Why on earth you are using the generic jimj740 NVMe kext from 2015?
Your backtrace show it installed (com.MinnowStor.NVMeGeneric). Remove it.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
MP 1,1-5,1 Highpoint 7101A vs Sonnet M.2 4x4
- Thread starter ybakos2
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Your backtrace show it installed (com.MinnowStor.NVMeGeneric). Remove it.
good eye - I missed that
but it's always the same problem, people after the search take the first result for granted,
and don't investigate if there are newer recognitions like the native NVMe support
on the cMP from bootROM 140.0.0.0.0 and up
but it's always the same problem, people after the search take the first result for granted,
and don't investigate if there are newer recognitions like the native NVMe support
on the cMP from bootROM 140.0.0.0.0 and up
Yes, please read the "WHAT I'VE TRIED (with the second REPLACEMENT Card Sonnet sent) - that still didn't work:" bit. I put on an OWC Mount Sled and put in standard Bay.
[automerge]1587072195[/automerge]
Is that the Kext in the Library > Extensions folder?
Sonnet certainly didn't spot or suggest that from the same screenshot.
Please advise. Thanks.
Last edited:
Remove the kext from your kext folder (/System/Library/Extensions/), it's named NVMeGeneric.kext.
Please remove any thing named like HackrNVMeFamily-10_12_5.kext too.
Btw, why you are not testing this with a brand new clean install?
For an adapter that theoretically was made for Mac Pros, Sonnet one more time show us that they have horrible Mac support.
Last edited:
Removing the NVMeGeneric.kext extension worked a treat, tsialex.
Simple as that. Sonnet's geniuses never saw it.
MANY thanks! I really appreciate your time.
I ended up going with 2 x Sonnet Tempo SSD Cards packing 4 x Samsung SATA SSD's.
Reasoning:
SATA SSD's- they're more tried and true and stability / robustness is very important to me. A NVMe failure would be a huge pain in the ass even though I have dynamic backups. The only blades with enough capacity in my price range were made by companies such as Sabrent which I dont trust as much as Samsung.
Heat and noise- I do audio work, an additional PCI card fan or my Mac Pro ramping up its fans to cool the NVMe's would
be an annoyance.
Lastly, my usage case. Im not needing to stream huge video files from one disk such as with video editing. Rather, I stream multiple sampler libraries packaged as smaller files. Im am able to distribute these over 4 separate disks to good affect. When rendering pieces down, my Processor is most often the bottleneck, not the read / write speed of these SSD's.
But I look forward to checking in later down the road.
Reasoning:
SATA SSD's- they're more tried and true and stability / robustness is very important to me. A NVMe failure would be a huge pain in the ass even though I have dynamic backups. The only blades with enough capacity in my price range were made by companies such as Sabrent which I dont trust as much as Samsung.
Heat and noise- I do audio work, an additional PCI card fan or my Mac Pro ramping up its fans to cool the NVMe's would
be an annoyance.
Lastly, my usage case. Im not needing to stream huge video files from one disk such as with video editing. Rather, I stream multiple sampler libraries packaged as smaller files. Im am able to distribute these over 4 separate disks to good affect. When rendering pieces down, my Processor is most often the bottleneck, not the read / write speed of these SSD's.
But I look forward to checking in later down the road.
Im currently undecided between the Sonnet M2 4x4 and the Highpoint 7101 A.
Out of curiosity, you stated that the Sonnet is installed on the Mac Pro 5.1 second PCIe slot, above the rx580, is that correct?
I read a review on Amazon that the Sonnet card will not work on the second slot of a Mac Pro 5.1 with a rx580 pulse installed, since it completely blocks and prevents the gpu fans from spinning, is this true?
This is more of a “call for advise” post than a reply, Could you post some pics of the Sonnet sitting above the 580 pulse? Also, has the system been stable workin with the sonnet as the OS drive?
thanks!
MikeD.
