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

[moab1]

this post (earlier I this thread) and couple posts after it...

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...r-2019-ncmp-7-1-mac-pro.2189591/post-28067731

Got it. Just read through the list. When will you be testing this out? NextWarehouse looks sketchy in terms of ordering the drive. Have you seen it at any reputable dealers (ideally with a good return policy - refund/norestck fee)?

 

[profdraper]

Another interesting point about the OWC 4M2: you can't purchase an empty one. They have four configurations available, all pre-populated with NVMe drives that you may or may not want. I've contacted them directly and they said they have no plans to offer a drive-less version of the card.

IMHO, that pretty much disqualifies it as a potential.

Posted elsewhere on this thread, empty OWC 4M2 is available from B&H.

 

[chfilm]

I'm not sure there is consensus yet. Seems most want to go to a PCI card with M.2 sticks, which have tradeoffs.

I think Im going to try the 7120 using U.2 drives. The 7120 in theory should let you use 4 U.2 drives which would give you over 60TB of SSD storage. Also the 7120 has no fan so it's better wrt noise. Right now the only challenge I see to using 4 drives is finding a double 2.5-to-3.5" adapter bracket that can hold 2 15mm drives. Then you could put 4 of them into the Pegasus J2i bracket.

For myself, I think I'm just going to get a single Micron 9300 pro 15.36 TB drive, and use that for now as is. Then plug in a 16TB Seagate Exos spinner for time machine on it. both will fit comfortably in the J2i bracket. The Micron runs at 3500MB/sec read/write, so for now, it's adequate speed (faster than Apple's built in SSDs). And this gives me the option to expand to 3 more of those drives for some crazy performance. IMO, it's the least compromised of all the options.

The Micron 9300 Pro goes for about $2400. You're going to spend more than that for 6 2TB M.2 NVMe sticks even and still have less storage even with the Squid card (although you will likely have 4x the throughput--not sure if any of the 4stick PCI cards are bootable when in RAID though)...

Wow, really, when did we end up at just 2400€ for 15TB of SSD, that’s insane! Back then it was 1000 for 1TB

Sounds like a great plan.
i couldn’t find any documentation about the high point card, only another model on their website.. what kind of cables are needed to connect that card to the 9300? Please report back when you tested this. Sounds amazing!

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Wow, really, when did we end up at just 2400€ for 15TB of SSD, that’s insane! Back then it was 1000 for 1TB

Sounds like a great plan.
i couldn’t find any documentation about the high point card, only another model on their website.. what kind of cables are needed to connect that card to the 9300? Please report back when you tested this. Sounds amazing!

Discussed in this post and couple past it:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...r-2019-ncmp-7-1-mac-pro.2189591/post-28067731
[automerge]1576540403[/automerge]

Got it. Just read through the list. When will you be testing this out? NextWarehouse looks sketchy in terms of ordering the drive. Have you seen it at any reputable dealers (ideally with a good return policy - refund/norestck fee)?

My Mac Pro should arrive anywhere from Dec 30 to Jan 7. Im going to try to have the drive etc available around the same time. So will see.

Nextwarehouse has been around for zillion years, but I've never bought from them before myself. Amazon has the lower capacity versions of the drive including a 12TB unit. They did have the 15.36TB version too, but for some reason they are currently out:

Here's the 12TB:
https://www.amazon.com/Micron-12-8T...eywords=micron+9300+pro&qid=1576540333&sr=8-4

Here's the 15.36TB unit (which is currently unavailable through amazon):
https://www.amazon.com/Micron-15-36TB-Enterprise-Solid-State/dp/B07SK8GSYZ?tag=macrumors-20

 

[joevt]

Option B
Another option is this Squid that takes 6 NVMe sticks (so you could fill it with 6 2TB sticks for around 12TB and reportedly around 12-14GB/sec read writes:
https://amfeltec.com/pci-express-gen-3-carrier-board-for-6-m2-or-ngsff-nf1-pcie-ssd-modules

Thoughts
I think I like the U.2 form factor better. Not clear if either of those solutions will let you boot from a RAID, but from another thread, it seems you can at least boot with a single drive on the U.2 solution:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...r-2019-ncmp-7-1-mac-pro.2189591/post-27538765

Combine both options. Get the Amfeltec squid for 6 M.2 slots, and add M.2 to U.2 adapters. This might block a slot or two though.
https://www.amazon.com/U-2-M-2-Adapter-Interface-Drive/dp/B073WGN61Y

What about using a cheap PCIe card that holds an M.2 drive? You can find them on newegg etc. for under 40 dollars.
Would those work? I think they work on the older cheesegraters...

