Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Status
The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.

Borowski

macrumors 6502
Oct 22, 2018
254
72
I can confirm that the

Western Digital SN720

also works in Mac Pro 5.1.
Seems to be an OEM model, which uses the same controller as the recommended WD Black SN750 (WD/Sandisk Controller 20-82-007011). The low-end variant SN520 should work, too, but lacks 2 lanes and has only half speeds.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sheapuppy

BeatCrazy

macrumors 603
Jul 20, 2011
5,121
4,480
I have a 128GB MZ-KPW1280/0A7 SSPolaris I pulled from a damaged 2019 iMac.

Is there an inexpensive PCIe card that I could use inside a Mac Pro 5,1? I do have BootROM 140.0.0.0.0, and have viewed the Wiki here, but it's a bit overwhelming.

128GB is plenty big enough to for a boot drive (for me), and I'm wondering if this is a cheap way to boost SSD speeds over the SATA drive I have in my 5,1 right now.
 
Last edited:

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,454
13,601
I have a 128GB MZ-KPW1280/0A7 SSPolaris I pulled from a damaged 2019 iMac.

Is there an inexpensive PCIe card that I could use inside a Mac Pro 5,1? I do have BootROM 140.0.0.0.0, and have viewed the Wiki here, but it's a bit overwhelming.

128GB is plenty big enough to for a boot drive (for me), and I'm wondering if this is a cheap way to boost SSD speeds over the SATA drive I have in my 5,1 right now.

Everything you asked is answered on the first post already, just take your time and read it. See 12+16 adapters and 144.0.0.0.0.
 

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,454
13,601

No, this is a M.2 M-key adapter.


Nope, this is a 12+16 to M.2 adapter. If you install this you gonna block the next slot.

The answer is here:

Recommended PCIe adaptors for Mac Pro 5,1 & 7,1:

Standard PCIe x4 cards (tops at 1500 MB/s with MP5,1, double with MP7,1)(no switch):
Low cost:

Be warned, don't use AHCI and NVMe blades without having a heatsink installed, you will have thermal throttling frequently and may cook your blade.


 
  • Like
Reactions: MarkC426

BeatCrazy

macrumors 603
Jul 20, 2011
5,121
4,480
No, this is a M.2 M-key adapter.



Nope, this is a 12+16 to M.2 adapter. If you install this you gonna block the next slot.

The answer is here:



Thank you! For $6, seems like an easy buy.

Do you have a heatsink recommendation for the "Gen 5B SSPolaris" type SSD?
 

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,454
13,601
you can use a simple lycom dt 120 single nvme pcie. $20...i have 2, they work

Did you even noticed that he wants to install a 12+16 AppleOEM blade? AppleOEM blades have a completely different pin-out, is not a M key standard NVMe blade like yours.
 

MrScratchHook

macrumors 6502
Dec 17, 2022
291
101
United States
Have you noticed improvements using PCIe SSD vs. SATA?
in regards of saving my projects, pcie is faster, takes about 3 minutes to save about 500gb of music files, i saved 300gb of a music file in about 1 minute, as opposed to 1 hour to sata, the last time i used pcie for macos there wasnt much difference from sata.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BeatCrazy

BeatCrazy

macrumors 603
Jul 20, 2011
5,121
4,480
No, this is a M.2 M-key adapter.



Nope, this is a 12+16 to M.2 adapter. If you install this you gonna block the next slot.

The answer is here:



Hi again, one more question... using this adapter with a 128GB MZ-KPW1280/0A7 SSPolaris drive, in the #2 or #3 PCIe slot, would I expect macOS Monterey to recognize the drive as internal or external?
 

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,454
13,601
Hi again, one more question... using this adapter with a 128GB MZ-KPW1280/0A7 SSPolaris drive, in the #2 or #3 PCIe slot, would I expect macOS Monterey to recognize the drive as internal or external?

