Adding 2nd DVD Drive to Mac Pro

I purchased a Mac Pro but of course only have the standard Superdrive that it comes with. I am selling my Windows machine now that it is being replaced. It has two nice DVD burners in them, both are dual layer and very nice. Am I able to add one of these standard dvd burners to the Mac Pro or do I have to order something that is from Apple?

It depends. What models do you own?
This is a very simple install. You could easily try them out yourself or visit macsales.com for a DVD burner. I installed a second burner (purchased from macsales.com) on my Pro and it works fine.

Both that I have are IDE, not SATA and one is a Sony, one an LG.

The first gen Mac Pro uses IDE optical drives. I don't know if they've changed the new Mac Pro to use SATA optical drives or not.

I own a new 8 core Mac Pro (early 2008) and it still takes standard IDE connections.

You generally want to make sure both drives are set to "Cable Select" rather than "Master" and "Slave", and be warned: When I tried to hook up my HP DVD640 (lightscribe) on the 2nd connection (gray cable), the Mac wouldn't recognize it.

My eventual solution was to switch places for the 2 drives: Superdrive on the gray cable and my HP drive on the black cable.

Everything works perfectly now

Extra tip: Remember to remove the door flap for your drive or else the tray won't be able to slide out.

Hope this helps!

-Bryan

when you have a 2nd dvd drive in and i know this may sound stupid but how do you open it as you control the primary one on your keyboard?

For the 2nd drive, hit option-eject.

-Bryan