Two HighPoint RocketRAID 4322 Cards in 2009 Mac Pro

I'd like to attach 16 VelociRaptor 2.5" drives in two 8-drive array configurations to my Mac Pro. I'm considering two of the following compact tower enclosures as I'm trying to minimize footprint:
http://www.aicipc.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ref=MiniBOD%20series%20-%208-bay%20Towe r
Hi,
Unfortunately, it is very possible that this configuration will NOT work. The VelociRaptor is an odd size and may not fit the backplane properly in this enclosure. In addition, the AIC enclosure uses an external power adapter that will take up more room and typically be less reliable than an enclosure with an internal power adapter.
The other issue is that while you may be able to get two RR 4322 cards to work (not tested) they certainly will NOT work together as a single RAID set. The two cards will only work individually. It would be nice if the two cards could be bridged but that feature is not available for RR4322 Mac users.
With all of these possible problems you may be better off going with a tested solution like the RR4322 with the Enhance RS16 JS SAS expander enclosure.
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/highpoint/4322/
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/enhance/rs16js/
Have fun!

Similar Messages

RAID card in 2009 Mac Pro & EMC Retrospect 8.x: Experience

I spent the last few days in the often bizarre world of trying to figure the best way to utilize the 2009 RAID card with the newly released version 8 Retrospect from EMC (Iomega). Here's my warning: From my experience version 8 and the RAID card do not get along at all and often result in that dreaded black screen stating that you have to press the power button and restart in multiple languages, meaning the computer has crashed really badly.
But let me start from the beginning:
we recently got 2 new Western Dig RE4GP 2TB drives which were installed in slot 2 and 4 and then RAIDed together (RAID 0 I think). I then tried to backup 700GB from a Seagate ES2 drive to the new RAID volume using Retro8. After a few minutes I got the black multilanguage crash sign, forcing a manual power off. Not good. A few more similar bad experiences and I gave up on version 8 and went back to version 6.1x. This version seemed to work much better and I was able to backup the 700GB data to the RAID volume. The next test was restoring the 700GB data on the RAID volume. So I wanted to restore the data to the same RAID volume, so the computer would be reading the Retrospect dataset and then writing the data back to the same drive. Maybe not optimal in drive throughput performance but surely technical feasible (yes, ideally you would backup the data to one/another drive and then restore the data to a third target drive, in my case the RAID volume). Turns out this too is a no go. After restoring 300GB the dreaded multilanguage sign appears and again, after inspecting the error logs, it seems the RAID card has just freaked out. At this point I am getting very mad at Apple as I can hardly find any really usable information on the RAID card anywhere on the web plus making a $6k computer perform in a rather delicate way which is not the usual way I experience Macs. Questions in my mind: Do the drives need to be in adjacent slots, is there a problem with the 2 TB drives, why can't the card read and restore to the same RAID volume, why does the RAID card crash the system so badly, isthe computer being damaged by crashing like this etc. I am getting the impression that this expensive RAID card's performance is kind of flaky and there might be some software issues. Also I have a suspicion (I have no way of proving it) that the RAID card might be using more PCI bandwidth than it should thus causing other problems I won't get into here. So after this rant my questions would be:
-anybody else had any success with Retrospect 8 and the RAID card?
-might my crashes not really stem from the RAID card but from some other thing I am doing?
-any pointers on things I might be missing?
There just seems to be so little user feedback on the RAID card here or elsewhere which I think might be because relatively few people have the RAID card.
Any advice would be great.

You realize that not all disk drives are certified to work with Apple's
RAID card?
Is the ES2 also controlled by the RAID card?
Those RE4s are very very new. Does Apple or WD list them as certified to work on that card? you know, the way they often use to in the case of SCSI controllers and disk drives.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306231
http://www.apple.com/macpro/technology/storage.html
http://www.apple.com/support/macpro/ - links to articles pertinent to Mac Pro such as Pro RAID card.

PS6 Video using NVIDIA GTX 680 card in 2009 Mac Pro OS 10.9.4- slow.

Hi,
I just put a GTX 680 in my juiced up Mac Pro, replacing the original NVDIA 120... and the speeds in PS6 doing video seem to be exactly the same as before..... What are the settings I should have in preferences? Do I need a driver or anything? Looking in the graphics card part of PS6 prefs, it seems to be registering the 680..... and everything works... but I see no difference in any speed.
Any advice?