Again you are asking something that is already clearly answered on the first post, I'll copy it here to make it easier for you:

What are internal storage for the Mac Pro firmware:

Mac Pro year model:Model Identifier:What Mac Pro firmware recognize as internal drives:
Mac Pro (2006)MacPro1,1SATA drives connected to the 6 southbridge SATA ports plus the two PATA drives connected to the PATA cable inside the ODD bay.
8-Core Mac Pro (2007)MacPro2,1SATA drives connected to the 6 southbridge SATA ports plus the two PATA drives connected to the PATA cable inside the ODD bay.
early-2008 Mac ProMacPro3,1SATA drives connected to the 6 southbridge SATA ports plus the two PATA drives connected to the PATA cable inside the ODD bay.
early-2009 Mac ProMacPro4,1SATA/SAS drives connected to the 4 southbridge SATA ports plus the two SATA drives connected to the SATA cable inside the ODD bay.
mid-2010 Mac ProMacPro5,1SATA/SAS drives connected to the 4 southbridge SATA ports plus the two SATA drives connected to the SATA cable inside the ODD bay.
mid-2012 Mac ProMacPro5,1SATA/SAS drives connected to the 4 southbridge SATA ports plus the two SATA drives connected to the SATA cable inside the ODD bay.
late-2013 Mac ProMacPro6,1Only the 12+16 AppleOEM PCIe SSD is an internal drive.
2019 Mac ProMacPro7,1Only the T2 Storage is an internal drive for T2 Security.

While the two SATA ports of the logic board are internal for macOS, T2 Security definitions override macOS and you can only boot from SATA native ports with relaxed T2 Security, with external boot enabled with Startup Security Utility.

Any PCIe connected storage are external for the firmware and T2 Security.
 

GregorPQ

macrumors newbie
Apr 19, 2024
10
1
Is there a way to use an Intel SSD DC P4608 6.4TB
on the PCIe-bus of a Mac 5.1?
As there is no driver - where can I get a working driver for this SSD?

Thanks!

Screenshot 2024-04-19 at 12.25.05.jpg
 

mattspace

macrumors 68040
Jun 5, 2013
3,341
2,974
Australia
Can I get a second set of eyes on these figures - just installed Highpoint 1104f in 7,1 in a PCI3 x8 slot, with 2x Samsung 990 Pro SSDs in it.

Freshly formatted, typical write to both drives is 2940-2960MB/s and read fairly stable at 2984 MB/s. It's a little faster than the internal drive at 2880ish and 2960ish.

With dual MPX, and and an Afterburner, my system is now showing 100% PCI on both pool A & B.
 

bnzf

macrumors newbie
Jan 9, 2020
17
1
Does 2TB, or larger, AHCI PCIe M.2 SSDs exist?
It should be for a MBP late 2013 that should stay at OS 10.9 and who's 1TB SSD is getting full.
 

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,454
13,601
Does 2TB, or larger, AHCI PCIe M.2 SSDs exist?
It should be for a MBP late 2013 that should stay at OS 10.9 and who's 1TB SSD is getting full.

Nope, no one sold 12+16 PCIe AHCI blades with 2TB. OWC have the Aura X2 2TB blade, but is a NVMe blade, so, won't work for you.

You can only get NVMe, which won't work with Mavericks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bnzf

grandosegood

macrumors newbie
Apr 15, 2024
20
1
hey all, I'd like to use two SN750 in a mac pro 4,1 > 5,1. I'm looking to dual-boot windows and macos. so far, i've used one pci-e adapter on another mac, TXB122 PCIe 3.1 x8 ASM2812, with pretty good results. However, this adapter doesn't have enough space for two drives with heatsinks. can anyone recommend a card from the first page that supports two nvme with heatsinks? Thanks.
 

AlexMaximus

macrumors 65816
Aug 15, 2006
1,232
578
A400M Base
Does 2TB, or larger, AHCI PCIe M.2 SSDs exist?
It should be for a MBP late 2013 that should stay at OS 10.9 and who's 1TB SSD is getting full.
Theoretical you can use multiple 1TB AHCI blades on a 2x or 4x pcie adapter card that still works with ahci blades. The problem with this is to find those very rare ahci blades (such as Kingston HyperX Predator 960). I still use those with great satisfaction, purchased 6 years ago.

 

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,454
13,601
Theoretical you can use multiple 1TB AHCI blades on a 2x or 4x pcie adapter card that still works with ahci blades. The problem with this is to find those very rare ahci blades (such as Kingston HyperX Predator 960). I still use those with great satisfaction, purchased 6 years ago.
Sorry, but how you gonna install multiple blades with a MacBook Pro late 2013?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.