Port multiplier on internal drive bays on Mac Pro 5,1?

[LapplandsCohan]

Is there a way to get port multiplier functionality on the internal drive bays on a Mac Pro 5,1? (I assume that by default it hasn't. I haven't been able to find any information that would suggest support.)

I want to run a few of these with 2.5" drives in JBOD configuration: http://a.co/gZstQ2i

If the solution at the same time brings the drive bays up to SATA 3 would be a bonus.

 

[mikas]

I believe the linked StarTech adapter is supposed to do what you want out of the box. It appears to convert two SATA ports to one port, it takes two drives into the enclosure, and it lets you decide from the RAID level 0 or 1, or JBOD or spanning. You seem to want JBOD, in which I believe both of the drives should show as separate volumes. This behavior seems to be supported without any extra equipment in a PC or a Mac.

StarTech support sheet:
Dual-Bay 2.5” to 3.5” SATA SSD/HDD Converter with RAID, Quick-start guide

edit. Or maybe you want even more of those than there are SATA ports available in a Mac Pro?

 

[LapplandsCohan]

The StarTech adapter works out of the box for RAID 0, 1, and BIG (spanning), however if the SATA-controller that you connect the adapter to does not support port multiplier and you run JBOD, only the drive in slot 1 will show up on the computer. This is not mentioned in the QSG, but several reviewers have not been able to use JBOD due to this as, especially on PC motherboards, the built-in SATA-controller more often than not does not support port multiplier. I haven't found any clear data as of the Mac Pro 5,1, but until I do I assume that it doesn't support port multiplier either.

 

[mikas]

You seem to know your thing better than I do. You probably have googled out 2-4 Port SATA III PCI-e 2.0 x1 Controller Cards already too.

My (4.1) system information says: SATA/SATA Express Intel ICH10 AHCI.
Intel ICH10 information sheet does mention port multipliers in numerous occasions, but I have no idea if thats enough.

Good Luck, and please let us know.

 

[William_si]

The 5520 chipset (which is X58 for enterprise/server) has expander support, albeit you rarely see it used in servers at all - practically any vendor integrates their own RAID/HBA and only uses chipset SATA for optical; workstations eg. from HP are not an exception either, just the Mac Pro 4,1/5,1 is.

I have one of these cards i can try later; they are based on cheap Marvell chips which seem to be well supported.

 

[William Payne]

There are some slides you can get that hold dual 2.5" ssd's but in reverse and you plug their power into the sata and then connect them via sata cables to some kind of sata port card or raid controller. I haven't done it but have been looking into it myself. I have been thinking of getting one and running them via an eSATA card.

http://www.transintl.com/double-decker-mac-pro-2-x-2-5-srive-sled.html

http://barefeats.com/hard169.html

 

[LapplandsCohan]

My (4.1) system information says: SATA/SATA Express Intel ICH10 AHCI.
Intel ICH10 information sheet does mention port multipliers in numerous occasions, but I have no idea if thats enough.

That's great information to know, and thanks for the link to the data sheet! Unfortunately it turns out after reading it that the ICH10 does not support port multiplier. (Neither does the Intel C602 in my HP Z620.)

 

[kohlson]

I haven't come across port multiplier capabilities on a Mac Pro before (not saying it can't be done, but ...). That said, what most people seem to do is 1) take advantage of the optical bay connectors 2) add a pcie card with sata capabilities and/or 3) add a pcie car that can attach one or more drives (typically some form of SSD) through the pcie interface.