac.com video for the DX4 drive attachment, and the sled from his 2009 Mac Pro looks identical to mine from a 1,1 Mac Pro.
That said, what exactly keeps the Mount Pro from working in a 1,1 Mac Pro? You have no pictures at all of the mount pro naked, and if all Mac Pros must align their SATA backplane connectors the same, I’m somewhat confused as to why this is listed as not compatible with the 1,1 Mac Pros.
Clarification on this anybody?
The sled from the MacPro1,1 through MacPro3,1 models are identical – the sled from the MacPro4,1 and MacPro5,1 are slightly different in the positioning of the drive connection on the sled. Using the inappropriate sled results in the connector on the drive not lining up with the connector on the backplane
We carry replacement 3.5″ drive sleds for each model, but the Mount Pro is designed for use in the later models only.
That’s a shame then. The main selling point for me getting one of these would be the ability to flash my SSDs’ firmware, which I can’t do on a Mac Pro inside an IcyDock enclosure as whatever bridge it uses prevents such from taking place. Your sled would mean no bridge, but simply a nice clean bare connection to the backplane.
May I ask why it was decided not to offer sleds like this for both Mac Pro revisions? There are a lot of us 1-3,1 Mac Pro owners out there. :(
Actually, It came down mostly to timing. The Mount Pro is definitely a niche product limited only to owners of the Mac Pro only so we started with the most recent model for initially tooling the product with original intentions on creating both.
In the meantime, NewerTech released the AdaptaDrive 2.5″ to 3.5″ Drive Converter Bracket which is a direct 1-1 passthrough allowing any 2.5″ drive to be installed in any 3.5″ drive bay – both Mac Pro backplane design trays included.
So rather than expend more resources into a product with even more limited usage, we opted to back the product with a greater compatibility.
I checked with our development team here and they’ve had no problems flashing SSD firmware through them either – sounds like this might be the product you’re really looking for.
Is there any chance of posting a side by side drive sled pic for the 1,1 Mac Pros vs. the Mount Pro? I’m kind of curious why this wouldn’t work in a 1,1 Mac Pro myself. It’d certainly be a much tidier, and less problematic (for firmware updates) solution than the IcyDock enclosure I use now.
Hasn’t this been out for awhile? I’ve got one sitting in my MP, trucking away with an OWC SSD in it.
By the way, for question number 3, I would need a hardware RAID 0. So maybe a hardware RAID 0 enclosure that would fit two 2.5″ SSD RE’s?
In theory it seems like it would work: 2.5″ + 2.5″ = 5″ in a 5.25″ optical bay……just not sure if there is a hardware enclosure for this?
Thanks again,
O-Dub Scott
Hi guys-
This looks great!!! Exactly what I “need”!!!
One question, okay two, alright three:
1. Does the front tab show on the front of the Mac Pro once it’s all installed or ready to go? Or is it behind the existing aluminum one that the Mac Pro comes with?
2. Speed: Will I get the same (exact) speed running this in the optical bay as say bay number one or two?
3. Are there Raid 0 possibilites for the Mac Pro 2010 (late) optical drive? -maybe not w/ this particular device but something else you guys carry to use two OWC SSD RE in RAID 0?
Thanks!
O-Dub Scott
1. The Mount Pro replaces the existing drive tray, so it would show as a blue tab in the Mac Pro.
2. As far as speed goes – should be exactly the same as both the optical bays & the hard drive bays use a SATA 3Gb/s bus speed.
3. You can physically install two OWC SSDs into the optical bay with the OWC Multi-Mount and using disk utility, you can setup a RAID 0 between any of the six drive bays.
Hi Micahel-
Thanks for the reply. I thought it was the OWC SSD Drives that were SATA 3Gb/s while the Mac Pro’s (the bays themselves) are 6Gb/s ready. That said, is the optical bay also 6Gb/s or just the 4 bays.
I may be wrong about the above- if you could clear it up it’d be much appreciated.
Thanks again,
O-Dub Scott
P.S. Any hardware raid enclosures I could use in the optical bay w/ two OWC SSD RE’s that you are aware of?-(Pro Tools is not compatible w/ Software Raid)
I think what you’re asking about as far as the raid enclosures go would be something like the Stardom Pro Drive which is really a neat unit – especially since it could be used as an external drive as well. The only drawback to this particular unit, is that it is not compatible with the OWC SSDs that you’re looking to put into it – and in the same breath, it’s not much of a drawback since the bandwidth of a single OWC SSD just about saturates the bus speed of the 3Gb/s SATA connection anyway.
There are several other options to go with though for setting up the perfect Pro Tools workstation for you. Back in August we ran a post on how to make your Mercury Extreme SSDs even faster achieving up to 997MB/s transfer speeds – and that was using a 3Gb/s RAID card. With 6GB/s RAID cards available for the Mac Pro now, I’d imagine that performance would increase from there. For the best advice on a personal setup, please give our Sales Department a call at 1(800)275-4576 and they can help you optimize the right products to your workflow.
Hey Michael-
My bad- you’re totally right on w/ the 3Gb/s. I had no idea!!!!
I have the latest 12 core Mac Pro and this whole time I thought it was 6Gb/s. Oh well. Does seem a bit odd that it’s not a part of their high-end. But I guess that’s what Thunder Bolt is for.
Thanks again.
Scott
Any idea if such a thing will be available for earlier Mac Pros? I’ve been looking for just such a bracket for my MacPro1,1.
Hi Brian…unfortunately, no plans for a Mount Pro for earlier Mac Pros at this time.