Hi Mike,
First off, I have to say since I removed the NVMeGeneric driver kext, the Sonnet M.2 4x4 card has worked flawlessly + BRILLIANTLY in the MacPro 5.1; Completely 100% stable; blazingly fast (the 3 x Samsung 970 Pro 1Tb are running in real-world, at circa 4.5Gb-4.9Gb/Sec under Raid 0 in slots 1-3 of the Sonnet; the 1 x Samsung 970 Evo 1Tb is running at 2.8Gb/Sec for my Video Preview caches in Premiere CC / After Effects CC in slot 4 of the Sonnet) for Adobe Premiere (I can't under-sell how much quicker video files open / Previews load in now than before the Sonnet). If you work with HD or 4K video, you've gotta get one of these (but don't scrimp on the NVMe sticks. Get the best you can afford. I bought all mine patiently over time -- for the right price! -- on eBay. Lots of people digging the arm in with 970 Pro 1Tb, but be patient, lots of great prices at half the going rate on there).
As you'll see from my photos below (I'll break it down further if you need more photos) there is a little jury-rigging involved, but the Sapphire PULSE will definitely work in Slot 1, with Sonnet in Slot 2 as long as you jimmy them apart - especially at the LEFT side primarily, but with a little boost at the right too; you'll see what with below...
One piece of advice for anybody buying the Sonnet 4x4 Raid card. Do **NOT** even try to install with an RX580 Sapphire NITRO+ 8Gb. It's far too deep and much bigger than a RX580 Sapphire PULSE 8Gb. For the tiny 2-3% extra speed of the Nitro, it's NOT worth it alone, however don't even dream of matching a NITRO+ with a Sonnet 4x4. Just too big. Get an RX580 Sapphire PULSE 8Gb and they'll be fine in the MacPro 5.1
The earlier talk by others of popsicle/lollipop sticks certainly DIDN'T work for me, but building it up with these gliders did as I could step it, plus as they're sticky one side, they'll stay in place, unlike popsicle/lollipop that will eventually vibrate off it.
The other thing I had to do was break a small part (simply with pliers) of the left-hand PCIe card holding slits block/fan as the Sonnet' motherboard extends further into this. If you don't do this then the card will be arched/bent over the Sapphire Pulse (due to the glider stacking).
I also removed the right-hand side metal PCIe slot hold on the Sonnet board, so it's easy to remove and slot it on the MacPro's motherboard.
Seems like a bit of hassle and workaround, but when you actually see how well constructed and bullet-proof the Sonnet 4x4 is (quality metal everywhere, very little plastic), and more importantly how 100% stable it is, this bit of jury-rigging is a small, but worthwhile evil to endure for 10min install at the very start.
For the sake of taking these photos I removed my HD drives from Sata 3 + 4, but I'm using all 4 PCIe slots by doing it this way (other people have only got access to 3 PCIe slots by putting the Sapphire Pulse in Slot 2 thus losing 1 slot. I need all four.
I have a Samsung 860 Pro 2Tb Sata SSD (on an OWC Accelsior S) running OXS 10.14.6 Mojave on PCIe Slot 3, and a Sonnet Allegro Pro USB 3.1 PCIe card in PCIe Slot 4 (runs all four USB at proper "USB 3 Superspeed" PER CONNECTION compared to other cheaper USB 3 cards).
Bottom line: I now absolutely love the Sonnet M.2 4x4 card in the MacPro 5.1
First off, I have to say since I removed the NVMeGeneric driver kext, the Sonnet M.2 4x4 card has worked flawlessly + BRILLIANTLY in the MacPro 5.1; Completely 100% stable; blazingly fast (the 3 x Samsung 970 Pro 1Tb are running in real-world, at circa 4.5Gb-4.9Gb/Sec under Raid 0 in slots 1-3 of the Sonnet; the 1 x Samsung 970 Evo 1Tb is running at 2.8Gb/Sec for my Video Preview caches in Premiere CC / After Effects CC in slot 4 of the Sonnet) for Adobe Premiere (I can't under-sell how much quicker video files open / Previews load in now than before the Sonnet). If you work with HD or 4K video, you've gotta get one of these (but don't scrimp on the NVMe sticks. Get the best you can afford. I bought all mine patiently over time -- for the right price! -- on eBay. Lots of people digging the arm in with 970 Pro 1Tb, but be patient, lots of great prices at half the going rate on there).
As you'll see from my photos below (I'll break it down further if you need more photos) there is a little jury-rigging involved, but the Sapphire PULSE will definitely work in Slot 1, with Sonnet in Slot 2 as long as you jimmy them apart - especially at the LEFT side primarily, but with a little boost at the right too; you'll see what with below...