Yes, but they only hold one drive. You would be wasting an x8 or x16 slot with an x4 device.

Is there a solution for getting the MacPro7,1 SATA power cable separately? As an alternative, there's probably a PCIe cable (12V) that includes voltage regulation to supply 5V and 3.3V...

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

So one new issue, it's tough to find the Micron 9300 Pro 15.36TB drive in stock anywhere. The 12.8TB Max version is available, but the 15.36TB Pro version seems not around. It was available readily for months before and on Amazon. Strange, it seems to be on back order until early January at the moment. Ug, annoying.

 

[H. Flower]

I have the OWC arriving today (8TB), am going to install and let you guys know how it goes.

 

[eric.blair]

I have the OWC arriving today (8TB), am going to install and let you guys know how it goes.

Perfect. I'm thinking about grabbing one of these as well since there is no Fan. Let us know!

 

[H. Flower]

OK, so for the OWC 8TB Im getting:

Black Magic Speed Test: 4.75, 5.2

Setup with SoftRAID was a cinch. I optimized for digital video.

No noise!

Looking and sounding good to me!

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

OK, so for the OWC 8TB Im getting:

Black Magic Speed Test: 4.75, 5.2

Setup with SoftRAID was a cinch. I optimized for digital video.

No noise!

Looking and sounding good to me!

Is the entire 8tb raid'd into a single volume that is bootable?

 

[H. Flower]

Is the entire 8tb raid'd into a single volume that is bootable?

Yes, it's raid'd 0 into a single volume.

I'm using it for media, so I don't know if you can boot from it (sorry, I know the thread title is about bootable)

 

[Korican100]

Yes, it's raid'd 0 into a single volume.

I'm using it for media, so I don't know if you can boot from it (sorry, I know the thread title is about bootable)

are you using it purely as a scratch disk? you don't have any redundancy needs?
im tihining about pulling the trigger on the 4tb as a scratch disk for FCPX

 

[H. Flower]

are you using it purely as a scratch disk? you don't have any redundancy needs?
im tihining about pulling the trigger on the 4tb as a scratch disk for FCPX

I use it to store the project, audio and video media. Caches are also set to this drive. Maybe later I'll get another internal drive just for caches.

Redundancy: I autosave project files to the local the startup drive. In addition, I am going to purchase an external HDD to use as time machine backup of the 8TB SSD media drive for overnight backups. My footage usually comes from external drives, so that's one extra backup of the footage, also.

This setup usually protects me.

 

[Korican100]

I use it to store the project, audio and video media. Caches are also set to this drive. Maybe later I'll get another internal drive just for caches.

Redundancy: I autosave project files to the local the startup drive. In addition, I am going to purchase an external HDD to use as time machine backup of the 8TB SSD media drive for overnight backups. My footage usually comes from external drives, so that's one extra backup of the footage, also.

This setup usually protects me.

yea.i do the same thing with the backups. On import of footage, i usually transfer to two places and make some coffee. One dump on my scratch disk, and one being the backup HDD. Then don't delete the footage on the card media until im done with the project!

 

[H. Flower]

Yep! I was thinking about getting the pegasus internal for the time machine backup , but I'm thinking it may be good to have the backup physically away from the computer when not being used....it just seems safer.

