Highpoint 7101A - PCIe 3.0 SSD performance for the cMP

[w1z]

This is brilliant. What are/where did you get the connectors for the bare wires on the fans?
Fan connectors are JST-PH 2.0mm (Digikey link for JST-PH connector kit).

Any reason not to consider the marginally slower but quieter BFB0512LA-CF (22.5dB-A 2.18 CFM 3500RPM)?

BTW: for those looking to buy fans from Digikey, the F stands for speed (3-wire). Also, check to make sure you order the proper 2- or 3-wire variant depending on your PCB.

Thanks. I used the stock fan's connectors. I have the first hw ver of the 7101A which uses 2-wire leads and lacks speed sensor control/readings and I wanted to stay as close as possible to the stock fan's model series and electrical specifications. At the time (not sure if this is still the case), the 28dB-A model was the quietest best option available.

The newer version of the 7101A supports speed sensor control/readings and the fan you proposed would work great with it but again, I would highly recommend installing a copper heatsink on the controller chip for both classic and new mac pros.

 

[iam_andy]

Attached is an archive PCI Tools with DirectHW.kext and Kext Drop for macOS that I compiled and use to enable 5.0 GT/sec performance on the Mac Pro.

Before PCI Tools can be used, DirectHW.kext must be installed using Kext Drop, with System Integrity Protection disabled.

After the 3,1 is booted, you can use PCI tools to increase PCIe 2.0 X16 slot#2 speed to 5.0 GT/sec.

The following terminal commands can be used to run setpci from their containing folder.
sudo ./setpci -s 00:7 CAP_EXP+30.w=2:F
sudo ./setpci -s 00:7 CAP_EXP+10.w=20:20

I'll be adding on to the step-by-step document.
[doublepost=1531507188][/doublepost]

NICE!! The 970 PRO is a FAST SSD. I look forward to hearing how it works out. The 1TB 970 pro should deliver a decent boost in performance compared to your 960 Pro 256.

Hello,

I am on a 3,1 that has the Catalina Patch running on it. I was trying to get my NVMe to be able to boot off of, but I was having some issues following the DXE part of the steps... I get an error that says:
QIODevice::read (QFile, "./NVMe_DXE.ffs"): device not open

I am not sure where in the steps this was supposed to be loaded or downloaded, or if it needs to reside anywhere in particular... Im not sure. Any ideas?

 

[KevinClark]

Is there a way to upgrade the firmware to get fan speed control ? for my highpoint 7101a 1

 

[tsialex]

Is there a way to upgrade the firmware to get fan speed control ? for my highpoint 7101a 1

First, your card don't support fan speed control, it's a v1.01 card with 2-pin fan.

Second, like said before in the thread, you have to send your card, PCB v2.00, to HighPoint to have the firmware upgrade.

This is the PCB version and type of fan that can be firmware upgraded to have fan control:

 

[KevinClark]

ok so mine is not possible to upgrade

 

[Virtuoso]

ok so mine is not possible to upgrade

Not for speed control, but you could upgrade the fan to a quieter one (see earlier in thread).

 

[KevinClark]

which model exactly please

 

[tsialex]

which model exactly please

You need to read the thread, you are asking questions already answered:

Highpoint 7101A - PCIe 3.0 SSD performance for the cMP

The new fan, BFB0512MA-C, arrived this morning and I just finished installing it. I also replaced the copper heatsink with a new smaller copper heatsink which I used in my initial mod as the larger heatsink was collecting dust around the edges. I hate dust. Previous results with 32.5 dB(A)...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[KevinClark]

ok thanks sorry

 

[KevinClark]

The new fan, BFB0512MA-C, arrived this morning and I just finished installing it. I also replaced the copper heatsink with a new smaller copper heatsink which I used in my initial mod as the larger heatsink was collecting dust around the edges. I hate dust.