One piece of advice for anybody buying the Sonnet 4x4 Raid card. Do **NOT** even try to install with an RX580 Sapphire NITRO+ 8Gb. It's far too deep and much bigger than a RX580 Sapphire PULSE 8Gb. For the tiny 2-3% extra speed of the Nitro, it's NOT worth it alone, however don't even dream of matching a NITRO+ with a Sonnet 4x4. Just too big. Get an RX580 Sapphire PULSE 8Gb and they'll be fine in the MacPro 5.1
The earlier talk by others of popsicle/lollipop sticks certainly DIDN'T work for me, but building it up with these gliders did as I could step it, plus as they're sticky one side, they'll stay in place, unlike popsicle/lollipop that will eventually vibrate off it.
The other thing I had to do was break a small part (simply with pliers) of the left-hand PCIe card holding slits block/fan as the Sonnet' motherboard extends further into this. If you don't do this then the card will be arched/bent over the Sapphire Pulse (due to the glider stacking).
I also removed the right-hand side metal PCIe slot hold on the Sonnet board, so it's easy to remove and slot it on the MacPro's motherboard.
Seems like a bit of hassle and workaround, but when you actually see how well constructed and bullet-proof the Sonnet 4x4 is (quality metal everywhere, very little plastic), and more importantly how 100% stable it is, this bit of jury-rigging is a small, but worthwhile evil to endure for 10min install at the very start.
For the sake of taking these photos I removed my HD drives from Sata 3 + 4, but I'm using all 4 PCIe slots by doing it this way (other people have only got access to 3 PCIe slots by putting the Sapphire Pulse in Slot 2 thus losing 1 slot. I need all four.
I have a Samsung 860 Pro 2Tb Sata SSD (on an OWC Accelsior S) running OXS 10.14.6 Mojave on PCIe Slot 3, and a Sonnet Allegro Pro USB 3.1 PCIe card in PCIe Slot 4 (runs all four USB at proper "USB 3 Superspeed" PER CONNECTION compared to other cheaper USB 3 cards).
Bottom line: I now absolutely love the Sonnet M.2 4x4 card in the MacPro 5.1
Last edited:
Much appreciated for the reply.
Ill disregard the sonnet and focus on the Highpoint or an Amfeltec squid.
It’s not that Im not able to do the “mods”, it’s just than I don’t want to mess with the Mac Pro like that.
anyways, again, thanks ?
Mike D.
Just to add my two cents ...
My experience with Sonnet has been appalling. I have now bought 3 of their cards (of different types), and all three have failed within a month. The current fiasco is the M.2 4x4 Silent. It worked beautifully ... for a month. Then I had no boot drive. I sent the Samsung back thinking that was the problem. Supplier tested it and it is fine. I bought a new drive - WD this time - (thanks Sonnet, that was $500 of my hard earned money!), and it just errors out before I can even format it.
I will never buy another Sonnet board. Their quality control is clearly very poor.
My experience with Sonnet has been appalling. I have now bought 3 of their cards (of different types), and all three have failed within a month. The current fiasco is the M.2 4x4 Silent. It worked beautifully ... for a month. Then I had no boot drive. I sent the Samsung back thinking that was the problem. Supplier tested it and it is fine. I bought a new drive - WD this time - (thanks Sonnet, that was $500 of my hard earned money!), and it just errors out before I can even format it.
I will never buy another Sonnet board. Their quality control is clearly very poor.
I considered going with the Syba, but the reviews are mixed -- reports are that the CURRENT version of the card no longer plays nice with the Mac Pro 5,1. I tried the Ableconn PEXM2-130, but was getting inconsistent booting results so I ended up going with the Sonnet Silent--overkill for me with only 2 NVMe's, but futureproof. Currently I'm testing it in my 4,1>5,1 w/Mojave before installing it in my 5,1 and it's working without a problem.
Last edited:
Mine plays perfectly with my 4,1>5,1. It’s been set and forget for almost two years now. I ordered the sonnet with after my 7,1 and I’m thinking of listing it, so it’s available if you’re interested
Here is one geek's solution to the 7101A fan noise issue. Get rid of it! I'm an EE, and as a result I'm a big fan of careful thermal management: a cool pooter is a long-lived pooter. That said, here's some cooling porn.