 

[ldstern10]

Can the Highpoint 7101 be installed in a PCI slot without the top heatsink cover? I would like to disconnect the fan to eliminate fan noise and add individual heat sinks to the ssd’s and switch. This would allow airflow via the computer‘s airflow. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[tsialex]

Can the Highpoint 7101 be installed in a PCI slot without the top heatsink cover? I would like to disconnect the fan to eliminate fan noise and add individual heat sinks to the ssd’s and switch. This would allow airflow via the computer‘s airflow. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

People have being doing this mod for some time with MP5,1, see this post #389 and later ones.

 

[ldstern10]

People have being doing this mod for some time with MP5,1, see this post #389 and later ones.

Thanks for your response. So I can install without the top plate cover?

 

[tsialex]

Thanks for your response. So I can install without the top plate cover?

If you install heatsinks on the blades and PCIe switch, remember that PEX8747 is rated for 70ºC maximum operating temperature and dissipates 8W.

Keep it well below 70ºC at all times.

 

[bsbeamer]

For anyone considering an ACCELSIOR 4M2 from OWC, the currently available versions for sale are NOT yet compatible with MP7,1. Being told a firmware update will be required, which will not be available until next week at the earliest. I'm sure the holiday will slow down a bit too.

Unsure if this is a user-end firmware update, or something OWC needs to do, or via Windows only.

Personally would only consider the Sonnet M.2 4x4 if you need verified MP7,1 support and can live with the blade restrictions, or else the HighPoint.

Right now the Accelsior is sounding way too similar to issues that presented with older OWC PCIe SSD devices that were headaches for the first several months on new machines.

 

[tsialex]

For anyone considering an ACCELSIOR 4M2 from OWC, the currently available versions for sale are NOT yet compatible with MP7,1. Being told a firmware update will be required, which will not be available until next week at the earliest. I'm sure the holiday will slow down a bit too.

Unsure if this is a user-end firmware update, or something OWC needs to do, or via Windows only.

Personally would only consider the Sonnet M.2 4x4 if you need verified MP7,1 support and can live with the blade restrictions, or else the HighPoint.

Right now the Accelsior is sounding way too similar to issues that presented with older OWC PCIe SSD devices that were headaches for the first several months on new machines.

People already bought and are using the 4M2 with MP7,1, I don't doubt that we will see some initial compatibility problems like some of the previous OWC products.

I have a suspicion that the virtual switches/pools of the PEX8796 will cause some trouble.

 

[giggles]

Save from specific needs for that massive speed, I would probably take no moving parts at 8x over tiny fans at 16x...

Unrelated question: can a 2x2TB kit of apple flash blades taken from an iMac Pro be installed (by the user, not at an authorized repair place) in a MacPro? or the T2 would prevent that?

 

[tsialex]

Save from specific needs for that massive speed, I would probably take no moving parts at 8x over tiny fans at 16x...

Unrelated question: can a 2x2TB kit of apple flash blades taken from an iMac Pro be installed (by the user, not at an authorized repair place) in a MacPro? or the T2 would prevent that?

If it's the same process as with iMac Pro blades, only Apple and AASPs can do the T2 pairing with the NAND modules.

 

[H. Flower]

For anyone considering an ACCELSIOR 4M2 from OWC, the currently available versions for sale are NOT yet compatible with MP7,1. Being told a firmware update will be required, which will not be available until next week at the earliest. I'm sure the holiday will slow down a bit too.

Unsure if this is a user-end firmware update, or something OWC needs to do, or via Windows only.

Personally would only consider the Sonnet M.2 4x4 if you need verified MP7,1 support and can live with the blade restrictions, or else the HighPoint.

Right now the Accelsior is sounding way too similar to issues that presented with older OWC PCIe SSD devices that were headaches for the first several months on new machines.

I talked directly to OWC and was told differently - that there’s no issues. So I installed one and am running it with no problems so far. Hopefully that sustains, but I will be eager to download the firmware -

 

[giggles]

If it's the same process as with iMac Pro blades, only Apple and AASPs can do the T2 pairing with the NAND modules.

I see, thanks.
So no point in searching for those on ebay.

Another question: if one would choose to completely “ignore” the 256GB apple SSD and use it only for firmware upgrades of the machine, would it be best to keep it powered inside the machine or in cold storage in a drawer? To reduce the chance of it going bad etc.