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Exited with the new generation of DSLR cameras offering impressive video capabilities, I felt that it was time to get rid of my old Mac G5 and move to Intel-based Mac Pro with Mac OS X Snow Leopard (version 10.6). I was a novice videographer, but I knew that video editing, transcoding and compression require a lot of computing power, and I anticipated a need for a well equipped computer system capable of doing in reasonable time all these new exciting things.

However, a visit to Apple store gave me almost an electric shock when I realized how expensive it would be to purchase a new Mac I wanted at Apple. To be precise, $8,489.58 including Virginia taxes (prices Feb., 2010). Indeed, additional features I wanted (including 24GB of memory and three additional 2TB hard drives) were about to come at more than $4,400 increase in price of a base 3.33GHz quard-core Intel Xeon with 3GB of memory listed at $3,699.

Not only I could not afford this price, but I also felt that with falling prices on memory and hard drives I could have much better deal. Quick research showed that I was right. Macsales.com (a.k.a. OWC) specializing in Mac related hardware and software was offering very reasonable prices on both types of components I wanted. Quick calculations showed that a base Mac Pro system at mentioned above price of $3,699 upgraded as I wanted with components purchased at OMC, would cost me $5,805.41 (vs. $8,489.58 at Apple store)! Savings of 32% - not too shabby at all.

Although I've spent most part of my life with computes as a software engineer, I have always been reluctant to deal with hardware. Screws and cables are never been my forté. Nevertheless, because I was about to deal with Mac technology, I felt much better. Indeed, the whole experience turned out to be quite happy. I managed successfully, without any problems whatsoever, to complete my plan and save a lot of money. It seems to me that Apple is trying a bit to abuse the lack of knowledge (or confidence) in many current or potential Mac users by offering what looks like unfair prices on most critical upgrade components. So, I decided to share my experience with users of this Web site in case you have needs similar to the ones I had.

Mac Pro design
is very friendly
for any sorts of
upgrades. Open
this latch on the
back to open
side panel and
get access to
the computer.

Be careful, you are going
to work with electrostatic
sensitive devices (ESDs).
Ideally, you will need a
grounding mat or
grounding tool to keep
from damaging ESDs. An
antistatic wrist strap will
also do the job. For this
small project, I did not
use any special means -
I just made sure that I
did not have any build-
up of static electricity on
my hands and garments.

I would like also to give you some additional details you may find useful regarding the configuration of my system. First, this was planned form the very beginning as the first step in upgrades to cover my immediate needs - create a system with faster hard drives and capable of resource intensive computations. That explains my choice of memory upgrade and decision to create RAID 0 (which I also plan to use as the scratch drive for Final Cut Pro). I would gladly upgrade to 32GB (instead of 24GB) of memory but that would require additional $400 and I was already close to the limits of my budget.

At this point I do not have any special requirements for back-up system; that's why I decided to limit it to most simple approach - an additional 2TB hard drive to use for the moment exclusively for this purpose. By the way, there are many different ways to configure your hard drives. For example, I also considered to get rid of 640GB hard drive that came with base Mac Pro and replace it with SSD drive (making it a bootable hard drive as well as a location to keep applications). Moreover, you can have five (5) hard drive inside the Mac Pro box - in this case, the fifth drive can be placed in the optical drive bay (with special mounting braces to deal with 2.5" size of SSDs). Yet another approach is to replace 640GB drive with a new 2TB drive and still use SSD drive inside the bay for optical drive. Unfortunately, prices for 160GB SSDs are still around $500 - that made me consider carefully what I really need at this moment.

Finally, I would like to mention that if you are considering a RAID in your system, you may be tempted to purchase Apple Mac Pro RAID Card controller offered by Mac Store at $700 (can be purchased at $620 elsewhere). Unless you plan for RAID 5 or really unusual RAID configurations, you do not need it. Mac OS X Disk Utility, although not the best piece of software on this planet, is quite capable of handling all immediate RAID needs (supports RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 1+0 ). As far as RAID 5 is concerned, I really do not see a need for it on someone's desktop computer. Although it does offer additional redundancy (and reliability), it not as fast as RAID 0; it requires at least 3 hard drives (but does not offer the same storage volume), and it still requires back-up system.

