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crjackson2134

macrumors 601
Mar 6, 2013
4,847
1,957
Charlotte, NC
Congrats on the purchase! I am not sure what your workload is but I recommend you go with the 512GB 970 Pro if you care about sustained writes otherwise the 1TB 970 Evo is the next best option within the same price range. Both proposed options come with a 600TBW/5 year warranty at a minimum.

The 2 key differences between the 970 Pro and the 970 Evo drives is the NAND type, 2-bit MLC vs 3-bit TLC and the TurboWrite cache employed in the latter which allows it to perform on par with the 960 Pro but for short periods ie. once the cache is exhausted, performance becomes erratic.

Link to a comparison review and benchmarks - https://hothardware.com/reviews/samsung-ssd-970-evo-and-pro-review?page=1

Well, I don't have a demanding workload, I just want it for no good reason.

I went ahead and ordered a 512GB 970Pro.
 

iamtheonlyone4ever

Suspended
May 27, 2016
334
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just in case highpoint release drivers and software support for this card for Mac OS
while the card might not be bootable in a genuine Mac computer
the card is bootable on a hackintosh thanks to clover boot loader
I have this card with 4 Samsung 970 on raid0 and the speed is amazing
I can copy paste 300 gigs in 55 seconds
meaning less than a minute
sorry I don't have a youtube account to post the video
but if you want to watch the video
here is the proof
I'm not lying
I set the bit rate to the minimum in order to make the video the smallest possible
https://mega.nz/#!5vwnkYpL!yyJXjyaH0awIE6pjCFaOs1V-eywlm3eYg4muznSEKGs
[doublepost=1533400935][/doublepost]
s1mhd0.jpg


dwcef4.jpg
 
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crjackson2134

macrumors 601
Mar 6, 2013
4,847
1,957
Charlotte, NC
It’s still a genuine Mac, with genuine firmware. It just has the addition of a driver payload apended.

Just lke a lot of add-on hardware that comes with a driver you have to install.

You don’t even need the firmware driver payload unless you want to use it as a boot drive.

macOS already works fine, but additional speed advantages could be obtained with a better driver specific to the card, instead of the generic support.
 
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crjackson2134

macrumors 601
Mar 6, 2013
4,847
1,957
Charlotte, NC
Even though I don't have the new High Point carrier and/or the 970 Pro as of yet, I went ahead and did the Boot Rom update for nvme, and tested all my boot drives on hand.

BootRom Tool reported a successful flash and all appears normal, so I guess when my new hardware arrives, it's all plug-n-play.

I suppose there's no way to find out for sure until the hardware is installed.
 
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iamtheonlyone4ever

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the card is plug & play on Mac OS with build in generic drivers
to create a raid array you have to use disk utility or softraid which is a commercial app
also a little expensive
but then high point release a new driver for Mac OS
now you can use their software to create a raid volume
Mac OS will see the raid0 as a single volume compared to disk utility that you see all the drives individually
the good thing about having the os to see the raid as a single drive is when it comes to updates
I don't want to complicate things too much
but handheldgames is 100% correct about the block or stripe size
some settings might give you better reading or writing performance than other
I settle for the one that give me the best results for both read & write

I did had 2 amfeltec 16x 3.0 but I returned them both
is really a long story
but you can buy 2 of these high point ssd7101 for the price of a single amfeltec card
yes the retail price is 400 for the high point but you can get them in amazon for 275 while supply last
the amfeltec was 565 plus shipping
I paid almost 600 for each card for a total of almost 1200 for both cards
yes a total rip off
the only good thing about that card is that is bootable in Mac and Windows
but I received an used product full of scratches and when I contacted the company for an exchange
they told that I had to pay to send the card back to them
really, they sent me an used product instead of a new product and now I have to pay to send the card back to them
after I spent almost 1200 dollars
so I changed the replacement claim for a refund claim
and guess what now they wanted to charged 30% of each card for re stocking fee
incredible when have you ever heard of being charge for returning and used item that was supposed to be new
also I never heard of any company charging their customer for them returning damage or defective products
the cards did work but they had deep scratches all over the place

so I took the case to PayPal and they had to return my money
that's the good thing about pay pal

not only do the sale those cards very expensive but they are also thieves
stay away from amfeltec
you been warned

I told you it was along story
anyway
cheers
 
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handheldgames

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 4, 2009
1,943
1,170
Pacific NW, USA
It’s still a genuine Mac, with genuine firmware. It just has the addition of a driver payload apended.

