MP All Models macOS PCIe SATA SSD Adapters (MP5,1 & MP7,1)

[Virtuoso]

I got the Fusion Dual RAID card on Thursday. Loaded it with 2 Samsung 860EVO 2TB drives and I'm getting 943MB/s write and 1030MB/s read from a RAID0. Individually the drives were doing 495MB/s write and 533MB/s read so I'm very pleased with the speed. Might get a second one!

 

[bcomer]

The Corsair MP600 2TB and Orico NVME M.2 Expansion Card PDM2 works great in the 7,1.

 

[Virtuoso]

The Corsair MP600 2TB and Orico NVME M.2 Expansion Card PDM2 works great in the 7,1.

This thread is for SATA drives - there's a different thread for NVMe blades...

PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI

This is a general info thread for blade SSDs that can be used in the Mac Pro. This is a WikiPost so anyone with the proper credentials may edit it. NVMe SSDs can be used as a boot drive in the MP5,1 and MP6,1 with the latest firmware installed (beginning with version 140.0.0.0.0 for MP5,1 and...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[bsbeamer]

@Virtuoso have you been able to test the 10Gbps USB-C on the FUS-SSD-2RAID-E with a 10Gbps device?
[automerge]1581352002[/automerge]

Now available for purchase from the Sonnet site, I just ordered one.

Have you tested in your MP5,1 yet? Updating the Wiki.

 

[Virtuoso]

@Virtuoso have you been able to test the 10Gbps USB-C on the FUS-SSD-2RAID-E with a 10Gbps device?

I wasn't really planning to use the USB-C port, but I just tested it with an almost full 860EVO and got 470MB/s write and 520MB/s read, so it seems to work fine. The lower write performance might be down to there being only 20GB left on the 2TB drive.

 

[seefees]

I personally used this card for my OSX install for about a year, now after a parenthesis with a NVMe drive (Samsung 970EVO) I went back to the Sonnet Tempo SSD Pro Plus with a RAID0 software configuration using a couple of Crucial MX500 because it has a super fast boot time. The same Crucial SSDs do not worked at their maximum (plus other oddities) on the Angelbird so I am planning to replace both with a couple of Angelbird-approved Solid State Drive. I like very much the idea of an hard RAID0 because it is trasparent to the MacPro and therefore I can format it in APFS and installing Mojave without the need to clone it to a HFS+ soft raid like my actual setup.
It is compatible with 10.14.6 both on 4.1 flashed to 5.1 and 5.1 native but to perform at its best it needs different SSDs than the Crucial MX500 (that instead works GREAT when installed on the Sonnet Tempo SSD Pro Plus). No idea about the chipset they used, to discover it I should remove the blue aluminium heatsink in the middle but I fear to damage something.

So does it worth to buy a Sonnet Tempo SSD Pro Plus for being able to run Windows 10 on a mac pro 5.1 ?
My mac pro is 4.1 flashed 5.1 running Mojave through Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1 TB M.2 NVMe on Aqua Computer Kryom. 2 EVO adapter .
I found a Sonnet Tempo SSD Pro Plus used for 175 € but I'm not sure if this would have been a good option for being able to have both operating systems on my mac pro. I would appreciate any helpful advice.

 

[SnakeCoils]

Well, I have spent many hours following the guides and hints around the web for a path similar to yours but in the end I give up.
The Windows installation on the Sonnet was erratic 99% of times, only one time I have reached the end of the install process but on the restart the SSD on the card was not found again, at some point I decided that I would feel much better for a safety way, like using the good old SATA-150 ports that comes standard with the MacPro.
I have both 5.1 upgraded from 4.1 and 5.1 native MacPros, none of them was able to finish a clean install of Win10 using the Sonnet, and believe me, it was really a pity because that card has amazing performances since it squeeze out all the speed an SSD can do and none of the other PCIe SATA controller I had was able to do better.
My final configuration is now very similar to yours with a 1Tb Samsung 970 EVO (a good bargain from Amazon) on a Kryo M2 adapter: solid 1400 Mb/s on OSX, only a bit slower than Sonnet on boot.
The Win10 install was performed in legacy mode without an issue on a WD Raptor I had around mounted in one of the four trays of the MacPro while the Sonnet Tempo Pro Plus is now sleeping in its antistatic wrap, waiting for a new destination: I am reluctant to sell it because it has also eSATA ports and someday I could consider an external storage attached to them.

 

[tsialex]

Well, I have spent many hours following the guides and hints around the web for a path similar to yours but in the end I give up.
The Windows installation on the Sonnet was erratic 99% of times, only one time I have reached the end of the install process but on the restart the SSD on the card was not found again, at some point I decided that I would feel much better for a safety way, like using the good old SATA-150 ports that comes standard with the MacPro.
I have both 5.1 upgraded from 4.1 and 5.1 native MacPros, none of them was able to finish a clean install of Win10 using the Sonnet, and believe me, it was really a pity because that card has amazing performances since it squeeze out all the speed an SSD can do and none of the other PCIe SATA controller I had was able to do better.
My final configuration is now very similar to yours with a 1Tb Samsung 970 EVO (a good bargain from Amazon) on a Kryo M2 adapter: solid 1400 Mb/s on OSX, only a bit slower than Sonnet on boot.
The Win10 install was performed in legacy mode without an issue on a WD Raptor I had around mounted in one of the four trays of the MacPro while the Sonnet Tempo Pro Plus is now sleeping in its antistatic wrap, waiting for a new destination: I am reluctant to sell it because it has also eSATA ports and someday I could consider an external storage attached to them.

