I just used Windows 10 and updated a 960 Pro and a 950 Pro using Samsung Magician. A third 960 Pro was already updated. The NVMe drives were in three different Thunderbolt enclosures. I used a MacPro3,1 for two of them and a Mac Mini 2018 for the other. Samsung Magician detected all three. The updates worked without issue. The contents of the drives were not wiped.
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MP All Models PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI
- Thread starter MisterAndrew
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Nice that the firmware upgrade now work for TB, but will never work for USB cases as @flooglehorn dinglebop asked.
Yup. I also tried a 950 Pro in a USB-C enclosure (JMicron bridge JMS583). It's not PCIe so Samsung Magician says it's not supported. I moved the 950 Pro to a Thunderbolt enclosure to do the firmware update.
Good to know, thanks. What enclosure were you using? Most of them are USB that I've seen except for the OWC & Dynapower — both overkill for this purpose
For USB:
PLUGGABLE USB 3.1 GEN 2 TOOL-FREE NVME ENCLOSURE
For NVMe:
TREBLEET Thunderbolt3 to NVME M.2 2280 Hard Drive Case
Also for NVMe is any Thunderbolt 3 expansion box ...
OWC Mercury Helios 3
Sonnet Echo Express SE I (Thunderbolt 3 Edition)
Sonnet Echo Express SEL (Thunderbolt 3 Edition)
Sonnet Echo Express III-D (Thunderbolt 3 Edition)
... with a PCIe to M.2 adapter or carrier:
StarTech.com PEX4M2E1 M.2 Adapter
amfeltec PCI Express Gen 3 Carrier Board for 4 M.2 SSD modules
(Sonnet and Highpoint also make Mac compatible multi M.2 carrier boards)
Thanks. That Trebleet thing is pretty much what I am after. Shame about the price. It doesn't say if it is a certified device which is weird. I'm sure I read something on another manufacturers site that the reason bus powered TB3 devices were expensive was they need to be certified and to do so they would have to test every different NVMe blade in them for compatibility — not a practical task (for an NVMe enclosure): ergo no bus powered TB3 NVMe enclosure was available at that point.
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I response to myself ...
Everything works perfect with the Wolftech Pulsecard + WD Black SN750 !
1400 Write / 1400 Read !
VERY SEXY
[doublepost=1559866977][/doublepost]
I can confirm tsialex's findings. (not that they need it) Both the Apple RAID and SoftRAID Raids need to be made from HFS+ volumes to boot Mojave. As mentioned, upgrade to a single volume APFS and clone it to your RAID. I don't believe it will let you upgrade directly to a RAID otherwise. The upgrade of OS is the difficult part and it won't work with any non-metal vid card present, or to a RAID. Yet you can clone it to an HFS+ RAID and even run Mojave on a weak GT120 video card.
My other comment would be to thank tsialex and several others on this forum for help getting my 2009 cMP working with all the new OSs and faster hardware. I bought my first Mac in 2009, and never would have believed that would become the Macbox I now have which makes child's play of current 2D photo software like Photoshop and Lightroom. Thanks to RAIDs and NVMe, and the SYBA switch PCI card. I'm getting 400MB/s reads on spindle drives in those old SATA2 drive bays with a five drive RAID5, as well as a one drive redundancy. Then the upgrade to NVMe SSDs for booting and caches and swap files, etc with speeds approaching 3GB/s (without a RAID). SoftRAID says that they are close to releasing the new version which will work with APFS, so there may be other options for that new file system that Apple hasn't revealed yet. I was especially sad when tsialex posted his shot of 10.15 beta installed on his cMP, understanding that Apple may not have had to nix our 5,1s.
It appears the 7,1 uses blades similar to those in the iMac Pro, which are shorter and have a wider connector than the blades used in the 6,1 and MacBook Pro. Like shown here by user handheldgames. (They were also correct about the 2 ports.) So if you have an earlier blade it looks like you would need to install it in a PCIe slot adapter like in the 5,1.