Just lke a lot of add-on hardware that comes with a driver you have to install.

You don’t even need the firmware driver payload unless you want to use it as a boot drive.

macOS already works fine, but additional speed advantages could be obtained with a better driver specific to the card, instead of the generic support.

The current macos driver from Highpoint is targeted towards a Mac over thunderbolt 3. There are issues with the web intertface connecting to the disks on the cMP.

With a single SSD, NVMe drivers from Apple offer better 4k performance. I haven't tested the HPT drivers performance with multiple SSD's in a RAID - putting Apple's drivers against HPT's may present a different story.

the card is plug & play on Mac OS with build in generic drivers
to create a raid array you have to use disk utility or softraid which is a commercial app
also a little expensive
but then high point release a new driver for Mac OS
now you can use their software to create a raid volume
Mac OS will see the raid0 as a single volume compared to disk utility that you see all the drives individually
the good thing about having the os to see the raid as a single drive is when it comes to updates
I don't want to complicate things too much
but handheldgames is 100% correct about the block or stripe size
some settings might give you better reading or writing performance than other
I settle for the one that give me the best results for both read & write

I did had 2 amfeltec 16x 3.0 but I returned them both
is really a long story
but you can buy 2 of these high point ssd7101 for the price of a single amfeltec card
yes the retail price is 400 for the high point but you can get them in amazon for 275 while supply last
the amfeltec was 565 plus shipping
I paid almost 600 for each card for a total of almost 1200 for both cards
yes a total rip off
the only good thing about that card is that is bootable in Mac and Windows
but I received an used product full of scratches and when I contacted the company for an exchange
they told that I had to pay to send the card back to them
really, they sent me an used product instead of a new product and now I have to pay to send the card back to them
after I spent almost 1200 dollars
so I changed the replacement claim for a refund claim
and guess what now they wanted to charged 30% of each card for re stocking fee
incredible when have you ever heard of being charge for returning and used item that was supposed to be new
also I never heard of any company charging their customer for them returning damage or defective products
the cards did work but they had deep scratches all over the place

so I took the case to PayPal and they had to return my money
that's the good thing about pay pal

not only do the sale those cards very expensive but they are also thieves
stay away from amfeltec
you been warned

I told you it was along story
anyway
cheers

Thanks for sharing your experience with thr HPT SSD7101a. It's great to hear the value this hardware brings to current PC's as well as our aging Mac Pro's.

Which Intel platform are you running on? With PCIe 3.0, you should be getting close to 12,000 MB/Sec..
 
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iamtheonlyone4ever

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May 27, 2016
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The current macos driver from Highpoint is targeted towards a Mac over thunderbolt 3. There are issues with the web intertface connecting to the disks on the cMP.

With a single SSD, NVMe drivers from Apple offer better 4k performance. I haven't tested the HPT drivers performance with multiple SSD's in a RAID - putting Apple's drivers against HPT's may present a different story.



Thanks for sharing your experience with thr HPT SSD7101a. It's great to hear the value this hardware brings to current PC's as well as our aging Mac Pro's.