Hi,
I've done all the preferences I can find online.
If I turn "use Graphics processor" to "off"... it seems to make no difference to the video speeds- playback, export...
Have I just wasted $700 on the GTX 680?
I'm running Photoshop CS6 Extended.... does this mean the videon editing does NOT use the GPU?
Please offer some insight, advice or information...
Thanks

SuperDrives are backwards (Early-2009 Mac Pro)

Greetings:
I have two SuperDrives installed in my Early-2009 Mac Pro. When I hit the eject button the bottom tray comes out, option + eject brings out the top tray. When I burn things in Disk Utility the OS refers to the physically located bottom drive as "Upper SuperDrive".
I know it's not a huge issue, but I'm wondering if its an easy fix?
I popped the side panel off and checked the SATA/Power connections. Since that cable is pretty tightly wrapped the connectors can only go in one way (the little extended one has to go on the bottom drive).
So I figured the coonnectors on the motherboard are probably backwards.
Are they easy to get to? Or is this a huge pain and not worth it?
Thanks!
- D

It does. Initially I thought I could reverse them, but they're so tightly bundled that they won't reach that way.
- D

HELP!! HighPoint RocketRAID 4322

Hi guys,
I am purchasing a new system (Two 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon) and I would like to know if the HighPoint RocketRAID 4322...
1. is completely compatible with this system?
2. is capable of controlling 4 WD VelociRaptor 300GB (internal)?
3. what are the external ports? Appears to be 2x eSata and 1x ethernet, is this correct?
OR
Should I just get the Caldigit raid card to be sure to be sure
Thanks in advance,
ozmo

Not sure if you have found solution to your problem... but just in case...
Had a number of disappointments with the RR2322...
The biggest is the sleep issue... but it does seem to clear itself up with the EFI. I'm sure the BIOS works when a PC is sleeping, but on my mac it meant that the drives would disconnect when the machine came back to from sleep and had trouble accessing the WebGUI.
Why would they not mention the EFI - I have no idea. Having to go to the Chinese site to find the EFI for my card, no instructions, no documentation - its just useless. The US site and the Mac site does not list the EFI at all for my card model.
In any event, found it by mistake and updated to the 64bits and it seemed to have worked. I'm still not happy with the software support. The site and marketing material is all deceiving (and the documentation almost non-existant). The card supports SMART (but they don't say its web based only which is useless). The card supports hot-swap (for PC only). The card supports SMTP messages (as long as its not using authenticated SMTP - good luck in finding one unless you run your own server), the errors on the event list are useless.
Then I was going to try to address some of the short comings (which basically concentrates everything on the webgui, so no log on the console, no system SMART, no hot-swap etc) by using the CLI and creating my own scrips and command... well - HighPoint does offers CLI (Linux, BSD and Windows) but none for the Mac.
A very under-supported card... which I was very surprised as people seem to like them for OS X but no one talks about all the basic shortcomings and basic instructions to use these cards. I'm about to regret the purchase but I'll see if I can scrip some commands interacting with the web interface to make it work.
So, yes - install the EFI and that should at least help you a bit (I hope - it did me for at least one issue).
RM

What USB 3.0 card should I get for early 2009 Mac Pro so I can connect the Drobo 5D? They say get CalDigit or Sonnet. Anyone have preference or experience with reliability. Trying to find which is better.

What USB 3.0 card should I get for early 2009 Mac Pro so I can connect the Drobo 5D? They say get CalDigit or Sonnet. Anyone have preference or experience with reliability with this. I am running Lion and Trying to find which is better as I know from experience not all cards are created equal. Thanks in advance for your help!

yakov536 wrote:
High Point RocketU Quad USB 3.0 for Mac is working great for me. Had an issue with CD/DVD Drive which was resolved with most current driver downloaded from the support site.
Running Moutain Lion on Early 2009, mirroring two Seagate Go Flex 2TB USB 3.0 Drives. Installed in Slot 4.
Using it primarily with VMWare Fusion for Virtual Drives. Windows, Unbuntu and other OS running really well.
HPT Support was responsive and very helpfull using the WEB Portal under the product page.
I have some comments and a suggestion:
Have you tried your setup with a SD/CF combo card reader (like the Lexar or Kingston FCR-H63)? Does the card appear on the desktop when first plugged in?
Did you need to fool around with any kind of power issues in installing this card in the x4 PCIe slot of the MacPro?
Suggestion. Have you tried one of the fixed in this article to cure the BT issues in MacPro 3,1?
Good luck.
Henry

