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PCIE M.2 NVMe on MacPro
- Thread starter superparati
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Hi
I have a kingstone hiperX Predator pcie card and I just wanna know if that is going to run at the nvmi speed or slower.
Currently its in my 3,1 and reads at about a 1000MS/s and writes around 600MB/s. But my 2010 5,1 arrives in a few days so if needed Im gonna buy proper nvme pcie card and a blade.
Any suggestion would be appreciated
Thanks
Also
I don't understand the difference between nvme and m.2
Is the following statement true?
All nvmes’ are m.2 but not all m.2 are nvme.
I googled it but got confused even more
Thanks
Laszlo
I have a kingstone hiperX Predator pcie card and I just wanna know if that is going to run at the nvmi speed or slower.
Currently its in my 3,1 and reads at about a 1000MS/s and writes around 600MB/s. But my 2010 5,1 arrives in a few days so if needed Im gonna buy proper nvme pcie card and a blade.
Any suggestion would be appreciated
Thanks
Also
I don't understand the difference between nvme and m.2
Is the following statement true?
All nvmes’ are m.2 but not all m.2 are nvme.
I googled it but got confused even more
Thanks
Laszlo
^^^^Yes, the statement is true. You need to read this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2
It's my understanding that the kingstone hiperX Predator pcie card is not an NVMe card but an AHCI SSD. AHCI SSDs are fast, but a bit slower than NVMe SSDs.
Note - NVMe SSDs will not boot on a 3,1 cMP but will boot on a 5,1 cMP with the proper Boot ROM update.
Lou
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2
It's my understanding that the kingstone hiperX Predator pcie card is not an NVMe card but an AHCI SSD. AHCI SSDs are fast, but a bit slower than NVMe SSDs.
Note - NVMe SSDs will not boot on a 3,1 cMP but will boot on a 5,1 cMP with the proper Boot ROM update.
Lou
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No, it's wrong.
NVMe is a protocol that can be implemented with M.2, U.2 and AIC (HHHL/FHHL) formats.
M.2 is a format and can be SATA, PCIE with AHCI or NVMe, and others like SMBUS/I2C.
Wrong again, you can say that U.2 is not common yet, but it's supported.
High Point SSD7120 + U.2 drives works perfectly with MP5,1.
Btw, any cheap U.2 adapter works with MP5,1.
U.2 is not exactly 2,5", some drives are, some are bigger.
[doublepost=1557723902][/doublepost]You can use AIC cards with Mac Pro 5,1 too, like Intel 750 series that some people here have.
Thanks for the quick reply from both of you.
If understand it correctly than I should only buy an nvmi card like one of the highpoint ones and put my m.2 in it from the hiperX predator.
It will work with my 5,1 just right if I have the bootrom updated
The 3,1 can also boot from NVME via a BootROM modification to add support. One can also add APFS booting via this same method.
Doesn't look like it will be a long wait - $24.49 at Newegg today ($1.50 coupon code)Are you seriously saying you could get a 256gb ssd for $25 by the end of the year.....................
Wowzers, that is cheap....
Once a 2tb comes down, I can swap my spinny drive for my itunes storage.
Once a 2tb comes down, I can swap my spinny drive for my itunes storage.
Alex, you seem to have a lot of knowledge about the Highpoint carrier cards. I mentioned to you before that I'm upgrading my gen 2 Squid carrier. I just bought my first two (2TB) NVMe blades so it's time to get a better carrier. I've read conflicting info about the SSD7101 and 7102 on this forum that states that the card(s) are not bootable (on Mac OS) if you build a RAID array. I believe you might have been referring to APFS not supporting a bootable RAID volume. Please allow me to explain my intentions and you so can tell me if it will work for me.
On High Sierra (HFS+): I'd like to build a software RAID 0 array with x2 NVMe blades as a Data drive and boot to another NVMe that is not a RAID. That is exactly what I'm doing now with the Squid except I'm using SM951 AHCI instead of NVMe. I don't ever plan on booting to the RAID array, it's just a project drive.
Will that work with SSD7101 / SSD7102 / SSD7110? I'm really looking at the 7710 because I could utilize the mini SAS ports. If that card don't work as good for my purposes on Mac then it's between 7101/7102. If I can't do what I want with any of them, I guess I'll just get a Squid gen 3. I asked Highpoint through web support but they were less than helpful with the info. I actually just bought one of their 6124v RocketStor enclosures too.
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If your are not trying to boot from RAID, data HFS+ RAID arrays still work perfectly.
I never used SSD7110, so can't say anything about it.
A lot of people use 1 M.2 blade for booting/main drive and 3 for data RAID array with SSD7101-A/SSD7102/SSD7120.
New Sonnet card available. I didn't see it posted elsewhere, but if it has been my apologies. 4 NVME slots... Wonder what the specs are on this. I'll have to dig around.... Requires Mojave according to specs.
https://www.sonnettech.com/product/m2-4x4-pcie-card.html
https://www.sonnettech.com/product/m2-4x4-pcie-card.html
I find humor in the fact it says this:
“Computer Compatibility
Mac Pro 5,1 (Mid 2010 & Mid 2012) with available full-length x16 PCIe slot”
But the photos are of 3,1 model Mac pros.
Price is not overly cheap at $400US.... Mind it does take 4 drives. No Windows booting is a deal breaker for me. Saw it last night and had to share. Another one for the list.
Already discussed here #770, Sonnet did a lot of weird choices and it's not a good fit for a lot of users.
Thanks for that update. You have an amazing memory to keep track of all this information. Unfortunate Sonnet didn't take the high road here. Their products used to be fantastic years ago.
This has proven not to be practical:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-3-1-nvme-drive-natively-booting.2181184/#post-27364864
I stand by my statement:
Lou
First of all the Evo 970 Plus SSD doesn't work all the time flawlessly.
The adapter I'm using is a x4 PCI Express to M.2 PCIe from Startech; I guess, due to the restrictions of PCI slot the SSD has its limitations (I use PCI slot 4) Based upon my bootrom (140.0.0.0.0) I can get the NVME bootable.
To be quiet honest I would have expected more, but then again the speed is at least 3x the speed of my Samsung 860 SSD
In general I'm quiet satisfied with the performance, but it could be better.
I got some screenshots to give you an idea
View attachment 832445 View attachment 832446 View attachment 832447 View attachment 832448 View attachment 832449 View attachment 832450
So you can boot from the Startech unit as well. Im interested in this one as they are easy to get and cheap in Canada
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