Which Intel platform are you running on? With PCIe 3.0, you should be getting close to 12,000 MB/Sec..
I have an x99 system but I will be upgrading soon I'm just waiting like another year
the system still good and fast but I want to upgrade
I was going to buy the x299 but I decided to wait a little bit longer since my system still fast
and also wait for the prices to go down a little
anyway here are some screenshoots
I do have the new version of Aja system test but I don't like it
I rather use the old one

also when I had the 2 amfeltec card I had 8 Samsung 960 evo
4 in each card but I learned my lesson with the evos
another long story
:D
this time I went for the Pro's and I'm glad I did
the Pros don't have the cache slow down problem that Evo have
I do have a Hackintosh but I like apple products and obviously their software
is just that apple hasn't make a new Mac Pro and I'm not going to buy the old that is almost like 5 years old, specially at the price that apple is still selling it

that is another reason why I waited before updating in case apple come out with a new Mac Pro
any time soon
I know I won't be able to install water cooling and RGB lights etc but I will like to have a genuine Mac Pro
I do have iPhones and iPads :apple:

:D

just in case I'm running at normal clock speed = not overclock

ivfrti.png


o9jt6c.png


j67eyo.png

[doublepost=1533421831][/doublepost]
The current macos driver from Highpoint is targeted towards a Mac over thunderbolt 3.
no wonder the software didn't detect my card but I thought since I have a hackintosh that's why it didn't detect my card
but is simply because is not for pci-e cards like you mentioned
is for TB3 like this one
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series-rs6661a-nvme-overview.htm

I did had rocket raid 4520 with 8 ssd in raid0 before I made the jump to nvme pci-e m.2 drives and that card was supported on Mac OS and/or hackintosh without any problem via pci-e
but now I realized that the driver or software that high point made for ssd7101 is for TB3.
I think they have the same driver in that page that's why it doesn't work on pci-e
thank for the info
:)

what I find weird is that the windows version works with the card connected to pci-e slot
and the software recognized the card
 
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handheldgames

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 4, 2009
1,943
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Pacific NW, USA
I have an x99 system but I will be upgrading soon I'm just waiting like another year
the system still good and fast but I want to upgrade
I was going to buy the x299 but I decided to wait a little bit longer since my system still fast
and also wait for the prices to go down a little
anyway here are some screenshoots
I do have the new version of Aja system test but I don't like it
I rather use the old one

also when I had the 2 amfeltec card I had 8 Samsung 960 evo
4 in each card but I learn my lesson with the evos
another long story
:D
this time I went for the pro's and I'm glad I did
the pros don't have the cache problem that evo had
I do have a hackintosh but I like apple products, is just that apple hasn't make a new Mac Pro
that is another reason why I waited before updating in case apple come out with a new Mac Pro
I know I won't be able to install water cooling and RGB lights etc but I will like to have a genuine Mac Pro
I do have iPhones and iPads
:apple:

just in case I'm running at normal clock speed = not overclock

ivfrti.png


o9jt6c.png


j67eyo.png

[doublepost=1533421831][/doublepost]
no wonder the software didn't detect my card but I thought since I have a hackintosh that's why it didn't detect my card
but is simply because is not for pci-e cards like you mentioned
is for TB3 like this one
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series-rs6661a-nvme-overview.htm

I did had rocket raid 4520 with 8 ssd in raid0 before I made the jump to nvme pci-e m.2 drives and that card was supported on Mac OS and/or hackintosh without any problem but now I realized that the driver that high point made is for TB3, I think they have the same driver in that page that's why it doesn't work on pci-e
thank for the info
:)

WOW! Thanks for sharing. That's impressive performance!!

11,000 MB/sec writes....
.... 14,000 MB/sec reads With 4 970 Pro's.

Hopefully the next Mac Pro will provide a PCIe 3.0 slot , based architecture. Leveraging the SSD7101a would be a great way to expand storage in the new design internally. Externally, Thunderbolt 3 would cripple performance to 3,000 MB/s.