2009 Mac Pro upgrading graphics card to GTX 680 mac. What is the best version of AE and PP and OSX to have?

Hello,
I have a 2009 Mac Pro 4.1
Mac OSX version 10.6.8
Processor - 2 x 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory - 24GB
Graphics Card - ATI Radeon HD 4870
I use After Effects and Premiere Pro daily for my work. I am not too technically minded. I want to update and improve my machine as much as possible and am thinking of buying an SSD drive to replace my current start up disk. I also am thinking about getting the GTX 680 mac version graphics card. I have read many online discussions regarding OpenCL and CUDA, many discussions with mixed feelings about the improvements the 680 gives an older Mac Pro - some people say it is amazing others say the improvements seem minimal or worse.
What I want to know is if I purchase the SSD and 680 graphics card what is the optimal OSX - 10.8 or 10.9? and what is the optimal versions of AE and PP to have - CS6 or CC? Also what settings and what additional drivers would I need to consider?
I contacted an independent authorised mac reseller and he thought it was a bad idea to put a new graphics card and get the latest OSX in an old machine and tried to sell me a used 2010 Mac Pro, but I think it would be more cost effective to get the SSD and 680 instead, it's just I read the occasional horror story on a forum and I worry about making the wrong choice, I rely on my Mac Pro to make a living!
Thanks in advance

Thank you for the valuable information Eric, I think I will go with the 680 but I understand that it wont be fully utilised on my old Mac Pro.
Perhaps I will replace my startup/applications hard drive with a 480GB SSD. My other 3 bays are full with 3 x 2TB Hard drives that have media on them so I have no spare room for a dedicated SSD drive for AE cache. But could I put a 250GB SSD into one of the PCI-E slots using something like - SSD SuperSpeed Upgrade Kit for Apple Mac Pro 2008 2009 2010 2012 | eBay
Would this be my best solution? Is it a relatively simple installation, does anyone have any experience of a similar setup?
cc_merchant, thank you for the reply, I am aware you have to pay monthly payments for CC, that is no problem.

Early 2009 Mac Pro: Adding a Firewire 400 card

I want to add a firewire 400 PCIe card to my Mac Pro as a last ditch effort to get my Presonus Firepods working properly. Presonus recommends the firewire card have a TI chipset. See my thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2770203&tstart=0
Two questions:
1. Any card recommendations known to work with large quantity audio throughput?
2. Most every card I've reviewed has a card-mounted molex power connector; will I need to supply auxiliary power to this connector to provide enough power for the Firepods?
2a. If I do need to provide auxiliary power to the card. Where do I pick it up from? Is there a connector/cable somewhere inside the Mac Pro?
TIA

I'd take a look at the Sonnet range of cards. I use them for video, which I guess has similar throughput and lack-of-latency requirements to multi-channel audio.
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/allegrofw400pcie.html
I believe you only need the aux.power feed to such cards *if your FW devices take power down the FW cable*. If your FW devices are separately powered from the AC mains, I suspect you won't need the aux.power feed to the card.
If you find you do need an aux.power feed, I guess you can find an adapter/extender from the unused second optical disk drive power connector?

Is there a USB 3.0 card that will work in my 2009 Mac Pro running Yosemite?

Is there a USB 3.0 card that will work in my early 2009 Mac Pro running Yosemite?

As established in their compatibility chart, the MaxPower USB/Esata card is compatible with Osx 10.10 Yosemite.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/compatibility/OS_X_10.10_Yosemite
You may want to contact MacSales for further advice.

Where can I find a wireless card for my early 2009 Mac Pro (MB871LL/A, MacPro4,1)?

Where on on earth can I purchase a wireless card for my Mac Pro?
Apple is of no help. Their "Geniuses" told me that it is impossible for them sell one to me because Apple will not supply wireless cards or memory for previous generation computers. That is totally absurd. If I want to get a wireless card for my 2 year young computer I can't? I have to buy a brand new computer with one previously installed. Ridiculous!
Any help or suggestions would be of great value to me.

Well I found what I think is the correct card on B&H.
Hopefully it works....
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/682954-REG/Apple_MB988Z_A_AirPort_Extreme_ Card_for.html

Has anybody gotten a RocketRAID 640 working in a Mac Pro?

