MP All Models Bootable PCI SSD Cards/Drives for Mac Pro (NVMe M.2, U.2, EDSFF E3.S, etc.)

[bsbeamer]

Not a ton of options for multibay U.2 RAID and HighPoint is at least worth taking a look at. Doubt many here can afford CheetahRAID or anything similar if using U.2 SSDs.

 

[giggles]

Anybody thought of using a 1.5TB intel optane 905P as boot drive? Costs about like the apple’s 8TB option but it’s supposed to offer supreme read speeds, consistency and low latency..

 

[OkiRun]

Anybody thought of using a 1.5TB intel optane 905P as boot drive? Costs about like the apple’s 8TB option but it’s supposed to offer supreme read speeds, consistency and low latency..

Using this?

One half-length x4 PCI Express gen 3 slot with Apple I/O card installed.
Isn't this slot installed as a default with the base model? Do you need
to request that the I.O card be installed? The sentence is a little confusing.

2.2k for 1.5 Tb seems extremely expensive compared to Apples 2.6k for 8Tb....

 

[giggles]

Using this?

One half-length x4 PCI Express gen 3 slot with Apple I/O card installed.
Isn't this slot installed as a default with the base model? Do you need
to request that the I.O card be installed? The sentence is a little confusing.

2.2k for 1.5 Tb seems extremely expensive compared to Apples 2.6k for 8Tb....

I meant the intel 905P in pcie card format.
No adapters needed.
No need to remove the apple IO card.
Just install it in any of the many free pcie slots in the MacPro?

It’s a 4x pcie card mechanically and electrically, doesn’t mean you can’t install it in 8x or 16x slots. Maybe this caused your confusion.

Yeah it’s pretty expensive, it’s a whole different technology compared to regular flash based SSDs. It’s 3d XPoint based.

 

[sugarfreemedia]

I meant the intel 905P in pcie card format.
No adapters needed.
No need to remove the apple IO card.
Just install it in any of the many free pcie slots in the MacPro?

It’s a 4x pcie card mechanically and electrically, doesn’t mean you can’t install it in 8x or 16x slots. Maybe this caused your confusion.

Yeah it’s pretty expensive, it’s a whole different technology compared to regular flash based SSDs. It’s 3d XPoint based.

I have an Optane 905P and it works great. It excels in random read/write and I intend it to stream an orchestral library. For a project drive I've just ordered a WD ULTRASTAR SN200 HUSMR7632BDP301 3.2TB. It's an Enterprise NVMe plug-in card like 905P, with an amazing durability rating of 3DW/D and silent.
I don't know if the above would work as a boot drive, and both cards are a rather expensive option.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Hey so I got the Pegasus here in person. Whats nice is the instrucitons finally explained the mystery port. In the figure item 2, the last thing, it's power for the staa ports. It comes with this nice cable that draws power for both of the SATA connectors.

View attachment 882729

Still not sure what type of SATA is on board, but thought this would be of interest as it's another source of power on the motherboard.

which means the cable included with the Pegasus can feed power to the U.2 cable and drive.

Yep, so this seems to work decently elegantly. THe only problem is that U.2 cable has an extra little prong so it doesnt slide right onto the SATA cable provided with the J2i. You could get an adapter, but I decided to just to pry off the prong (might dremel it smooth) and it fits like a glove. So that should provide the power to the U.2 drive. Think we will be in business. Now I just wait for the drive and Mac Pro go come in! Fingers crossed.

 

[giggles]

Wow that’s great.
Hopefully with time some vendor will just start selling cables that go from the motherboard headers to whatever..

I wonder if that upper case power header can do 4 U.2 SSDs via splitters..given that it can do 2 x 3.5” HDDs...

Like j2i cable —> 2 SATA power splitters —> 4 highpoint sata-power-to-U2 cables —> 4 u.2 SSDs..

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Wow that’s great.
Hopefully with time some vendor will just start selling cables that go from the motherboard headers to whatever..

I wonder if that upper case power header can do 4 U.2 SSDs via splitters..given that it can do 2 x 3.5” HDDs...

Like j2i cable —> 2 SATA power splitters —> 4 highpoint sata-power-to-U2 cables —> 4 u.2 SSDs..

I think you’re right. Powering 4 2.5” ssd s should take less power than 2 big3.5” spinners. Also, rather than relying on the j2i for 2 3.5” slots, Someone could easily com up with a bracket that would fit 4-6 2.5” drives in the same space.

 

[giggles]

True, in the mean time there are some adapters from Icy Dock that can fit 2 x 2.5” and even 3 (thin) x 2.5” for every 3.5” slot in the j2i...