I did this so long ago that I don't recall the specifics of that heatsink; I simply trolled eBay until I saw one that I liked, and snagged it for ~10 bucks. It was from some random Cisco router, I think, and it weighs in at about 10oz of copper. (On edit- like this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/332669150552)
As delivered, the heatsink was a full rectangle. I took it into the shop, cleaned their thermal goop off of it, trimmed the areas that would have overlapped the power supply inductors and big caps, made some spacers the right thickness to support it parallel to the board at all four corners with just a titch of pressure on the switch chip's lid, and then simply superglued the heatsink to the board (after greasing up the switch with NT-H1 paste, of course). No user serviceable parts inside...
I stuck that Kapton tape over the inductors just for good measure, but there's really no chance of shorting. The NVME drives all run at ~45C-50C, never going over 65C even when the machine is cooking. And although I do not have the Highpoint driver installed, I'm quite sure that the switch die itself is well within its happy temp range, with all that surface area and thermal mass- it runs pretty cool to the touch. With the two Sonnet Tempo Pros above, and whatever graphics card that is (a 7850, I think, 2GB- I slept since then...) below, the airflow down the board over those fins is quite decent. With that heavy heatsink, the tail end of the board needs some additional support to control sag and warping. Yes, that is an eraser from a mechanical pencil I'm using as a spacer- I said I was a geek...
Nice, quiet machine. Mid-2010 5,1, Catalina, 2x 3.46GHz, 96GB, and those are 2TB Samsung 970 Evos.
Your mileage may vary, of course, but this one works for me. And it has been *stone* reliable for quite a long time now- I was an early adopter, thanks to this web site. Hope this helps someone....
I did this so long ago that I don't recall the specifics of that heatsink; I simply trolled eBay until I saw one that I liked, and snagged it for ~10 bucks. It was from some random Cisco router, I think, and it weighs in at about 10oz of copper. (On edit- like this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/332669150552)
As delivered, the heatsink was a full rectangle. I took it into the shop, cleaned their thermal goop off of it, trimmed the areas that would have overlapped the power supply inductors and big caps, made some spacers the right thickness to support it parallel to the board at all four corners with just a titch of pressure on the switch chip's lid, and then simply superglued the heatsink to the board (after greasing up the switch with NT-H1 paste, of course). No user serviceable parts inside...
I stuck that Kapton tape over the inductors just for good measure, but there's really no chance of shorting. The NVME drives all run at ~45C-50C, never going over 65C even when the machine is cooking. And although I do not have the Highpoint driver installed, I'm quite sure that the switch die itself is well within its happy temp range, with all that surface area and thermal mass- it runs pretty cool to the touch. With the two Sonnet Tempo Pros above, and whatever graphics card that is (a 7850, I think, 2GB- I slept since then...) below, the airflow down the board over those fins is quite decent. With that heavy heatsink, the tail end of the board needs some additional support to control sag and warping. Yes, that is an eraser from a mechanical pencil I'm using as a spacer- I said I was a geek...
Nice, quiet machine. Mid-2010 5,1, Catalina, 2x 3.46GHz, 96GB, and those are 2TB Samsung 970 Evos.
Your mileage may vary, of course, but this one works for me. And it has been *stone* reliable for quite a long time now- I was an early adopter, thanks to this web site. Hope this helps someone....
Last edited:
Interesting thread but as is usual for me these days the more I read the more I learn but the more confused I get! 
I want to add a multi-blade x16 PCIe card to my 5,1 not particularly for RAID as two of the blades are earmarked for High Sierra and Mojave respectively leaving the other two slots for future expansion and had all but decided on the Sonnet due in no small part to its silent/fanless version and my perceived impression of quality based on their Allegro USB card. But then I read it would not boot Windows and although I am not ready to add a third blade at the moment it does figure in my longer term plans and I had pencilled in using a this exclusively for Windows.
Obviously the Highpoint SSD7101A always figured in my plan the only thing putting me off being the potential noisy fan problem reported here. I really want to keep my cMP as quiet as possible and am worried as I will soon be changing the NVS 510 that doesn't have a fan for a K5000 that does and am not looking forward to increasing it even further. However there seem to be a few newer versions of Highpoint cards with different model numbers and it starts to get confusing whether one of these might be more suited to my requirements.
