MP 7,1 ASUS m.2 card

[newwest]

Any idea of this will work for the new Mac Pro? Don’t need to boot off the drives... any drawbacks to this compared to the sonnet? It’s so much cheaper!!!

ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 PCIe 3.0 X4 Expansion Card V2 Supports 4 NVMe M.2 (2242/2260/2280/22110) Up to 128 Gbps for Intel VROC and AMD Ryzen Threadripper NVMe RAID https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NQBQB6Z/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_qcB-Db0CZ1QTW

 

[chfilm]

Any idea of this will work for the new Mac Pro? Don’t need to boot off the drives... any drawbacks to this compared to the sonnet? It’s so much cheaper!!!

ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 PCIe 3.0 X4 Expansion Card V2 Supports 4 NVMe M.2 (2242/2260/2280/22110) Up to 128 Gbps for Intel VROC and AMD Ryzen Threadripper NVMe RAID https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NQBQB6Z/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_qcB-Db0CZ1QTW

I already asked this in another thread and got yelled at
have a look in the Other thread - it says that this card needs bifurcation support on the motherboard, and it’s unclear yet if the new Mac Pro has it.

 

[tsialex]

Won't work, this adapter requires a motherboard with PCI Express Lane Partitioning support, aka PCIe bifurcation.

With iFixit teardown, we confirmed that MP7,1 slots are behind a real 96-lane PLX PCIe switch, so, no PCIe bifurcation support available with 2019 Mac Pro.

Edited to use the correct Intel terminology: PCI Express Lane Partitioning

 

[newwest]

Thanks a ton. I have NAND SSDs in my 2011 MacPros on their own PCI cards (the cheap $20 amazon ones) and will see if they work. Not sure if they need bifurcation. (sounds like water purification!) Will report back later today! Thanks again.

 

[tsialex]

Thanks a ton. I have NAND SSDs in my 2011 MacPros on their own PCI cards (the cheap $20 amazon ones) and will see if they work. Not sure if they need bifurcation. (sounds like water purification!) Will report back later today! Thanks again.

MP5,1 don't have PCI Express Lane Partitioning, the correct term for Intel bifurcation, at all. If a passive adapter works with MP5,1 it's almost certain that will work with MP7,1.

 

[Fred4]

MP5,1 don't have PCI Express Lane Partitioning, the correct term for Intel bifurcation, at all. If a passive adapter works with MP5,1 it's almost certain that will work with MP7,1.

Anyone know if any of the multi slot NVME cheap cards (like Asus) will work on the 4,1/5,1? I know they may not be able to run at 2x speeds, like the $400 Sonnet card, but I would want one that will at least work and be bootable.

 

[tsialex]

Anyone know if any of the multi slot NVME cheap cards (like Asus) will work on the 4,1/5,1? I know they may not be able to run at 2x speeds, like the $400 Sonnet card, but I would want one that will at least work and be bootable.

Your quote of my post above already answered your question. No, it won't work at all.

MP5,1 chipset (X58 for the single CPU tray, 5520 for the dual CPU tray) is almost 9 years older than the first Intel chipset that support bifurcation (X299 is the first one to have the required bifurcation support).

For future reference, people here on the Mac Pro forum already tested Asus HYPER M.2 X16 CARD with a MP7,1 and just the first of the M.2 blades are recognised, ignoring all the others.

 

[tsialex]

Read the first post of the thread below:

PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI

This is a general info thread for blade SSDs that can be used in the Mac Pro. This is a WikiPost so anyone with the proper credentials may edit it. NVMe SSDs can be used as a boot drive in the MP5,1 and MP6,1 with the latest firmware installed (beginning with version 140.0.0.0.0 for MP5,1 and...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Metasfera]

There is a fresh upgrade to this adapter called GEN4 (Asus Hyper M.2 x16 GEN4). May be they fixed bifurcation issue in this generation? I hope a lot)

 

[tsialex]

There is a fresh upgrade to this adapter called GEN4 (Asus Hyper M.2 x16 GEN4). May be they fixed bifurcation issue in this generation? I hope a lot)

Macs don't support Intel PCIe Lane Partition at all, aka bifurcation. Asus Hyper M.2 x16 GEN4 still requires it.

Read the first post of the thread:

PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI

This is a general info thread for blade SSDs that can be used in the Mac Pro. This is a WikiPost so anyone with the proper credentials may edit it. NVMe SSDs can be used as a boot drive in the MP5,1 and MP6,1 with the latest firmware installed (beginning with version 140.0.0.0.0 for MP5,1 and...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[estherau]

but in this video it seems to work?

