Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MP All Models PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI

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.
MisterAndrew said:
970 EVO Plus: Phoenix controller (S4LR020): NVMe
3D TLC (96-layer)
Available in 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB
PCIe 3.0 x4
Speeds: up to 3,500 MB/s read, up to 3,300 MB/s write
Datasheet
Compatibility status:
Click to expand...

Is anybody booting from a 970 EVO Plus? I'm trying to find a decent deal on a 970 EVO and having a tough time.
 
handheldgames said:
Have you tried microcenter? They have 2 locations in your area.
Click to expand...

When I say "chicagoish" I mean I identify with the city of Chicago as a good waypoint to identify where I'm from to the internet world. I'm actually closer to Rockford. I'm looking for a 500GB 970 EVO, but that seems to be what's out of stock or otherwise not available for a decent price. I'd happily go with an EVO Plus, but was concerned about compatibility. Seems the EVO Plus going for $120 is a good deal. I might just buy it anyway and try it out. I was planning on building my son a PC this fall so maybe that's the first component if it doesn't work in the Mac Pro :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: handheldgames
I was looking into Highpoint adapters today. If the noise (active cooling) and form factor of the 7101 is a problem, I think you would be able to use 7120 which has U.2 ports instead of M.2 ports, and then you could run the U.2 cables up to U.2 to M.2 adapters that could sit in the 3.5" HDD bays with the right sleds.

Would be very goofy, and each adapter is 30-40$. Could be cool though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
^^^^For the adapter, you may want to read Post #1 on the first page.

Don't know about the Crucial SSD. Why not stick with the known good devices?

Lou
 
  • Like
Reactions: bsbeamer
I noticed some people are saying they are experiencing boot problems with 970 and 970 Plus drives in this thread. Should we update the compatibility status for those drives?
 
MisterAndrew said:
I noticed some people are saying they are experiencing boot problems with 970 and 970 Plus drives in this thread. Should we update the compatibility status for those drives?
Click to expand...
I can't say about 970 EVO Plus drives, but I have the exact same config as @crjackson2134 to the letter and don't have any problems. 970 Pro drives works fine for a lot of people here. This could be caused by a defective blade or maybe even caused by some kext incompatibility.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MisterAndrew
I'm personally using 970 EVO and do not believe the issue is widespread enough at the moment to broadly "not recommend" using them. Reporting firmware version on the blade when experiencing any issues would be helpful. My 970 EVO 1TB is 2B2QEXE7 with PX1.

Hoping 141.0.0.0.0 MacPro firmware may help to fix these lingering issues.
 
bsbeamer said:
I'm personally using 970 EVO and do not believe the issue is widespread enough at the moment to broadly "not recommend" using them. Reporting firmware version on the blade when experiencing any issues would be helpful. My 970 EVO 1TB is 2B2QEXE7 with PX1.

Hoping 141.0.0.0.0 MacPro firmware may help to fix these lingering issues.
Click to expand...
It's the EVO Pulse that is the one not working in macos, not the plain EVO model. I, too, have an 970 EVO in my MP5,1 that's working like a champ.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Synchro3
TheStork said:
It's the EVO Pulse that is the one not working in macos, not the plain EVO model. I, too, have an 970 EVO in my MP5,1 that's working like a champ.
Click to expand...

That's not correct. The issue on client's machine was with EVO 970 (not PLUS model) and was with what I originally thought were two identical 500GB blades, but they had different FW numbers. Unfortunately, I did not write them down or take pictures of the blades.

The issue they were experiencing was/is nearly identical to what @crjackson2134 was/is experiencing and describing. Believe that machine is with a 970 PRO model.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dabotsonline
bsbeamer said:
That's not correct. The issue on client's machine was with EVO 970 (not PLUS model) and was with what I originally thought were two identical 500GB blades, but they had different FW numbers. Unfortunately, I did not write them down or take pictures of the blades.

