Hello all,
This is another topic that I have been looking into that I have some questions about. I remember that there was a SSD guide somewhere on this forum. But for the life of me, I can't seem to find it. I have some questions about SSDs in Mac pro 2009 and 2006 and I have a few items that I need help clarifying.
For the 2009 Mac, I am looking at adding in a M.2 card. I know that the Macs do not boot from PCIe. But, I found a guide (and downloaded the guide) that basically hacks the Mac firmware to allow booting from PCIe. It is titled "The Mac Pro NVMe upgrade Apple forgot..". So I am all set there. Only issue is the parts that I need to pick out. I think I need some assistance sifting through all of the information. So I am going to place down what I understand and hopefully someone will let me know if I am right or not.
Out of the box, PCIe M.2 can only be used for storage. Ideally, I should be placing the M.2 adapter in slot 3 or 4 of the PCIe bus for 2009. If I place the card in anything other then slot 3 or 4, my speeds will be halved. Supposedly, I can get 6000 MB/s speeds but that requires the Highpoint 7101 adapter and that is like $300. Looking into it, it looks like the highpoint adapter uses the full x16 lane so I was wondering, if I get this adapter, would I be able to get speeds higher then 1500 MB/s (the speed for the x4 adapter):
https://www.amazon.com/SHINESTAR-Ad...662733&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=x16+PCIe+2+Squid
Now, I was watching this guys video:
and he is using this adapter:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...e=shr&tag=zpmedia-20&linkId=OJOKJYGAANKATDMO&
the benchmarks are around 1300 MB/sec. If i go for the Squid, would that enable faster speeds then the link above if I placed the Squid in slot 3? The SSD that I am looking at would be Samsung EVO 970?
Note: I am also looking at:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GNDDNLD/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_0FGTBbJCHV88D
Or, it doesn't matter what adapter I go with, I can only get a theoretical max speed of 1500 MB/s?
As an additional side note, are there any particular adapters that I should go for and can I use any of them in general?
Now, onto the 2006 Mac pro.
PCIe storage was added in OSX 10.13. Which, I can only go up to 10.11 on this machine so no M.2 storage for me. That is fine. So what about a SATA to PCIe in the 2006 Mac? The SATA drives only go up to SATA 2. Would I be able to use something like this and then place a SATA 3 SSD into the adapter?
https://www.amazon.com/Apricorn-Velocity-Extreme-Performance-VEL-SOLO-X2/dp/B0090IA3GY/
Now my next question would be, can any adapter work or are there any particular ones that I need to get?
I also believe that even if I get the PCIe to Sata 3 adapter, I still can't boot from the SSD because that is totally not supported. I also can't apply the same hack that I found for the 2009 mac because that hack is not supported on 2006 machines.
So, if I wanted a bootable SSD on the 2006 Mac, I would need to use the SATA 2 ports in the harddrive bay or is there another way?
*I should also note that the 2006 mac has been flashed to 2.1 and the 2009 mac has been flashed to 5.1
This is another topic that I have been looking into that I have some questions about. I remember that there was a SSD guide somewhere on this forum. But for the life of me, I can't seem to find it. I have some questions about SSDs in Mac pro 2009 and 2006 and I have a few items that I need help clarifying.
For the 2009 Mac, I am looking at adding in a M.2 card. I know that the Macs do not boot from PCIe. But, I found a guide (and downloaded the guide) that basically hacks the Mac firmware to allow booting from PCIe. It is titled "The Mac Pro NVMe upgrade Apple forgot..". So I am all set there. Only issue is the parts that I need to pick out. I think I need some assistance sifting through all of the information. So I am going to place down what I understand and hopefully someone will let me know if I am right or not.
Out of the box, PCIe M.2 can only be used for storage. Ideally, I should be placing the M.2 adapter in slot 3 or 4 of the PCIe bus for 2009. If I place the card in anything other then slot 3 or 4, my speeds will be halved. Supposedly, I can get 6000 MB/s speeds but that requires the Highpoint 7101 adapter and that is like $300. Looking into it, it looks like the highpoint adapter uses the full x16 lane so I was wondering, if I get this adapter, would I be able to get speeds higher then 1500 MB/s (the speed for the x4 adapter):
https://www.amazon.com/SHINESTAR-Ad...662733&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=x16+PCIe+2+Squid
Now, I was watching this guys video:
and he is using this adapter:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...e=shr&tag=zpmedia-20&linkId=OJOKJYGAANKATDMO&
the benchmarks are around 1300 MB/sec. If i go for the Squid, would that enable faster speeds then the link above if I placed the Squid in slot 3? The SSD that I am looking at would be Samsung EVO 970?
Note: I am also looking at:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GNDDNLD/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_0FGTBbJCHV88D
Or, it doesn't matter what adapter I go with, I can only get a theoretical max speed of 1500 MB/s?
As an additional side note, are there any particular adapters that I should go for and can I use any of them in general?
Now, onto the 2006 Mac pro.
PCIe storage was added in OSX 10.13. Which, I can only go up to 10.11 on this machine so no M.2 storage for me. That is fine. So what about a SATA to PCIe in the 2006 Mac? The SATA drives only go up to SATA 2. Would I be able to use something like this and then place a SATA 3 SSD into the adapter?
https://www.amazon.com/Apricorn-Velocity-Extreme-Performance-VEL-SOLO-X2/dp/B0090IA3GY/
Now my next question would be, can any adapter work or are there any particular ones that I need to get?
I also believe that even if I get the PCIe to Sata 3 adapter, I still can't boot from the SSD because that is totally not supported. I also can't apply the same hack that I found for the 2009 mac because that hack is not supported on 2006 machines.
So, if I wanted a bootable SSD on the 2006 Mac, I would need to use the SATA 2 ports in the harddrive bay or is there another way?
*I should also note that the 2006 mac has been flashed to 2.1 and the 2009 mac has been flashed to 5.1