MP All Models PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI

[tsialex]

Btw, that eBay listing is totally wrong and I stopped reading it after the third bulls_it I read there:

• Upstream is x16, (32 lanes switch configured as 4 x4 downstream ports + x16 upstream)
• NVMe bootable support starts with 10.14.2 BootROM upgrade and not with 10.13.6.
• Non bootable NVMe universal support (512 bytes/sector and 4096 bytes/sector) starts with High Sierra 10.13.0.

 

[Mikis]

Already discussed around here, it's has a PCIe switch, Switchtec PFX-L 32xG3, that need serious kernel patches with Linux.

Please don't take eBay listings allegations as proof of compatibility.

No one should buy it for Mac use without a very good return police.

Thanks for clearing that up nicely. Looks like I’ll stick to buying the Highpoint. I have a machine room so the fan noise won’t bother me.

Cheers. M

 

[tsialex]

Thanks for clearing that up nicely. Looks like I’ll stick to buying the Highpoint. I have a machine room so the fan noise won’t bother me.

Cheers. M

If you are in the continental US, Amazon frequently have SSD7101A-1 open box/etc sales, last one was for ~$295. A lot of people here bought cards with these promos.

 

[Mikis]

If you are in the continental US, Amazon frequently have SSD7101A-1 open box/etc sales, last one was for ~$295. A lot of people here bought cards with these promos.

Unfortunately I live in the UK and have not seen any such offers on Amazon. The cheapest I can find it is £420 which is $545. Add 4 standard 1tb Evo's to this is a further $877.85... This is not a cheap upgrade but well worth it for composers like me who stream massive orchestral sound libraries from SSD's. I can actually fill 90gigs of Ram too...

 

[tsialex]

Unfortunately I live in the UK and have not seen any such offers on Amazon. The cheapest I can find it is £420 which is $545. Add 4 standard 1tb Evo's to this is a further $877.85... This is not a cheap upgrade but well worth it for composers like me who stream massive orchestral sound libraries from SSD's. I can actually fill 90gigs of Ram too...

Search for HighPoint SSD7101A-1, SSD7102, SSD7103 and Amfeltec Squid Gen3, any of them will work fine for you.

 

[AlexMaximus]

Here’s my solution to the noisy fan in the Syba / IO-Crest SI-PEX40129. It’s a 2-pin extension cable with an inline resistor to reduce the voltage going to the fan to make it run slower and quieter, supposedly by 30%. Only cost $5 for a set of two on ebay and arrived in ten days.

It works great, the fan noise is now effectively imperceptible over the case fans. So relieved. The thickness of the resistor and connector wouldn’t quite fit under the heatsink so I had to route the fan cable so the resistor was outside the heatsink, only minor quibble to an otherwise perfect solution.

Surely SSD temps will be a little higher than before, but I expect still better than most NVMe adapters with no fans at all! The case fan in front of the PCIe slots could be cranked up to compensate too.

@ atonaldenim: Big Thanks to you!

I finally received my resistor cable. I can't believe how much noise this mod reduced for me. It's really baffling. I did not know that this little fan was responsible for that much noise. Thanks to your inspiration, I have a much less noisy setup. I always thought the Vega VII was the source of this, but you have been right. It's really this tiny one.
For everybody with this otherwise excellent performing card, - This little mod is absolutely worth it and a good little Sunday Dremel job. Thanks a lot, cMP 5.1 fanboys! Unbelievable how good this 5.1 setup is and has been.

 

[flowrider]

Amazon has the 4 card I/O Crest model:

Quad M.2 NVMe Ports to PCIe 3.0 x16 Bifurcation Riser Controller - Support Non-Bifurcation Motherboard

The IO CREST SI-PEX40152 is a great accelerated secondary storage solution for any workstation with true PCIe 3. 0 x16 bandwidth. It has 4 M. 2 NVMe ports to accept 4 NVMe M. 2 SSDs, so each NVMe M. 2 SSD has dedicated PCIe 3. 0 x4 bus bandwidth. It delivers transfer speeds 20 times faster than S...

www.amazon.com

Lou

 

[tsialex]

Amazon has the 4 card I/O Crest model:

Quad M.2 NVMe Ports to PCIe 3.0 x16 Bifurcation Riser Controller - Support Non-Bifurcation Motherboard

The IO CREST SI-PEX40152 is a great accelerated secondary storage solution for any workstation with true PCIe 3. 0 x16 bandwidth. It has 4 M. 2 NVMe ports to accept 4 NVMe M. 2 SSDs, so each NVMe M. 2 SSD has dedicated PCIe 3. 0 x4 bus bandwidth. It delivers transfer speeds 20 times faster than S...

www.amazon.com

Lou

This card has a totally different PCI switch from the 2-blade version, it's a new switch on the market, Switchtec PFX-L 32xG3, and this switch needed several patches to correct quirks with the Linux kernel. Seems macOS don't have the patches, at least I couldn't find any.

No one should consider this card, for the same price, or even less if get an Amazon promo, you can get a HighPoint SSD7101A-1.

 

[Mikis]

Already discussed around here, it's has a PCIe switch, Switchtec PFX-L 32xG3, that need serious kernel patches with Linux.

Please don't take eBay listings allegations as proof of compatibility.

No one should buy it for Mac use without a very good return police.

Maybe the 1st page could be updated that this card might not work. I read the whole thread and totally missed it. Thanks for the help.

 

[OkiRun]

Search for HighPoint SSD7101A-1, SSD7102, SSD7103 and Amfeltec Squid Gen3, any of them will work fine for you.