Running a genuine cMP allows easy access to Apple Beta Software, which is a necessary evil for Apple Developers.
 

nekton1

macrumors 65816
Apr 15, 2010
1,094
777
Asia
FFS, this requires a FlashPlayer download—only the buggiest malware vector in the Mac universe. Stay away from this.

just in case highpoint release drivers and software support for this card for Mac OS
while the card might not be bootable in a genuine Mac computer
the card is bootable on a hackintosh thanks to clover boot loader
I have this card with 4 Samsung 970 on raid0 and the speed is amazing
I can copy paste 300 gigs in 55 seconds
meaning less than a minute
sorry I don't have a youtube account to post the video
but if you want to watch the video
here is the proof
I'm not lying
I set the bit rate to the minimum in order to make the video the smallest possible
https://www82.zippyshare.com/v/LzONpfqi/file.html
[doublepost=1533400935][/doublepost]
s1mhd0.jpg


dwcef4.jpg
 
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JedNZ

macrumors 6502a
Dec 6, 2015
647
247
Deep South
Just close the download pop-up page that opens, and hit the download button again and it will down the file. I scanned the movie file with Intego NetBarrier - no viruses.
 
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iamtheonlyone4ever

Suspended
May 27, 2016
334
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FFS, this requires a FlashPlayer download—only the buggiest malware vector in the Mac universe. Stay away from this.
sorry for any misunderstanding but I did not upload any virus or malware
I use ad blockers so I don't have any pop outs
I don't browse the web with out ad blockers
simply click on the download button and file will download
but you don't have to download it if you don't want to
I simply replied to you just to let you know that there is no funny business here
I will remove the file from ZS and will upload to another upload , download file server
I just want to clear that up because I don't want my name tied to bad publicity
I don't want a bad reputation
the file is clean maybe I uploaded to a bad file server without knowing about the pop outs
but it wasn't on purpose or with bad or evil intentions
anyway I will solve the problem now and the misunderstanding

[doublepost=1533505617][/doublepost]here is the new link
sorry for any inconvenience
I personally use ad blockers and maybe that's why I wasn't aware of the pop outs
my apologies if I cause any problem
I really wanted to thank you because from now on I will never use ZS again

anyway here is the new link
https://mega.nz/#!5vwnkYpL!yyJXjyaH0awIE6pjCFaOs1V-eywlm3eYg4muznSEKGs
 
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iamtheonlyone4ever

Suspended
May 27, 2016
334
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thanks for sharing the new link. The video can be viewed without downloading.

It shows a speed worthy of Super Saiyan Blue Goku.
I am a dragon ball die hard fan, goku ultra instincts
lol
vegetal blue but I also like gogeta even if is not canon
anyway
I went all the way up to 18,000 with the eight 960 evos in a single raid using both amfeltec cards
but it will quickly throttle the speed down to ssd speed
that's why I got rid of the evos and went back with the pros that don't have that slow down problem

I first had the 950 pros when the first m.2 nvme came out but then I made the mistake of going with the 960 evos
because everybody just made it seems like the only difference was just a little bit of speed
but the difference was much more than that
when I figure out the whole thing I sold all the evos and went back with the pro's

trust me it was never a throttling problem related to heat or anything like that
I had thermal pads and something called a "pci side blown fan" for the 2 amfeltec card
so it was never a heat issue, the problem was the controller or the cache in the evo that is different from the pro
if we take the 960's for example this is the difference
EVO = TLC
PRO = MLC
so the evo tend to throttle after 15 or 20 gigs of data transfer but as you can see in the video the 970 pros don't have that problem, I also did another test with almost a whole TB of data and the writing speed was sustained without drops or slow downs using the ssd7101 card and the 970 pros

now the difference between the 970 pro and evo is this one
EVO = V-NAND 64-layer 3bit MLC (TLC)
PRO = V-NAND 64-layer 2bit MLC

something very important that I discovered when I had the 2 amfeltec cards
is this
is better to create 2 raids of 4 drives each instead of creating a single raid using all 8 drives and both cards

yes it will give you faster read speed if you add it up all together
but if you add the total for each card separately you will notice that it can go higher
individually
let me see how can I explain this
the more disk you add for the raid array the more speed it will take from each drive
so let's just say that if you add all the drives together you can go up to 20,000
but if you create 2 raids of 4 drives each then each card can go up to 12,000 individually
12,000 x 2 = 24,000
it all depends if the person want faster read speed then create a single raid with both cards using all 8 drives
but if the person want faster write speed then create 2 separate raid arrays of 4 drives each

