Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
I have mine with 4x SM951 256GB sticks in it, but I'm only getting ½ the speed in a Mac Pro 5,1. I checked the link status register, and it shows a 2.0 x16 link. The bridges each show 2.0 4x links. I've tried reseating the card, swapping the sticks around, putting it into a Mac Pro 3,1 that I have laying around, and the result is always the same. I have also tried each stick individually, in pairs, triplets, and all four in RAID 0 with approximately linearly increasing speed that peaks out at around 2.5/2GB/s read/write. Also, my video card clocks about 6GB/s in slot 2, so the slot isn't an issue.

Amfeltec has been less than helpful with this. Does anyone have any ideas?

Do you try single stick config? May be test each stick one by one, and then try 2 stick, 3 ticks. That may help to identify when and where start to have problem.
 

casmock

macrumors newbie
Jan 25, 2016
13
1
Do you try single stick config? May be test each stick one by one, and then try 2 stick, 3 ticks. That may help to identify when and where start to have problem.

I was thinking of doing that, but was putting it off since you would think that it would have stuck out like a sore thumb when I was testing the drives as separate volumes. I'll give it a shot and see what shakes out.

Thanks for the reply.

>>>update<<<

I tested each stick on the card one at a time and shuffling the slot that it went into on the card. Each stick benches ≈ 1GB/s read/write, but, as they are aggregated into a RAID 0, they incur more and more overhead and end up around the 2/2.5GB/s read/write mark.

This is all with AJA replicating what BareFeats did in their review.

If I use QuickBench, then I see numbers comparable to article. I'm using the same AJA version as the article, but a newer version of OS X (10.11.4). Maybe there is an interaction between AJA and OS X?
 
Last edited:

i make movies

macrumors regular
Aug 9, 2007
176
20
I have mine with 4x SM951 256GB sticks in it, but I'm only getting ½ the speed in a Mac Pro 5,1. I checked the link status register, and it shows a 2.0 x16 link. The bridges each show 2.0 4x links. I've tried reseating the card, swapping the sticks around, putting it into a Mac Pro 3,1 that I have laying around, and the result is always the same. I have also tried each stick individually, in pairs, triplets, and all four in RAID 0 with approximately linearly increasing speed that peaks out at around 2.5/2GB/s read/write. Also, my video card clocks about 6GB/s in slot 2, so the slot isn't an issue.

Amfeltec has been less than helpful with this. Does anyone have any ideas?

Did you get SATA or AHCI sticks? Sounds like you got SATA sticks.
 

Squuiid

macrumors 68000
Oct 31, 2006
1,877
1,713
$367 USD, shipping was extra.

They said the "BAREFEATS" discount code mentioned in the article expired on December 8th of 2015.

So to get this straight, they want 300 CAD/USD for a card that basically routes 16 PCIe lanes to 4 cards and a few dollars in LEDs and mounting? It's not like you can't just simply split PCIe slots in lanes....

Impressive business, have to admit.

You forget the PLX-chip. That's an expensive chip. Nowhere near 300 but still relatively expensive.

This thing can't cost that much to make and my hunch is that their business model is flawed.
If the price came down they would sell a lot more of these and likely make more money from them. It would also do much to boost brand awareness, I'd personally never heard of them until this card came along.
 
Last edited:

casmock

macrumors newbie
Jan 25, 2016
13
1
AHCI is a mode that SATA controllers can use, as well as other modes such as Parallel ATA Emulation, IDE Emulation, and RAID. SATA Express adds NVME support.

My sticks are AHCI, which does incur a penalty in comparison to NVMe. But, the Barefeats article used AHCI sticks as well.
 

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
I was thinking of doing that, but was putting it off since you would think that it would have stuck out like a sore thumb when I was testing the drives as separate volumes. I'll give it a shot and see what shakes out.

Thanks for the reply.

>>>update<<<

I tested each stick on the card one at a time and shuffling the slot that it went into on the card. Each stick benches ≈ 1GB/s read/write, but, as they are aggregated into a RAID 0, they incur more and more overhead and end up around the 2/2.5GB/s read/write mark.