The Amfeltec Squid Gen 3 is reported to produce a lot of fan noise when pushed - so for a composer/recorder (if the mac pro is in the studio where his mics are) this might be an issue...?

 

[tsialex]

The Amfeltec Squid Gen 3 is reported to produce a lot of fan noise when pushed - so for a composer/recorder (if the mac pro is in the studio where his mics are) this might be an issue...?

If noise is a issue, SSD7101A-1 PCB 2.00 with the new firmware from factory can disable the fan when used with a Mac Pro.

The problem is how to identify these new firmware cards from the same cards with the older firmware already on the market.

 

[Mikis]

The Amfeltec Squid Gen 3 is reported to produce a lot of fan noise when pushed - so for a composer/recorder (if the mac pro is in the studio where his mics are) this might be an issue...?

Thanks. It’s ok for me. I have a machine room. My only worry with the squid is heat on the drives.

 

[waimtrp]

Btw, that eBay listing is totally wrong and I stopped reading it after the third bulls_it I read there:

• Upstream is x16, (32 lanes switch configured as 4 x4 downstream ports + x16 upstream)
• NVMe bootable support starts with 10.14.2 BootROM upgrade and not with 10.13.6.
• Non NVMe bootable universal support (512 bytes/sector and 4096 bytes/sector) starts with 10.13.0.

Non NVMe bootable universal support (512 bytes/sector and 4096 bytes/sector)
is it not included AHCI Blade ?

 

[tsialex]

Non NVMe bootable universal support (512 bytes/sector and 4096 bytes/sector)
is it not included AHCI Blade ?

Wording the phrase correctly:

Non bootable NVMe universal support (512 bytes/sector and 4096 bytes/sector) starts with High Sierra 10.13.0.​

AHCI have 512/4K support forever, don't remember when 4K support started, but at least Snow Leopard have it. Old HDDs had Advanced Format on the labels do show 4K support.

 

[waimtrp]

understood , so the I/O Crest 4 blade card can boot AHCI blade at 10.10.5 just like the 2 blade model , right ?

 

[tsialex]

understood , so the I/O Crest 4 blade card can boot AHCI blade at 10.10.5 just like the 2 blade model , right ?

Windows where it has drivers and Linux kernel versions newer than September that have the patches needed for the PCIe switch work correctly, yes.

AFAIK, macOS don't have the patches needed for Microsemi Switchtec PFX-L 32xG3. It's a new PCIe switch and it needs kernel support/corrections.

 

[waimtrp]

so you mean without kernel support/corrections , it won't work/boot with 10.10.5 or later macOS ? even use AHCI blade?

 

[tsialex]

so you mean without kernel support/corrections , it won't work/boot with 10.10.5 or later macOS ? even use AHCI blade?

This has nothing to do with AHCI or NVMe, it's about the Microsemi Switchtec PFX-L 32xG3 switch support with macOS.

AFAIK, macOS kernel don't have support for it yet. Only Windows and Linux distributions that added the Linux kernel patches from September correctly support this new switch family.

 

[waimtrp]

okay , what correctly support of this patch about ? sorry for too many questions

 

[tsialex]

okay , what correctly support of this patch about ? sorry for too many questions

It's a recent family of switches that need special handling, there are lots of patches needed:

Linux Switchtec Support

[PATCH v2 0/2] PCI Quirk Patchset for Microsemi Switchtec NTB

MicroSemi Switchtec management interface driver

switchtec: Fix potential Spectre v1

 

[joevt]

It's a recent family of switches that need special handling, there are lots of patches needed:

Linux Switchtec Support

[PATCH v2 0/2] PCI Quirk Patchset for Microsemi Switchtec NTB

MicroSemi Switchtec management interface driver

switchtec: Fix potential Spectre v1

It says that the PCI switch should work with normal PCI switch drivers. Most of the patches are for other features in the Switchtec chip.

So it might work without extra driver support in macOS.

 

[tsialex]

It says that the PCI switch should work with normal PCI switch drivers. Most of the patches are for other features in the Switchtec chip.

So it might work without extra driver support in macOS.

Yes, but did you read how much quirks are needed with the default PCI driver that made them move to a specific driver? That's the real problem, not the NTB support that don't apply with the multiple M.2 blades use case.

 

[joevt]

Yes, but did you read how much quirks are needed with the default PCI driver that made them move to a specific driver? That's the real problem, not the NTB support that don't apply with the multiple M.2 blades use case.

Can you quote an example of a quirk that doesn't relate to NTB?

 

[Mikis]

Can you quote an example of a quirk that doesn't relate to NTB?

Sounds like someone will have to order one and try to know... I would do it but it’s not available on Amazon in the uk.

 

[AlexMaximus]

Yes, but did you read how much quirks are needed with the default PCI driver that made them move to a specific driver? That's the real problem, not the NTB support that don't apply with the multiple M.2 blades use case.

Alex, since you have experience in those different SSD blade specs, I would need your opinion on an upgrade question.
At the moment I run two older AHCI blades in the I/O crest dual switch card (the one I just noised down a bit).
Since I have already the fastest CPU and GPU in my system, the only upgrade that I can do, is to change these AHCI blades with two Samsung NVMe 970 Pro 1TB blades. Would you do that, and would it make a difference for me in my current 5.1 machine setup? In Europe this change would cost me about 450 Euros and two good AHCI SSD blades that I somehow need to sell on eBay. Don't know, would you change those out to finally have NVMe speeds?
Sink more $$$ in an older system would only make sense if I would use the 5.1 cMP three more years. How long will I be able to use Mojave/Catalina till the last software support runs out for that OSX?. A new 2019 Mac Pro makes no financial sense for me, even if I would love to save up for it and get in one day.