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

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

chfilm said:
If I would like to use just that Star point Adapter card- how should I cool the drive in that scenario?
Click to expand...
Ops, I answered thinking that you want the Startech PEX4SFF8643 model that just has the U2 connector and not the drive on the same PCB. Velociraptor heatsink won't work for this scenario.

You need to cool just the drive, not the adapter.

Best, and really cost-effective, way is to buy a WD Velociraptor 1st generation and use just the heatsink with 1,5 and 0,5mm silicone thermal pads between the drive and the heatsink.

Eventually you can find the 300GB WD Velociraptor for less than $35 on eBay, but takes some searching. I was looking for another Velociraptor heatsink, created email searches and nothing showed for a decent price in months then @ZombiePhysicist asked me how I was cooling the Micron drive and I found one for him at the same day with a killing price - lucky guy.
 
Last edited:
tsialex said:
Ops, I answered thinking that you want the Startech model that just has the U2 connector, not the drive on the same PCB.

You need to cool just the drive, not the adapter.

Best, and really cost-effective, way is to buy a WD Velociraptor 1st generation and use just the heatsink with 1,5 and 0,5mm silicone thermal pads between the drive and the heatsink.

Eventually you can find the 300GB WD Velociraptor for less than $35 on eBay, but takes some searching. I was looking for another Velociraptor heatsink, created email searches and nothing showed for a decent price in months then @ZombiePhysicist asked me how I was cooling the Micron drive and I found one for him at the same day with a killing price - lucky guy.
Click to expand...
Now I’m confused ;)
If I wanted to use the Micron 9300pro with the aforementioned starpoint adapter Card- what’s the best recommendation for cooling the drive?
 
chfilm said:
Now I’m confused ;)
If I wanted to use the Micron 9300pro with the aforementioned starpoint adapter Card- what’s the best recommendation for cooling the drive?
Click to expand...
I don't recommend that solution for the Micron 9300Pro drive, it's a very hot drive when in heavy use and the drive itself is heavy. The PEX4SFF8639 adapter don't even have a PCIe lock.
pex4sff8639.c.jpg

[automerge]1580867641[/automerge]
If you have a Promise 2Ji with one empty bay, buy the Velociraptor heatsink, the SFF-8643 to SFF-8639 cable and the Startech PEX4SFF8643. It's the best way to install the drive.
 
Last edited:
tsialex said:
I don't recommend that solution for the Micron 9300Pro drive, it's a very hot drive when in heavy use and the drive itself is heavy. The PEX4SFF8639 adapter don't even have a PCIe lock.
pex4sff8639.c.jpg

[automerge]1580867641[/automerge]
If you have a Promise 2Ji with one empty bay, buy the Velociraptor heatsink, the SFF-8643 to SFF-8639 cable and the Startech PEX4SFF8643. It's the best way to install the drive.
Click to expand...
I see, hm well I don’t have a promise 2Ji... ok maybe I’ll just stick with the sonnet 4x4 ;)
 
I tried the above mentioned Startech card with an Intel P4600 6.4TB u.2 nvme SSD and got nothing but an Unknown NVME drive in system profile.

Great deal on those P4600 if I can get them to work.
 
I am trying to use the Startech adapter with an Intel P4600 U.2 Drive and can't get it to be recognized. Gonna try to install it in a modern PC and see if it is recognized.
 
riggieri said:
I tried the above mentioned Startech card with an Intel P4600 6.4TB u.2 nvme SSD and got nothing but an Unknown NVME drive in system profile.

Great deal on those P4600 if I can get them to work.
Click to expand...

I dont think all U2 drives and controllers will work. The Shnazzy Youtube guy tried another another U2 drive and controller and also didn't work.

It's not clear to me if it's the controller or the drive or both that keep things from working. And while I definitely would listen to @tsialex sage advice, if I were doing this again from scratch, I would try that StarTech adapter with just the Micron drive (having the backup plan of getting the highpoint card if it doesn't work).

I think there are screw points to screw in the u.2 drive so the weight of the drive shouldn't be a factor. I also think if you put the card and drive lower in the slot range you might get better air flow over it than in the J2i cage. It won't hurt the drive to try and run it right off the card to just see what the temperatures are. If they are in the 130s or lower, I think you're fine. Also, I might try putting a few thermal pads and NVMe fin heat sinks on it, and I bet that would bring temperatures down a fair bit too. It's worth a shot. The Startech card isn't that pricey. And if it doesn't work, you can just go the route that I did.

