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PCI-E USB 3 & SATA for Mac Pro 5.1?

Boomish69

Boomish69

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 13, 2012
402
109
London
I’ve run out of PCI-E slots & would like to add some USB 3 ports, I’ve got a PCI-E SATA card for 2x internal SSD, this also gives me 2 eSata external ports, a PCI-E UAD solo card (MUsic plug-in DSP POWER) and a single Nvme adapter .

I’ve looked and looked but can’t find something that might add some USB 3 ports without loosing someth8ng else, I can not think if I can find a card that has internal SATA and external USB3 ports, I could add some converters for the eSata but they basically got a USB external drive hub so I can change this for a USB 3 hub.
Anyone found one that works for a Mac Pro 5.1?
Basically I got a new 8TB Seagate Time machine backup drive & when I tested the speed I got 30mbps! WTH I knows it’s an archive SMR drive but god know why it’s so slow, maybe if I can finally sort some USB 3 it’ll help.
 
Boomish69 said:
I’ve run out of PCI-E slots & would like to add some USB 3 ports, I’ve got a PCI-E SATA card for 2x internal SSD, this also gives me 2 eSata external ports, a PCI-E UAD solo card (MUsic plug-in DSP POWER) and a single Nvme adapter .

I’ve looked and looked but can’t find something that might add some USB 3 ports without loosing someth8ng else, I can not think if I can find a card that has internal SATA and external USB3 ports, I could add some converters for the eSata but they basically got a USB external drive hub so I can change this for a USB 3 hub.
Anyone found one that works for a Mac Pro 5.1?
Basically I got a new 8TB Seagate Time machine backup drive & when I tested the speed I got 30mbps! WTH I knows it’s an archive SMR drive but god know why it’s so slow, maybe if I can finally sort some USB 3 it’ll help.
Click to expand...

Get a USB 3.0 card and run an external USB to SATA for your extra drives?

I think OWC make an M.2 SSD card that has eSATA?
 
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Boomish69 said:
I’ve run out of PCI-E slots & would like to add some USB 3 ports, I’ve got a PCI-E SATA card for 2x internal SSD, this also gives me 2 eSata external ports, a PCI-E UAD solo card (MUsic plug-in DSP POWER) and a single Nvme adapter .

I’ve looked and looked but can’t find something that might add some USB 3 ports without loosing someth8ng else, I can not think if I can find a card that has internal SATA and external USB3 ports, I could add some converters for the eSata but they basically got a USB external drive hub so I can change this for a USB 3 hub.
Anyone found one that works for a Mac Pro 5.1?
Basically I got a new 8TB Seagate Time machine backup drive & when I tested the speed I got 30mbps! WTH I knows it’s an archive SMR drive but god know why it’s so slow, maybe if I can finally sort some USB 3 it’ll help.
Click to expand...

Only one question comes to my mind here. Is your second DVD slot still open and up for grabs?

If your dual PCIe SSD card (sounds like a Sonnet Plus) is not used as a Raid feature and you are using those two SSDs as separate devices, then you could go this route:

#1 Us a Dual SSD bracket to put your two SSD from the Sonnet card in your second DVD bay.

#2 Sell the Sonnet card on eBay

#3a) Go for the older USB combo card from Caldigit with two SATA ports and two USB3 ports (old version)
#3b) Go for the newer USB combo card from Caldigit with two SATA ports and one USB3 + one USB-C port.

All you lose is the Raid functionality on the sonnet. -Question remains, can you live with it?
Also the SSD speed will be slightly reduced because the SATA bus is slower then PCIe. However this way you can get back on slot.
If speed is very important, you still have a nice option left.
By replacing the single NVM PCIe card, you can go with a dual PCIe card for two NVMe and have even more speed than on the sonnet card, + you gain one more NVMe drive.

I/O Crest card:

https://www.amazon.com/CREST-SI-PEX40129-Ports-Bifurcation-Controller/dp/B07HYZY7P2

Bracket:

https://eshop.macsales.com/owcpages/multimount/

USB3 (old)

http://www.caldigit.com/fasta-6gu3/

USB3 (new)

http://www.caldigit.com/fasta-6gu3plus/
 
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I hope anyone can help me. Extracting a FASTA 6GU3 fronm my Mac Pro I broke two condensors. Anyone can post a deatiled picture of the card? I need to know the exact values son I can resolder. Thanks.
 
******* said:
I hope anyone can help me. Extracting a FASTA 6GU3 fronm my Mac Pro I broke two condensors. Anyone can post a deatiled picture of the card? I need to know the exact values son I can resolder. Thanks.
Click to expand...
IMG_0244.jpeg IMG_0245.jpeg

which one did you crash?
 
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