is always faster to copy data from one drive to another drive
than to copy data to the same drive or another partition in the same drive

the same is with the raid
from raid to raid is faster than from the same raid

the numbers that I used here are for explanation purposes
is not the actual number but the principle is correct
another user call it "penalty" the price you pay every time you add more disk to the raid array
up to certain number is acceptable but when you add way too many drives then it will hurt more than it will help

hope you understand my English and what I'm trying to say
I'm going for another card soon and for another set of 4 Samsung 970 pro
I already had eight 960 evo now I want eight 970 pro, I can't settle for just 4
it feels like a step back, even theses are better and faster but the number is lower
I need to have the same number that I had before
but I bought a phantom 4 pro drone and an iPad with gps
so I need to wait a few months before spending more money or my wife will o_O me
:D
anyway
cheers, regards
 
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w1z

macrumors 6502a
Aug 20, 2013
692
481
now the difference between the 970 pro and evo is this one
EVO = V-NAND 64-layer 3bit MLC (TLC)
PRO = V-NAND 64-layer 2bit MLC

So other non-tech savvy forum members are not confused, 3-bit MLC does not exist... That's just Samsung's PR machine at work. The 970 EVO is a TLC drive with SLC NAND cache dedicated for use by the TurboWrite feature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_cell
 
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iamtheonlyone4ever

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companies some time lie about specs
this remind me of Nvidia 970, 4gb video
yeah right more like 3 and a half
unfortunately I fall in the marketing trap when I bought 2 of those
and all I got back from the settlement was 60 dollars, 30 for each card
I sold both cards and bought a 1080

the evos are good for reading off the drive but awful for writing
unless you are going to write just a few gigs
but anything over 15 to 20 gigs is just too much for the drive to handle
it will throttle down and it will slow down
i don't know about the 970 evo but I guess is the same thing
maybe they are a little bit better than the 960 , they might have more endurance etc
but they can't sustain writing speed for a long period of time
they can't sustain the writing speed after writing certain amount of gigs either

I don't know maybe I'm wrong but I don't think that the evos supports turbo write
like a said maybe I'm wrong or I just don't remember correctly right now
and honestly there is no point going to any web site to look for info because if they post something that is not true or is not correct, I don't want to look like an idiot simply because they are not telling the truth about their specs

those that own an evo drive and have a good amount of ram in their system will come out much better creating a RAM disk and doing all the writing there instead of using the evo for writing

the downside is if the person don't have much ram available then they can only create a small drive and it won't work with big files, because they files won't fit on the virtual ram disk

but RAM disk are good because they can be as fast as an m.2 drive and sometimes even faster
I used iramdisk in Mac OS and get around 4000 to 5000 in reading speed
that is faster than a single Samsung m.2 drive
I have 64 gigs of ddr4 ram
in crappy windows I get around 10,000 when I create a 32 gigs RAM disk
 
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handheldgames

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 4, 2009
1,943
1,170
Pacific NW, USA
companies some time lie about specs
this remind me of Nvidia 970, 4gb video
yeah right more like 3 and a half
unfortunately I fall in the marketing trap when I bought 2 of those
and all I got back from the settlement was 60 dollars, 30 for each card
I sold both cards and bought a 1080

the evos are good for reading off the drive but awful for writing
unless you are going to write just a few gigs
but anything over 15 to 20 gigs is just too much for the drive to handle
it will throttle down and it will slow down
i don't know about the 970 evo but I guess is the same thing
maybe they are a little bit better than the 960 , they might have more endurance etc
but they can't sustain writing speed for a long period of time
they can't sustain the writing speed after writing certain amount of gigs either