Previous results with 32.5 dB(A), part no. BFB0512HA-C - 3.5 CFM, 5100RPM

- PCIe ambient @ 29C and NVMe drive @ 36~38C peaking at 41C under heavy write with the PCIe fan spinning at 800rpm (default SMC control) and room ambient temp at 28C (APC Environment Temp Sensor)

Current results with 28 dB(A), part no. BFB0512MA-C - 2.9 CFM, 4300RPM

- PCIe ambient @ 31C and NVMe drive @ 37~39C peaking at 41~42C under heavy write with the PCIe fan spinning at 980rpm (default SMC control) and room ambient temp at 30C (APC Environment Temp Sensor)

The PLX switch's copper heatsink temperature is 39~41.5C (measured by infrared thermometer)

Photos:

View attachment 831250

View attachment 831253 View attachment 831252

The 28dB(A) fan is much quieter than the previous 32.5dB(A) that I actually can't hear it over the mac pro fans' noise.

I am happy with these results and with my once again near silent mac pro. I highly recommend this mod as a good solution to the Highpoint 7101-A's loud stock fan.

Hello Which connector model for the The new fan, BFB0512MA-C Digikey ?

Please I found the fan but not the connector

BFB0512MA-C | Digi-Key Electronics

Commandez aujourd'hui, et la commande est expédiée le jour même. BFB0512MA-C – Ventilateur Soufflante 12V CC Carré - 50mm L x 50mm H Roulement à billes 2,9pi3/min (0,081m³/min) 2 fils broches de Delta Electronics. Prix et disponibilité pour des millions de composants électroniques de Digi-Key...

www.digikey.fr

 

[rylim]

I'm not sure if this question was asked before, regarding the durability of this Highpoint PCIE card? I have seen many posts about the sudden death of this card.

Therefore, I would like to know if anyone tried an alternative card such as Amfeltec for 6x M.2 card?

 

[tsialex]

I'm not sure if this question was asked before, regarding the durability of this Highpoint PCIE card? I have seen many posts about the sudden death of this card.

Therefore, I would like to know if anyone tried an alternative card such as Amfeltec for 6x M.2 card?

Posts about sudden death? Where? It's all dead on arrival, AFAIK.

Amfeltec cards all use the same switch, just the ancillaries components and firmware differ from HighPoint. Btw, usually Amfeltec cards work hotter than HighPoint cards.

 

[crjackson2134]

I have seen many posts about the sudden death of this card.

MANY POSTS? Are you joking? It’s a very durable / reliable piece of hardware. Mainly the only complaints registered are fan noise on the first version cards (like mine). I don’t have a noise issue however, so I have no complaints.

Some people have conflicts that are related to the RAID driver suite, but I don’t need or use that either. I find it unnecessary for my system.

 

[handheldgames]

MANY POSTS? Are you joking? It’s a very durable / reliable piece of hardware. Mainly the only complaints registered are fan noise on the first version cards (like mine). I don’t have a noise issue however, so I have no complaints.

Some people have conflicts that are related to the driver suite, but I don’t need or use that either. I find it unnecessary for my system.

Swapping out a replacement fan is easy and cheap. And if you can't stand the sound of high pitched fans, it;s worth every penny. I've always been sensitive to high pitched noises and back in the day, I could walk into a house with a tube tv running in some distant room and could hear the high pitch noise emitted by the high voltage flyback.
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Posts about sudden death? Where? It's all dead on arrival, AFAIK.

Amfeltec cards all use the same switch, just the ancillaries components and firmware differ from HighPoint. Btw, usually Amfeltec cards work hotter than HighPoint cards.

Plus the dual sided nature of the Amfeltec cards make it difficult to mount proper SSD heatsinks without crowding adjacent cards. I had a one once. Sold it as soon as I bought the highpoint. Would never buy an amfeltec design again. It's a novel design at best.. Not worth buying.

 

[KevinClark]

Here is the original reference Fan for the Highpoint 7101 A1


I need a quieter with the cable and connector

 

[rylim]

Posts about sudden death? Where? It's all dead on arrival, AFAIK.

Amfeltec cards all use the same switch, just the ancillaries components and firmware differ from HighPoint. Btw, usually Amfeltec cards work hotter than HighPoint cards.

At first, I thought the Amfeltec is using different switch and I was quoted $760 for the card.

One of them: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/highpoint-7101a-dead.2171611/

I saw the other posts on the other day but didn't took a screenshot of it.

MANY POSTS? Are you joking? It’s a very durable / reliable piece of hardware. Mainly the only complaints registered are fan noise on the first version cards (like mine). I don’t have a noise issue however, so I have no complaints.