I have a RocketRAID 640 I purchased, based on the fact that it "had OS X drivers". Unfortunately l'm running into a bit of a snafu here.
The English website (www.highpoint-tech.com) shows for the RR640 drivers that "Mac drivers are available at http://hptmac.com/cn". This is their Chinese website of all places (why, if it has Mac drivers are they not listed on the English site?). I recently was contacted by their tech support, and they appear to be totally clueless why their driver isn't working.
Ya see, the one they link to is this one:
http://www.hptmac.com/US/productfiles/HPT-Quad-eSATA-mac-v100-100120.dmg
But it's on the Chinese website. Yay?
So here's the issue: The .kext file's info.plist shows an IOPCIPrimaryMatch entry of "6441103". Breaking that down, the 1103 is the Marvell 9128 SATA controller (there are two on the card, oddly at x1 link width). The 644 is the ID of the card the driver is looking for in order to load. In other words, the driver (RR64x.kext), from the installer packaged labeled "RR644M" (for RocketRAID 644 Mac), will only see the RR644, but not the RR640 which I have. Unfortunately, injecting the proper IOPCIPrimaryMatch entry into the .kext file renders the .kext useless as it becomes a file that has "been installed incorrectly and cannot be used", because a user (me) modified it.
Has anybody gotten this card to work in a Mac Pro in OS X (it works fine in Windows on a Mac Pro) other than the inability to use CTRL-H to activate its BIOS configuration utility at bootup)? And if so, what driver are you using?
I've lost three days worth of work/"fun time" to trying to figure this out. I don't know why the card is so hard to get working, since functionally it's identical to the 644, only instead of eSATA ports they're all internal. Even the controllers used are the same, as is the link width of the card itself (but apparently not the firmware?).
I knew HighPoint had ridiculously bad support, but their hardware in general is rock solid (once you get it up and running). I kind of want my Vertex 3s to finally run speedy. I'd really hate to have to get a 6Gbps SAS card instead (and it'd have to be bootable which is EXPENSIVE) in order to plug into my Mac Pro 1,1's SAS cable that it uses to control the four internal HD bays (though that would give the HD bays native 6Gbps speed!).

Highpoint RR Quad eSATA for Mac is sold on Apple Store
http://store.apple.com/us/product/H1113LL/A
with 4 favorable comments, from one that flashed the firmware for EFI32 to be bootable (odd, as they said they had "Early 2008" which does not jive), a few with 2010 models.
Sonnet, FirmTek or other with 6G PCIe controller IF it does not need to be bootable (you said you wanted that); and, you aren’t going to be pushing for really high performance with a single SSD.
If you want to stay with Highpoint (exchange?) HPT links to Apple product page -
RocketRAID Quad eSATA 6Gb/s for Mac $249
http://www.hptmac.com/US/product.php?_index=65
What I did find were these Highpoint downloads:
http://www.hptmac.com/US/product.php?_index=57&viewtype=download
Driver version 1.0 - which you already have
http://www.hptmac.com/US/productfiles/bios_driver/HPT-Quad-eSATA-mac-v100-100120 .dmg
There is an EFI zip file, maybe you need to flash yours.
Highpoint Mac support page: from 9/2009
http://www.hptmac.com/US/product.php?_index=57&viewtype=download
Lion compatible products page:
http://www.hptmac.com/US/categories.php?compatibility=18
Highpoint Lion Support Mac
http://www.hptmac.com/US/product.php?_index=57&viewtype=reviews
Amazon (USA) also sells the same card carried by Apple Store -
http://www.amazon.com/HighPoint-Quad-SATA-6Gb-Mac/dp/B003MXCZMI/
Barefeats 6G SSD (ATTO Express R644, RocketRAID 2721) support for 6G SSD
http://www.barefeats.com/ssd6g02.html
Barefeats older 3G RocketRAID
http://www.hptmac.com/PDF/RocketRAID_eSATA_For_Mac_Barefeats_Review.pdf
http://www.hptmac.com/US/product.php?_index=57&viewtype=reviews
And what I found about RR640 (I have 620s in my PC but the extra 40 seconds to the boot time and stability were a no-go for me)
The Highpoint RocketRAID 640 is a PC card (only).
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2011/01/04/high-point-rocketraid-640-review/1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115077
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series_rr600.htm
Windows – Linux – FreeBSD driver support (only)
Apple Community –
Has anybody gotten a RocketRAID 640 working in a Mac Pro?
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15909237#15909237