I don't know maybe I'm wrong but I don't think that the evos supports turbo write
like a said maybe I'm wrong or I just don't remember correctly right now
and honestly there is no point going to any web site to look for info because if they post something that is not true or is not correct, I don't want to look like an idiot simply because they are not telling the truth about their specs

those that own an evo drive and have a good amount of ram in their system will come out much better creating a RAM disk and doing all the writing there instead of using the evo for writing

the downside is if the person don't have much ram available then they can only create a small drive and it won't work with big files, because they files won't fit on the virtual ram disk

but RAM disk are good because they can be as fast as an m.2 drive and sometimes even faster
I used iramdisk in Mac OS and get around 4000 to 5000 in reading speed
that is faster than a single Samsung m.2 drive
I have 64 gigs of ddr4 ram
in crappy windows I get around 10,000 when I create a 32 gigs RAM disk

Thanks again for your insights. You bring a lot of experience pushing the Highpoint SSD7101-A to its limit. There clearly is a lack of published differences between the 3 1TB polaris controller variants from samsung, including the 970Pro $429usd, 970 evo $355usd and pm981 @309usd. Both have similar performance BUT.. It's difficult to find a review including all 3 1TB or 512GB models.

While I'm debating over which 4th generation drive to get, the 5th generation drives should be available within the next 30 to 60 days. With promises of a 30% increase in write speed, we're looking at 3500MB/S Writes.

So other non-tech savvy forum members are not confused, 3-bit MLC does not exist... That's just Samsung's PR machine at work. The 970 EVO is a TLC drive with SLC NAND cache dedicated for use by the TurboWrite feature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_cell

Where flavor of NAND is the PM981?
 

w1z

macrumors 6502a
Aug 20, 2013
692
481
companies some time lie about specs
this remind me of Nvidia 970, 4gb video
yeah right more like 3 and a half
unfortunately I fall in the marketing trap when I bought 2 of those
and all I got back from the settlement was 60 dollars, 30 for each card
I sold both cards and bought a 1080

the evos are good for reading off the drive but awful for writing
unless you are going to write just a few gigs
but anything over 15 to 20 gigs is just too much for the drive to handle
it will throttle down and it will slow down
i don't know about the 970 evo but I guess is the same thing
maybe they are a little bit better than the 960 , they might have more endurance etc
but they can't sustain writing speed for a long period of time
they can't sustain the writing speed after writing certain amount of gigs either

I don't know maybe I'm wrong but I don't think that the evos supports turbo write
like a said maybe I'm wrong or I just don't remember correctly right now
and honestly there is no point going to any web site to look for info because if they post something that is not true or is not correct, I don't want to look like an idiot simply because they are not telling the truth about their specs

those that own an evo drive and have a good amount of ram in their system will come out much better creating a RAM disk and doing all the writing there instead of using the evo for writing

the downside is if the person don't have much ram available then they can only create a small drive and it won't work with big files, because they files won't fit on the virtual ram disk

but RAM disk are good because they can be as fast as an m.2 drive and sometimes even faster
I used iramdisk in Mac OS and get around 4000 to 5000 in reading speed
that is faster than a single Samsung m.2 drive
I have 64 gigs of ddr4 ram
in crappy windows I get around 10,000 when I create a 32 gigs RAM disk

I also use iRamDisk as temp cache for various uses but mainly with CC 2018 as a scratch disk averaging 6600MB/s =) I like how it automatically handles browser caches.
 
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handheldgames

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 4, 2009
1,943
1,170
Pacific NW, USA
I also use iRamDisk as temp cache for various uses but mainly with CC 2018 as a scratch disk averaging 6600MB/s =) I like how it automatically handles browser caches.

What am I missing with iRamdisk? It has a nice UI, but it's about 30% slower than a Raid0 Ramdisk. I'm using a hacked version of TMPDisk that creates a 2 stripe ramdisk array.