Some people have conflicts that are related to the RAID driver suite, but I don’t need or use that either. I find it unnecessary for my system.

Actually I bought two of them and they are sitting in my closet, as I am hesitated to install it (I want to a stable system) as there are some minor issues with it:

1) Fan Noise
2) Mac Pro can't go to sleep mode - My major concern as sometime I will be away from MP for hours.
3) The reliability.

By the way, which RAID driver or software did you use? I'm planning to create RAID 0 among 2 PCIE card and have my MP backed up by my NAS.

Swapping out a replacement fan is easy and cheap. And if you can't stand the sound of high pitched fans, it;s worth every penny. I've always been sensitive to high pitched noises and back in the day, I could walk into a house with a tube tv running in some distant room and could hear the high pitch noise emitted by the high voltage flyback.
[automerge]1588216401[/automerge]


Plus the dual sided nature of the Amfeltec cards make it difficult to mount proper SSD heatsinks without crowding adjacent cards. I had a one once. Sold it as soon as I bought the highpoint. Would never buy an amfeltec design again. It's a novel design at best.. Not worth buying.

Didn't notice that the Amfeltec card will have that issue.

 

[KevinClark]

My card is Highpoint 7101 A1 with V1.01 version so not able to setup the fan speed in the Highpoint WEB GUI application

 

[MP39]

Hoping to get some help: Read through this whole forum -- nothing quite hitting on my specific scenario. Attempting to create Hardware RAID-0 under HighPoint SSD7703 RAID Management GUI. All drivers installed. Only seeing 3 x Samsung 1TB NVMe drives to setup for total of 3TB when clearly I have 4 x 1TB. Noticing one NVMe shows up differently. Tried reformatting a few times, NVRAM and SMC reset, removing and reinstalling NVMEs and card, etc. Attempting same thing under Windows 10 HighPoint GUI shows all 4 and allows me to setup RAID-0, but not in macOS Catalina 10.15.4. Ref pics attached. Any thoughts on what I'm missing or why I am not able to see all 4 in GUI under macOS?

 

[tsialex]

Hoping to get some help: Read through this whole forum -- nothing quite hitting on my specific scenario. Attempting to create Hardware RAID-0 under HighPoint SSD7703 RAID Management GUI. All drivers installed. Only seeing 3 x Samsung 1TB NVMe drives to setup for total of 3TB when clearly I have 4 x 1TB. Noticing one NVMe shows up differently. Tried reformatting a few times, NVRAM and SMC reset, removing and reinstalling NVMEs and card, etc. Attempting same thing under Windows 10 HighPoint GUI shows all 4 and allows me to setup RAID-0, but not in macOS Catalina 10.15.4. Ref pics attached. Any thoughts on what I'm missing or why I am not able to see all 4 in GUI under macOS?

Did you checked the firmware version of all blades? Initial EVO+ firmware is macOS incompatible.

PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI

This is a general info thread for blade SSDs that can be used in the Mac Pro. This is a WikiPost so anyone with the proper credentials may edit it. NVMe SSDs can be used as a boot drive in the MP5,1 and MP6,1 with the latest firmware installed (beginning with version 140.0.0.0.0 for MP5,1 and...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[MP39]

Did you checked the firmware version of all blades? Initial EVO+ firmware is macOS incompatible.

PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI

This is a general info thread for blade SSDs that can be used in the Mac Pro. This is a WikiPost so anyone with the proper credentials may edit it. NVMe SSDs can be used as a boot drive in the MP5,1 and MP6,1 with the latest firmware installed (beginning with version 140.0.0.0.0 for MP5,1 and...

forums.macrumors.com

Yes, I did check with the Samsung Firmware tool and it showed all were already up-to-date. I recall doing this when I first got the NVMe's. I was digging a bit more and noticed on highpoint-tech.com's website the SSD7103 *technically* only supports Windows/Linux? The 4 x drives formatted fine as RAID-0 under Disk Utility, but using the HighPoint RAID GUI Utility it behaves as previously mentioned. Also, reviewing other information in this thread, I figured it might help to share the board is a rev 1.2 board. Does this mean anything? Also, do you think it might be related to the fact that HighPoint doesn't have a particular version of the software on their page for Mac for the SSD103?