 

[cmsj]

but in this video it seems to work?

The Asus Hyper isn't in that video?
What they have in there is a simple single NVME M.2 -> PCIe adapter, which work fine because you don't need to split the PCIe lanes for a single drive.

 

[DrEGPU]

I have a Mac Pro 2019 7,1 and can confirm the Asus HyperCard does NOT work. It only recognizes the first drive and that’s it. You need something with a PLX chip like the highpointe 7101A, sonnet, OWC, etc.

 

[estherau]

Thank you for the information. So, are there any cheaper cards than the sonnet that would work with 4 ssds and see all of them (and be able to raid them)?
What about

ANGELBIRD PX1 PCIE 3.0 X4 ADAPTER FOR PCIE M.2 SSDS​

 

[DrEGPU]

Thank you for the information. So, are there any cheaper cards than the sonnet that would work with 4 ssds and see all of them (and be able to raid them)?
What about

ANGELBIRD PX1 PCIE 3.0 X4 ADAPTER FOR PCIE M.2 SSDS​

That card only holds 1x NVME drive, unless I’m mistaken. You could buy 4 of those and fill up some slots, I suppose. Not sure how cost effective that really is.

 

[estherau]

Thank you. slot 5 6 and 7 are free, but i would rather just put one PCI card in one slot but have 4 SSDs on it. the only thing is the sonnet is very expensive adn I am wondering if there are other brands that would work for what i want to do.
eg https://www.ebay.com/itm/Quad-M-2-S...le-Mac-Pro-3-1-5-1-7-1-PLX-8747-/264874686056

 

[bcomer]

Thank you. slot 5 6 and 7 are free, but i would rather just put one PCI card in one slot but have 4 SSDs on it. the only thing is the sonnet is very expensive adn I am wondering if there are other brands that would work for what i want to do.
eg https://www.ebay.com/itm/Quad-M-2-S...le-Mac-Pro-3-1-5-1-7-1-PLX-8747-/264874686056

It all depends on the "real" number of SSDs you want to install. Single M.2 cards are very inexpensive. I have one with a 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus and another with a 2TB Corsair MP600. For the record, the MP600 failed once and in general has speed issues in Macs and Windows boxes. Going forward I will stick with the Samsung SSDs.

 

[estherau]

HI, thank you. i have dreams of having 4 970 evo plus SSDs on one PCI card and using in raid 0
But the PCIe is so expensive in that only the sonnet seems to be recommended for this configuration. I've found some evo SSDs with manufacture date july 2020 so i am presuming they would be recent enough to have the newest firmware.

 

[estherau]

This looks interesting

 

[DrEGPU]

HI, thank you. i have dreams of having 4 970 evo plus SSDs on one PCI card and using in raid 0
But the PCIe is so expensive in that only the sonnet seems to be recommended for this configuration. I've found some evo SSDs with manufacture date july 2020 so i am presuming they would be recent enough to have the newest firmware.

Highpoint also makes one, although it isn’t any less expensive. They’re all going to be pricey because they require a PLX chip, which is apparently expensive to license.

 

[estherau]

Highpoint also makes one, although it isn’t any less expensive. They’re all going to be pricey because they require a PLX chip, which is apparently expensive to license.

Hi, Okay thanks. I will definitely check here before i buy one.

 

[profdraper]

No. Go with a Sonnet.

 

[DrEGPU]

Yeah, the Sonnet seems like it was purposefully designed for the Mac Pro. I was wondering why the card was darned long and realized it was to slide into the front slots to reduce sag.

 

[estherau]

the sonnet has gone up in price i think because they now have the new silent model without the fan, and you can't buy the old ones anymore.

 

[estherau]

sonnet won't ship to australia and the australian stores are really expensive.
What about this one? Would it work on a mac pro do you think?

Quad M.2 NVMe Ports to PCIe 3.0 x16 Bifurcation Riser Controller - Support Non-Bifurcation Motherboard

The IO CREST SI-PEX40152 is a great accelerated secondary storage solution for any workstation with true PCIe 3. 0 x16 bandwidth. It has 4 M. 2 NVMe ports to accept 4 NVMe M. 2 SSDs, so each NVMe M. 2 SSD has dedicated PCIe 3. 0 x4 bus bandwidth. It delivers transfer speeds 20 times faster than S...

www.amazon.com