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Need a Reliable USB 3 Card for a Mac Pro 4,1

Ben1l

Ben1l

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 30, 2006
249
0
Hi,

I really need to get a RELIABLE USB 3 card for my Mac Pro 4,1 running 10.9.1.

I bought a Sonnet Allegro 2 port USB3, that was just crap and only worked when it felt like it.

The most important thing is that it work consistently with a Areca external USB 3 Raid drive.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
 
Orico or Inateck 4 port, check out the huge USB 3.0 thread further back. Not the fastest but cheap as chips, Fresco chipset is the same controller as Apple so works out of the box from 10.8.3 up and rock solid reliable. All USB 3.0 cards do suffer from sleep issues running a raid you will have to adjust your energy saver prefs. Will need power from the ODD ports. The day the classic Mac Pro will get a Thunderbolt add on PCIe card the hair on my head will grow back!
 
Last edited:
weren't there some cards that didn't require additional power? or did i imagine reading that? or were they just unreliable?
 
I have the Fresco Logic USB 3.0 in my mac, works great, no 3rd party drivers needed, sleep\shutdown, etc. all work perfect.
 
I just installed the CalDigit FASTA-6GU3 card in my Mac Pro 5.1/Mavericks and it works perfectly on both USB 3.0 and eSATA. Got the latest driver from the CalDigit website.

The only issue is the USB 3.0 external drives cause interference with the Bluetooth devices due to stray radio splatter. It is under control for now and all devices work. Not the fault of the card, and I will move the Bluetooth antenna when the parts arrive.
 
I use Orico in my MPs - both 2 and 4 socket. Inexpensive and reliable.

Installation details and benchmarks appear here. Though i show the PSU being removed, that is not necessary - you can thread the cables from the backplane area to the optical drive area for power using the slot provided by Apple. You do need to power the card.
 
Gav Mack said:
The day the classic Mac Pro will get a Thunderbolt add on PCIe card the hair on my head will grow back!
Click to expand...

It won't be able to. AFAIK cMP mainboards don't have the required GPIO header. Concur that Orico USB 3.0 cards work great in Mountain Lion (10.8.5) and for only $15.
 
cinealta said:
It won't be able to. AFAIK cMP mainboards don't have the required GPIO header. Concur that Orico USB 3.0 cards work great in Mountain Lion (10.8.5) and for only $15.
Click to expand...

From one of the docs I've read, the only hope for TB in a cMP would be a AMD or Nvidia based solution.

"Thunderbolt can be implemented on PCIe graphics cards, which have access to DisplayPort data and PCIe connectivity, or on the motherboard of new computers with onboard video, such as the MacBook Air."

Considering Thunderbolt was panned as a mDP standard, and AMD's USB3 Lightning-bolt solution with power was selected as the new standard: DockPort, don't hold you breath.
 
Last edited:
Ben1l said:
Hi,

I really need to get a RELIABLE USB 3 card for my Mac Pro 4,1 running 10.9.1.

I bought a Sonnet Allegro 2 port USB3, that was just crap and only worked when it felt like it.

The most important thing is that it work consistently with a Areca external USB 3 Raid drive.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...

See the first post of this thread. It provides a summary of recommended cards and issues they may have.
 
Gav Mack said:
All USB 3.0 cards do suffer from sleep issues
Click to expand...

If you are talking about the eject / remount during sleep/wake, then I'd have to say you're incorrect.

I don't know for sure if the RocketU-144CM will work with the exact Raid setup being referenced, but it doesn't suffer from the issue described above at all.

As ActionableMango has already posted, refer to This Thread for more complete details.
 
crjackson2134 said:
If you are talking about the eject / remount during sleep/wake, then I'd have to say you're incorrect.

I don't know for sure if the RocketU-144CM will work with the exact Raid setup being referenced, but it doesn't suffer from the issue described above at all.

As ActionableMango has already posted, refer to This Thread for more complete details.
Click to expand...

I've had two different clients moan about ejects/sleep with Fresco cards but haven't visited them yet, only remote. Perhaps they need a call out.

Lucky in this case we don't have TB as that's a constant whinge I hear about them often!
 
Gav Mack said:
I've had two different clients moan about ejects/sleep with Fresco cards but haven't visited them yet, only remote. Perhaps they need a call out.

Lucky in this case we don't have TB as that's a constant whinge I hear about them often!
Click to expand...

Sorry, let me clarify, incorrect that ALL USB 3.0 cards have the problem. My Orico DOES, my RocketU DOESN'T.
 
Thanks everyone. I went with the CalDigit SuperSpeed PCI ExpressCard - USB 3.0. Arrives tomorrow. Hope it works well!!
 
Chuck Rodent said:
I just installed the CalDigit FASTA-6GU3 card in my Mac Pro 5.1/Mavericks and it works perfectly on both USB 3.0 and eSATA. Got the latest driver from the CalDigit website.

The only issue is the USB 3.0 external drives cause interference with the Bluetooth devices due to stray radio splatter. It is under control for now and all devices work. Not the fault of the card, and I will move the Bluetooth antenna when the parts arrive.
Click to expand...

I've notices this card causing interference with my bluetooth mouth as well. Where is the antenna and how difficult is it to move it??
 
Here is a description and solution:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/904437/

My parts have not arrived yet and I may put the external antenna in a different location lower on the case to move it further from the USB 3 cabling.

The eSATA has no interference issues with the docking station and hard drives I am using.
 
Chuck Rodent said:
Here is a description and solution:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/904437/

My parts have not arrived yet and I may put the external antenna in a different location lower on the case to move it further from the USB 3 cabling.

The eSATA has no interference issues with the docking station and hard drives I am using.
Click to expand...

I contacted Caldigit about this and they directed me to new driver that seems to have sorted out the problem. I'm now running CalDigit_USB3_Driver_10_8_X_1.4.2.
 
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