MP5,1 SATA ports are SATA II (300).

Btw, you are talking about Sonnet M.2 4x4 or Tempo versions? We new this from day one for M.2 4x4 while HighPoint SSD7101A-1 supports Windows UEFI booting without problem.

 

[SnakeCoils]

Absolutely true, the internal MacPro 5,1 SATA are 3.0 GBps ports, sorry for the mistake. I was talking about the Sonnet Tempo Pro Plus, this one:

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/legacyproducts/tempossdproplus.html

 

[seefees]

Well, I have spent many hours following the guides and hints around the web for a path similar to yours but in the end I give up.
The Windows installation on the Sonnet was erratic 99% of times, only one time I have reached the end of the install process but on the restart the SSD on the card was not found again, at some point I decided that I would feel much better for a safety way, like using the good old SATA-150 ports that comes standard with the MacPro.
I have both 5.1 upgraded from 4.1 and 5.1 native MacPros, none of them was able to finish a clean install of Win10 using the Sonnet, and believe me, it was really a pity because that card has amazing performances since it squeeze out all the speed an SSD can do and none of the other PCIe SATA controller I had was able to do better.
My final configuration is now very similar to yours with a 1Tb Samsung 970 EVO (a good bargain from Amazon) on a Kryo M2 adapter: solid 1400 Mb/s on OSX, only a bit slower than Sonnet on boot.
The Win10 install was performed in legacy mode without an issue on a WD Raptor I had around mounted in one of the four trays of the MacPro while the Sonnet Tempo Pro Plus is now sleeping in its antistatic wrap, waiting for a new destination: I am reluctant to sell it because it has also eSATA ports and someday I could consider an external storage attached to them.

Thanks a lot! You saved me of spending 175 € on this adapter.
By the way have you ever tried to run windows from the external ports of this card?
As far as I understand there is no other budget solution for this problem...

 

[SnakeCoils]

External ports of the Sonnet card behaves exactly as the internal ones so the issues with Win10 install are the same.
However boot and access time in the standard MacPro SATA bays are not bad at all, I think they can be used without too much regrets when we talks about Windows, for example here is the storage setup of my MacPro 2012:

SATA Tray 1 = WD Raptor HD (Windows 10)
SATA Tray 2 = Time Machine HD
SATA Tray 3 = RAID 1 HD (1/2)
SATA Tray 4 = RAID 1 HD (2/2)

PCIe slot 4 = Kryo M2 + Samsung 970 EVO 1Tb (Mojave OSX)
PCIe slot 3 = Inateck 4 port USB 3.0 card
PCIe slot 2 = empty
PCIe slot 1 = Sapphire RX 580 8 Gb (Orinoco framebuffer compliant)

I am really happy about this configuration but of course is only my home computer, no demanding application running on it.

 

[seefees]

External ports of the Sonnet card behaves exactly as the internal ones so the issues with Win10 install are the same.
However boot and access time in the standard MacPro SATA bays are not bad at all, I think they can be used without too much regrets when we talks about Windows, for example here is the storage setup of my MacPro 2012:

SATA Tray 1 = WD Raptor HD (Windows 10)
SATA Tray 2 = Time Machine HD
SATA Tray 3 = RAID 1 HD (1/2)
SATA Tray 4 = RAID 1 HD (2/2)

PCIe slot 4 = Kryo M2 + Samsung 970 EVO 1Tb (Mojave OSX)
PCIe slot 3 = Inateck 4 port USB 3.0 card
PCIe slot 2 = empty
PCIe slot 1 = Sapphire RX 580 8 Gb (Orinoco framebuffer compliant)

I am really happy about this configuration but of course is only my home computer, no demanding application running on it.

You are absolutely right! I like your storage set up as a budget option for home computer. Everything you wrote was extremely helpful for me!

 

[AlexMaximus]

I have added some photos here to demonstrate economic ways of continuing to use SATA HDD/ SSD / M2 B-Key (*NOT* PCIe M-Key) in 7,1 and 5,1..

@bsbeamer can rule on relevance to this thread (but remember - these AIC cards pictured have all the same properties as the ones already discussed above).

Take one of these..
View attachment 889208

use SAS to SATA 4-way splitters to set up arrangements like this..
View attachment 889209
View attachment 889210

one card.. occupying one slot.. providing the opportunity to connect up to 16 SATA drives of all types. This photo shows gumsticks mixed with spinners..

View attachment 889212

i'll thumbnail a few other images below for those that would like to see more of this approach..


View attachment 889214
View attachment 889215

Did you know you have a brother in Japan ???