2009 Mac Pro will not boot up under Windows

I have an Early 2009 Mac Pro system (Mac Pro 4,1) and I've had this system for 3 years already and have been working under OS X with this system ever since I purchased it.
However, when I tried to boot off my Windows disk, something very interesting happens. The Mac Pro WILL NOT boot up off the Windows disk or a known working Windows partition if two monitors are connected. Upon holding down the option key and selecting the Windows partition, I will get a black screen on one monitor (the one connected via Mini Displayport) and the other screen receives no signal and will enter standby and the system is halted. It does not respond to keystrokes, there is no hard drive activity, no measured power increase on the UPS, no apparent network activity, nothing. The only way to exit this scenario (from what I can tell) is to power off the machine, disconnect the display on DVI, power on the machine again, select the Windows partition wait for the system to reach the login window and reconnect the DVI monitor (at which time Windows recognizes it immediately and the system works fine again).
My question to the community is, does anybody know why this is happening and is there a known fix for this? Quite frankly, having to disconnect a monitor just to restart is very tedious and frustrating.
I have two Samsung P2350 monitors attached to an ATI Radeon HD 4870 (512MB, from Apple). One is monitor is connected via directly DVI and the other is using a Mini Displayport to DVI adapter. Both monitors work fine under OS X with no issue. At first, I thought that this may be a driver issue on the Windows side and after installing all the latest updates and drivers the issue is still apparent. From what I can tell, this doesn't seem like a software issue but rather a firmware or EFI issue as this happens before Windows even loads.
If anyone knows of a fix or what to do in this situation, or if you are also having this issue, I would love to hear your input!
Thank you!
For the record, I am running all the latest software builds on the OS X side (10.7.4, not that it would really matter at this point). I have also disconnected all unnecessary equipment in a trial and error scenario but the results are still the same.
The system passes all ASD testing.
The full specification of the computer and all connected equipment are as follows:
2009 Mac Pro (4,1) 8-Core
2x Intel Xeon Nehalem 2.66GHz Quad-Core CPUs
16GB DDR3 ECC 1066MHz RAM (Apple Branded)
Two OWC 120GB SSDs (One for OS X, the other for Windows 7 x64) - These are in place of my optical drives.
4x 2TB WD Black Hard drives for storage.
Two Samsung P2350 Monitors connected via DVI. (One using a Mini Displayport to DVI adapter).

In Windows I am using the latest (12.4) Catalyst Software Suite, 64 bit of course, downloaded directly from AMD's site after installing the drivers from Boot Camp.
As for installing Windows I used an original (not burned) installation media (Disk is in a pristine condition). And yes, Windows is fine, the problem just seems to be getting the system to boot up Windows with that second monitor. However if the "problem monitor" is disconnected the system boots fine 100% of the time and connecting it later after booting the system will still operate properly.
For the sake of arguement I swapped monitor cables and connected the "second" monitor to the mini displayport adapter to verify that it wasn't a cabling issue and I'm still yielding the same issues.
As for GPU testing, I've played games (Crysis, Grand Theft Auto IV, Battlefield 3, etc.) and I've had no issues with the card or stability.
You would think that Apple would try to find a fix for this, especially considering the caliber of this machine.

Can I add a second ATI 4870 to my 2009 Mac Pro?

1. Can I add a second ATI 4870 to my 2009 Mac Pro? Sorry if posted already, I searched and Googled and could not find it.
2. What is the general consensus on the EVGA GTX285? Will this out perform the 4870?
I read somewhere that the ATI needs additional power from the power supply and the GTX does not? Is this true? If this is the case are there extra power supply connectors for an additional 4870 (hence my first question).
The GTX has dual DVI out connector and this is my preferred solution to get 2 x 30" Cinema Displays.
Thanks in advance,
MIke
Message was edited by: Michael710

1. Can I add a second ATI 4870 to my 2009 Mac Pro? Sorry if posted already, I searched and Googled and could not find it.
No. Each ATI 4870 needs two auxiliary power connectors. There are only two in the Mac Pro.
I read somewhere that the ATI needs additional power from the power supply and the GTX does not? Is this true?
No. Both use two per card.
If this is the case are there extra power supply connectors for an additional 4870 (hence my first question).
No.
The GTX has dual DVI out connector and this is my preferred solution to get 2 x 30" Cinema Displays.
You can use an adapter to connect a second 30" to the Mini DisplayPort
<http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB571Z/A?fnode=MTY1NDA5OQ&mco=MjkyNjI0Mg>
(The latest adapters have new firmware, and shouldn't have problems.)
If you only need two displays, stick with one graphics card.

