MP All Models PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI

[tsialex]

The problem with Page 1 on an 111 page thread is sometimes the info/links can get outdated despite best efforts in keeping it up to date which is why I sometimes start at the last page and work backwards to cross reference!

This one is a stickie, not a long abandoned thread. Any info that is pertinent goes to the first post.

Interestingly the link I posted to the Silverstone adapter was from a well known supplier of refurbished Mac Pro's and is their recommended solution so I would guess they don't have too many warranty issues or they wouldn't promote it?

Resellers have very different goals than us, long time users. Overtime you will see that even what are considered "Mac Pro friendly re-sellers" frequently diverge from what we do. Some even have very bad rep with us.

 

[VaZ]

Is there ANY pcie 2.0 x8 or x16 2x2 or 4x4 nvme card with bifurcation that can boot natively into osx in RAID0 mode using all drives attached? Is OC the ONLY way to do this?
What about some trickery like cloning a startup drive or using SoftRAID?

 

[trifero]

Is there ANY pcie 2.0 x8 or x16 2x2 or 4x4 nvme card with bifurcation that can boot natively into osx in RAID0 mode using all drives attached? Is OC the ONLY way to do this?
What about some trickery like cloning a startup drive to it?

As far as I know, Mojave was the last macOS/Mac Os X able to boot in a RAID (although oficially not supported). I know that also is posible in Catalina, but much more complicated.

 

[VaZ]

As far as I know, Mojave was the last macOS/Mac Os X able to boot in a RAID (although oficially not supported). I know that also is posible in Catalina, but much more complicated.

Sorry which card ?

 

[trifero]

Sorry which card ?

No card.

 

[VaZ]

No card.

Some cards with the PLX 8747 switch claim they can do it.

 

[tsialex]

Some cards with the PLX 8747 switch claim they can do it.

Not for macOS after High Sierra. The problem is APFS for Mojave/Catalina and APFS and sealed containers for BigSur/Monterey.

Apple already published officially that is not going to support booting from an APFS RAID volume.

Correction: booting from an APFS RAID volume.

 

[Farravi]

Gents, I am thinking of using one of the 2 x spare SATA bays and get a 2.5" SSD's and use a caddy adapter so that it can sit snug in the SATA bays.

Are there any restrictions or compatibility issues.

I intend to use it to run Win 10 via opencore.

 

[tsialex]

Gents, I am thinking of using one of the 2 x spare SATA bays and get a 2.5" SSD's and use a caddy adapter so that it can sit snug in the SATA bays.

Are there any restrictions or compatibility issues.

I intend to use it to run Win 10 via opencore.

Seems you forgot that this is the PCIe NVMe and AHCI blades stickie thread, your question is out of place here since it's a SATA one.

Look at the storage section of the cMP {classicMacPro}{4,1 & 5,1} - Upgrade Guide Sticky Discussion and find a more appropriated thread.

 

[Hdalio]

Olá Pessoal, Troquei o samsung 970 EVO Plus pois o mac não estava mais reconhecendo o sistema, ocorrendo travamento total, na inicialização apareceu o símbolo de proibido!

Então comprei um WD_BLACK SN750. Aparentemente, estava apenas trocando os SSDs na placa pci! No entanto, a Samsung atingiu uma velocidade de 1500 mb / s.
Com o WD, a velocidade é limitada a 750 MB / s. Alguém tem experiência com este SSD pode dizer se existe alguma atualização para aumentar a velocidade?

Obrigado

 

[MarkC426]

Olá Pessoal, Troquei o samsung 970 EVO Plus pois o mac não estava mais reconhecendo o sistema, ocorrendo travamento total, na inicialização apareceu o símbolo de proibido!

Então comprei um WD_BLACK SN750. Aparentemente, estava apenas trocando os SSDs na placa pci! No entanto, a Samsung atingiu uma velocidade de 1500 mb / s.
Com o WD, a velocidade é limitada a 750 MB / s. Alguém tem experiência com este SSD pode dizer se existe alguma atualização para aumentar a velocidade?

Obrigado

This may as well be written in Klingon.......

 

[joevt]

Olá Pessoal, Troquei o samsung 970 EVO Plus pois o mac não estava mais reconhecendo o sistema, ocorrendo travamento total, na inicialização apareceu o símbolo de proibido!

Então comprei um WD_BLACK SN750. Aparentemente, estava apenas trocando os SSDs na placa pci! No entanto, a Samsung atingiu uma velocidade de 1500 mb / s.
Com o WD, a velocidade é limitada a 750 MB / s. Alguém tem experiência com este SSD pode dizer se existe alguma atualização para aumentar a velocidade?

Hello everyone, I replaced the samsung 970 EVO Plus because the mac was no longer recognizing the system, there was a total crash, at startup the prohibited symbol appeared!

So I bought a WD_BLACK SN750. Apparently I was just swapping the SSDs on the pci card! However, Samsung reached a speed of 1500 mb / s.
With WD, speed is limited to 750 MB / s. Does anyone have experience with this SSD can tell if there is any update to increase speed?