This is all with AJA replicating what BareFeats did in their review.

If I use QuickBench, then I see numbers comparable to article. I'm using the same AJA version as the article, but a newer version of OS X (10.11.4). Maybe there is an interaction between AJA and OS X?

Did you choose a file size that's large enough to get the correct result? Use small file size to test may not able to fully utilise the bandwidth.
 

wiski15b

macrumors regular
Apr 20, 2016
118
8
Anyone else have luck with this thing? Was thinking about pulling the trigger and making the purchase.
 

Will.henri

macrumors newbie
Apr 7, 2016
16
1
Quebec, Canada
Sorry I'm a little noob with this, but I've to find a drive solution to improve my system with Adobe CC and get faster render and export time. Here's my specs :

10.9.5
- 2x 2,4 GHz QuadCore Intel Xeon (stock)
- 22gig (2x 8gig 1066MHz DDR3 ECC (buy from OCW), 6x 1gig 1066MHz DDR3 ECC (stock))
- GeForce GTX 680 2gig (buy from OCW)
- 1x HDD Seagate Barracuda as a media drive
- 1x HDD WD Caviar Black as a media drive
- 1x SSD 2.5 Intel 250Serie 240gig as a boothdrive
- 1x SSD 3.5 OCZ Vertex2 as a media drive (heard that this drive is scrap, so I do not put a lots of thing on)

If I buy this card and 4 SSD (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147425), will this meets what I need? Do I have some alternative (less expensive and still be faster than my existing setup)?
 

AlexMaximus

macrumors 65816
Aug 15, 2006
1,237
582
A400M Base
Any suggested heatsink solutions for a Squid in slot 2?

I think your best way would be a big PC case / modding online store. Look up the PCI fan section. These have different versions with the fan on different positions. If you can't find the small gpu heatsinks there as well, try eBay on heatsinks.

Good luck searching...

By the way, how happy are you with that card? I thought about buying on, but I ended up with a angel bird PX1 card with a samsung 951 AHCI.
 

HHarm

macrumors regular
Mar 4, 2009
138
2
I'll have to think of something else than PCI fans as I have no free slots for it.

I don't have the Squid yet. I'll probably order it in the beginning of May alone with 4x SM951 256GB.

I'm again feeling positive with the old 4.1. All it's instability issues where caused by a malfunctioning OWC Accelsior (which I got repaired).
 

casmock

macrumors newbie
Jan 25, 2016
13
1
My sticks are AHCI, which does incur a penalty in comparison to NVMe. But, the Barefeats article used AHCI sticks as well.

I finally figured out the conditions when my x16 Amfeltec card with 4xSM951 256G AHCIs runs at ½ the speed of the Barefeats blog. When I boot from a different drive, I get the same numbers as Barefeats. If I boot off the Amfeltec card, that's when I post up speeds that are ½ of what Barefeats saw.
 

AidenShaw

macrumors P6
Feb 8, 2003
18,667
4,677
The Peninsula
This setup doesn't support TRIM correct? Is it entirely necessary these days?
If you have a lot of free disk space that has *never* been written to since the SSD was erased, TRIM is useful but not critical.

By "*never*" I mean doing a secure erase on the drive, and then creating OS partitions that use 75% to 80% of the drive or less. For example, on a 256 GB drive, only partition 200 GB, and leave 56 GB untouched. The extra 56 GB is for the garbage collector - the OS does not see it and cannot write to it.

With TRIM, you can make a 256 GB partition for the OS, and when files are deleted the freed space is available for the garbage collector. Without trim, if you fill the 256 GB the garbage collector will always see 256GB in use, regardless of how many files you've deleted and how much free space the OS sees.

The purpose of TRIM is to put the disk controller in synch with the OS about which blocks are free. If you have a huge amount of space that the OS cannot touch, TRIM is not so important. Emphasize
"cannot".
 
