SSD for Xserve 3,1

Kyle Auchterlonie

03 Jul 2022 • 2 min read

Mercury Accelsior E2 with eSATA

I wanted to add an SSD to my trusty xserve for some time now, but i've been holding out the right card. The Mercury Accelsior with esata is the choice in this case. Both PCIe slots are in use my xserve. One slot is used for the esata card, and the other for GPU (Nvidia GT620). The Mercury Accelsior allows me to remove the newertech esata card, and swap in this SSD, all while keeping my esata, Mercury Rack Pro disk tray conntected.

Under the heatsink are two M.2 SSD in RAID 0

Out with the old and in with the new. The Accelsior should have better data throughput

Having limited expasnsion in this 1U Mac, this multi-function card is extrmely handy. With MacOS installed on the SSD, the Mac does feel a bit more responsive. Not having to wait for those 10k RPM, SAS drives to spin up, is also a big plus.

Here is the before install. As you can see, not a lot of expansion room here.

And here is the new card installed in the right slot.

Boot speed has been most noticeably reduced. So far, the time tested tradition of cramming an SSD into an old computer is paying off. Let's hope i don't have to open this mac back up, any time soon.

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