 

[zedex]

No... but I'm curious to find out about the link(!) [nervous laughter]

 

[KeesMacPro]

I'd like to share my experience with the Accelsior S.
I've used 2 of them in my Mac Pro 3,1 and randomly after sleep it showed an error: "disk ejected".
In my Mac Pro 4,1-5,1 I'm still using one Accelsior S and (very seldom) it shows the same message.
Besides that when I look at the PCI parts in "about this Mac" , randomly it seems to choose between "x1" and "x2" lanes....
Even stranger: obviously its capable of "ignoring" the Innie kext ,I installed, because randomly it shows "external" , while I can see the Lilu loaded in extensions and the other NVME m2 970 EVO shows internal.
I would never recommend this OWC card to somebody.

 

[LEOMODE]

Does anyone know the pros and cons on below 2 products?

Sedna PCI Express (PCIe) Dual 2.5 Inch SATA III (6G) SSD Adapter (Extended Single Side SSD Version) (with Built in Power Circuit, no Need SATA Power Connector, Best for Mac), SSD/HDD not Included

Features : Direct mounting of two 2.5" SATA III SSd / Hdd on board (SSD not included) Operating System Software can be installed on mounted SSD and booting of the OS from the installed PCIE disk is supported (Your mother board BIOS need to support this feature) Using standard low cost high perfer...

www.amazon.com

SoNNeT Tempo SSD 6Gb/s SATA PCIe 2.5" SSD Host Adapter

If you've been thinking about fast, bootable storage, you've read the stories and seen the reviews; SSDs are hot right now. Not only do they offer tremendous performance and easily outperform hard disk drives, they are more reliable, their prices are dropping and you can get more capacity than ev...

www.amazon.com

The price difference is 2x more on Sonnet, but I'm wondering about performance, stability and so forth.

Thanks.

 

[bsbeamer]

Does anyone know the pros and cons on below 2 products?

Sedna PCI Express (PCIe) Dual 2.5 Inch SATA III (6G) SSD Adapter (Extended Single Side SSD Version) (with Built in Power Circuit, no Need SATA Power Connector, Best for Mac), SSD/HDD not Included

Features : Direct mounting of two 2.5" SATA III SSd / Hdd on board (SSD not included) Operating System Software can be installed on mounted SSD and booting of the OS from the installed PCIE disk is supported (Your mother board BIOS need to support this feature) Using standard low cost high perfer...

www.amazon.com

SoNNeT Tempo SSD 6Gb/s SATA PCIe 2.5" SSD Host Adapter

If you've been thinking about fast, bootable storage, you've read the stories and seen the reviews; SSDs are hot right now. Not only do they offer tremendous performance and easily outperform hard disk drives, they are more reliable, their prices are dropping and you can get more capacity than ev...

www.amazon.com

The price difference is 2x more on Sonnet, but I'm wondering about performance, stability and so forth.

Thanks.

The SEDNA is PCIe x1. The SONNET is PCIe x2 and should be faster speeds.

 

[LEOMODE]

The SEDNA is PCIe x1. The SONNET is PCIe x2 and should be faster speeds.

on amazon it says sedna is 2.0.

 

[bsbeamer]

on amazon it says sedna is 2.0.

Amazon states:
PCI Express Specification Rev. 2.0
1-Lane (x1) PCI-Express with transfer rate 5Gb/s Full Duplex channel

It's PCIe 2.0 x1 and your speeds will be limited.

 

[LEOMODE]

Amazon states:
PCI Express Specification Rev. 2.0
1-Lane (x1) PCI-Express with transfer rate 5Gb/s Full Duplex channel

It's PCIe 2.0 x1 and your speeds will be limited.

Ah gotcha, I read it as if it just required 1 slot. Would the speed be double?

 

[bsbeamer]

If you care about speed, get an x2 or higher adapter. The lane specs are all listed in the first post WIKI #1 .

 

[MarkC426]

Ah gotcha, I read it as if it just required 1 slot. Would the speed be double?

I get 500mb/s read/write on my 5.1mp, which is pcie 2.0.
Not sure if anyone has tested it in a 7.1mp.
There is a newer sonnet card (page 1) which is pcie 3.0, this will obviously be quicker.

Edit: you can get an m2 version also (if you don’t already have the ssd’s)

 

[bsbeamer]

MP5,1 is a PCIe 2.0 machine, that will not change. The lane speed x1, x2, x4, etc. has an impact on read/write for some SSDs. If you use with spinning HDDs, it's negligible.

 

[MarkC426]

Leomode has a 7.1

 

[Melbourne Park]

My main successful business background was in production lines for manufacturing, analysing many variables, essentially coming down to product flexibility and identifying bottlenecks. So when I look at RAId cards going across the cards's own fast bus, I am unsure whether the high cost of such cards would be justified on my home Mac Pro.

So now, I am wondering now about a low cost method for improving performance. These cards say they are Mac compatible - but I don't know if that is true. They seem relatively low cost though. Just wondering, as I haven't seen them mentioned. https://www.marvell.com/content/dam...ll-storage-88se92xx-product-brief-2012-04.pdf