Cheap USB 3 card in mid-2012

[F1Mac]

Not long ago I bought a cheap little USB 3.0 card for my Mac Pro, which seemed to work fine. After a while though, I noticed the Mac would restart by itself with no warning and got KPs every time I wanted to connect more than one usb 3.0 device - for instance, one external HD + another HD + a blu-ray drive. With just one HD I don't have KPs.

That's the card in question:
http://www.sybausa.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=231

...2 days ago I removed it and now everything's back to normal. Obviously something's wrong between the computer and the card, I just wonder what is wrong. Any idea(s)?

 

[bsbeamer]

Says chipset is Etron EJ188H and that probably is the main issue. Do not believe the chipset is natively supported by OS and would need drivers, which likely are not available.

For cheap, just works PCIe USB 3 card take a look at the Inateck KT4004. Works great in 5,1 without need for additional power and uses FL1100 chipset. (Looks to be in stock in a few days again - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I027GPC)

This thread may be helpful:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/usb-3-x-pcie-cards-for-classic-mac-pro.1501482/

 

[Plutonius]

Says chipset is Etron EJ188H and that probably is the main issue. Do not believe the chipset is natively supported by OS and would need drivers, which likely are not available.

For cheap, just works PCIe USB 3 card take a look at the Inateck KT4004. Works great in 5,1 without need for additional power and uses FL1100 chipset. (Looks to be in stock in a few days again - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I027GPC)

This thread may be helpful:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/usb-3-x-pcie-cards-for-classic-mac-pro.1501482/

It looks like a good card but Amazon claims that it is incompatible for OSX 10.10 and above.

 

[bsbeamer]

I can 100% confirm that the KT4004 works in macOS 10.13.4 on authentic MacPro5,1. Also works on many other machines. Check that forum post for additional info.

 

[F1Mac]

Says chipset is Etron EJ188H and that probably is the main issue. Do not believe the chipset is natively supported by OS and would need drivers, which likely are not available.

For cheap, just works PCIe USB 3 card take a look at the Inateck KT4004. Works great in 5,1 without need for additional power and uses FL1100 chipset. (Looks to be in stock in a few days again - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I027GPC)

It looks like a good card but Amazon claims that it is incompatible for OSX 10.10 and above.

The comments suggest the card works fine with Yosemite and even El Capitan. With no additional power it does look tempting.
[doublepost=1523460467][/doublepost]

I can 100% confirm that the KT4004 works in macOS 10.13.4 on authentic MacPro5,1. Also works on many other machines

That's great thanks for the info!

 

[Plutonius]

The comments suggest the card works fine with Yosemite and even El Capitan. With no additional power it does look tempting.
[doublepost=1523460467][/doublepost]

That's great thanks for the info!

Thank you for the info. I wonder why they said it was incompatible ?

 

[ActionableMango]

Thank you for the info. I wonder why they said it was incompatible ?

I have no idea why Inatek says that, but many people use the card just fine in every OS since 10.8.2.

The Inatek's FL1100 chipset is the same chipset used in the MP 6,1 for USB 3.0, so Apple isn't going to stop including support in MacOS any time soon.