The issue they were experiencing was/is nearly identical to what @crjackson2134 was/is experiencing and describing. Believe that machine is with a 970 PRO model.
Click to expand...
People, we are holding it wrong.

It’s useless to the troubleshooting/diagnostic point of view to further discuss this without knowing exactly the firmware version and if the blade is working correctly or not. Let’s not amplify something that could be just a lemon.

Without more data is just FUD: one case of a cooked Plus, one case of a EVO misbehaving and one that could be attributed to a Pro, it’s nowhere certain - we have dozens of people here with perfectly working ones.

If the 970 Pro had any firmware problems, I would be one of the first to notice, sometimes I do 20 or more reboots in an hour. I never had the problem. This last week I shutdown more than 20 times, I have the DriveDX counts for 4 NOS SM951-AHCI installed recently that show how many power on/off my Mac had.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Reindeer_Games and TheStork
Hi!

I just received my 5,1 with the 140.0.0.0 firmware and High Sierra.

I'm trying to reinstall High Sierra, but I can't boot to recovery: after booting while holding CMD+R I get a prohibited sign and it just proceeds to boot to High Sierra.

The boot drive is an NVME SSD, a Toshiba THNSF5256GPUK. There's also a 750 GB HDD in a bay.

The recovery partition on the SSD is present, cca. 500 megs, so that should be fine.

Should I create a USB High Sierra boot key?

Thank you!
 
HunPro said:
Hi!

I just received my 5,1 with the 140.0.0.0 firmware and High Sierra.

I'm trying to reinstall High Sierra, but I can't boot to recovery: after booting while holding CMD+R I get a prohibited sign and it just proceeds to boot to High Sierra.

The boot drive is an NVME SSD, a Toshiba THNSF5256GPUK. There's also a 750 GB HDD in a bay.

The recovery partition on the SSD is present, cca. 500 megs, so that should be fine.

Should I create a USB High Sierra boot key?

Thank you!
Click to expand...
Yes, it's the easiest way to do a clean install and then do the troubleshooting.

This is the Apple Support page where you can get the link for the 10.13.6 Mac App Store Installer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: HunPro
Thanks! There's nothing wrong with the machine that I can see, apart from the inability to boot to recovery, but I guess that's the NVME SSD.

I'll give the USB key boot a go.
 
HunPro said:
Thanks! There's nothing wrong with the machine that I can see, apart from the inability to boot to recovery, but I guess that's the NVME SSD.

I'll give the USB key boot a go.
Click to expand...
Recovery works perfectly with NVMe/AHCI PCIe blades, no difference whatsoever between NVMe and SATA drives connected to the south bridge of Mac Pro.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheStork
Weird. So the prohibited sign is unusual I guess. I hope it's not a hardware fault.

Edit: holding D down won't give me diagnostics either.

Thanks for the quick replies, I'll stop spamming and go with the USB install. Yes, it can be a weird seller install, they refurbish macs. The machine is in top condition.
 
Last edited:
I've seen a few hacked 4,1 machines present the prohibited sign. Many of these machines also incorrectly ID as iMac/iMacPro vs MacPro5,1 (or MacPro4,1). If you don't know the machine history, at least start by looking up the numbers on the back of the machine to see how it originated and with what configuration.
 
bsbeamer said:
I've seen a few hacked 4,1 machines present the prohibited sign. Many of these machines also incorrectly ID as iMac/iMacPro vs MacPro5,1 (or MacPro4,1). If you don't know the machine history, at least start by looking up the numbers on the back of the machine to see how it originated and with what configuration.
Click to expand...

The machine is a 4,1=>5,1.

I can't boot from USB however: after holding down option, I'm only offered the SSD to boot from. Once MacOS loads I have the High Sierra install mounted.

Never mind, probably a badly formatted USB key. I'm new to this and my confidence in used hardware is low, so I'm overly suspicious.

Update: managed to create a bootable High Sierra install, wiped the nvme ssd, reinstalled it, recovery works now. The cause was probably a wonky vendor install. Thank you all!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: crjackson2134
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back