 

[tsialex]

Yes, I did check with the Samsung Firmware tool and it showed all were already up-to-date. I recall doing this when I first got the NVMe's. I was digging a bit more and noticed on highpoint-tech.com's website the SSD7103 *technically* only supports Windows/Linux? The 4 x drives formatted fine as RAID-0 under Disk Utility, but using the HighPoint RAID GUI Utility it behaves as previously mentioned. Also, reviewing other information in this thread, I figured it might help to share the board is a rev 1.2 board. Does this mean anything? Also, do you think it might be related to the fact that HighPoint doesn't have a particular version of the software on their page for Mac for the SSD103? View attachment 912814 View attachment 912815

Other users have the SSD7103 and, AFAIK, you are the only one having any problems. It's a strange behaviour, did you tried with other blades?

Useless info, but I never had anything like your problem with my SSD7101A-1 V1.01. Your's is a first.
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Move your posts to the SSD7101A-1 main thread, a lot more people follow there:

Highpoint 7101A - PCIe 3.0 SSD performance for the cMP

Introduction Stumbling into an Amazon warehouse Deal, I picked up the HighPoint 7101a NVMe PCIe adapter, equipped with a MacPro friendly Broadcom 8747 PCIe bridge at a great price. While Highpoint's acknowledgement of MacPro compatibility was sketchy at best, I ordered one to go along with a...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[MP39]

Yes, that's what I saw too in reviewing everything. Ok, I appreciate your inspection, tsialex! I am going to try reaching out to someone at HighPoint and see what I can find out. If I uncover anything, I'll post it here. PS - Regarding Rev 1.2, does that mean anything for my fan or with regard to firmware? Checking so I can hit two things at once when I contact HighPoint. Thanks!

 

[tsialex]

Yes, that's what I saw too in reviewing everything. Ok, I appreciate your inspection, tsialex! I am going to try reaching out to someone at HighPoint and see what I can find out. If I uncover anything, I'll post it here. PS - Regarding Rev 1.2, does that mean anything for my fan or with regard to firmware? Checking so I can hit two things at once when I contact HighPoint. Thanks!

Move your posts to the main SSD7101A-1 thread, lot's more SSD71xx users follow there.

Highpoint 7101A - PCIe 3.0 SSD performance for the cMP

Introduction Stumbling into an Amazon warehouse Deal, I picked up the HighPoint 7101a NVMe PCIe adapter, equipped with a MacPro friendly Broadcom 8747 PCIe bridge at a great price. While Highpoint's acknowledgement of MacPro compatibility was sketchy at best, I ordered one to go along with a...

forums.macrumors.com

I tracked every SSD7101A-1 release, but I really don't know the SSD7103 PCB releases. Would be interesting to check if there are more than one PCB revision/fan control directly with HighPoint.

Did your web interface shows the fan control like SSD7101A-1 V2.00 with the new firmware?

 

[MP39]

Move your posts to the main SSD7101A-1 thread, lot's more SSD71xx users follow there.

Highpoint 7101A - PCIe 3.0 SSD performance for the cMP

Introduction Stumbling into an Amazon warehouse Deal, I picked up the HighPoint 7101a NVMe PCIe adapter, equipped with a MacPro friendly Broadcom 8747 PCIe bridge at a great price. While Highpoint's acknowledgement of MacPro compatibility was sketchy at best, I ordered one to go along with a...

forums.macrumors.com

I tracked every SSD7101A-1 release, but I really don't know the SSD7103 PCB releases. Would be interesting to check if there are more than one PCB revision/fan control directly with HighPoint.

Did your web interface shows the fan control like SSD7101A-1 V2.00 with the new firmware?

Will attempt to move. No, the fan interface controls on the GUI were not there. I can ask more about any revision or firmware when reaching out to HighPoint.

 

[MP39]

Will attempt to move. No, the fan interface controls on the GUI were not there. I can ask more about any revision or firmware when reaching out to HighPoint.

From HighPoint “To clarify, this controller was not designed for use with Mac systems. It would be recognized as an NVMe device only (our driver and WebGUI would not work). We would recommend using the SSD7101A-1 for this configuration.”

Strange that I used just fine with Disk Utility created RAID. With HP driver and GUI hardware RAID, appears 3 drives will be recognized, allow formatting, and work but not 4.