MP 1,1-5,1 Aqua Computer kryoM.2 evo PCIe 3.0 x 4, adapter

[greg97]

Ok, so I got this back from Aqua Computer this morning:

“Hello,

While the "evo" version (53246) is not compatible to double-sided SSDs, you can use this product:
https://shop.aquacomputer.de/product_info.php?language=en&products_id=3400

Just note that the thermal pad between PCIe card and SSD can not be installed in this case or must be replaces with a much thinner pad. Cooling performance ist still very good.

Best regards,
Stefan May”

And here I already ordered the kryoM.2 EVO....hopefully, as @tsialex said, it should still work? You would think with a hole through the PCB that it should accommodate a dual sided blade...the one they recommended is the version without the hole! Go figure!?!

 

[greg97]

I heard back from Addlink, and the 2TB version of the S70 is indeed dual-sided with a thickness of 3.4mm.
So perhaps it’ll fit in The kryoM.2 EVO without the thermal pad and just the heatsink on the back? I don’t know as I’ve never fit one of these things before...
Are the tolerances so tight that I risk breaking the chips on the back?

 

[tsialex]

I heard back from Addlink, and the 2TB version of the S70 is indeed dual-sided with a thickness of 3.4mm.
So perhaps it’ll fit in The kryoM.2 EVO without the thermal pad and just the heatsink on the back? I don’t know as I’ve never fit one of these things before...
Are the tolerances so tight that I risk breaking the chips on the back?

You can trim the heatsink to fit in the PCB hole, it's total size a little bigger than the hole itself to lock over the PCB, and install it again with thermal adhesive. People do this to fit datacenter S3 height blades.

 

[greg97]

You can trim the heatsink to fit in the PCB hole, it's total size a little bigger than the hole itself to lock over the PCB, and install it again with thermal adhesive. People do this to fit datacenter S3 height blades.

Just wanted to report back I installed the 2TB Addlink NVMe blade into the KryoM.2 no problem. I put the enclosed thermal adhesive on top of the blade then put the heatsink on top of that, then put the lower heatsink on the bottom without the thermal pad, and it fits snugly, but quite nicely.
Initial temperature under light use was only 27 Celsius. Definitely recommend this combination!

 

[MAXCICCIO]

Hi everyone, I’m new to the forum and I was reading the various posts in this discussion and I would like to ask you a tip: I have a Mac Pro 3.1 with High Sierra, which adapter and which ssd nvme do you recommend?
What procedure should I do to use the adapter?
Thanks for the advice

 

[s.m.t.]

Just wanted to report back I installed the 2TB Addlink NVMe blade into the KryoM.2 no problem. I put the enclosed thermal adhesive on top of the blade then put the heatsink on top of that, then put the lower heatsink on the bottom without the thermal pad, and it fits snugly, but quite nicely.
Initial temperature under light use was only 27 Celsius. Definitely recommend this combination!

How does the Addlink blade show up in disk utility?

 

[greg97]

How does the Addlink blade show up in disk utility?

Hi S.M.T....in what way do you mean how does it show up? It shows up as an external device, if that's what you're referring to?

 

[crjackson2134]

How does the Addlink blade show up in disk utility?

 

[kings79]

I just got one of these (mine is the double sided one) and a >>>
HP SSDs:
EX920: SM2262 controller: NVMe, M.2 blade
3D TLC
Available in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB
PCIe 3.0 x4
Speeds: up to 3,200 MB/s read, up to 1,800 MB/s write (1TB)
Datasheet
Compatibility status: Good

Can't get it to work. I've managed to get it to be seen in disk utility twice but it shows up as 1.07GB drive and has a few errors. See pictures.

Is the SSD faulty or am I doing something wrong?

 

[sendcakeplease]

Re: Intel 660p 2TB (single-sided nvme)

Confirmed the Aquacomputer Kryo M.2 EVO works perfectly with both thermal pads and heat sinks installed as intended. Getting 1400 read/write in my 5,1 2010 mac pro.

The card fits nicely so I have another on order to use with an Addlink 2TB (also single sided, also fits).

Gonna boot off the Intel and use the Addlink for video editing. Going to test 4K playback at the 1400 read/write speeds--hoping to avoid having to get the $300 HighPoint 7101a switched card, but thats the next upgrade option if necessary.

2x Kryo EVO cards at $35 each is much cheaper.

