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MP All Models Bootable PCI SSD Cards/Drives for Mac Pro (NVMe M.2, U.2, EDSFF E3.S, etc.)
- Thread starter ZombiePhysicist
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I wanted to post my experiences with putting the Micron 9300 Pro drives in a Mac Pro 5,1 since it looks like this discussion is only about 7,1.
Using both the Startech card and the Sonnet dual card, the 7.68TB model works fine, and gives around 1500MB/s read and write (AJA and Blackmagic). Except, oddly, if I put it in the x16 slot using the Startech card, I only get half speed. Just that slot. And the Sonnet in that slot is fine. Seems like it’s running PCIe 1 speeds. No trouble; use another slot.
Then the weird(er) thing. I decided to get the 15.36TB model. Installed, turned the Mac on, and... nothing. No chime, no screen. Doesn’t matter which adapter card, doesn’t matter which slot, doesn’t matter which 5,1 (I have two). Put the smaller SSD in and it chimes and boots. So I gave up and am going to use the drives in a Sonnet PCIe Thunderbolt chassis hooked to an M1 Mini. That works fine. I did not test on a Mac Pro 7,1.
Long story short: Micron 9300 Pro 15.36TB prevents Mac Pro 5,1 from booting.
Using both the Startech card and the Sonnet dual card, the 7.68TB model works fine, and gives around 1500MB/s read and write (AJA and Blackmagic). Except, oddly, if I put it in the x16 slot using the Startech card, I only get half speed. Just that slot. And the Sonnet in that slot is fine. Seems like it’s running PCIe 1 speeds. No trouble; use another slot.
Then the weird(er) thing. I decided to get the 15.36TB model. Installed, turned the Mac on, and... nothing. No chime, no screen. Doesn’t matter which adapter card, doesn’t matter which slot, doesn’t matter which 5,1 (I have two). Put the smaller SSD in and it chimes and boots. So I gave up and am going to use the drives in a Sonnet PCIe Thunderbolt chassis hooked to an M1 Mini. That works fine. I did not test on a Mac Pro 7,1.
Long story short: Micron 9300 Pro 15.36TB prevents Mac Pro 5,1 from booting.
Thanks. That's super insightful and weird. I never tried my drive with highpoint in the 5,1. I do know that combo works in the 7,1. So interesting that there would be a variation just on (apparently only) the capacity.
Could also be firmware version now that I think about it. The smaller drives have 11300DN0, while the larger drives have 11300DR0.
BTW where do you get the firmware updates for the drive. I tried on the Micron site but they seemingly wanted some kind of NDA or something. Weird.
Answering my own question. For the latest versions, they require you to do something special, but older versions you have free access.
For the DNO release:
Micron Technology, Inc.
www.micron.com
The DRO release seems locked for now:
Search results
View search results based on user queries, providing links to relevant pages, articles, products, or resources on Micron's official website.
https://www.micron.com/?modal={DE2A626B-33BB-40EF-864D-DE6D64682A0B}&did={ED175417-61AC-41D8-A8F4-985A6CDD2F6A}&returnUrl=%7B%22Sort%22%3A0%2C%22Show%22%3A20%2C%22Page%22%3A0%2C%22Term%22%3A%229300%20pro%20firmware%22%2C%22DocumentsOnly%22%3Afalse%2C%22RoleAssignedItemsOnly%22%3Afalse%2C%22SrcOnly%22%3Afalse%2C%22Filters%22%3A%5B%7B%22QueryToken%22%3A%22fam%22%2C%22Ids%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%2C%7B%22QueryToken%22%3A%22tch%22%2C%22Ids%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%2C%7B%22QueryToken%22%3A%22sln%22%2C%22Ids%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%2C%7B%22QueryToken%22%3A%22doc%22%2C%22Ids%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%7D
https://www.micron.com/?modal={DE2A626B-33BB-40EF-864D-DE6D64682A0B}&did={9BF306C4-E8D4-4A1B-892C-1372397112ED}&returnUrl=%7B%22Sort%22%3A0%2C%22Show%22%3A20%2C%22Page%22%3A0%2C%22Term%22%3A%229300%20pro%20firmware%22%2C%22DocumentsOnly%22%3Afalse%2C%22RoleAssignedItemsOnly%22%3Afalse%2C%22SrcOnly%22%3Afalse%2C%22Filters%22%3A%5B%7B%22QueryToken%22%3A%22fam%22%2C%22Ids%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%2C%7B%22QueryToken%22%3A%22tch%22%2C%22Ids%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%2C%7B%22QueryToken%22%3A%22sln%22%2C%22Ids%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%2C%7B%22QueryToken%22%3A%22doc%22%2C%22Ids%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%7D
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Interesting. I guess I could try putting the older version on my big drives but I don’t think risking bricking an expensive drive is worth it. Anyway, I’m happy with my Thunderbolt M1 Mini solution. Seems stable so far, and actually a bit faster (over 2000MB/s, depending on which benchmark is used). Thanks for the research though. If I were you I wouldn’t update my drive... it may stop working in your 7,1!BTW where do you get the firmware updates for the drive. I tried on the Micron site but they seemingly wanted some kind of NDA or something. Weird.