With 16GB x 3 in a w3860... with iRamdisk
window8-6-181.53.03 PM.png

With a Raid 0 Ramdisk(custom version of TMPDisk creating a stripe array)
window8-6-182.04.49 PM.png
 
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iamtheonlyone4ever

Suspended
May 27, 2016
334
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you both made some interesting comments
another good use is for rendering or encoding
we know that the more we write to ssd or m.2 drives
the sooner the drives will start to wear out
I know the drives now come with very good endurance
but the ones that have older models can benefit from not writing too much to the drive
so simply by using ram disk we can prolong the life of our ssd or m.2 devices

believe it or not many people still uses mechanical drives
meaning that they don't even have an ssd on their system
an iram disk can speed things up a bit during certain processes


I have another trick that I find out a while ago
I might increase performance a little bit more than using just the average iram virtual drive

create a virtual iram disk
run a benchmark test

now go to disk utility and format that virtual iram disk to Mac OS journaled
you will notice that the drive icon will change from white to a regular hard drive icon
now after you run the benchmark again
the speed should be a little bit faster

I don't know if this works on a genuine Mac but it does works on my system

I have a phanthom 4 pro and I do a lot of rendering or encoding with FCP
those 4k footage come out stunning
I learned color grading etc
I love Mac OS :apple: and I can't wait for Mojave
:):D
[doublepost=1533617438][/doublepost]
What am I missing with iRamdisk? It has a nice UI, but it's about 30% slower than a Raid0 Ramdisk. I'm using a hacked version of TMPDisk that creates a 2 stripe ramdisk array.

With 16GB x 3 in a w3860... with iRamdisk View attachment 774692
With a Raid 0 Ramdisk(custom version of TMPDisk creating a stripe array) View attachment 774701
thanks for that valuable info
I will try to find that app
"TMPDisk"
I only knew about iramdisk in Mac OS
I will take TMPDisk for a test drive
if it works better than iramdisk then I will use TMPDisk from now on
thank you
 
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handheldgames

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 4, 2009
1,943
1,170
Pacific NW, USA
you both made some interesting comments
another good use is for rendering or encoding
we know that the more we write to ssd or m.2 drives
the sooner the drives will start to wear out
I know the drives now come with very good endurance
but the ones that have older models can benefit from not writing too much to the drive
so simply by using ram disk we can prolong the life of our ssd or m.2 devices

believe it or not many people still uses mechanical drives
meaning that they don't even have an ssd on their system
an iram disk can speed things up a bit during certain processes


I have another trick that I find out a while ago
I might increase performance a little bit more than using just the average iram virtual drive

create a virtual iram disk
run a benchmark test

now go to disk utility and format that virtual iram disk to Mac OS journaled
you will notice that the drive icon will change from white to a regular hard drive icon
now after you run the benchmark again
the speed should be a little bit faster

I don't know if this works on a genuine Mac but it does works on my system

I have a phanthom 4 pro and I do a lot of rendering or encoding with FCP
those 4k footage come out stunning
I learned color grading etc
I love Mac OS :apple: and I can't wait for Mojave
:):D
[doublepost=1533617438][/doublepost]
thanks for that valuable info
I will try to find that app
"TMPDisk"
I only knew about iramdisk in Mac OS
I will take TMPDisk for a test drive
if it works better than iramdisk then I will use TMPDisk from now on
thank you
My version of TMPDisk was built from the GitHub repository that's been modified to include the methods used in the shell script below.

This code can be used in a .sh file that can be run from terminal or an automator script. It creates a 8192GB Ramdisk from using 4GB slices.

Code:
if ! test -e /Volumes/ramRaid ; then
diskutil erasevolume HFS+ r1 `
hdiutil attach -nomount ram://$((2*1024*4096))`
diskutil erasevolume HFS+ r2 `
hdiutil attach -nomount ram://$((2*1024*4096))`

diskutil createRAID Stripe SpeedDisk HFS+ /Volumes/r1 /Volumes/r2;
fi

Sharing a couple more benchmarks.

Raid0
window8-7-186.37.18 AM.png

iRamDisk
window8-7-186.34.50 AM.png
 

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crjackson2134

macrumors 601
Mar 6, 2013
4,847
1,957
Charlotte, NC
@handheldgames

I can't locate the thread where we discussed an adapter to allow an SSUBX to be installed on the High Point 7101A card, so I'll post here.

My 970 Pro 512GB arrived today, now I'm waiting for the High Point card. Hopefully I'll see it by Friday.

