iMacs are so expensive if I want an SSD in it 
Brand new I’d be looking at $2019 for the base level iMac with a 256GB SSD. Not cool.
Yes they are,but I paid about $3300 in 2008 for a macpro with 2GB of RAM and a 1TB spinning HD and no display
The Mac Pro has had a great RoI. I had one back in the day too - should have kept it
I don’t think any of the Macs these days will hold their usefulness like the 2008 Mac Pro did.
Yeah, I’m still using mine and it’s very usable with an SSD and a decent graphics card. The only thing that really pisses me off about these machines is power management - mine uses 150-200 watts at idle, 35 watts asleep and about 30 watts when it’s off. That’s ridiculous.
That kind of power consumption is pretty normal for high-end/workstation class boxes, but I’m questioning the power usage when off — that seems very strange.
You’re welcome to question it but I made all those measurements myself. 
It’s crappy power management. I had a G5 tower too, which have a terrible reputation for power consumption, but it was better than the Pro. Mine’s only single processor too. It’s not a problem where it is now because it runs off a hybrid solar system, so the power costs me nothing in effect, but 30W when off is a fail. Even in 2008 for this class of machine.
But off? If so I’ll have to be buying a wattmeter — my current one only measures draw when the PC is on.
It’s expected that there will be some power consumption because if you can start your computer from a button on a keyboard, there needs to be a bit of stuff running to power the USB bus and interpret a key press. The new Macs are all much better and my Minis use less than 5W off and not much more asleep. That’s very good performance I reckon and something the Pros should have been closer to. I don’t know if the later models were the same or not, but I think the 1,1 (2006) was also very power hungry.
Hi there. I am glad I found this thread. Just installed the SM951 with the Lycom-adapter, also in the good old Mac Pro 3.1 on 10.10.5.
Unfortunately it´s not recognised by my mac. Any hints would be highly appreciated.
Cheers, and thanks in advance.
decryption, if there´s any chance to get in contact with you I´d appreciate that a lot. I´d like to get the same set-up as the one you have. I did search quite a lot in the net and you seem the be the man able to help me. If you´re busy it´d be no problem though. We all have lots of things to do.
my mail: putte at gmx dot com
Cheers!
I tried to email you, but the email bounced
Looks like you’ve having an issue with the SM951?
I don’t know what you’ve done, but have you tried booting off a USB drive with the Mac OS X installer on it and running disk utility? You need to format the drive before the installer will see it.
Thanks again Erwin, and of course decryption for the fast response. Well appreciated.
The thing is that the drive isn´t recognized in Disk Utility. It is recognized in the “about this mac”-window under PCI.
I guess I bought the wrong SM951. Mine is the MZ-VPV2560 and I learned that there are different versions of the SM951.
@recd I’m loving the Mac Pro. 
Put a decent video card in, 4x 3.5-inch HDDs and an 1TB 850 Pro SSD. Awesome machine. 
@decryption I just stuck a Samsung 850 Pro in the optical bay (ran a SATA cable from the board up). How much faster does it feel in your setup than a standard SATA SSD?
Yep, that’s the NVMe version of the SM951, which Macs won’t support. You need to get an SSD that’s AHCI compatible. Maybe where you bought it from will let you swap?
Bugger all really. Not worth the cost vs. a traditional SATA SSD I reckon - unless you’re after insane IOPS for some reason.
Not really. I also like that the standard form factor will be re-usable in an external case easily in future or in a standard PC etc. Don’t like investing in device specific hardware. Was just curious to know how much faster.
For what it’s worth - the M.2 standard is pretty popular. Heaps of laptops have M.2 slots and many PC desktop motherboards have an M.2 slot as well
Nothing wrong with the 2.5" drive though - it’ll be useful for a long time still.
Good to know. Could be handy if I end up back in the Hackintosh world once this Mac Pro 3,1 is no longer able to run latest OS. Really hoping Sierra runs with no real hacking needed (i.e. a basic target disc install vs new kernel). Failing that, I can dream about Apple releasing a real Pro desktop right?
We’ve been dreaming for years, so, yeah.
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