As always, YMMV.
 
riggieri said:
I am trying to use the Startech adapter with an Intel P4600 U.2 Drive and can't get it to be recognized. Gonna try to install it in a modern PC and see if it is recognized.
Click to expand...

Any luck getting the Intel U.2 drive to show up in Catalina? So far it looks like Micron drives work and was hoping Intel's were working too.
 
ZombiePhysicist said:
I dont think all U2 drives and controllers will work. The Shnazzy Youtube guy tried another another U2 drive and controller and also didn't work.

It's not clear to me if it's the controller or the drive or both that keep things from working. And while I definitely would listen to @tsialex sage advice, if I were doing this again from scratch, I would try that StarTech adapter with just the Micron drive (having the backup plan of getting the highpoint card if it doesn't work).

I think there are screw points to screw in the u.2 drive so the weight of the drive shouldn't be a factor. I also think if you put the card and drive lower in the slot range you might get better air flow over it than in the J2i cage. It won't hurt the drive to try and run it right off the card to just see what the temperatures are. If they are in the 130s or lower, I think you're fine. Also, I might try putting a few thermal pads and NVMe fin heat sinks on it, and I bet that would bring temperatures down a fair bit too. It's worth a shot. The Startech card isn't that pricey. And if it doesn't work, you can just go the route that I did.

As always, YMMV.
Click to expand...

Heavily considering getting one of these for production scratch drive. Have you run into any problems or has it been smooth sailing?
 
awkward_eagle said:
Heavily considering getting one of these for production scratch drive. Have you run into any problems or has it been smooth sailing?
Click to expand...

Knock wood. No issues with my specific setup here.

forums.macrumors.com

Mac Pro support for NVMe U2 Micron 9300 Pro 15.36TB U.2 Drive SSD?

Ok so I got the drive. I got a bracket and it all seems to fit in decently tidy. Some pics: So I have the Pegasus J2i in there. Swapped the useless 8TB for a 16TB spinner. I got a 3.5" to 2.5" bracket. One note, the screws in the J2i that hold larger drives, are too big for both the 2.5"/3.5"...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com

Been my main drive all this time.
 
tsialex said:
HighPoint SSD7101A-1 PCB revision 2.00 uses a PWM fan with variable rotation that have a lot less fan noise than my v1.01. You can always replace the fan for a less noisier model and install improved heatsinks if you are in a studio and fan noise makes you crazy. People here have parts list already to mod it.
Click to expand...
How can you tell which PCB rev you have? My board says V2.00 in the lower left by the screw.

I searched the forum but couldn't find the thread/posts about fan upgrades for the SSD7101-A. Could you (or someone else) link to it?

Bonus: does anyone know the style of pins/connectors on the fan of the SSD7101-A's PCB?
 
worldburger said:
How can you tell which PCB rev you have? My board says V2.00 in the lower left by the screw.

I searched the forum but couldn't find the thread/posts about fan upgrades for the SSD7101-A. Could you (or someone else) link to it?

Bonus: does anyone know the style of pins/connectors on the fan of the SSD7101-A's PCB?
Click to expand...

s-l1600-jpg.879009


This is the post about the fan mods:

forums.macrumors.com

Highpoint 7101A - PCIe 3.0 SSD performance for the cMP

The new fan, BFB0512MA-C, arrived this morning and I just finished installing it. I also replaced the copper heatsink with a new smaller copper heatsink which I used in my initial mod as the larger heatsink was collecting dust around the edges. I hate dust. Previous results with 32.5 dB(A)...
forums.macrumors.com forums.macrumors.com
[automerge]1585354862[/automerge]
Btw, PCB v2.00 with the last firmware can shutdown the fan via web interface. If your card don't have the last firmware, you can get in contact to HighPoint for a firmware upgrade. They will ask you to send the card for the upgrade process, it's done in their labs.

1578121371212-png.886612
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: worldburger
ZombiePhysicist said:
So one thing I cannot tell is if this drive has TRIM support. I suspect it does, but how do I tell if a) it does, and b) if it's enabled?

SystemProfiler.app under storage shows the Medium Type: SSD. I could swear it used to have an entry for TRIM yes/no? But looks like they took that out of system profiler as it doesn't even show it for the apple SSD.

Does anyone know how to tell if the drive supports trim and how to tell if its enabled or not? This is obviously under the latest version of Catalina. 10.15.2

Thanks!
Click to expand...