I've already injected the firmware support payload. When the rig is installed in slot 2, should I be seeing a bootable APFS NVMe volume (after cloning my normal drive) that will achieve 3000GB/s out of the box, without tinkering, and selectable as a startup disk in preferences?

I'm thinking yes, but someone here posted something about seeing an EFI partition and only being able to boot this from the boot picker screen. I suspect this was because he wasn't using the High Point card, or some other issue I'm not aware of. I suppose I should read it all again.

Also, please let me know about the SSUBX thing. If this install is pretty seamless and trouble free, and the adapter doesn't allow me to use the 7101A/SSUBX combo, I may just sell the SSUBX and opt. for another 970 Pro.

I haven't really decided just yet.

Once I get all the basic details worked out, I'll do the PCI Tools/Automator Script to bump it again.
 

handheldgames

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Apr 4, 2009
1,943
1,170
Pacific NW, USA
@handheldgames

I can't locate the thread where we discussed an adapter to allow an SSUBX to be installed on the High Point 7101A card, so I'll post here.

My 970 Pro 512GB arrived today, now I'm waiting for the High Point card. Hopefully I'll see it by Friday.

I've already injected the firmware support payload. When the rig is installed in slot 2, should I be seeing a bootable APFS NVMe volume (after cloning my normal drive) that will achieve 3000GB/s out of the box, without tinkering, and selectable as a startup disk in preferences?

I'm thinking yes, but someone here posted something about seeing an EFI partition and only being able to boot this from the boot picker screen. I suspect this was because he wasn't using the High Point card, or some other issue I'm not aware of. I suppose I should read it all again.

Also, please let me know about the SSUBX thing. If this install is pretty seamless and trouble free, and the adapter doesn't allow me to use the 7101A/SSUBX combo, I may just sell the SSUBX and opt. for another 970 Pro.

I haven't really decided just yet.

Once I get all the basic details worked out, I'll do the PCI Tools/Automator Script to bump it again.

It will only show up as bootable after you initialize it and install the OS. ;) EFI partitions were added automatically setting up a 970 pro 1tb.

window 8-7-185.25 PM-1.png


The sintech adapter is available here. I'm still waiting for delivery:
here:http://eshop.sintech.cn/20132016-macbook-ssd-as-m2-ngff-pcie-adapter-with-fpc-cable-p-1269.html

M2%20M-key%202013%20macbook%20SSD.jpg
 

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,454
13,601
@handheldgames Also, please let me know about the SSUBX thing. If this install is pretty seamless and trouble free, and the adapter doesn't allow me to use the 7101A/SSUBX combo, I may just sell the SSUBX and opt. for another 970 Pro.

IMHO, I don't think that's a wise choice, the Sintech adapter will introduce at least 3 new points of failure. It's nice to use it for recovering data, tests/benchmarks, but not for a definitive installation.

Sell your SSBUX, it's highly sought after, will sell easily - then buy the 970 Pro. You will make some money selling the SSBUX/buying the 970 PRO and will help pay for your investment on Highpoint 7101A.
 
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crjackson2134

macrumors 601
Mar 6, 2013
4,847
1,957
Charlotte, NC
IMHO, I don't think that's a wise choice, the Sintech adapter will introduce at least 3 new points of failure. It's nice to use it for recovering data, tests/benchmarks, but not for a definitive installation.

Sell your SSBUX, it's highly sought after, will sell easily - then buy the 970 Pro. You will make some money selling the SSBUX/buying the 970 PRO and will help pay for your investment on Highpoint 7101A.

That’s what I’ll probably end up doing, I already have one for now. Just waiting for the 7101A to arrive. Amazon says it’ll be here Friday. I will hang on to it (the SSUBX) at least untilI hear @handheldgames results, and I feel solid with the 7101A/970 combo.

My thoughts concerning hanging onto the Apple SSD are because of firmware updates. At some point, Apple may update the firmware in such a way that the NVMe re-injection may not work. At least that’s the concern even if baseless. It would be my safetynet.
 
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