 

[MTBnBeer]

What PCIe M.2 card would you recommend for a 1TB Samsung 970 Pro M.2 NVMe V-NAND SSD (MZ-V7P1T0BW) in a 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 (flashed to 5,1) with dual 3.33 GHz 6-core CPUs + 24GB 1,333 Mhz RAM + MSI Gaming Radeon RX 560 128-bit 4GB GDRR5 DirectX 12 VR Ready CFX Graphics Card (RX 560 AERO ITX 4G OC) running Mojave ?

This Mac Pro currently boots off a Samsung 950 Pro SSD on a Apricom Duo PCIe card.

Yes I know there are faster video cards but the RX 560 seems fine since this workstation doesn't do video processing... but it does run QuickBooks in a Windows 10 VM which really abuses the SSD.

Thanks for your recommendations!

 

[tsialex]

What PCIe M.2 card would you recommend for a 1TB Samsung 970 Pro M.2 NVMe V-NAND SSD (MZ-V7P1T0BW) in a 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 (flashed to 5,1) with dual 3.33 GHz 6-core CPUs + 24GB 1,333 Mhz RAM + MSI Gaming Radeon RX 560 128-bit 4GB GDRR5 DirectX 12 VR Ready CFX Graphics Card (RX 560 AERO ITX 4G OC) running Mojave ?

This Mac Pro currently boots off a Samsung 950 Pro SSD on a Apricom Duo PCIe card.

Yes I know there are faster video cards but the RX 560 seems fine since this workstation doesn't do video processing... but it does run QuickBooks in a Windows 10 VM which really abuses the SSD.

Thanks for your recommendations!

Samsung 850 Pro, SATA, no? 950 Pro is NVMe and not compatible with MP5,1 at all.

The best cheap adapter on the market today is kryoM.2 EVO, but since MP5,1 is a PCIe 2.0 Mac, you will be limited to 1450~1500MB/s.

To convert x16 PCIe 2.0 into x4 PCIe 3.0 and have ~3200MB/s you need a PCIe adapter with a switch to convert the wide and slow PCIe 2.0 into narrow and fast PCIe 3.0. Read the first post of the thread PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI.

The best PCIe adaptor with a switch for a MP5,1 is HighPoint SSD7101A-1 and can be found frequently on Amazon for around $300, open box.

 

[MTBnBeer]

Samsung 850 Pro, SATA, no? 950 Pro is NVMe and not compatible with MP5,1 at all.

The best cheap adapter on the market today is kryoM.2 EVO, but since MP5,1 is a PCIe 2.0 Mac, you will be limited to 1450~1500MB/s.

To convert x16 PCIe 2.0 into x4 PCIe 3.0 and have ~3200MB/s you need a PCIe adapter with a switch to convert the wide and slow PCIe 2.0 into narrow and fast PCIe 3.0. Read the first post of the thread PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI.

The best PCIe adaptor with a switch for a MP5,1 is HighPoint SSD7101A-1 and can be found frequently on Amazon for around $300, open box.

Thanks for your fast and thorough response! We really appreciate your experience and expertise !!!

Sorry, I meant Samsung 970 EVO SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe (MZ-V7E1T0BW) https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07BN217QG/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_dObtEbKCRDX75 ... not our existing 1TB Samsung 850 SSD on an Apricom Duo PCIe card which we'd like to replace for faster read / write access

 

[tsialex]

Thanks for your fast and thorough response! We really appreciate your experience and expertise !!!

Sorry, I meant Samsung 970 EVO SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe (MZ-V7E1T0BW) https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07BN217QG/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_dObtEbKCRDX75 ... not our existing 1TB Samsung 850 SSD on an Apricom Duo PCIe card which we'd like to replace for faster read / write access

All dumb adapters are just a format converter from the PCIe x4 slot to the M.2 x4 connector, and have the exactly same PCIe 2.0 x4 throughput limitation. You will always be limited by the PCIe x4 connection, that translates to ~1450 MB/s throughput.

A 970 EVO or 970 EVO+ when installed on a PCIe 3.0 Mac like 2019 Mac Pro, or a MP5,1 with a PCIe adaptor that have a PCIe 3.0 x16 switch, will get around 3100 MB/s.

 

[MTBnBeer]

All dumb adapters are just a format converter from the PCIe x4 slot to the M.2 x4 connector, and have the exactly same PCIe 2.0 x4 throughput limitation. You will always be limited by the PCIe x4 connection, that translates to ~1450 MB/s throughput.

A 970 EVO or 970 EVO+ when installed on a PCIe 3.0 Mac like 2019 Mac Pro, or a MP5,1 with a PCIe adaptor that have a PCIe 3.0 x16 switch, will get around 3100 MB/s.