So the info is in system profiler if you have TRIM support, but it's not in the storage tab. It's in the NVMExpress tab. What is interesting is that the built in garbage apple 256SSD does have trim support on by default (not surprising), but the Micron has TRIM support enabled by default (which is surprising as I thought no 3rd party drives get TRIM support by default).
 
tsialex said:
I take a "garbage" NAND module made from SLC and MLC NAND over any TLC/QLC SSD any day. :p

It's extremely rare to see failed NAND modules from iMac Pro, seems Mac Pro modules are the same.
Click to expand...

While that is technically true, I see more horror stories about lost data with T2 drives, out of the control of the owners, than I'm comfortable in trusting. And it's not the SLC/MLC part of the memory I have a problem with (which I agree is preferable to the TLC/QLC--at least when all other things are equal), it's the T2 overlording that memory. I'd personally feel more secure and rather take my chances with chad riddled punched paper tape over Apple's T2 garbage.

Obviously fair minded folks can differ on the merits (and problems) with the T2. But for my purposes, it is garbage. Obviously YMMV.
 
Last edited:
So I just picked up my second MP 7,1 that will serve as a video editing workstation. I ordered a new HP 7101A-1 card and of course now it has the updated firmware. A few things I've noticed: The fans at medium speed are just barely detectable to my ear, but not enough to care. High speed is an annoying whine, like a mosquito. At medium speed the 2TB 970 EVO Plus cards I have are running about 37C when the machine sits idle for a while, about 43C when under normal use. I copied 6TB of data to the array and that caused the temp to spike up to 62C. Even putting the fan on high made no difference there, so I used a fan control app to rev up the MP fans and that nicely cooled them down.

Now my thoughts: I did the fan replacement on my other card using the DigiKey fan. That fan actually is a tiny bit quieter than the one from HighPoint when it's in "Medium" speed mode, and also keeps the card about 2-3C cooler on average. Now I'm debating getting the 3-pin version of that fan from DigiKey and replacing the one my new card, just to get rid of the very faint noise. Has anyone tried that yet? If so, does the speed control all work fine (it should)?
 
Here is a new card:

www.geeky-gadgets.com

HighPoint Zero-NoiseNVMe RAID storage controller for Mac, Linux and Windows

HighPoint has launched a new Zero-NoiseNVMe RAID storage controller for Mac, Linux and Windows, offering dedicated PCIe 3.0 bandwidth can assign up to 4
www.geeky-gadgets.com www.geeky-gadgets.com

My guess is you cannot boot the RAIDed sticks so you need one stick to boot and can RAID the others... nice that it's fanless though.
 
Last edited:
ZombiePhysicist said:
Here is a new card:

www.geeky-gadgets.com

HighPoint Zero-NoiseNVMe RAID storage controller for Mac, Linux and Windows

HighPoint has launched a new Zero-NoiseNVMe RAID storage controller for Mac, Linux and Windows, offering dedicated PCIe 3.0 bandwidth can assign up to 4
www.geeky-gadgets.com www.geeky-gadgets.com

My guess is you cannot boot the RAIDed sticks so you need one stick to boot and can RAID the others... nice that it's fanless though.
Click to expand...
With a x8 card, so it's probably using an entry level PCIe switch. It's a competitor of OWC card not a SSD7101A-1 replacement, weird that HighPoint went this way. Has two versions, SSD7202 for two blades/half height and SSD7204 for four blades/full height:

highpoint-tech.com

SSD7202 NVMe RAID AIC | HighPoint Technologies, Inc.

SSD7202 is a low-profile Bootable 2-port M.2 NVMe RAID Controller, no bifurcation, standalone solution, with dedicated PCIe 3.0 x8 ensuring maximum bandwidth.
highpoint-tech.com highpoint-tech.com

highpoint-tech.com

SSD7204 NVMe RAID AIC | HighPoint Technologies, Inc.

SSD7204 is a 4-port M.2 NVMe RAID Controller, no bifurcation, standalone solution, with dedicated PCIe 3.0 x8 to deliver up to 14,000MB/s of transfer speed.
highpoint-tech.com highpoint-tech.com