Answering my own question. For the latest versions, they require you to do something special, but older versions you have free access.
For the DNO release:
Micron Technology, Inc.
The DRO release seems locked for now:
Search results
View search results based on user queries, providing links to relevant pages, articles, products, or resources on Micron's official website.www.micron.com
https://www.micron.com/?modal={DE2A626B-33BB-40EF-864D-DE6D64682A0B}&did={ED175417-61AC-41D8-A8F4-985A6CDD2F6A}&returnUrl=%7B%22Sort%22%3A0%2C%22Show%22%3A20%2C%22Page%22%3A0%2C%22Term%22%3A%229300%20pro%20firmware%22%2C%22DocumentsOnly%22%3Afalse%2C%22RoleAssignedItemsOnly%22%3Afalse%2C%22SrcOnly%22%3Afalse%2C%22Filters%22%3A%5B%7B%22QueryToken%22%3A%22fam%22%2C%22Ids%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%2C%7B%22QueryToken%22%3A%22tch%22%2C%22Ids%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%2C%7B%22QueryToken%22%3A%22sln%22%2C%22Ids%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%2C%7B%22QueryToken%22%3A%22doc%22%2C%22Ids%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%7D
https://www.micron.com/?modal={DE2A626B-33BB-40EF-864D-DE6D64682A0B}&did={9BF306C4-E8D4-4A1B-892C-1372397112ED}&returnUrl=%7B%22Sort%22%3A0%2C%22Show%22%3A20%2C%22Page%22%3A0%2C%22Term%22%3A%229300%20pro%20firmware%22%2C%22DocumentsOnly%22%3Afalse%2C%22RoleAssignedItemsOnly%22%3Afalse%2C%22SrcOnly%22%3Afalse%2C%22Filters%22%3A%5B%7B%22QueryToken%22%3A%22fam%22%2C%22Ids%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%2C%7B%22QueryToken%22%3A%22tch%22%2C%22Ids%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%2C%7B%22QueryToken%22%3A%22sln%22%2C%22Ids%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%2C%7B%22QueryToken%22%3A%22doc%22%2C%22Ids%22%3A%5B%5D%7D%5D%7D
Added 980 PROs to the sonnet today (not necessary for mac pro but I can use it in other Pcie 4 system down the line), and disk utility raid 0 set up, APFS with 64k chunk. Getting amazing speeds but strangely read speed is not 8k+ mb/s
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Do you by chance own a 5,1 / can check if the HighPoint SSD7120 + Micron 15,36TB will be a possible combo ?
The tests "mkush" made was with cards that does not have a PCIe switch (?), but the HighPoint card do have a switch - Maybe its different ?
Im setting up a 5,1 - Already got the SSD7120 card, and was planning to get (just now) the Micron 9300 Pro 15,36 TB as a fast and spacious end-storage disk.
Im currently running 2x "Add in cards", Optane 900P - 480GB as system disk, and Optane P4800X - 1,5GB as projects disk / scratch - Couldn't find much info / threads about Optane media in Mac environment, so basically had to get them and try - They both work perfect.
