Moving from G5 to iMac. can I use G5's internal drives

Hi...
I have an Intel G5 8 core which I use with the music app Logic. It is one of the early 2005 models with 4 internal drives. I'm thinking of moving on to a 27" iMac (the fastest one with an i7 processor. )
Is there any way that I can use two of the G5 's internal drives as external drives with the new iMac?

you can buy an enclosure for usb. that should only cost 10-20 dollars.

Thanks for thatI take it that this would be fast enough to use for sample libraries as they load into ram anyway,?...and that my firewire drives can be connected to the thunderbolt port to stream audio samples?

rickmusik said:

Hi...
I have an Intel G5 8 core which I use with the music app Logic. It is one of the early 2005 models with 4 internal drives.

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Sorry to say it...but you don't have an "Intel G5 8 core"...Apple never made such an "animal"!

- You can't even use the terms "G5" and "Intel" at the same time...since it's either one or the other...it cannot be both.
- Apple never made an 8-core G5
- Finally...no G5 computer had 4 internal drives.

I'm guessing you have an early 8-core Mac Pro desktop. So the "move" you are making is from an 8-core Mac Pro to a 27" iMac.

The new 27" iMac you would be purchasing will have the lastest OS on it (10.8.2).

As far as using the Mac Pro's 4 internal hard drives with the 27" iMac...it depends on what you mean by "use".

- If you want to "boot" the iMac from those drives...we would need to know what OS version is on them.
- If you want to "use" the applications installed on those hard drives...you would need to know if those applications are compatible with OS 10.8.2.
- If all you want to do is use the data files, music files, video files, etc. stored on those internal drives with the iMac...yes...this shouldn't be a problem.

HTH,

- Nick

rickmusik said:

...and that my firewire drives can be connected to the thunderbolt port to stream audio samples?

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You need a firewire to Thunderbolt port adapter.

- Nick

Hi Nick,
And thanks for your reply. Yes it's a Mac Pro running the latest ML. It has four drive bays and I would plan to take out two 1Tb drives to use for samples and 'time machine' backups. I've also got firewire drives which I use for audio streaming. I would only boot from the iMac system drive and yes everything is M.L. compatible. My last 3 Mac's have been G5 bodies at least I've just sold 2 powermacs (motorola)and still have the mac pro (intel). I do all my other stuff on a macbook or iphone so it will be a purely music machine and I would like to work on one machine rather than hooking up machines together via ethernet which I found a real pain. Apart from the heat generated!
I suppose the thing is that a lot of musicians are moving to the iMacs as they are actually cheaper and faster than the fastest mac towers..which, with intel cpu's are called Mac Pro's now? The point is..are there going to be 'issues' using the old drives or is it best to make a clean break to two external firewire or 'thunderbolt' drives. Some say that these thunderbolt drives and the new solid state drives are an unnecessary expense for audio streaming. I use some pretty cpu intensive softsynths and reverbs etc I'm still confused and don't know the best way to go.
Any opinions appreciated. Thanks

rickmusik said:

The point is..are there going to be 'issues' using the old drives or is it best to make a clean break to two external firewire or 'thunderbolt' drives.

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Are you talking about taking two drives out of your Mac Pro...reformatting them...and then using them as external drives with your new iMac? If so...absolutely no problems. You just have to decide how to connect them externally (proper external housing and cabling...USB or Thunderbolt port).

FYI...new iMacs don't have firewire ports.

- Nick

Thanks for the advice, yes taking two drives out and reformatting. would be the plan ..to use as backup.What would you think is the best way to interface these to the new iMac? ..and, on the new iMac would you advise a hybrid solid state drive and a thunderbolt drive in my situation?
I'm thinking 4 drives on the new iMac...
1. solid state (if worth the extra expense) internal system drive ..
2. External Thunderbolt audio recording drive...
3. time machine drive
4. extra backup drive
3 and 4 are pirated 1 Tb drives from my Mac Pro
BTW ...On my present Mac Pro it's the CPU usage that's a problem rather than disk streaming.
One instance of a synth plugin called Zebra can take up half of the CPU meter on my present machine and I have to write tracks to audio to free up CPU power in some situations. I write library music, often to a deadline and this is a real pain .Fellow musicians with the fastest of the new iMacs tell me that this problem largely goes away!
This could end up as quite an expensive machine..I want to get it right!
Thanks again for your time and interesting comments.