On another subject, if one wanted to keep the MacPro cable-free, what would be a (good quality, reliable and proven to work) pcie card of one of those that just directly mount a single u.2 ssd on the card and that’s it? (providing both power and pcie 3.0 4x data). Anybody considered 1-2 of those over the highpoint?

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

True, in the mean time there are some adapters from Icy Dock that can fit 2 x 2.5” and even 3 (thin) x 2.5” for every 3.5” slot in the j2i...

On another subject, if one wanted to keep the MacPro cable-free, what would be a (good quality, reliable and proven to work) pcie card of one of those that just directly mount a single u.2 ssd on the card and that’s it? (providing both power and pcie 3.0 4x data). Anybody considered 1-2 of those over the highpoint?

Wow, I havent seen the one that holds 3. Could you provide a link? Thanks!

 

[giggles]

Wow, I havent seen the one that holds 3. Could you provide a link? Thanks!

7mm drives tho

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

7mm drives tho

Wow that's tight. I was hoping it would have 30+mm of clearence. Looks like they will let you put in 1 7mm drive and one 15mm drive though. Which is nice.

I got a really open bracket for 2 drives. It will obviously fit at least one 15mm drive. I dont need more than one at the moment, but I'm hoping if/when I need to, I might just dremel the screw hole up a bit, and that might be enough space, or just attach a little metal bracket to extend it up a bit.

Dual 2.5" to 3.5" HDD & SSD Converter Bracket Converts 2.5" Notebook Hard Drive to 3.5" Desktop Hard Drive Bay Mounting Bracket Adapter Mac | PC | Linux

Dual 2.5" to 3.5" HDD & SSD Converter Bracket Converts 2.5" Notebook Hard Drive to 3.5" Desktop Hard Drive Bay Mounting Bracket Adapter Mac | PC | Linux

www.amazon.com

 

[bxs]

Wow that's tight. I was hoping it would have 30+mm of clearence. Looks like they will let you put in 1 7mm drive and one 15mm drive though. Which is nice.

I got a really open bracket for 2 drives. It will obviously fit at least one 15mm drive. I dont need more than one at the moment, but I'm hoping if/when I need to, I might just dremel the screw hole up a bit, and that might be enough space, or just attach a little metal bracket to extend it up a bit.

Dual 2.5" to 3.5" HDD & SSD Converter Bracket Converts 2.5" Notebook Hard Drive to 3.5" Desktop Hard Drive Bay Mounting Bracket Adapter Mac | PC | Linux

Dual 2.5" to 3.5" HDD & SSD Converter Bracket Converts 2.5" Notebook Hard Drive to 3.5" Desktop Hard Drive Bay Mounting Bracket Adapter Mac | PC | Linux

www.amazon.com

I've been looking at how many 2.5" slim SATA SSD, 2.5" SATA disk units can be fitted into the 2Ji, and I believe some 6 to 8 should be possible. Just need to construct a cable for hooking up data/power to each of them.

The inside vertical dimension of the 2Ji is 73 mm. Thus, 73/4 = 18.25 mm would mean 4x 15mm SATA disks could be fitted in allowing 2-3 mm spacing. Four Seagate 5 TB BarraCuda 15mm SATA disks could be fitted into the 2Ji providing some 20 TB of data storage. I personally have 9 of these BarraCuda 5TB disks looking for a home. 👍

I have already been able to fit 4x 2.5" SATA SSD units into the 2Ji with room to spare. Images show a single tray 2.5"-to-3.5" holding 2x SATA 6G SSDs.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

So I got the high point 7120. It’s tiny. It’s like a half space slot.

I want to put it into the least useful 16lane slot. is there a map as to which slots have what lanes. I think apples port slot is some kind of half slot or something, and is only like 4 lanes, but I’m going by memory so could easily be wrong.

I obviously do not want to put it in and waste any of the premuim mpx slots.

I also have an amd 9100 and want to put it in a 16 lane double slot (it’s double wide) and ideally also not in an mpx slot.

Beyond the mpx slots is there a double wide 16 lane and single wide 16lane slot I could throw those 2 cards into?

 

[jasonmvp]

I want to put it into the least useful 16lane slot. is there a map as to which slots have what lanes.

I think the "About This Mac" window has a "PCI Slot" tab on the top of it. Hit that and it should show you what slots are occupied, and which are at what speeds.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

I think the "About This Mac" window has a "PCI Slot" tab on the top of it. Hit that and it should show you what slots are occupied, and which are at what speeds.

Any chance you could do a screen grab? I won't have my MP for another week or 2...

 

[giggles]

Any chance you could do a screen grab? I won't have my MP for another week or 2...

