[waz0wski]

I just replaced a 2009 MacPro

It had many hardware upgrades over the years - upgraded CPUs, 128GB RAM, 4TB NVME storage, a modern AMD GPU, USB3/c, thunderbolt, etc

The only reason it got replaced is because it became too much of a PITA to keep modern OSX running on it (via OCLP)

Replaced with an M4 Max Mac Studio, which is a nice and faster machine but with no ability to upgrade anything and much worse hardware resale value on M-series I'll have to replace it in 2-3 years

[ProllyInfamous]

I'm a former 4,1 user, myself — replaced with an M2Pro mini Jan 2023 (finally retired fully 2025).

Absolutely recommend you purchase the 4-bay Terramaster external enclosure — gives you four SATA slots that are hot-swappable (unlike MacPro's). 10gbps via USB-C.

[Marsymars]

Are SMART attributes independently readable on that? (Or any multi-drive USB-C enclosures?)

[ProllyInfamous]

It does not appear that SMART is supported on either version of my TerraMaster enclosures.

Still an inexpensive solution to help ease your transition away from MacPro"5,1"land.

As USB-C is a physical form factor (capable of supporting multiple protocols), I would think that the ability to have multidrive external SMART support would be up to the vendor's choice of datachip/datastream. Again: my Acasis does support SMART for nVMEs.

[ProllyInfamous]

>or any USB-C enclosure

SMART is supported on my external Acasis nVME.

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I have two TerraMaster sledbads; this one [typing] is years older [only 5gbps, macOS Ventura] and shows `SMART: not supported` [1]

[1] It's mirrored WD_blacks (RAID1) so I have at least some redundancy... I know: a RAID does NOT count as "backed-up".

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Within an hour I'll have checked the newer system (I suspect it'll be similar — definitely faster!).

#TodayIlearnt

[KennyBlanken]

If you were using a 2009 Mac Pro for work until a year or two ago then you seriously need to think about how much your time is worth and how much of your time you were wasting by "saving money" on not buying a new computer.

If you're self employed, the cost of equipment and depreciation make hanging on to that 2009 system even more of a poor choice.

If you were still using a 2009 system I don't see why you'd "have to replace in 2-3 years."

[bombcar]

At the price of the Mac Pro you could buy two Mac Studios (at least) - one today and one three or more years in the future.