Btw, both cards don't support arrays that span between two cards, what HighPoint calls cross-sync.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Theophilos
Running macOS Catalina version 10.15.6 via on a Micron 9300 MAX 6.4TB U.2 SSD;
  1. On my iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017) 3.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5, via:
  2. Highpoint RocketStor 6661A Thunderbolt 3 to PCIe 3.0 X16 Expansion Chassis;
  3. StarTech.com U.2 to PCIe Adapter - x4 PCIe - For 2.5" U.2 NVMe SSD - SFF-8639 PCIe Adapter - U.2 SSD - PCIe SSD - U.2 drive (PEX4SFF8639).
  • Had to disable System Integrity Protection via Terminal (csrutil disable)
  • Installed Catalina from booting in Command-R (internet download)
    • Had a few hiccups during the install where drive did not remount after a reboot.
  • On this iMac via a TB3 connection, the drive runs at about 2400 read/write per BlackMagic Disk Speed Test
  • Runs hot with constant use but the speed on the Micron 9300 MAX 6.4TB U.2 SSD remains stable.
My 1TB Fusion drive sucked, having been storing my libraries on slow external HDDs for years. Don't need a newer iMac and cannot justify the many thousands extra I would spend to get 4TB or 8TB of SSD internal storage.

Wanted everything on one volume. Played around with logical volumes, RAID volumes, combinations of M.2 NVME SSDs, and decided against keeping single 8TB QLC M.2 NVME drive.

The Micron Max is not the least expensive option (noting I probably should have gone with the Micron 9300 Pro series) but the dollars per terabyte don't seem too bad when you consider its rated endurance at 37.3PB written--arguably more reliable than the best M.2 like Samsung 970 Pro and substantially less expensive per terabyte, and the Samsung 970 Pro tops out at 1TB.

Here is what my system tells me:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With constant use, SMARTReporter/Advanced Tool/Show attribute -- reports the following information on the Micron 9300 MAX 6.4TB U.2 SSD:

smartctl 6.6 2017-11-05 r4594 [Darwin 19.6.0 x86_64] (sf-6.6-1)
Copyright (C) 2002-17, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Number: Micron_9300_MTFDHAL6T4TDR
Serial Number: [REDACTED]
Firmware Version: 11300B20
PCI Vendor/Subsystem ID: 0x1344
IEEE OUI Identifier: 0x00a075
Total NVM Capacity: 6,401,252,745,216 [6.40 TB]
Unallocated NVM Capacity: 0
Controller ID: 1
Number of Namespaces: 32
Local Time is: Thu Sep 24 20:42:31 2020 EDT
Firmware Updates (0x07): 3 Slots, Slot 1 R/O
Optional Admin Commands (0x000e): Format Frmw_DL NS_Mngmt
Optional NVM Commands (0x0014): DS_Mngmt Sav/Sel_Feat
Maximum Data Transfer Size: 32 Pages
Warning Comp. Temp. Threshold: 75 Celsius
Critical Comp. Temp. Threshold: 80 Celsius

Supported Power States
St Op Max Active Idle RL RT WL WT Ent_Lat Ex_Lat
0 + 25.00W - - 0 0 0 0 100 100
1 + 24.00W - - 1 1 1 1 115 115
2 + 23.00W - - 2 2 2 2 130 130
3 + 22.00W - - 3 3 3 3 145 145
4 + 21.00W - - 4 4 4 4 160 160
5 + 20.00W - - 5 5 5 5 175 175
6 + 19.00W - - 6 6 6 6 190 190
7 + 18.00W - - 7 7 7 7 205 205
8 + 17.00W - - 8 8 8 8 220 220
9 + 16.00W - - 9 9 9 9 235 235
10 + 15.00W - - 10 10 10 10 250 250
11 + 14.00W - - 11 11 11 11 265 265
12 + 13.00W - - 12 12 12 12 280 280
13 + 12.00W - - 13 13 13 13 295 295
14 + 11.00W - - 14 14 14 14 310 310
15 + 10.00W - - 15 15 15 15 325 325

=== START OF SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

SMART/Health Information (NVMe Log 0x02, NSID 0x0)
Critical Warning: 0x00
Temperature: 55 Celsius
Available Spare: 100%
Available Spare Threshold: 5%
Percentage Used: 0%
Data Units Read: 6,050,411 [3.09 TB]
Data Units Written: 6,975,767 [3.57 TB]
Host Read Commands: 41,510,797
Host Write Commands: 39,916,743
Controller Busy Time: 1,524
Power Cycles: 19
Power On Hours: 28
Unsafe Shutdowns: 2
Media and Data Integrity Errors: 0
Error Information Log Entries: 0
Warning Comp. Temperature Time: 0
Critical Comp. Temperature Time: 0
Temperature Sensor 1: 67 Celsius
Temperature Sensor 2: 55 Celsius
Temperature Sensor 3: 50 Celsius
Temperature Sensor 4: 49 Celsius

