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Mac Pro (Late 2013) - Amfeltec AngelShark Carrier Board - Storage Upgrade
- Thread starter RyanXM
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Just got my board, its rev 1.2 (if anyone cares). For Europeans, got it for a fair price from ebay (via a German company), was even a tit cheaper then from Amfeltec directly. It was the last one, but maybe they will stock again (just search ebay.de).
Now waiting for my SSD to arrive
PS: its a **** load of $$$, but they packed it very nice. Includes screwdriver and different bits (so no fiddling around with missing tools).
Now waiting for my SSD to arrive
PS: its a **** load of $$$, but they packed it very nice. Includes screwdriver and different bits (so no fiddling around with missing tools).
I managed to get a previous revision model (rev 1.1 I presume - they said “one mounting hole shifted” which “doesn’t effect operation”) for $352.66 USD which isn’t too bad. They may have more left. They said they had 3 in stock (and I bought one). I should get it next week and have a 2TB 970 Evo lined up for it. I didn’t think it was worth getting the 970 Pro given the bandwidth limitations. Will report back how I get on.
I got the board today and fitted it with a 960 Evo 500GB and 970 Evo 2TB. All fitted well until it came to the heatsink. The channel in the middle for the original SSD isn't wide enough to accomodate the 1TB SSUBX SSD it seems - the slot is 31mm and the SSD is 33mm. I've asked them if they do a wider version of the heat sink. Normally I'd not care but transferring a large file meant the temps hit ~80c on the 970 which is toasty - 70c being the max recommended temp. The Apple SSD I have is from a MacBook so it doesn't have a cooler (if it did it'd have even less chance of fitting) but that sits at ~40c:
^ these are idle temps.
^ these are idle temps.
Finally also got my SSD, a 970 EVO (2 TB). Seems to work fine. No h/w issues (fitting wise), seems to fit fine for me.
Did a fresh install of MacOS without any issues. So-far so good.
Did wan't to keep an eye on the temp. but not sure how to do that. You can not switch the Mac on without the cover?
Read and write speed are ~ 30% better then my old original drive.
Did a fresh install of MacOS without any issues. So-far so good.
Did wan't to keep an eye on the temp. but not sure how to do that. You can not switch the Mac on without the cover?
Read and write speed are ~ 30% better then my old original drive.
Got the replacement heatsink from Amfeltec yesterday (awesome service) and temps are looking a little better now. This is at idle again:
I'll see what I can max it out to later on.
I'll see what I can max it out to later on.
Do the drives all show as external for everyone else? I've just updated to 10.14.2 but don't remember them showing as external before but I could be mistaken. It won't allow me to install Bootcamp on any of them as a result.
What's also strange is system info shows it as a "Removable: No" and "Detachable Drive: No"
What's also strange is system info shows it as a "Removable: No" and "Detachable Drive: No"
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In my experience (up to macOS 10.14.1):
- They were always showing as "external"
- Bootcamp Assistant never worked
- I had to physically remove every drive except one to install Windows
- macOS NVMe driver would sometimes panic (on sleep and shutdown) when having NTFS and APFS volumes in the same MacPro6,1
You don't need Boot Camp Assistant to install Windows.
Create a new partition using Disk Utility. Erase that partition using the Windows installer and install Windows to it.
You just need to get the drivers from Boot Camp Assistant separately. Do you see a "Download the latest Windows support software from Apple" option?
Create a new partition using Disk Utility. Erase that partition using the Windows installer and install Windows to it.
You just need to get the drivers from Boot Camp Assistant separately. Do you see a "Download the latest Windows support software from Apple" option?
Just now when my MacPro was waken from sleep, the red led stayed on. It's visible via the ventilation slots. Anybody has a clue what that meant? SSD drives (I have only original and a 970 EVO). After reboot it stayed red. Only after I did a shutdown and power by hand, it went away. I'm running it now for a full week without any problems this is a first.
Normally when it awakes from sleep it see multi colours blinking a few times. The PDF does not explain what this means.
Both drives are running MacOS.
Anybody?
I've encountered that occasionally. Might be the same red LED that is on when the Mac Pro is running hot. Never had any problems with the drives though.
According to the manual, the red LED is for "Carrier board status indication".
Thanks. Yeah I read that two, but it doesn't explain a lot.
What did you do, does it go off by itself at some point? For me it was waking up after being a sleep for hours, so I can't imagine it was running hot.
Only thing different I did was doing a NVRAM reset before that boot.
When caused by high temperatures, the red LED went off when temps got down. When on after sleep, it took a shutdown to get it off, if i remember correctly. Only happened 2 or 3 times, I think.
Mine seems to come on at random times too. Doesn't seem heat related for me as the SSDs are always at relatively mild temps (~45c) with the proper heatsink, but I guess it must be.
I wrote Amfeltec about this. But their response is incredible disappointing. Instead they answer the question (what does the colour -red led solid on- means). They are trying to reproduce it. Sigh. Listening is an art.
Utterly frustrating company to deal with. Nothing heard so-far, surprise.
Utterly frustrating company to deal with. Nothing heard so-far, surprise.
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Do share what they said about the colours. I'd be interested to know.
They've been helpful for me but I only had a basic issue with the heatsink which they fixed.
They've been helpful for me but I only had a basic issue with the heatsink which they fixed.
UPDATE (RED LED).
For me its pretty clear this issues only arises when booting from SSD other then the original Apple SSD. I'm now running a 2 months on my old SSD, and never seen the issue anymore. I send this finding to the vendor.
Anybody that can confirm this?
For me its pretty clear this issues only arises when booting from SSD other then the original Apple SSD. I'm now running a 2 months on my old SSD, and never seen the issue anymore. I send this finding to the vendor.
Anybody that can confirm this?
I boot from the original SSD and still get the red LED after a random time interval. I emailed Amfaltec and they said it was unusual and they’d take a look. They suggested I reboot the machine which obviously makes no difference.