But the initial plan was to get the P4800X in U.2 format, and use it on the SSD7120, to get better speeds (now limited to gen2 speed 1.500 MB/s) - But happened to find a "Add in card" with some only 1 or 2% usage, for less than 1.000 Euro.
Anybody knows if there is any difference in latency between the PCIe-swich on "Mac Pro 5,1 motherboard" (slot 3+4), and the PCIe-switch on the SSD7120 card put in slot 2 ?
Sorry, unfortunately the 5,1 is inaccessible. Good luck, hope it works for you. Let us know how it went.
Anyone know if HighPoint is planning to support Monterey with new drivers for their RAID cards? I can't find any indication on their website, and Monterey is due out in September or October.
My SSD7103 with driver v1.1.26 appears to be working fine with Mac OS 12.0.1 Monterey. Yay!
Can you raid0 all the slots and boot off a raid0 constructed drive?
Interesting card:
SSD7105 NVMe RAID AIC | HighPoint Technologies, Inc.
SSD7105 is a Bootable 4-port M.2 NVMe RAID Controller, no bifurcation, standalone solution, with dedicated PCIe 3.0 x16 to deliver up to 14GB/s of transfer speed.
highpoint-tech.com
Does anyone here know if HighPoint plans to continue supporting the Mac with drivers, or do they just want us to use their cards driverless? I've been looking over their newer products, and there appears to be very little mention of compatibility with the Macintosh. I was told over a year ago by one of their techs that they planned to re-enable bootability with their RAID drivers, but I am now skeptical.
I have been using it driverless. However, I am not running a RAID, so not sure if a bootable raid would work. My guess is not. From what I've read, non bootable raid will work.
I asked about continuing Mac support because their SSD7103 Downloads web site still has no manuals or drivers for MacOS later than 11.x. Either they just haven't bothered to update the listings to indicate they also work with Monterey (which they do) or they are done supporting Macintosh software. Curiously, I just checked to see if they have drivers on the Windows side for Win 11, and it appears they do not specify which version of Windows their drivers work with.
The last time they updated our driver (v1.1.26) was March 23 of this year. Is HighPoint done updating their drivers? Are all of their newer cards being sold without drivers? Anyone know?
The last time they updated our driver (v1.1.26) was March 23 of this year. Is HighPoint done updating their drivers? Are all of their newer cards being sold without drivers? Anyone know?
Sorry, I don't know the answer. My guess is the drivers for Big Sur likely still work, but yea, would be great to know the answer in some official way from the company. Might be worth an email to their sales and tech support.
I just installed the Sonnet Fusion U.2 and a Kingston DC1500M in my Mac Pro 7,1. The drive was recognized, formatted, and I’ve successfully installed and booted Monterey on it.
However, shutdown and manual reboot both result in a kernel panic and subsequent restart. Sleep causes the disk to in mount.
Any suggestions I should run down?
However, shutdown and manual reboot both result in a kernel panic and subsequent restart. Sleep causes the disk to in mount.
Any suggestions I should run down?
Wow. I really like that Sonnet Fusion U.2 card. That looks so Tidy!
Not sure why your having the KP and mount problems. Is there a driver for the card?
Not sure why your having the KP and mount problems. Is there a driver for the card?
Heard back from Sonnet today and they’re saying the Kingston DC1500M is not compatible with macOS. They recommended a Micron drive.
Can anyone tell me their recent experience with the Micron 9300 series drives in macOS Catalina/Big Sur/Monterey? In particular, do the drives have any issues waking from sleep, or hanging the system on restart? I'm going to have to return a Kingston DC1500M U.2 that won't play nice with macOS.
I hear from HighPoint that they are still supporting drivers for Mac OS. I suggested they update their download page to reflect that the existing driver works with Mac OS 12.0.1, and I just went to see if they did. Their old download page has been replaced with a new one (in fact it looks like most of their web pages have been updated). The software is the same as before, and it still says it works with Mac OS 11.x. Nothing about Mac OS 12.x yet.