Fastest Bootable Bootcamp SSD for 2010 Mac Pro

[shaunp]

I have an original Mac Pro 2010 with 64GB ram. I want to run Windows Server 2016 on it.

- What would be the fastest SSD I can use for booting to Windows, which is equal or larger than 512GB?
- Which M2 card would work well?

Just get any SATA SSD that has the capacity you want. In the real world you won't notice any difference between different types of SSD, especially not for Windows once you have a few updates on there and some applications.

As with CPU's for every day stuff we reach a point years ago where SSD's were fast enough. You could pick up, for example a 2010 MBP with a SATA SSD inside and it would be fast enough for web browsing and running a few VMs. You may get short on RAM, but the storage would be able to cope with what you are wanting it to do.

So if I were you I wouldn't over think this, I'd just get the best price I could on a 512GB or 1TB SATA SSD (Samsung, Western Digital or some other quality brand) from a good supplier and have done with it. Spend your time thinking about something else. SATA would also be the easiest to install in your Mac Pro.

 

[goodfidelity]

Managed now to get it to identify, but not to either clone windows 10 from existing installation, or to make fresh windows 10 install.

Anyone have a clue how to get on going with this?

 

[tsialex]

Managed now to get it to identify, but not to either clone windows 10 from existing installation, or to make fresh windows 10 install.

Anyone have a clue how to get on going with this?

I never used a Predator with Windows but seems it's incompatible with CSM installs, @cdf know more about it and posted about the problem here #12.

 

[goodfidelity]

I never used a Predator with Windows but seems it's incompatible with CSM installs, @cdf know more about it and posted about the problem here #12.

Thanks again!

Now i have bought several SSDs for this project.

-NVME Samsung 970 + . (FAIL!!) On normal PCI board
-AHCI HYPER PREDATOR Kingston 480 Gb (FAIL!!) On normal PCI board
-4x AHCI Samsung 951 256Gb on SQUID PCI board with switch

Tonight i will try on the Samsung 951 AHCI and see if i can manage.

I think i will make new post on this issue, and make writeup about how to do this if i manage, because i think that it is more people then me who wish to run bootcamp off a PCI blade disk.

Thanks for all the help so far guys!
Wish me luck.

//GF

 

[cdf]

I think i will make new post on this issue, and make writeup about how to do this if i manage, because i think that it is more people then me who wish to run bootcamp off a PCI blade disk.

I don't think it is possible to do a CSM installation on a PCI drive. To make matters worst, just having the Kingston HyperX Predator in your machine will prevent Windows from booting, even if Windows is on another drive. The good news is that with the protection offered by OpenCore, we should be able to move to UEFI installations.

 

[tsialex]

I don't think it is possible to do a CSM installation on a PCI drive. To make matters worst, just having the Kingston HyperX Predator in your machine will prevent Windows from booting, even if Windows is on another drive. The good news is that with the protection offered by OpenCore, we should be able to move to UEFI installations.

You can't install to an AHCI drive directly, external limitation of MP5,1 firmware, but you can run Windows from an AHCI PCIe drive (at least with a SM951-AHCI).

The only ways to install CSM Windows to an AHCI PCIe SSD that I know of are:

1. via a PC that supports it as internal (like some PC motherboards that have M.2 connectors on-board and still support Windows CSM installs - rare),
2. via Windows DSIM installs,
3. via cloning from a SATA disk,
4. via VMware raw-disk.

I did 1, 2 and 4 back in the day. Don't recommend 2 or 4 because of the inherent complexity.