Image: Apple
Image: Apple
iMac Pro and 2019 Mac Pro use NAND blades, totally controller less. It's almost like a DIMM but with NAND. All the logic and control is in the T2.
Btw, a NAND blade from iMac Pro and Mac Pro 2019 only works with these two Macs and nothing else. You can't buy an adaptor and use it with something else like we did with SSUAX or SSUBX before.
Yeah, I understand that. I would think you could install an SSUAX or SSUBX in a PCIe adapter into the 7,1 though (but maybe not be able to boot from it?) if you had one already you wanted to transfer over.
Edit: Looks like you could probably boot from a PCIe SSD if you wanted. https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/01/15/how-to-make-new-t2-secured-macs-boot-from-external-drives
Should be possible to boot from an PCIe adaptor and standard PCIe SSDs (or an adapter for SSUAX/SSUBX), you will just need to change T2 settings to external on StartupSecurityUtility.
Hi guys,
Is, after Firmware Update, a Samsung 970 Evo plus now compatible with a simple PCIe Adapter in a Mac Pro 5.1 running Mojave ?
Is, after Firmware Update, a Samsung 970 Evo plus now compatible with a simple PCIe Adapter in a Mac Pro 5.1 running Mojave ?
I believe that is the case, but the discussion was in another thread. The reports I read were convinced that it would work for cMP after the bug fixes. I'm not convinced at the moment but I'm not ready to purchase a third NVMe blade anyway. I've seen the better specs of the PLUS, but there were some major hardware differences with the upgrade. I spent 2 weeks in SCSI hell, without the SCSI, trying everything to get it to work properly. I emptied out the PCI slots several times on two properly flashed (140 bootROM) cMPs. I got everything really stable a couple times, but it would always crash if left on for a long period, and then I had to start all over again. Forgive my hesitance, but I'll wait for a few more contributors to chime in...with positive results. Besides, that was months ago and I wasn't about to go beyond the 30 day return to run out, waiting for Samsung to provide a useable update. I have to think that since it didn't ever really work on Macs, that the problems were not the same as the Windows problems. Besides, the Mac speeds were almost identical with BlackMagic tester. For anyone who is cranking their cMPs everyday, I would go for the PRO. The big differences are not speed, but longevity. Actually now I think I remember that it was Tsialex who actually ran the update, so perhaps I shouldn't be negative anymore. Once bitten, twice shy, as the saying goes, even with Tsialex, who's words I believe more than most other contributors. Final answer: buy.
Sorry for the aside; what do you mean by support? Not possible, or Apple won't help if something breaks? (In 10.15 beta I'm able to create an APFS Apple Raid set from the terminal.)
It's not supported by Apple in any way. You can create arrays and some people even make it boot, but it's totally unsupported.
If these NAND blades are specific to the iMac Pro and the 2019 Mac Pro, it doesn't sound like they will be readily available as aftermarket upgrades...maybe eventually working pulls from these two models will find themselves on FleaBay, but only at horrific prices like the D500s and D700s for 6,1s.
Will be a lot worse, with SSUAX and SSUBX you have all other Macs from the same era using the same blades (MP6,1 has a black cover acting as a heatsink, but it's the same blade and you can use models without the cover), now it's just iMac Pro and Mac Pro 2019
I would imagine you could order upgrade drives as an Apple service part. There's a couple 512GB pulls on eBay right now for $349 each. It will be interesting to see what Apple charges for the storage options.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/APPLE-OEM-...-iMAC-PRO-EMC-3197-656-0061A-349/223379156788
https://www.ebay.com/itm/APPLE-OEM-...-iMAC-PRO-EMC-3197-656-0061A-349/223379156788
Here's a business in the UK that lists them. They are not cheap.
https://www.thebookyard.com/parts-imac-intel-27.php?cPath=34_166_525&sort=2a&filter_id=18
https://www.thebookyard.com/parts-imac-intel-27.php?cPath=34_166_525&sort=2a&filter_id=18
Sure it works, but were's the recommended heatsink?I response to myself ...
Everything works perfect with the Wolftech Pulsecard + WD Black SN750 !
1400 Write / 1400 Read !