Speeding up an early 2009 Mac Pro

This is not a question - it is an answer.
Starting configuration: Dual quad core 2.26GHz early 2009 Mac Pro (4,1) already expanded to 12 GB RAM; 175GB SSD, 1TB RAID 0 internal HD configuration, 2 1TB external d2 Quadra HDs (1 for cloned backup, the other for Time machine) connected via FW 800. A Superdrive, and an LG Blu-Ray burner, both internal.
My uses: Frequent business use of Microsoft Office and Acrobat Pro; occasional use of Adobe Photoshop Elements, frequent internet access via Safari and Mail; much use of iTunes and iPhoto, some Aperture, and occasional creation and burning of movies and slide shows to DVD and Blu-Ray with iDVD, Final Cut Express, Toast Titanium.
Problem: Extremely slow from power on to the first open program with a usable menu (usually 2-1/2 minutes). Extremely slow changing from one menu item to the next and very slow opening files. Glacial at performing those operations if a backup was ongoing.
Earlier efforts: Followed conventional wisdom for speed by adding 6 GB of RAM, bringing it to 12 GB (though my RAM usage rarely exceeded 3 GB). Added a small SSD containing only the OS and all applications; mapped the home folder to the internal 1 TB RAID 0 comprising 2 540GB 7200 rpm SATA 2 drives (but - having to access the internal RAID for all data files made the addition of the small SSD a futile exercise). The external drives are also 7200 rpm.
Here is what worked!! I replaced the 175GB SSD with a 1 TB Samsung EVO 840 SSD ($565) and re-mapped the home folder back to the SSD; added a Newer Tech MaxPower eSATA PCIe card ($87); connected the two external 1TB drives via eSATA rather than FW 800, which tripled their speed. My OS, applications and data files are around 600 GB, so the 1 TB SSD was large enough to handle everything, while the 175 GB drive wasn’t.
While the EVO 840 SSD and the eSATA card are SATA 3 rated (6Gb/s), the internal bus of the early Mac Pro is SATA 2 (3Gb/s), which is the maximum at which the system will operate. In addition, the internal and external hard drives drives themselves are also SATA 2 (the Superdrive and Blu-Ray burner are SATA 1, but slow nothing down when not being used; and SATA 1 is plenty fast for burners limited to 16X anyway).
The result: It now takes 60 to 61 seconds from power on until Safari opens with a useable menu (including the 5 seconds or so to select the user and log in), a speedup of 90 seconds. In more stark terms, from power on to the log-in screen appears under the old setup was 46 seconds, and with the new, 41 seconds (system and RAM checks take roughly the same amount of time regardless of the drive used); but once the user is selected and the access code is entered, the new setup takes 14 to 15 seconds vice 1 minute 45 seconds! Even better, moving from one menu item to the next in an open application is immediate. Files open quickly. And, there is NO detectable slowdown while any of the frequent backups are ongoing. Performance is now very fast, again.
My Mac Pro cost $3400 when new, and has of course been improved. A used 2012 Mac Pro 6 core with 3.33 GHz chipset would have run $2800 or more, and provided slightly higher GeekBench scores operating single-core, but slower multi-core speeds than I already have. A 3.33GHz 12 core machine refurbished by Apple would have run $5400, and provided 1/3 faster single core speeds, and the multi-core speeds would have been twice as fast, according to GeekBench. The new late 2013 4-core Mac Pro, while beautiful, would have run $4200 delivered (my upper limit), and would have required more investment to put the Superdrive and Blu-Ray burner into enclosures. Here is what amazed me: While its single-core speed would have been 78% faster, its multi-core GeekBench score was slower than my current machine! I guess those extra 4 cores make a difference.
The GeekBench scores heavily weigh processor-intensive functions, such as video compositing and editing, or working with large photo and graphic files. Those are not my primary uses, and spending money for significant performance gains in those areas made no sense for my use. But the $650 I spent for the 1TB SSD and eSATA PCIe card completely solved the slowdown I was experiencing. For my uses, that $650 was a much wiser investment than any of the other options. It gave me speed where I needed it, and not where it would have done little for me.