Install PCIe cards in your Mac Pro (2019) - Apple Support

Learn about the PCIe slots on your Mac Pro (2019) and how to install additional cards.

support.apple.com

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Install PCIe cards in your Mac Pro (2019) - Apple Support

Learn about the PCIe slots on your Mac Pro (2019) and how to install additional cards.

support.apple.com

Thanks. So looks like slots 4 and 5 would do the trick and leave room for a single width MPX and double width MPX slot.

 

[bxs]

Thanks. So looks like slots 4 and 5 would do the trick and leave room for a single width MPX and double width MPX slot.

View attachment 884143

If you're thinking on getting the Afterburner at a later stage be aware Apple says to use (in priority order) slot 5, then 3 and then 4 for the Afterburner.

 

[chfilm]

How about turning this thread into a Wiki where we can gather everything that is being approved to work fine in the new machine? it’s kinda becoming hard to keep track with all the different Solutions.

 

[OkiRun]

How about turning this thread into a Wiki where we can gather everything that is being approved to work fine in the new machine? it’s kinda becoming hard to keep track with all the different Solutions.

I'm following about 10 threads to keep up with all the information coming out!

 

[bxs]

How about turning this thread into a Wiki where we can gather everything that is being approved to work fine in the new machine? it’s kinda becoming hard to keep track with all the different Solutions.

I'm quite happy with this approach and would certainly add to it when I know my 'add ons' do in fact work without issues, or if there are issues claim they are acceptable if they're minor and really of no consequence to me.

 

[eric.blair]

I have the Sonnet M.2 Card with Samsung EVO Plus 2TBs and the OWC 2010-2012 Accelsior 8TB card.

• The OWC card gives me a not properly ejected warning whenever the Mac Pro goes to sleep and then the card only reappears after restarting. The sonnet has no such issue.
• Blackmagic Speed Test consistently gives me >3GB/s for R and W on the Sonnet (for a single drive, NO RAID)
• Blackmagic Speed Test starts out giving me around 2.7GB/s R & W for the OWC but eventually randomly drops down to 450MB/s to 1000MB/s and maybe goes back up to 2.5GB/s now and again. This is also for a single 2TB drive, NO RAID. I tried Blackmagic with an 8TB RAID 0 volume and it was getting around 5.5GB/s or so - I'm not sure if this was consistent though because I have since uninstalled SoftRAID and removed the RAID array.

I'm not sure if this is one of the issues they were seeing with the 'older' Accelsior card or what but I'm not impressed just as far as consistency. Also not happy that the card can't deal with 'going to sleep'. I looked around and it seems that other OWC external enclosure also have the same issue with ejecting at sleep etc.

 

[bxs]

I have the Sonnet M.2 Card with Samsung EVO Plus 2TBs and the OWC 2010-2012 Accelsior 8TB card.

• The OWC card gives me a not properly ejected warning whenever the Mac Pro goes to sleep and then the card only reappears after restarting. The sonnet has no such issue.
• Blackmagic Speed Test consistently gives me >3MB/s for R and W on the Sonnet (for a single drive, NO RAID)
• Blackmagic Speed Test starts out giving me around 2.7GB/s R & W for the OWC but eventually randomly drops down to 450MB/s to 1000MB/s and maybe goes back up to 2.5GB/s now and again. This is also for a single 2TB drive, NO RAID. I tried Blackmagic with an 8TB RAID 0 volume and it was getting around 5.5GB/s or so - I'm not sure if this was consistent though because I have since uninstalled SoftRAID and removed the RAID array.

I'm not sure if this is one of the issues they were seeing with the 'older' Accelsior card or what but I'm not impressed just as far as consistency. Also not happy that the card can't deal with 'going to sleep'. I looked around and it seems that other OWC external enclosure also have the same issue with ejecting at sleep etc.

• That issue with the OWC Accelsior is a bad omen for sure.
• The >3.5MB/s for R & W on the Sonnet for a single blade is awful as well.
• I hope with more testing you do that the Sonnet improves. Was the blade Apple formatted HPF+ or were you using SoftRAID for it ?
• I installed SoftRAID 5.8.1 on my MBP13,3 running Catalina 10.15.3 beta and it was awful and seems to not recognize APFS nicely at all...... sigh.

 

[eric.blair]

• That issue with the OWC Accelsior is a bad omen for sure.
• The >3.5MB/s for R & W on the Sonnet for a single blade is awful as well.
• I hope with more testing you do that the Sonnet improves. Was the blade Apple formatted HPF+ or were you using SoftRAID for it ?
• I installed SoftRAID 5.8.1 on my MBP13,3 running Catalina 10.15.3 beta and it was awful and seems to not recognize APFS nicely at all...... sigh.

Oops! Typo ... should be >3GB/s for single M.2 Blade on the Sonnet