MP All Models PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI

[tsialex]

Hello,
I just installed a 970 evo plus 2To in an I/O Crest pci 3.0 x16 to 2x M.2 adaptater ... in slot 3 and 4 i ve got 1500Mb/s
and in slot 1 or 2, i ve got 3500Mb/s but after 10-15sec of black magic or Aja test ..my Mac Pro 5.1 Freeze and restart.
I ve tried with a old AHCI samsung blade sm951 with adapter in slot 1 OR 2 and same thing happened ....I m under Catalina 2x5690 poco + 96 go 1333Mh + Radeon Vii + Pixlas mod. ANY IDEA ??

Lot's of people are reporting freezing problems with recently bought I/O Crest cards. Maybe they changed something that made the cards incompatible recently, like a new PCB revision or a internal modification on the PCIe switch.

Since no one that is active on this thread has this card to track the revisions like what we have being doing with HighPoint SSD7101A-1 it will be difficult to know what is going on. It's probably time to put a warn about this on the first post.

 

[KeesMacPro]

Lot's of people are reporting freezing problems with recently bought I/O Crest cards

Could the issue occur in case of installing just 1 blade in combination with the ASM2824?

I've come across a few similar reports e.g:

Copying to NVMe drive causing kernel panics

Just installed a new M.2 NVMe drive (WD SN750 1TB) via PCIe card (Ableconn PEXM2-130) in slot 2 of my 5,1 MP running Mojave. System recognized the drive, formatted it with Disk Utility (APFS), excellent speed: ~2500 read/write according to Blackmagic. But when I try to copy my system drive to it...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[tsialex]

Could the issue occur in case of installing just 1 blade in combination with the ASM2824?

I've come across a few similar reports e.g:

Copying to NVMe drive causing kernel panics

Just installed a new M.2 NVMe drive (WD SN750 1TB) via PCIe card (Ableconn PEXM2-130) in slot 2 of my 5,1 MP running Mojave. System recognized the drive, formatted it with Disk Utility (APFS), excellent speed: ~2500 read/write according to Blackmagic. But when I try to copy my system drive to it...

forums.macrumors.com

For the PCIe switch, don't matter if it's one or two blades installed, it's a supported configuration. You can use a HighPoint SSD7101A-1 with 1, 2, or 3 blades, don't matter.

Something is going on with recent bought I/O Crest/Syba cards.

 

[Virtual Unreal]

Please read again the table of the first post, you are messing things. If you have 144.0.0.0.0 you have a MP4,1 cross flashed with MP5,1 firmware, so it's a MP4,1>5,1. The last MP4,1 firmware update is from early 2010, 6 years before NVMe spec. MP5,1 EFI firmwares support NVMe since 140.0.0.0.0.

Yep. I understood and bought a 500GB NVMe and mounted it on a cheapass noname adapter. All good ! Mojave installed. Next Problem: Appstore doesn't load anything !

 

[joevt]

Possible method to support booting NVMe on older Macs without flashing the ROM or using a boot loader:

Mac Pro 3,1 NVMe support + Upgrade Guide + Questions

Adding NVMe and apfs support to MacPro3,1 without flashing ROM or using a EFI boot loader or Shell: You can place the EFI drivers on a EFI or FAT or HFS+ partition, then set Driver#### and DriverOrder NVRAM variables using the commands discussed here. In my example below, I chose a folder...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[zedex]

In response to @Fwi Haxx ..

Here is your answer (just copied and pasted this from my personal notes but if any part seems speculative or theoretical from my original draft....... it is NO LONGER theoretical in any way - I've tested many brands and permutations since)..

ADAPTERS USING THE ASM2824 SWITCH

*there are some funny anomolies reported by forum members and in some cases experienced by me personally.

One example: your Mac completely freezes (music may keep playing - but hard reset required) when you only have one NVMe SSD in a DUAL m.2 port host board with an ASMedia (ASM2824) switch.

Others have reported this and I have experienced it personally. There's still speculation on what causes it BUT having analysed a lot of these reports where..

(1) members complain that they have a faulty NVMe SSD (regardless of manufacturer)

(2) some members complained that they had been sent a 'bad' SYBA / IOCrest Dual Port m.2 adapter

(3) I've experienced it when using the DT-130 and the IOCREST but I never experienced it when using the HIGHPOINT SSD7101

The only commonality here is the ASM2824. So.. although I think they are excellent and far more affordable host cards - I sold my Highpoint SSD7101 to buy two ASM2824 switch-based cards (1x LYCOM - DT-130 and 1x IOCREST (aka Syba) SI-PEX40129 Dual M.2 NVMe Adapter Card) - I now consider this intermittent complaint about the NVMe hardware across the spectrum to be a KNOWN ISSUE relating to the ASM2824 chipset.

I have never EVER experienced a problem when I have 2 NVMe SSDs installed on a host board with the ASM2824.

 

[basslik]

For the PCIe switch, don't matter if it's one or two blades installed, it's a supported configuration. You can use a HighPoint SSD7101A-1 with 1, 2, or 3 blades, don't matter.