What PCIe card? What PCIe slot?
What Mac model? What Mac firmware version?

It appears that the WD is connecting at PCIe 1.0 speed (2.5 GT/s) instead of the expected PCIe 2.0 speed (5 GT/s).
Is it known that the WD can connect at PCIe 2.0 speed? Perhaps someone with the same NVMe can test. If the NVMe is in a PCIe 3.0 slot, the fast.sh script can force it to use a lower speed. If the NVMe is in a PCIe 2.0 slot, maybe the fast.sh script can increase the speed from PCIe 1.0 to PCIe 2.0.

This may as well be written in Klingon.......

Google translate doesn't do Klingon but does do Portuguese.

 

[Hdalio]

What PCIe card? What PCIe slot?
What Mac model? What Mac firmware version?

It appears that the WD is connecting at PCIe 1.0 speed (2.5 GT/s) instead of the expected PCIe 2.0 speed (5 GT/s).
Is it known that the WD can connect at PCIe 2.0 speed? Perhaps someone with the same NVMe can test. If the NVMe is in a PCIe 3.0 slot, the fast.sh script can force it to use a lower speed. If the NVMe is in a PCIe 2.0 slot, maybe the fast.sh script can increase the speed from PCIe 1.0 to PCIe 2.0.


Google translate doesn't do Klingon but does do Portuguese.

sorry for the portuguese hahaha
my google had the automatic translation, so even I pasted the text in english it translated to portuguese!

 

[Hdalio]

This may as well be written in Klingon.......

sorry for the portuguese hahaha
my google had automatic translation, so even I pasted the text in english it translated to portuguese!


I was in this 1st Slot working with EVO normally, I just switched to WD and the speed was 2.5 GT/s.
I was using 2 GPUS so I needed to put it in the 1st slot, I removed the cards and stuck it in 16x and now it went to 5 GT/s. But strange is that EVO worked at a higher speed in the 1st sloth and WD only halfway

 

[Albtraum]

sorry for the portuguese hahaha
my google had automatic translation, so even I pasted the text in english it translated to portuguese!


I was in this 1st Slot working with EVO normally, I just switched to WD and the speed was 2.5 GT/s.
I was using 2 GPUS so I needed to put it in the 1st slot, I removed the cards and stuck it in 16x and now it went to 5 GT/s. But strange is that EVO worked at a higher speed in the 1st sloth and WD only halfway

Olá.
I had the same problem. Had to use lspci/getpci & setpci to manually change the speed of the pci slot :-(

Look at this post:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...4-ssds-5900-mb-s.1936311/page-9#post-25247002
for the commands.

Found the PCI Utils here: https://github.com/pciutils/pciutils
Worked on my MacPro 3.1 with Monterey 12.0.1

Greetings from Germany

 

[Black Ninja Original]

Hi,

I'm choosing a 2TB M.2 NVME SSD for my MacPro 5.1

After a lot of searching I bought a Kyrom.2 EVO card for this SSD! But I'm not sure which SSD blade to choose...

I've already read the compatibility list on page 1, but I would like to know if anyone has used the new 2TB Samsung 980 PRO on MacPro 5.1

Does it work?

It will fit on my Kyrom.2 EVO?



I know I won't reach the full speed of 980 Pro because of PCIe limitations of MacPro 5.1 but maybe in the future I can use it on a new MacPro M1... who knows... And maybe the 980 Pro has a better termal specs…



In my country the price of the 980 Pro 2TB is almost the same as the 970 EVO Plus 2TB...



What do you think?



Thanks in advance!

 

[tsialex]

Hi,

I'm choosing a 2TB M.2 NVME SSD for my MacPro 5.1

After a lot of searching I bought a Kyrom.2 EVO card for this SSD! But I'm not sure which SSD blade to choose...

I've already read the compatibility list on page 1, but I would like to know if anyone has used the new 2TB Samsung 980 PRO on MacPro 5.1

Does it work?

It will fit on my Kyrom.2 EVO?



I know I won't reach the full speed of 980 Pro because of PCIe limitations of MacPro 5.1 but maybe in the future I can use it on a new MacPro M1... who knows... And maybe the 980 Pro has a better termal specs…



In my country the price of the 980 Pro 2TB is almost the same as the 970 EVO Plus 2TB...



What do you think?



Thanks in advance!

There are lot's of reports of issues with the 980 line and MacPro5,1 when not using a PCIe switched card - what you wanna do. It's a PCIe v4.0 blade and seems to not like to run in the MacPro5,1 PCIe v2.0.

When running with the PCIe v3.0 of the most common PCIe switched cards, seems to work fine and several people here are using it.

 

[Black Ninja Original]

There are lot's of reports of issues with the 980 line and MacPro5,1 when not using a PCIe switched card - what you wanna do. It's a PCIe v4.0 blade and seems to not like to run in the MacPro5,1 PCIe v2.0.

When running with the PCIe v3.0 of the most common PCIe switched cards, seems to work fine and several people here are using it.

Thanks Tsialex!

Then the 980 Pro is out of the question! Thanks!