Last edited:

Squuiid

macrumors 68000
Oct 31, 2006
1,877
1,713
I finally figured out the conditions when my x16 Amfeltec card with 4xSM951 256G AHCIs runs at ½ the speed of the Barefeats blog. When I boot from a different drive, I get the same numbers as Barefeats. If I boot off the Amfeltec card, that's when I post up speeds that are ½ of what Barefeats saw.
Woah. Are others with this card seeing this when booting from it?
That's awful.
 
Jul 4, 2015
4,487
2,551
Paris
I finally figured out the conditions when my x16 Amfeltec card with 4xSM951 256G AHCIs runs at ½ the speed of the Barefeats blog. When I boot from a different drive, I get the same numbers as Barefeats. If I boot off the Amfeltec card, that's when I post up speeds that are ½ of what Barefeats saw.

Because the benchmark app has to generate the test file on the same drive it is writing too. It's a lot of work to do to generate the temporary file, stream it into memory and then write it back to the same drive. You choke the bus and possibly throttle the controllers on the SM951.
 

LiamKelly

macrumors newbie
Apr 29, 2016
10
1
Just read an interesting review of a PCIe card which accepts four flash blades:
http://barefeats.com/hard210.html

Intro from the article:
"Our readers have been frustrated by the inability to get more than 1500MB/s from Samsung SM951 flash blades mounted in slots 3 and 4 of the 2009-2012 Mac Pro tower. The x16 slot 2 has not been a helpful -- until now. One of those frustrated readers turned us on to a new x16 PCIe M.2 carrier board by Amfeltec in Canada. We obtained a sample which we populated with four SM951s. After striping them (RAID 0), we ran our storage benchmarks."

squid_7252_000001_1_2_1.jpg
Do we know if this resolves the ngff bootcamp incompatibility on Mac Pros?
 
Jul 4, 2015
4,487
2,551
Paris
Do we know if this resolves the ngff bootcamp incompatibility on Mac Pros?
Windows won't install to an external drive, which is what all PCIE installed drives show up as on a cMP.

I heard one person claim to install Bootcamp to their internal m.2 but he disappeared when asked for proof.
 

HHarm

macrumors regular
Mar 4, 2009
138
2
Does installing Windows directly to a PCIE SSD (without Bootcamp) work?
 

LiamKelly

macrumors newbie
Apr 29, 2016
10
1
Does installing Windows directly to a PCIE SSD (without Bootcamp) work?
I don't believe you can boot to windows if you have an ngff drive installed in a cMP let alone install windows on it. Some people have claimed to be able to do so but have provided no evidence. I have tried with several adapters now. I cannot it to even boot to an install dvd.
 
Jul 4, 2015
4,487
2,551
Paris
I don't believe you can boot to windows if you have an ngff drive installed in a cMP let alone install windows on it. Some people have claimed to be able to do so but have provided no evidence. I have tried with several adapters now. I cannot it to even boot to an install dvd.

I posted evidence for the whole of 2015. I had three SM951 blades in my cMP. Windows was installed on a SATA 2 drive. No issues. But then I built a Skylake so now my cMP is OS X only.
 

Squuiid

macrumors 68000
Oct 31, 2006
1,877
1,713
Does installing Windows directly to a PCIE SSD (without Bootcamp) work?
Yes, this works perfectly fine with Windows 10 (UEFI mode) and an XP941 on a Lycom.

The issue I had is that unfortunately the GTX680ME does not work correctly when Windows is in UEFI mode. What happens is that as soon as the nvidia driver gets installed you get a black screen. It does seem to be isolated to the 680ME though as AMD 5770 cards work fine, as do GTX980s.

The plus is that when Windows is in UEFI mode you do get full AHCI on your PCIe SSD rather than ATA when Windows is running in BIOS Legacy mode.

To clarify the installation steps, I had two XP941 cards, OS X on one and then I installed Windows 10 on the other, without using the Bootcamp utility.

Here's my earlier post with more details:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-gtx680-windows-efi-problem.1959255/
 
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.