MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro 5,1 Storage Upgrade Report

[5comma1]

• Mac Pro 5,1 Mid 2010
• OS X 10.14.6 Mojave
• 2 x 3.33 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
• Sapphire RX 580 Pulse 8GB
• Memory 48GB • 6 x 8GB • 1333 MHz DDR3
• Boot Disk: 1TB NVMe M.2
• Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe Card (Silent)
• Firmware Version: 144.0.0.0.0


I’ve been wanting to upgrade my internal storage since NVMe M.2 blades arrived on the scene. Over time I schooled myself about the various RAID options, about NAS and other storage considerations, and finally… today, the upgrade is complete. I’m sharing about the upgrade because when I was trying to decide what to purchase and how to configure it… I couldn’t find much info on the topic.

My goal was to minimize cost, select quality components, keep all the components inside the case, and to keep the backup process simple and reliable. I’m not suggesting that what I opted to do is the right thing or the best thing… it’s simply what I chose to do based on the info, cash, and experience I have.

So, there are nine drives totaling 23TB plus another 23TB to backup everything:


• Sonnet card position 1 > 1TB Samsung Evo Plus > Macintosh HD
• Sonnet card position 2 > 1TB Samsung Evo Plus > (bootable) backup of drive above
• Sonnet card position 3 > 2TB Samsung Evo Plus > for video editing
• Sonnet card position 4 > 2TB Samsung Evo Plus > backup of drive above

• Bay 1 > 14TB WDC Red HDD > 7200rpm > stores completed Final Cut and Logic projects
• Bay 2 > 14TB WDC Red HDD > 7200rpm > backup of drive above
• Bay 3 > 6TB WDC Black HDD > 7200rpm > stores photos, music, and miscellaneous
• Bay 4 > 6TB WDC Black HDD > 7200rpm > backup of drive above

• Lower Optical Bay > 500GB Crucial SSD > (bootable) Mojave OS for troubleshooting


I put the Sonnet card in PCIe x16 slot 1 and the GPU in x16 slot 2 to allow the GPU fans an abundance of breathing room.

I use the SuperDuper! app to do my backups— I don’t use Time Machine at all.

My plan is to do my video editing on the 2TB Samsung Evo Plus and to then move completed projects to the 14TB WDC Red HDD. I haven’t yet tried a video edit but a Blackmagic speed test suggests I’m getting roughly 2700 MB/s for both reads and writes… which makes me smile.

If you’ve been considering a storage upgrade for your’ol Mac Pro, I say go for it! I’m quite pleased with the results. !f anyone has ideas around how to better configure my setup, I’m all ears.

I hope this benefits someone in some way. Cheers!

 

[waiser]

• Mac Pro 5,1 Mid 2010
• OS X 10.14.6 Mojave
• 2 x 3.33 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
• Sapphire RX 580 Pulse 8GB
• Memory 48GB • 6 x 8GB • 1333 MHz DDR3
• Boot Disk: 1TB NVMe M.2
• Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe Card (Silent)
• Firmware Version: 144.0.0.0.0


I’ve been wanting to upgrade my internal storage since NVMe M.2 blades arrived on the scene. Over time I schooled myself about the various RAID options, about NAS and other storage considerations, and finally… today, the upgrade is complete. I’m sharing about the upgrade because when I was trying to decide what to purchase and how to configure it… I couldn’t find much info on the topic.

My goal was to minimize cost, select quality components, keep all the components inside the case, and to keep the backup process simple and reliable. I’m not suggesting that what I opted to do is the right thing or the best thing… it’s simply what I chose to do based on the info, cash, and experience I have.

So, there are nine drives totaling 23TB plus another 23TB to backup everything:


• Sonnet card position 1 > 1TB Samsung Evo Plus > Macintosh HD
• Sonnet card position 2 > 1TB Samsung Evo Plus > (bootable) backup of drive above
• Sonnet card position 3 > 2TB Samsung Evo Plus > for video editing
• Sonnet card position 4 > 2TB Samsung Evo Plus > backup of drive above

• Bay 1 > 14TB WDC Red HDD > 7200rpm > stores completed Final Cut and Logic projects
• Bay 2 > 14TB WDC Red HDD > 7200rpm > backup of drive above
• Bay 3 > 6TB WDC Black HDD > 7200rpm > stores photos, music, and miscellaneous
• Bay 4 > 6TB WDC Black HDD > 7200rpm > backup of drive above

• Lower Optical Bay > 500GB Crucial SSD > (bootable) Mojave OS for troubleshooting


I put the Sonnet card in PCIe x16 slot 1 and the GPU in x16 slot 2 to allow the GPU fans an abundance of breathing room.

I use the SuperDuper! app to do my backups— I don’t use Time Machine at all.

My plan is to do my video editing on the 2TB Samsung Evo Plus and to then move completed projects to the 14TB WDC Red HDD. I haven’t yet tried a video edit but a Blackmagic speed test suggests I’m getting roughly 2700 MB/s for both reads and writes… which makes me smile.

If you’ve been considering a storage upgrade for your’ol Mac Pro, I say go for it! I’m quite pleased with the results. !f anyone has ideas around how to better configure my setup, I’m all ears.

I hope this benefits someone in some way. Cheers!

View attachment 2039253

 

[waiser]

i like your set up. did you have any problems with the Evo plus? im trying to find out which Nvme's will work in the Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe Card (Silent) with my 5.1 cMP

 

[5comma1]

i like your set up. did you have any problems with the Evo plus? im trying to find out which Nvme's will work in the Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe Card (Silent) with my 5.1 cMP

Greetings... no problems to date... everything is working as it should. I know little about the various NVMe offerings out there, I just did my due-diligence back at the time of the upgrade and the Evo Plus received good reviews so I went with those.

 

[BadAxe80]

Hi 5comma1,

Sorry for the thread necro but does your RX580 have the modified bios for boot screen support or is it just standard.
I ask because the thread on NVME SSDs says the Sonnet 4x4 card needs boot screen support to work.
Also, how well does the Sonnet fit? Is it hard to install?

Many thanks

 

[5comma1]

Hi 5comma1,

Sorry for the thread necro but does your RX580 have the modified bios for boot screen support or is it just standard.
I ask because the thread on NVME SSDs says the Sonnet 4x4 card needs boot screen support to work.
Also, how well does the Sonnet fit? Is it hard to install?

Many thanks

Hello BadAxe80,

I found a guy on Discord who talked me through flashing my RX580 so the boot picker would be visible. While texting he sent me various codes to input into various apps. The boot picker has worked perfectly since. I could not have done the flashing process my own.

The Sonnet card fits fine and has worked perfectly to date. I didn't have any problems at all with the installation.

The attached photo shows the placement of my cards. I felt it was important to maintain a healthy gap between the cards for adequate air circulation. The small card on top, which is difficult to see in this shot, is a USB 3 card.