Just for I can make a smooth and nice purchase… Today, in December 2021, what's your best choice of a 2TB NVME blade for Kirom.2 on MacPro 5.1? I need reliability…

Of course I read page 1, but what would be the best choice in your world today?

 

[tsialex]

Thanks Tsialex!

Then the 980 Pro is out of the question! Thanks!



Just for I can make a smooth and nice purchase… Today, in December 2021, what's your best choice of a 2TB NVME blade for Kirom.2 on MacPro 5.1? I need reliability…

Of course I read page 1, but what would be the best choice in your world today?

2TB blade that works fine with a MacPro5,1 and are reliable/durable/easy to find practically limits you to 970 EVO and EVO+ models. There are several other 2TB blades that work, but none with the three of my requirements above, specially endurance.

 

[Black Ninja Original]

2TB blade that works fine with a MacPro5,1 and are reliable/durable/easy to find practically limits you to 970 EVO and EVO+ models. There are several other 2TB blades that work, but none with the three of my requirements above, specially endurance.

Thanks! I'm going to buy one EVO Plus 2TB!

 

[Black Ninja Original]

sorry for the portuguese hahaha
my google had automatic translation, so even I pasted the text in english it translated to portuguese!


I was in this 1st Slot working with EVO normally, I just switched to WD and the speed was 2.5 GT/s.
I was using 2 GPUS so I needed to put it in the 1st slot, I removed the cards and stuck it in 16x and now it went to 5 GT/s. But strange is that EVO worked at a higher speed in the 1st sloth and WD only halfway

Hi,
Which card were you using with EVO Plus? Were you using a heatsink?

 

[mikas]

Just to add one more experience,

I have used a Corsair MP400 NVMe in my 5,1 with Aqua Computer Kryo M2 for over 6 months now I believe. No problems encountered. I bought it because it was the only 2TB drive available right away from the shelf. Later I realized it was a QLC (quad level cell) drive. I would not have bought it but the MLC or TLC instead, but now that it's been there and done it's job for over half an year, I might as well add it to the list of usable drives in 5,1.

Performance is as usual, sequential at 1500MBps, 4K like in the ballparks of those other brands.

Endurance is promised to be 1 800 000 MTBH (mean time between failure). It's a gen3 PCIe device. It was quite affordable too, not the cheapest but not the most expensive either at that time I bought it.

Now that I have bought quite a few Samsungs like 970 EVO 2TB, 860 EVO 2TB, and Kingstons, lately these KC2500 2TBs , I probably could add Corsair to my favourites too after this test period.

 

[enplaned]

I wrote the post below to try to be a comprehensive view of adapters that allow third part SSDs to be use in Macs with Apple proprietary connectors. In that respect, it includes the Mac Pro 2013 and a reference back to this thread.

I am far from an expert so comments very much encouraged. It covers everything from 2010 MacBook Airs to 2019 iMacs.

Mac SSD adapters - hopefully comprehensive view

CORRECTIONS WELCOMED, ALL ERRORS ARE MINE, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK... etc. (links to Amazon, etc, are for information purposes only - none of them is an affiliate link) I started looking at this when considering a non-Apple SSD upgrade for my rMPB 11,1 and 11,4 - and went down the rabbit hole. I...

forums.macrumors.com

Thank you!

 

[tsialex]

I wrote the post below to try to be a comprehensive view of adapters that allow third part SSDs to be use in Macs with Apple proprietary connectors. In that respect, it includes the Mac Pro 2013 and a reference back to this thread.

I am far from an expert so comments very much encouraged. It covers everything from 2010 MacBook Airs to 2019 iMacs.

Mac SSD adapters - hopefully comprehensive view

CORRECTIONS WELCOMED, ALL ERRORS ARE MINE, USE AT YOUR OWN RISK... etc. (links to Amazon, etc, are for information purposes only - none of them is an affiliate link) I started looking at this when considering a non-Apple SSD upgrade for my rMPB 11,1 and 11,4 - and went down the rabbit hole. I...

forums.macrumors.com

Thank you!

I've did a glance on your post and some corrections needed there, for example late-2013 Mac Pro 12+16 SSDs are AHCI (also several other Macs from the same era that also have the Samsung SSUAX and SSUBX, Toshiba SRIUP and several SanDisk models) and only after 2016ish, Apple started to use NVMe models. First macOS major version to support a MacPro with a NVMe blade was Sierra, also from 2016~2017 timeframe.

Apple only started to upgrade previously released Macs with NVMe support with High Sierra and Mojave BootROM upgrades.

 

[enplaned]

I've did a glance on your post and some corrections needed there, for example late-2013 Mac Pro 12+16 SSDs are AHCI (also several other Macs from the same era that also have the Samsung SSUAX and SSUBX, Toshiba SRIUP and several SanDisk models) and only after 2016ish, Apple started to use NVMe models. First macOS major version to support a MacPro with a NVMe blade was Sierra, also from 2016~2017 timeframe.

Apple only started to upgrade previously released Macs with NVMe support with High Sierra and Mojave BootROM upgrades.

Good point, thank you! I'll edit.