Something is going on with recent bought I/O Crest/Syba cards.

Alex recently bought the Syba I/O Crest SI-PEX40129, Haven't installed yet. Should I return the it ?

 

[Fwi Haxx]

Just to add some point, here's the situation ... the ONLY issue I had, was in one and only one case... the freeze comes only when the Syba I/O Crest is in slot 1 or 2 during and speed test... it's just the moment when the maximum speed 3500Mb is reach but not at the first time it s reached , just 4 or 5 times .....like if it could be a "thermal" problem ... I ve putted some grizzly pad and the Syba has a fan so ..... but at this time the I/O crest is in slot 4, limited a 1500Mb with a 2To 970evo plus as a system disk, and a SM951 as a scratch and it work like a charm..no problem at all... I m just stick with this limitation for the moment....would you want a picture of I/O Crest Board to find some rev ? I ve ordered directly from china

 

[Krammer002]

For what it's worth... My IO-CREST SI-PEX40152 card has been working without issue since its installation, although it uses PFX-L 32xG3 PCIe switches and not the ASM2824 switches. Fitted it with Sabrent Rocket NVME 4.0 1.0TB stick (2300+ hrs @42˚C avg)... It's located in slot 2 ( RX5700 XT- Slot 1, Apricorn Velocity Duo x2- Anglebird and Samsung SSD Slot 3, generic USB3 card slot 4).
Maybe I'm just lucky...

 

[koreda]

Lot's of people are reporting freezing problems with recently bought I/O Crest cards. Maybe they changed something that made the cards incompatible recently, like a new PCB revision or a internal modification on the PCIe switch.

Since no one that is active on this thread has this card to track the revisions like what we have being doing with HighPoint SSD7101A-1 it will be difficult to know what is going on. It's probably time to put a warn about this on the first post.

Not sure about PCB rev.
But when I purchased mine (SI-PEX40129, May 2020) the heatsink (mounted) screws were literally overtorqued (could only move one of four w provided hardware; Eventually stripped with precision tools). I relayed Syba support and swapped Amazon for a new controller (fyi: less than 2 amazon reviews experienced the same defect, at that time).
Syba responded immediately, inquiring about my personal patronage specs (for that order), offered to administrate device exchange or replace it's damaged parts (instead of Amazon), and signaled they were aware of the defect, '...problem with most recent [order] from vendor...'
Regardless, the new replacement (from Amazon) had the exact same defect. Only difference, I bypassed the screw-top fasteners and worked on loosening their (hexed) standoffs instead, situated between PCBoard and heatsink.

tl;dr
there's def a variance with the controller (currently inventoried) more recently, at least w mfg assembly.

 

[koreda]

Just to add some point, here's the situation ... the ONLY issue I had, was in one and only one case... the freeze comes only when the Syba I/O Crest is in slot 1 or 2 during and speed test... it's just the moment when the maximum speed 3500Mb is reach but not at the first time it s reached , just 4 or 5 times .....like if it could be a "thermal" problem ... I ve putted some grizzly pad and the Syba has a fan so ..... but at this time the I/O crest is in slot 4, limited a 1500Mb with a 2To 970evo plus as a system disk, and a SM951 as a scratch and it work like a charm..no problem at all... I m just stick with this limitation for the moment....would you want a picture of I/O Crest Board to find some rev ? I ve ordered directly from china

I kinda had have the same issue, except my kp is related to (PCIe storage adapter) Max Power RAID controller (NewerTech 6G-1e1i aka HighPoint RR2721). Whenever I benchmark (BM or aja) the raid array (disk) Write Test performs, Read Test = kernel Panic.

Sounds like you've isolated the conflict; Just outta common core curiosity, what extension was highlighted in the kernel (backtrace) notes? e.g. Library/Logs/DiagnosticsReports > Kernel_2020-10-01-060000_xxxx-Mac-Pro

Example:

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:

com.Newer-tech.kext.MAXPower_SAS_6G_RAID(1.5.1)
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIParallelFamily(3.0.0)
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.9)

Have you reached out to Syba support? I had an issue with my SI-PEX40129 and they responded immediately (but didn't follow-through until 3 days later)

 

[basslik]

I kinda had have the same issue, except my kp is related to (PCIe storage adapter) Max Power RAID controller (NewerTech 6G-1e1i aka HighPoint RR2721). Whenever I benchmark (BM or aja) the raid array (disk) Write Test performs, Read Test = kernel Panic.

Sounds like you've isolated the conflict; Just outta common core curiosity, what extension was highlighted in the kernel (backtrace) notes? e.g. Library/Logs/DiagnosticsReports > Kernel_2020-10-01-060000_xxxx-Mac-Pro

Example:


Have you reached out to Syba support? I had an issue with my SI-PEX40129 and they responded immediately (but didn't follow-through until 3 days later)

To take full advantage of the speed in do you have to run it in RAID?. Also slot 1 or 2 ?

I running Pro Tools 2020 and concerned about the raid configuration.
[automerge]1601838972[/automerge]

To take full advantage of the speed do you have to run it in RAID?. Also slot 1 or 2 ?

