Dual nvme drive pcie card on 2009/2010 Mac Pro

[josecarrillo]

Hi there! I am planning on buying a 2009/2010 Mac Pro for my editing and color grading work. Since these computers now support nvme boot drives I have decided to go with a samsung evo 970.

I have bought a pcie card that can hold two drives at once, hoping that I could raid 0 them to gain more speed or maybe use one as a boot drive and the other one as a scratch/cache disk. The reason behind this is that pcie slots on these machines are precious and I would like to make the most out of each one. I will have an RX580 nitro+ 8gb GPU that will take up two slots already, and most certainly I will also install a usb 3.0 card that will take up another one.

I would like to know if this dual nvme pcie card makes any sense or if both drives will conflict in someway and not work at the speeds that they are expected to work at. The card is:

https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B079HY8QM8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Thanks!!!

 

[Slash-2CPU]

Will not work. One drive is PCIe.

Other drive is SATA pass-through. That is why the extra connector.

 

[AlexMaximus]

Hi there! I am planning on buying a 2009/2010 Mac Pro for my editing and color grading work. Since these computers now support nvme boot drives I have decided to go with a samsung evo 970.

I have bought a pcie card that can hold two drives at once, hoping that I could raid 0 them to gain more speed or maybe use one as a boot drive and the other one as a scratch/cache disk. The reason behind this is that pcie slots on these machines are precious and I would like to make the most out of each one. I will have an RX580 nitro+ 8gb GPU that will take up two slots already, and most certainly I will also install a usb 3.0 card that will take up another one.

I would like to know if this dual nvme pcie card makes any sense or if both drives will conflict in someway and not work at the speeds that they are expected to work at. The card is:

https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B079HY8QM8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Thanks!!!

I have the same situation as you do. I did order this card last week from China. There are people on this forum that use this card with success. It's a bit cheaper than the Amfeltec or Highpoint card.

https://www.amazon.com/CREST-SI-PEX40129-Ports-Bifurcation-Controller/dp/B07HYZY7P2

It just got released and it's coming to Europe soon. I could not find a US Seller that will ship it to Europe, so you need to get the Chinese / Alibaba version, which has a slightly different name. (ASM2824)

Read this for further information:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/blade-ssds-nvme-ahci.2146725/

 

[Eneco]

I have the same situation as you do. I did order this card last week from China. There are people on this forum that use this card with success. It's a bit cheaper than the Amfeltec or Highpoint card.

https://www.amazon.com/CREST-SI-PEX40129-Ports-Bifurcation-Controller/dp/B07HYZY7P2

I'm running the exact same card with success. Although I'm not using Raid. Everything is working fine except for the fan. It's noisy as hell. But as the heatsink is large enough, I simply removed the fan and the temperatures are still fine.

There is also an European distributor in France selling it on Amazon UK:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07889WB89/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[AlexMaximus]

I'm running the exact same card with success. Although I'm not using Raid. Everything is working fine except for the fan. It's noisy as hell. But as the heatsink is large enough, I simply removed the fan and the temperatures are still fine.

There is also an European distributor in France selling it on Amazon UK:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07889WB89/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Great, thats good to know. I ordered it to get one pci Slot back. One of my existing AHCI drives 951 will Go in there together with a new NVMe 970 Evo. The older 941 HyperX will go in the PX1 Adapter. I thought about USB-C but my Calldigit USB3 Ports are enough for me.

 

[countershading]

Is there a good description for what each of the 4 PCIe slots can do nowadays and where one should install each of the most common upgrades (Metal GPU, USB3 card, NVMe…)?

 

[startergo]

Is there a good description for what each of the 4 PCIe slots can do nowadays and where one should install each of the most common upgrades (Metal GPU, USB3 card, NVMe…)?

Yes there is. Look at the cMP service manual. You will find the PCIE data flow diagram there.

 

[countershading]

Yes there is. Look at the cMP service manual. You will find the PCIE data flow diagram there.

I mean what follows from that. I see people argue over whether it makes a difference which slot you use.

 

[Slash-2CPU]

I mean what follows from that. I see people argue over whether it makes a difference which slot you use.

For a single m.2 in a single adapter, there is not much difference. The slot next to the video card is very slightly faster. Just a tiny bit. You will never notice the difference.

When using a dual or quad m.2 adapter, there is a very large difference. Slot next to video card is much, much faster for sequential transfers.

 

[countershading]

For a single m.2 in a single adapter, there is not much difference. The slot next to the video card is very slightly faster. Just a tiny bit. You will never notice the difference.

When using a dual or quad m.2 adapter, there is a very large difference. Slot next to video card is much, much faster for sequential transfers.

Does this mean the video card is in Slot 1 and the m.2 adapter goes in Slot 2?

 

[Slash-2CPU]

Does this mean the video card is in Slot 1 and the m.2 adapter goes in Slot 2?

Does this mean the video card is in Slot 1 and the m.2 adapter goes in Slot 2?

Yes. 1&2 are dedicated x16 connections to north bridge. Each slot has a full x16. 3&4 share an x4 link back to the south bridge.

 

[countershading]

Yes. 1&2 are dedicated x16 connections to north bridge. Each slot has a full x16. 3&4 share an x4 link back to the south bridge.

So reversing Slot 1 & 2 would work just as well and presumably allow more airflow for the GPU?

 

[Slash-2CPU]

So reversing Slot 1 & 2 would work just as well and presumably allow more airflow for the GPU?

Correct. If you don’t mind blocking slot 3.