True but I catch all the Mail, Cache, /SyncServices and /Application Support - and for some reason the /Preferences folder is getting hit a lot.
The reason I use CCleaner is just to wipe clean all the brower type caches in one fell swoop. They get large and unwildly and harder to manage. Easy and faster to just download. Use to use a RAMDisk for the "web.cache" file or folders at one time to speed up system and surfing.
The entire ~/Library is 3GB for me
So even if it was 10GB it would still be fine and make sense to include the "home user account" ~/Library (you can of course include more)
Only saying to locate my 700GB of documents, media files and libraries "elsewhere" - pefect for a 2TB hdd. Or a pair of 10K WD VR 1TB drives though even they are limited if using SATA2 AND you have the system on same bus you start to hit the 700MB/sec that Mac Pro controller can handle.
So the ideal would have high access and to allow concurrent searches and IO in memory first, in cache memory buffers to drive controller and drives, and then use an SSD, before getting to the actual slower hdd. The choise of hdd also matters. Some 500GB drives are more like 85MB/sec at best vs 145MB for a single 2TB Seagate Constellation ($200) or WD Black. And no need to take up two drive bays.
Back to case in point, if you want to put the entire user account on its own SSD, fine but its cost for what performance is not what I would do. Even a small 128GB or spend another $70 for 250GB SSD instead, and leave all the user home account's media files on a slow 7.2K drive. Some 7.2k drives can do much much better on SATA3 / 6G. The 1TB 10K WD VR gets writes as well as reads in the 180-200MB/sec. which is about as good as it gets outside of SSD on a SATA2 bus and is only $200 (4-8X the storage of the SSDs I was talking about).

Poor performance with Yosemite and early 2009 Mac Pro

I have an early 2009 Mac Pro with the following specs:
- 2.66 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon
- 10 GB of 1066 MHz RAM
- NVidia GeForce GT 120 512 MB
- 256 MB solid state drive for my system partition
- Two monitors connected, each at 1680x1050 resolution
Back when I was running OS X 10.7 or 10.8 I found that for every day tasks the performance using my computer was adequate. However, starting around 10.9, and even worse since upgrading to 10.10, thinks have gotten painfully slow. To give an example, activating Mission Control can take upwards of four seconds, with the animation being very choppy. Changing tabs on a Finder window can take two seconds for the switch to happen. Just switching between different windows, it can take several seconds for a window to activate. It's gotten to the point where I'm having difficulty working. So I'm thinking of upgrading some of my hardware.
Given my specs the weakest link seems to be my graphics card, and all of these issues do seem to be related to graphics. So my questions are:
- Do you think upgrading my graphics card will substantially improve things, and is there anything else I should upgrade?
- Is this slowness just the result of the computer being nearly six years old, and no upgrades will really improve things that much?
Thanks in advance!

Between Setup Assistant, and your existing system "untouched" (or use CCC if say you want to use an existing SSD for the system) there is no reason it should be a lot of work setting up. Have you ever used Migration or Setup? it has also gotten better.
Also, having 10.9.5 on another drive and running DU - and TRIM _now_ would be helpful.
Looking at just what gremlins you have running around inside your current system is not bad but.... sometimes the "long road" turns a shortcut into a dead end, and avoiding doing what seems the long road and hardest gets you where you want to go: a solid stable system.
Less is more. Most systems have more than needed and they get in the way and can cause trouble. Even handy "widgets" and those things that monitor system functions, even disk status. Which is why I like seeing a separate small system maintenance volume just for the weekly checkup. 30GB is more than enough so just slice out a partition somewhere - on another drive/device.
Those things, more so than and a lot cheaper than a new GPU. If your SSD is two years old, the 840 EVO from Samsung is down under $120 for 250GB, or use one for Lightroom / Aperture / iPhoto or scratch.
One person was complaining about sluggish window issue and thought it was the driver. Turned out It happened in ONE APP, not everywhere - very telling - and the app in question needs update. Adobe updated CC (for Windows) last month to finally support dual Dxx and some of the newer AMD GPUs - can the mac be far behind?
10GB RAM? that would not be 3 x 4GB or any combination using triple channel memory.

Two HighPoint RocketRAID 4322 Cards in 2009 Mac Pro

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