Read Error Information Log failed: NVMe admin command:0x02/page:0x01 is not supported
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apple Disk Utility Get Info shows:
Volume name : U2 Micron 6400GB
Volume type : APFS Volume
BSD device node : disk5s2
Mount point : /
System : macOS 10.15.6 (19G2021)
File system : APFS
Connection : PCI-Express
Device tree path : IODeviceTree:/PCI0@0/RP05@1C,4/UPSB@0/DSB1@1/UPS0@0/pci-bridge@1/pci1344,51b2@0/IONVMeController
Writable : No
Is case-sensitive : No
File system UUID : [REDACTED]
Volume capacity : 6,400,908,771,328
Available space (Purgeable + Free) : 4,261,144,547,480
Purgeable space : 765,681,774,744
Free space : 3,495,462,772,736
Used space : 12,436,078,592
File count : 372,871
Owners enabled : Yes
Is encrypted : No
System Integrity Protection supported : Yes
Can be verified : Yes
Can be repaired : Yes
Bootable : Yes
Journaled : No
Disk number : 5
Partition number : 2
Media name :
Media type : Generic
Ejectable : Yes
Solid state : Yes
S.M.A.R.T. status : Not Supported
Parent disks : disk5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apple System Report - Thunderbolt
Thunderbolt Bus:

Vendor Name: Apple Inc.
Device Name: iMac
UID: [REDACTED]
Route String: 0
Firmware Version: 41.4
Domain UUID: [REDACTED]
Port:
Status: No device connected
Link Status: 0x7
Speed: Up to 40 Gb/s x1
Current Link Width: 0x1
Receptacle: 1
Link Controller Firmware Version: 0.39.0
Port:
Status: Device connected
Link Status: 0x2
Speed: Up to 40 Gb/s x1
Current Link Width: 0x2
Receptacle: 2
Link Controller Firmware Version: 0.39.0

RocketStor 6661A:

Vendor Name: HighPoint Technologies, Inc.
Device Name: RocketStor 6661A
Vendor ID: 0x43
Device ID: 0x6661
Device Revision: 0x1
UID: [REDACTED]
Route String: 3
Firmware Version: 26.1
Port (Upstream):
Status: Device connected
Link Status: 0x2
Speed: Up to 40 Gb/s x1
Current Link Width: 0x2
Link Controller Firmware Version: 0.36.0
Port:
Status: No device connected
Link Status: 0x7
Speed: Up to 40 Gb/s x1
Current Link Width: 0x1
Link Controller Firmware Version: 0.36.0

Apple System Report - Storage (Systems/Volumes/Data)

Free: 3.48 TB (3,479,567,523,840 bytes)
Capacity: 6.4 TB (6,400,908,771,328 bytes)
Mount Point: /System/Volumes/Data
File System: APFS
Writable: Yes
Ignore Ownership: No
BSD Name: disk5s1
Volume UUID: [REDACTED]
Physical Drive:
Device Name: Micron_9300_MTFDHAL6T4TDR
Media Name: AppleAPFSMedia
Medium Type: SSD
Protocol: PCI-Express
Internal: No
Partition Map Type: Unknown
S.M.A.R.T. Status: Verified
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apple System Report - NVMExpress

Micron_9300_MTFDHAL6T4TDR:

Capacity: 6.4 TB (6,401,252,745,216 bytes)
TRIM Support: Yes
Model: Micron_9300_MTFDHAL6T4TDR
Revision: 11300B20
Serial Number: [REDACTED]
Link Width: x4
Link Speed: 8.0 GT/s
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk4
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
Removable Media: No
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
EFI:
Capacity: 209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
File System: MS-DOS FAT32
BSD Name: disk4s1
Content: EFI
Volume UUID: [REDACTED]
disk4s2:
Capacity: 6.4 TB (6,400,908,771,328 bytes)
BSD Name: disk4s2
Content: Apple_APFS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Last edited:
Sonnet unveiled a new u.2 NVME card that can hold 2 u.2 drives on the card. No fan.

Fusion Dual U.2 SSD PCIe Card - SONNETTECH

Two U.2 NVMe SSD slots on a PCIe 3.0 x16 card. Add your own U.2 SSDs for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
www.sonnettech.com www.sonnettech.com

You can RAID 0 but you cannot boot the raid drive unfortunately... Interesting and tidy solution. It wastes a 16lane slot to some degree in that you are feeding only 2 drives 4 lanes each, so the other 8 lanes are essentially wasted. The high point solution gives you access to all 16 lanes, albeit via 4 drives.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back