Below, you will find a small photo gallery illustrating the upgrade process. It consists of two parts - the installation of hardware components, and configuration of the system using Disk Utility.

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Before upgrade: About This Mac dialog box shows 3GB of memory (1066MHz DDR3 )	These are 8GB memory modules I ordered (DDR3 PC8500 ECC 1066MHz) I ordered. They are shown on antistatic pink foam.	This photo shows one of three 3.5" 2TB Hitachi hard drives I ordered. They are 7K2000 7200RPM SATA I/II HDs with 32MB Cache with energy efficient performance and three-year manufacturer warranty.	Tilt the side panel slightly and remove it. Behind, there are various parts of the Mac Pro system including memory and hard drives.
To get access to memory modules, you need to open two more latches at the bottom of the computer chassis.	With bottom latches opened, pull out the tray with memory modules (the bigger box on the tray contains Intel processor - we are not going to touch the latter).	The tray with memory modules is out of the machine - now you have a convenient access to remove 1GB memory modules that came with my Mac Pro and replace them with 8GB ones.	This photo illustrates how memory modules are attached to their slots - you will need to open small latches on both sides of a memory block to push it upward out of the slot.
Remove all three old memory blocks one by one.	Now it is time to install 8GB modules - align an off-center cut in bottom edge of the module with the slot configuration and firmly push memory module into place. When the memory is fully seeded, the latches will return back under your pressure to their closed position. Repeat this procedure for all three modules. Use first three slots.	Insert processor tray back into computer. TIP: You may find that something inside is blocking the tray when it is almost completely inside the machine and you are trying to properly seed it. Just press the tray slightly downwards with your finger as shown on the photo and you will be able position the tray as needed.	Next step is to install new hard drives in three empty bays on the right side of the machine (left bay contains the hard drive that came with the machine). Start with pulling hard drive carrier frames from empty bays as shown.
You will need #00 Phillips screwdriver to handle these screws.	Align hard drive frame with four screws with four holes in the drive (make sure that SATA connector is not blocked by the carrier frame front panel) and attach the frame to hard drive by tightening the screws.	Push the mounted hard drive back into place making sure that it is properly seeded. Repeat the whole procedure for all three hard drives.	Close the side panel - the hardware part of the upgrade is done. However, for new hard drives to function properly, they should be partitioned and formatted. In addition, we will configure a striped RAID set.
When you boot your Mac Pro after upgrade, this message will inform you that memory modules are installed correctly and detected by the system.	Open Disk Utility - it is a standard utility included in Mac OS X operating system. The left side of the screen will tell you that the utility can actually &qout;see&qout; new hard drives, but they are not yet readable by your machine.	Start partitioning new hard drives. In my case, I called the first partition (on the first hard drive installed) &qout;main1&qout; and the second &qout;main2&qout;. The third partition will be called &qout;saver&qout;.	For formatting use &qout;Mac OS Extended (journaled) &qout; option.
Once new hard drives partitioned and formatted, you can create RAIDs according to you plan. I decided to create one RAID 0 (striped disks). This array distributes data across multiple disks in ways that gives improved speed in writing and reading data. I will call this RAID as &qout;main_utility&qout;. Related settings are reflected in the dialog box settings.	This is a screenshot of the Disk Utility dialog box after my striped RAID set has been created. Notice that its size is 4TB - two time the size of each hard drive in the set. I decided to leave the third hard drive installed (&qout;saver&qout;) as it is. My intention based on my needs is to use it a quick back-up device.	As you can see from this picture, the newly created striped RAID set appears as one device.	As expected, the About This Mac dialog box shows now 24GB of memory (1066MHz DDR3)