 

[trifero]

Lot's of people are reporting freezing problems with recently bought I/O Crest cards. Maybe they changed something that made the cards incompatible recently, like a new PCB revision or a internal modification on the PCIe switch.

Since no one that is active on this thread has this card to track the revisions like what we have being doing with HighPoint SSD7101A-1 it will be difficult to know what is going on. It's probably time to put a warn about this on the first post.

I have already seen that problem twice recently . Same configuration but with a recent card. Freezes.

 

[Grumply]

Well, having been unable to source any more 2TB Samsung 960 Pro NVMEs (at a reasonable price) to fill out my media drive on the new 7,1. I took a pair of deals on a second Highpoint 7101-a card, and set of six 1TB 970 Pro NVMEs.

I was a bit worried about how I'd RAID them all together to create a single, fast, 10TB Media drive. Could I spread them out, 5TB to a card, JBOD both cards, and then stripe the two JBODs together? It was pretty hard to track down any clarity on the setup options. Ultimately I wasn't too fussed, as even just a big 10TB JBOD that couldn't run any faster than a single drive, would bee fast enough for everything I'd need it to do.

Ultimately the Highpoint cards don't let you configure JBOD arrays through their webGUI, so my solution has been to stripe the six 1TB drives into three 2TB arrays (via the webGUI), and I've then created a software stripe in DiskUtility of the five 2TB "drives", to create a single 10TB RAID.

And the speeds are better than I'd hoped (even with the 970 Pros being held back a little bit by the speed of the 960 Pros):

 

[Mad Kat]

Hi, I'm considering getting a pci-e to install the ssd 2.5 boot disk on it, better if it can host 2.
I already know that I will go slow but I did not want to spend on M.2 purchase, since I have several hd and ssd from 2.5.

Question: Can the model that I am attaching be suitable or should I focus on something else?
In case I find the list of compatible models that can make me start the system from pci-e

Thanks a lot as always ..

https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B07L5SPWNV/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_6?smid=A13K4R8J76J2W2&psc=1

 

[bsbeamer]

Hi, I'm considering getting a pci-e to install the ssd 2.5 boot disk on it, better if it can host 2.
I already know that I will go slow but I did not want to spend on M.2 purchase, since I have several hd and ssd from 2.5.

Question: Can the model that I am attaching be suitable or should I focus on something else?
In case I find the list of compatible models that can make me start the system from pci-e

Thanks a lot as always ..

https://www.amazon.it/gp/product/B07L5SPWNV/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_6?smid=A13K4R8J76J2W2&psc=1

Had been seeking real-world info from some of those SEDNA models previously without much luck.

See this thread, it's basically a list of all the SATA PCIe SSD adapters:

macOS PCIe SATA SSD Adapters (MP5,1 & MP7,1)

Wiki thread for compiling a list of confirmed PCIe SATA SSD adapters for MP5,1 with macOS. They're not as fast as NVMe, but they're widely available. Should also be helpful with options for transition to MP7,1 and (should) achieve faster read/write speeds with native PCIe 3 availability for...

forums.macrumors.com

The newest is the Sonnet Fusion Dual 2.5 Inch SSD RAID (FUS-SSD-2RAID-E), but this does not have boot support. What is not 100% clear from their specs, if not utilizing any RAID functions if it would allow/support boot.

 

[Mad Kat]

Thanks a lot bsbeamer

 

[Mad Kat]

I don't understand one thing: but do I have to buy a pcie card to make 3 hd mounted in the second slod dvd work?
alternatively, without purchasing a pcie card, how many hd I can make work more in the secondary dvd slot + clearly the dvd player

 

[bsbeamer]

I don't understand one thing: but do I have to buy a pcie card to make 3 hd mounted in the second slod dvd work?
alternatively, without purchasing a pcie card, how many hd I can make work more in the secondary dvd slot + clearly the dvd player

Question is not entirely clear, but you have six total SATA slots/bays/connectors without PCIe involved. DVD/optical occupies one of the six, leaving five available for direct connection and/or via cable connection in the optical bay (above the DVD drive).

Some spinning HDDs can be finicky with power requirements, so pay attention to the particular drive if you're asking about them.

The benefit of PCIe adapter for SATA SSD boot is increased speeds for read/write vs. the built-in SATA ports.

 

[Mad Kat]

6 sata slots available as standard on logic board?
the classic 4 bay of the 4 hd that I have already mounted and the 2 for the two dvd compartments?
In case it is right I have to remove the two DVD cables and replace with splitters to run another 2 or 3 hd in the DVD slot number 2

 

[bsbeamer]

4 SATA in drive bays (where the removable drive trays are)
2 SATA in optical bay (remove the optical housing and there are two connectors)
= 6 TOTAL

 

[Mad Kat]

so the 4 hd slots do not touch them which are already full and so affixed.
while the 2 optical sata, can I remove them and put other splitter cables to run 1 optical dvd and 3 hd in dvd slot number 2?

 

[Mad Kat]

I inserted 1 hd 3.5 and 2 hd 2.5 in the dvd player slot below

 

[trifero]

 

[Mad Kat]

?...trifero ?