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MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro 3,1 4,1 5,1 logic board SATA connector

W

willowthewisp

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 11, 2019
30
11
Northern Germany, near the danish border
Hello !

Did anyone ever take a closer look at the connectors of the Mac Pro logic board ?

I know it is SATA II. But - if you take a closer look - there are more than the 7 pins for the data
and the power lines !

In the space between the power connector and the data connector should be a notch.
It is not in this case - there is a small 7 pin connector. Looks similar to a SAS connector :)

Is there a connection the PCIe Slot 4 (RAID) and did Apple use it in a different way ?
The Apple RAID controller is also just SATA II .... how did they disable the onboard logic SATA AHCI ?

Same thing withe the Xserve 3.1. The backplane RAID is connected by a proprietary connector (PCIe X4)
and uses a crappy LSI 1064E chip to get a SATA/SAS-I RAID with a firmware that lets you put a max of 2.2 TB in each of the bays...

I removed the backplane from the Xserve 3.1, put a backplane from an Xserve G5 in (you have to modify the bolts) and made an adaptor (Molex jr. 14pin to 12 pin).
Then I put a HighPoint RocketRAID 2782 in one of the PCIe Slots (one is occupied with a dual 10GBE card),
so I had a total of 3 x 16 TB (48 TB) HDD capacity in one Xserve 3.1 and are able to use its with SATA/SAS-II at 6Gbit and RAID 0,1,5,10,50.... and I have the external ports of the 2782..... :p

So any suggestion for the Mac Pro ?

I use a Highpoint 7010 in the Mac Pro... and have some SAS-Ports left.
Is it possible to build a link via external cabling to the PCIe Slot 4 and use the mini SAS in the logic board SATA connector :rolleyes:

Any ideas ?

Greets
willothewisp
 
First, MP3,1 and MP4,1/MP5,1 are totally different.

With a MP3,1 you just disconnect the SATA/SAS cables then connect to the RAID card.

With a MP4,1/MP5,1, Apple used a SATA/SAS mux on the backplane to route the signals to slot-4, so you don't disconnect anything when you use the Apple RAID card.

Screen Shot 2019-09-08 at 20.36.54.png


You can't use any PCIe SAS (SFF-8639/U2/2,5" etc) signals with MP4,1 or MP5,1, the MUX support only SATA-II/SAS-1 - 4 channel 0,3 GB/s per drive.
 
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Hello Alex,

thanks for your reply.
Sorry for the confusion about the cMP 3.1. I am aware of the difference in the 3.1 and 4.1 & 5.1 LB.
The MUX might be a dead end to put the SAS lanes from the 7010 to the internal SATA ports... :confused:

But did you take a closer look at the SATA ports in a 4.1 & 5.1 ?
There are 7 pins in the notch of the connector that are not used by any other brand or manufacturer I know.
Do you have an idea what are these for ?

For example the speed gain in the Xserve 3.1 was a dramatic thing.
I also put in a SATA connector to the logic board with four 10nF/50V 0201 smd caps. Works great.
The proprietary ZIF/LIF connector on the Xserve 3.1 delivers 3.3V & 5V... so I modified a SATA cable
and put a Samsung 860 EVO (you have to remove the enclosure of the ssd, 3x TS1, pentagon-head-screw) into.
It is SATA II... but it improves the system-boot time and response.
The 3 HDD bays are fully useable as a raid (in may case RAID 0 for the internal three drives) and the original
Apple drive caddys are used. Even a large normal 6Gbit SSD makes sense in the bays now.
My wife is very happy with the speed she can achieve transferring her photos from her Macs to the old Xserve brick.
... and in that case I am planning to develop an PCIe-Adaptor to use the x4 PCIe for an additional 4-port USB 3.0
card (goes in the place where the LSI1064 part of the old backplane was located...

Any ideas ?

Greets willy
 
Those extra pins in between are the pins needed for SAS-drives. SATA doesn’t need those pins. That’s why you can put SATA-drives in SAS-Ports but not he other way around.

AFC17C81-D192-4F68-AC46-F3E3439D1CF0.jpeg
 
rippiedoos said:
Those extra pins in between are the pins needed for SAS-drives. SATA doesn’t need those pins. That’s why you can put SATA-drives in SAS-Ports but not he other way around.

View attachment 856920
Click to expand...

Hello rippiedoos,

exactly the pins in the middle. This is a SAS (nowadays U.2 connector), but the one used in the Mac Pro
has seven pins - if I am not mistaken.
Can some please confirm this.

... and where do this pins go to ?
The MUX is outside the south bridge.

willy
 
Hey @willowthewisp I unfortunately don't have anything to add for the MP5,1 but I have a separate question for ya!
In your post you said "I removed the backplane from the Xserve 3.1, put a backplane from an Xserve G5 in (you have to modify the bolts) and made an adaptor (Molex jr. 14pin to 12 pin)."

Do you happen to have the pinout for the Molex Jr adapter for the 14 and 12 pin sides?

I have an xserve 3,1 with an LSI 4i/4e 6gb card. I've temporarily shoved the sata cables through and plugged them directly into some sata SSD drives, using the power connector from an xserve sata tray...

I have a G5 backplane to install... do I need to unscrew the standoffs from the xserve and use regular screw-in standoffs? Or do I want to just break off two of the three bolts from the G5 backplane?
Thanks!
 
Isn't there some SATA III RAID card combo cable kit to tap into our SAS ports to give all 4 trays a speed boost?
 
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