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News Archive for Friday April 3, 2009
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2009 Mac Pro owner notes on Intel SSD boot drive and RAM upgrades
From a reader mail yesterday (added as a drive db report also)

"A couple of further experiences with the new (2009) Mac Pro....
I just added an Intel X25-M 80GB SSD to my shiny new Mac Pro 2.26GHz (dual CPU) machine as a boot drive. I've put it into the lower optical drive bay --- right now it is just sitting there loose, but I have an ICY DOCK 2.5"/3.5" Converter on order, and once that arrives I intend to put the SSD into the ICY DOCK and bolt that into the optical drive caddy using a pair of standard 3.5"/5.25" brackets. I haven't benchmarked it, but it works extremely well so far. Everything seems to be instantaneous. The stock machine was easily the fastest Mac I had ever used, but the SSD makes the stock machine look positively sclerotic by comparison.

Obviously 80GB is not a huge amount of space in today's terms, but it is more than enough for boot, applications, and system files. Just make sure you have a decent drive for your home directory / scratch files / workspace. I'm using a couple of WD RE2 Caviar drives in a software RAID 0 configuration, and it works well (just remember to back up regularly!) I have a lot of applications on the SSD, ranging from developer tools through the usual Adobe products, and it only comes to about 25GB out of the 74GB left after formatting. (80GB rating is decimal, computer uses binary which is the reason for the difference) I'm looking forward to Snow Leopard, as it sounds as though that will considerably shrink the size of the system files and standard application file sizes, so I will be left with even more free space.
(he later wrote)
I managed to get a few spare moments and ran Xbench to get some basic benchmarks. It's pretty much what you'd expect, and the SSD blows away the Apple-provided Western Digital Caviar 1GB drive in everything except bulk writes. The cool thing about using an SSD as a boot/applications/system drive is that you're almost always in the SSD sweet spot for performance (mostly random reads, little writing except for log files)

OS X 10.5.6 (9G3553), 12GB RAM (dual channel), Dual 2.26GHz:
WD Caviar Black 1TB
Overall Results Score 97.66
Drive Type WDC WD1001FALS-41K1B0
Disk Test 97.66
Sequential 163.70
Uncached Write 175.81 - 107.95 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 168.78 - 95.49 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 122.36 - 35.81 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 215.12 - 108.12 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 69.58
Uncached Write 24.61 - 2.60 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 350.91 - 112.34 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 112.92 - 0.80 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 194.51 - 36.09 MB/sec [256K blocks]

INTEL X-25M 80GB
Overall Results Score 272.31
Drive Type INTEL SSDSA2MH080G1GC
Disk Test 272.31
Sequential 177.96
Uncached Write 140.22 - 86.10 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 121.97 - 69.01 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 196.19 - 57.42 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 487.89 - 245.21 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 579.65
Uncached Write 677.18 - 71.69 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 242.80 - 77.73 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 2450.69 - 17.37 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 1114.38 - 206.78 MB/sec [256K blocks]

I also upgraded the standard 6 x 1GB memory. I bought 4 x 2GB kit from OWC. I took out the 1GB sticks in slots 1, 2, 5, 6, and replaced them with the 2GB sticks. I then put 2 of the 1GB sticks into the empty slots 4 and 8. Upon rebooting, the memory layout checker ran and told me all was ok. (runs/pops up automatically on first OS X boot after any memory install/changes. Apple's Ram install guide PDF also has diagnostic LED info.-Mike) I was a bit worried that using the fourth slot would make memory access slow down across the board. (dual-channel vs triple channel mode. Personally I'd spend the extra $73 (as of april 09) over the 4x2GB kit for the 6 x 2GB (12GB) kit to preserve triple channel mode (plus 4GB more ram).-Mike) However, the good news is that the Geekbench scores are almost identical, and in fact the 8-stick configuration is even slightly better than the 6-stick configuration (probably nothing that would be noticeable in real world use).
Anyway, I hope this might be of interest to somebody!
-Hugh"

(Update: See April 6th news page for a 2009 Mac Pro w/OCZ Vertex SATA II 120GB SSD Drive report/benchmarks.)
Everyone I know that has an SSD loves it. Last summer (2008) Oliver sent articles on Installing a SSD HD in a (previous) Mac Pro (using lower optical drive bay also) and a Comparison of 32GB SSD vs 10,000 RPM Velociraptor/Raptor HDs in his Mac Pro. (At that time his fast 32GB SSD was very expensive.)

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Suggestions for G5 Tower owner w/Audio Input Problems
A Dual G5 (1.8GHz) owner (running 10.4.11) wrote about problems he's had (distortion, not clicks/pops) importing audio via USB, FW, analog in (Mic) using GarageBand. (Playback was fine he said.) After trying everything (new cables, different devices, etc) he wondered if it was a logic board problem. (I asked if he had run Apple Hardware Test, although it doesn't fully exercise all interfaces nor flag every problem.) And not sure if any other audio apps were used (i.e. same input distortion), or the specific input device brand/models used, but many have reported issues in general with some of them, as well as driver problems/lack of updates.
I suggested some simple things to check (first thought was to check audio rates/bit settings in Audio Midi util - an old tip from the past - some even saw settings reset at times, after being correctly set) and links to some audio articles here (w/one reader's notes from the past on using G5 optical audio in), Apple's Garageband support page (w/TS docs, forums, etc,) but I'm far from the best person to ask on this subject.
If any readers are using a G5 tower have any suggestions/recommendations let me know. Thanks. (He also asked if I knew any (mac savvy, not typical retail) companies in the LA area to check out his system but I don't offhand. One reader however recommended Di-No Computers in Pasadena)
Reader Replies/Suggestions: (I sent him notes on these, but as of Sunday night still no reply back to any previous mails.)
Not sure if the "distortion" he mentioned is related to this (as a musician I'd expect him to recognize hum, etc.) but regardless, a reader sent a good reminder on ground loops:

"I have found that to use the built-in audio jacks a good quality isolation transformer (2ea for stereo) will eliminate any grounding and noise issues... keep the grounds isolated from the audio source and the computer.
-George"

Another earlier reply:

"What is he using for audio device for AD/DA conversion? He's probably got a very cheap M-Audio (don't mean to pick on M-Audio) device or something equivalent that has nasty drivers and has terrible clocking.
(He didn't mention device specifics (but hopefully he read the M-Audio USB Transit reports here from years ago, not good typically) but his original mail said "not just like clicks etc from clock conflicts etc. but distortion", although he also mentioned trying Firewire (but again no specifics)-Mike)

There are several real nice AD/DA converters on the market and they vary in price range. I like RME, Apogee, Metric Halo, & Lynx. These are the ones that just work and are very trustworthy with Macs. In fact, Apogee recently announced that they were dropping PCs and they would be exclusive to the Mac, so you KNOW they're drivers are solid.
Apogee sells the Duet for about $500 and that's the one I would buy on a budget. Everything else is probably $1400 and up. The Duet is two in and two out and you run it with a Firewire connection.

If the guy is having trouble with inputting audio it's because:
1) his audio unit/device is faulty (cheap converters or clocking)
2) he needs to repair permissions and clear caches on his OS
3) he has a clocking problem between his audio application (Garageband) and his audio device (check to see he is running the proper sample rate (44.1khz) (24bit or 16bit) (That was the first thing I asked he check-Mike)
4) he has a problem with his connections (which I kind of doubt) (he noted replacing cables)
Have a Great Weekend.
-Jonathan"

Jonathan later wrote he had a G5 tower logic board crack (in his case rendering it useless). The reader with input distortion problems said otherwise the system ran fine (including playback).
There was some company I remember posting on in the past (in CA I think) that did component level repair on Mac boards but I can't recall their name now (there were two IIRC some readers had used). If it turns out to be a hardware issue, I'll do some digging to try and find the name as Apple's part pricing on logic boards especially is typically very high. (Often you can find a complete used system for less, although sometimes auction sites have used logic boards for sale.)

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Follow-up from WD owner on Bad Sectors/Mfr Specific Drive diagnostic utilities
" Just an update note: I couldn't use one drive that had bad sectors even after repairing it because of BSOD with Vista. Something that is and was new to me. I also had trouble until I mapped out blocks in OS X as well and found where they were, and created a 150GB boot volume to help narrow down.

None of the tools in OS X were able to really help. I was disappointed in Speedtools test and map out weak sectors. Or in Disk Utility zero-all but then I don't expect that to do enough.

I kept the drives though, fine for backup and data duty. And have 4 newer 640GB Blue series, two Black (1TB and 640) but the Black 640 had erratic I/O graph pattern and each run of HD Tune (free util for Windows) and WD Diagnostic brought it back to near flat and normal (no jaggies or excessive dips and highs, more of an even line).

Actually, Windows 7068 is reporting a "cluster file error" and trying to pin that down today when trying to make a backup image. So I started digging around - Ran across this PC Perspective forum post:

    "ANY TIME a hard drive is in question as to a problem, run the manufacturer's diagnostics! People need to be aware of the fact that NO non-brand specific program can do as good of a job as the manufacturer's own diagnostics because contrary to what many believe, SMART data is NOT standardized among all brands, nor are the threshold values that trigger a SMART alert. It is still commonplace for SMART errors to pop up, yet the manufacturer's own diags report no problem. ANYTIME a SMART error occurs, run the manufacturer's diagnostics to confirm or deny that there is a problem. Then use whatever program one wishes in an effort to recover from it. In ALL cases, when the manufacturer's diagnostics report bad sectors, it is a very wise decision to wipe/erase/zero/LL format the drive, then re-run all of the tests to see if any bad sectors remain. If some remain then consider the drive toast.

http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=281829 ("HD Diags, Benchmarks, Warranty, and Other Important Info", last updated 10/2006) has links to articles on WD error codes and more.
- Gregory"

As mentioned here previously - each drive/mfr can have different SMART attributes and different interpretation of even common attributes (for instance ECC errors attribute raw value can be a count of errors or a time between them) - so of course no general SMART utility can match the accuracy of the original mfr's specific diagnostics utility for the drive. Although none of the drive mfrs utilities that I'm aware of run under OS X, Intel-based Mac owners can use them via Bootcamp/Windows installs. (I don't think VM allows that, but owners of Fusion or Parallels desktop please correct me if I'm wrong.)

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Other News/Articles, Misc. Software Updates
(Later added items first)

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Recent Articles and Reviews
Listing/links to recent articles and reviews you may have missed.
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