Awesome insight! Exactly what I was looking for. I'll hunt for a HighPoint SSD7101A-1 at Amazon Warehouse.

Any difference between TWO 512GB NVMe 970 EVOs vs. a SINGLE 1TF 970 EVO as our MP5,1 boot drive ?

 

[tsialex]

Awesome insight! Exactly what I was looking for. I'll hunt for a HighPoint SSD7101A-1 at Amazon Warehouse.

Any difference between TWO 512GB NVMe 970 EVOs vs. a SINGLE 1TF 970 EVO as our MP5,1 boot drive ?

Last macOS release that supports bootable RAID is High Sierra, so you can't use RAID for the main disk and won't matter one or two blades.

You can use one blade for your main bootable disk and two or three others for a RAID0 volume. That's the best performance for a scratch disk.

 

[MTBnBeer]

Last macOS release that supports bootable RAID is High Sierra, so you can't use RAID for the main disk and won't matter one or two blades.

You can use one blade for your main bootable disk and two or three others for a RAID0 volume. That's the best performance for a scratch disk.

Perfect. Thanks again for the awesome info !!!

 

[SteveZee]

I did the MacPro 7,1 and the Aquacomputer KryoM.2 Evo PCIe 3.0 x4 and that Samsung evo Plus 500 GB ssd
and happily I can report an easy success (so far), 3000MB/s like everyone else, yippee. Now I hope those putty things between the heat sinks dont melt into the ssd!
Should this be on a different thread? no 7,1 in the headline/

 

[SteveZee]

BTW, should the nvme ID be more explicit by now that it is formatted and working, etc.

 

[Xteec]

BTW, should the nvme ID be more explicit by now that it is formatted and working, etc.

View attachment 897194

Mine says the same if you're wondering if any other people see this same thing.

 

[lomahs]

Confirmed: Corsair Force Series MP510 SSD 960GB MLC (double sided SSD, 3mm thick) works perfectly with the Aquacomputer Kryo M.2 EVO with the "upper" heat sink with 1mm-thermal pad and the unmodified "lower" heat sink with 0,25mm-thermal pad in Mac Pro 2019.

It was a pain to remove the screw which fastens the SSD (same problem was discussed here...).

Expansion Slot Utility identifies the Kryo as "Unknown NVM Express Controller Card, width x4, Speed Gen3" (see above post #95).

 

[JulianBoolean]

Last macOS release that supports bootable RAID is High Sierra, so you can't use RAID for the main disk and won't matter one or two blades.

You can use one blade for your main bootable disk and two or three others for a RAID0 volume. That's the best performance for a scratch disk.

Thanks for this info regarding the OS options, if wanting a bootable RAID.

Q1: Is there any work around cheat at all ... such as install Mojave into a single Blade/Volume, then use SuperDuper or CarbonCloner to clone it over to a RAID?

Q2: Are there any issues installing Mojave or Catalina onto partitions of a single volume?

 

[SteveZee]

I dont recall where the messages were about monitoring T° of these SSD's.
iStat was ruled out for this, but here it is. Is this the true story?

 

[tsialex]

Thanks for this info regarding the OS options, if wanting a bootable RAID.

Q1: Is there any work around cheat at all ... such as install Mojave into a single Blade/Volume, then use SuperDuper or CarbonCloner to clone it over to a RAID?

Q2: Are there any issues installing Mojave or Catalina onto partitions of a single volume?

There are threads on the Mojave and Catalina forum about Mojave + RAID and Catalina + RAID. It's a very bad idea, since software updates don't work anymore and while is the type of thing that it's possible to do, it's totally unmanageable since you will have to clone to an APFS volume, do the updates, then clone back.

Both Mojave and Catalina installs to Volumes itself, I don't know if it's even possible to modify it to use partitions.

 

[jbarley]

Thanks for this info regarding the OS options, if wanting a bootable RAID.

Q1: Is there any work around cheat at all ... such as install Mojave into a single Blade/Volume, then use SuperDuper or CarbonCloner to clone it over to a RAID?

Q2: Are there any issues installing Mojave or Catalina onto partitions of a single volume?

I run a Mojave system on my Mac Pro 5,1 from a 4SSD raid0 formatted HFS, boots and runs fast and fine.
I do auto clones using CCC to a APFS SSD hourly. CCC handles these snaphots easily and they are far more accessible then Apples built in Time Machine which I do not use.
If or when a system update comes along I just reboot to the latest APFS clone, apply the update and then clone back to the HFS raid system.
In my case the whole process takes maybe 10-15 minutes most of which is spent downloading the update.