I also see references to the Syba I/O Crest and OWC Accelsior 4M2 but don't know enough about the Syba and have all but ruled out OWC after purchasing their Aura Pro x2 for my MacBook Air only to find out they have been aware of an issue with it not coming out of Standby. Their response has gone from 'We are working with Apple on a solution' in 2019 to 'We have not reached a conclusion with Apple so the only solution is to disable Standby' in 2020
I notice this is still not mentioned on their current webpage in 2021 and I do not like spending a not inconsiderable amount of money on a device which just does not work as advertised although if this is the best choice for the 5,1 I would swallow my pride and spend the money.
There is also the Amfeltec Squid but that doesn't seem readily available here in the UK.
My quandary then I guess is a choice between the Highpoint vs Sonnet Fanless but most of the posts here refer to the version with the fan as it has been on the market for longer.
Any more insight into the cards mentioned above would be much appreciated.
Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-
I want to add a multi-blade x16 PCIe card to my 5,1 not particularly for RAID as two of the blades are earmarked for High Sierra and Mojave respectively leaving the other two slots for future expansion and had all but decided on the Sonnet due in no small part to its silent/fanless version and my perceived impression of quality based on their Allegro USB card. But then I read it would not boot Windows and although I am not ready to add a third blade at the moment it does figure in my longer term plans and I had pencilled in using a this exclusively for Windows.
Obviously the Highpoint SSD7101A always figured in my plan the only thing putting me off being the potential noisy fan problem reported here. I really want to keep my cMP as quiet as possible and am worried as I will soon be changing the NVS 510 that doesn't have a fan for a K5000 that does and am not looking forward to increasing it even further. However there seem to be a few newer versions of Highpoint cards with different model numbers and it starts to get confusing whether one of these might be more suited to my requirements.
I also see references to the Syba I/O Crest and OWC Accelsior 4M2 but don't know enough about the Syba and have all but ruled out OWC after purchasing their Aura Pro x2 for my MacBook Air only to find out they have been aware of an issue with it not coming out of Standby. Their response has gone from 'We are working with Apple on a solution' in 2019 to 'We have not reached a conclusion with Apple so the only solution is to disable Standby' in 2020
I notice this is still not mentioned on their current webpage in 2021 and I do not like spending a not inconsiderable amount of money on a device which just does not work as advertised although if this is the best choice for the 5,1 I would swallow my pride and spend the money.
There is also the Amfeltec Squid but that doesn't seem readily available here in the UK.
My quandary then I guess is a choice between the Highpoint vs Sonnet Fanless but most of the posts here refer to the version with the fan as it has been on the market for longer.
Any more insight into the cards mentioned above would be much appreciated.
Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-
I've awaiting delivery on a discounted SSD7101A. But I thought that Highpoint have announced a 16 channel different model coming soon. Go to their web site. They say it will handle type 4 blades ... or something like that ... but they say the newer generation of blades will run much hotter, and hence the new model has been designed for better cooling. I am not sure when it will ship though ... and also whether new products will have teething issues. Long term though its a better choice. I'm a home user so buying a cheaper product or a perhaps soon to be superceded product (the SSD7101A-1) doesn't worry me as an upfront saving is worthwhile for me.
Highpoint sell an 8 channel 4 blade card that does not have a fan. It's 8 channel must result in it running cooler I guess. But across the blades (one to the other) you loose considerable performance. I'm not sure about other options. But one of those with larger sized blades would would be quiet and perhaps larger blades lower the 8 channel bottleneck. Others also say change the fan to a quiet one ... annoying that Highpoint seem to use a noisy fan ...
I don't know if this fits the 5,1, but Highpoint also sells this I think RAID card that is 16 channel and fits four blades:
The Guide thread here says this card is 8 lane, but HighPoint says its 16 lane.
Highpoint sell an 8 channel 4 blade card that does not have a fan. It's 8 channel must result in it running cooler I guess. But across the blades (one to the other) you loose considerable performance. I'm not sure about other options. But one of those with larger sized blades would would be quiet and perhaps larger blades lower the 8 channel bottleneck. Others also say change the fan to a quiet one ... annoying that Highpoint seem to use a noisy fan ...
I don't know if this fits the 5,1, but Highpoint also sells this I think RAID card that is 16 channel and fits four blades:
Highpoint SSD7104 PCIe 3.0 x16 4-Port M.2 NVMe RAID Controller
It has no fans. It seems to be the same price as the SSD7101A, but I don't know if its ever discounted or if it works.The Guide thread here says this card is 8 lane, but HighPoint says its 16 lane.
Last edited: