Recommended Drive Sled Adapter for 2.5"

[Auggie]

Even at the holiday sale price of $20 from its regular $30, the OWC 2.5" drive sled is bit pricey (though solidly built), so I'm trying to locate a generic 2.5-to-3.5" adapter that would properly locate the 2.5" drive for use on an OEM cMP drive sled (5.1).

Any recommendations for verified compatible adapters?

UPDATE AND SUMMARY:
I ended up getting the OWC sled through Amazon and a WD IcePack/VelociRaptor adapter from eBay as these suited my specific needs.

But there are many great options that were recommended thus far:

Electronic Adapters
UniqueTech Drive Adapter 654540-001, $12 (free shipping to all from Amazon)
NewerTech AdaptaDrive, $15+shipping+applicable tax
Sabrent SATA Bay Converter Mounting Kit, $12+shipping+applicable tax (free shipping for Amazon Prime)
Western Digital IcePack/VelociRaptor Mounting Frames WDSL00S, ~$15 used off eBay/$30 new+shipping (if they can be found as they appear to be discontinued)
Icy Dock EZConvert Adapter, $18+shipping+applicable tax

Non-Electronic Adapters
Mac Pro Drive Sled Adapter Caddy (3D Printed), $5+$5 shipping
Wegener Media SMR DriveSled, $10+shipping+applicable tax (free shipping for Amazon Prime)
OWC Mount Pro, $18+shipping+applicable tax (free shipping for Amazon Prime)
Pro Sled 2 Mac Pro Sled for 2.5" Drives, $22 (free shipping to all from Amazon)
Angelbird Mac Pro SSD Bay, $23+shipping (FYI, very expensive to ship to US)

 

[skizzo]

if you already have an OEM cMP drive sled then "newertech 2.5" to 3.5" adapter" is what you want. ~$15
I am guessing you just didn't see this on their site

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/NewerTech/ADPTADRV/

I have used these for my 2.5" SSD's, they work just fine. They attach to your existing OEM drive sled instead of having to use a separate drive sled all together. So mainly depends if you still want to be able to use your OEM drive sled for another drive/bay, if not, this is your answer

 

[JayKay514]

The NewerTech AdaptaDrive is good. I've got both the OWC drive sled and the NewerTech and the only advantage to the OWC one is that you only have to mount one thing, vs. mounting the SSD to the adapter and then the adapter to an existing sled.

There are cheaper things out there, but these seem better made.

https://www.amazon.com/NewerTech-Ad...05PZDVF6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_sims?ie=UTF8

 

[BillyBobBongo]

I'm a bit of an Angelbird Fanboi, so there's no surprise that all my SSDs are mounted using the original brackets with their 'Mac Pro SSD Bay' adapter.

It's also a 'pricey' option....but it works none the less.

 

[bsbeamer]

There are 3D printed options that work with your existing grey/metal sled for under $10 each.

 

[crjackson2134]

I use these: $22.00
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AN550Y8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I you want cheap, you can use these too: $10.49
https://www.amazon.com/SMR-DRIVESLE...F8&qid=1545409678&sr=1-11&keywords=drive+sled

If you want Super-Cheap use these: $4.99
https://www.amazon.com/MAC-Drive-Sl...F8&qid=1545409678&sr=1-20&keywords=drive+sled

 

[flowrider]

I use a WD VelociRaptor heatsink mount that I buy from eBay. I buy the complete HDD/heatsink mount and remove and discard the HDD. The smallest HDD is 80GB. I just bought another two as I am replacing my last two spinners with 2.5" Samsung SSDs. I paid $11.50 ea for them. They are heavy metal, very strong and good quality. They also do a good job of keeping my drives cool.

Lke this:

Lou

 

[Auggie]

if you already have an OEM cMP drive sled then "newertech 2.5" to 3.5" adapter" is what you want. ~$15

The NewerTech AdaptaDrive is good. I've got both the OWC drive sled and the NewerTech and the only advantage to the OWC one is that you only have to mount one thing, vs. mounting the SSD to the adapter and then the adapter to an existing sled.

There are cheaper things out there, but these seem better made.

https://www.amazon.com/NewerTech-Ad...05PZDVF6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_sims?ie=UTF8

PERFECT!

I don't want to have to store an unused Apple drive sled amongst my plethora of extra cards, cables, drives and whatnot, and the 5.1 sleds are not compatible with 3.1 sleds (I have one sled in my 2008 that has deteriorating rubber drive bushings that have completely split apart).

Although I could simply plug it into my spare optical drive connector, it's just a pain to have to access it when I need to disconnect it (such as when I'm doing Windows install, which I've been doing a lot of testing with Win10 and Win7). Besides, I'll be installing a UHD-capable drive in that spot soon.

I'm a bit of an Angelbird Fanboi, so there's no surprise that all my SSDs are mounted using the original brackets with their 'Mac Pro SSD Bay' adapter.

It's also a 'pricey' option....but it works none the less.

I've never heard of this product before. It's certainly looks solidly built.

There are 3D printed options that work with your existing grey/metal sled for under $10 each.

Interesting option. I wonder about their long-term durability, however.

I use a WD VelociRaptor heatsink mount that I buy from eBay. I buy the complete HDD/heatsink mount and remove and discard the HDD. The smallest HDD is 80GB. I just bought another two as I am replacing my last two spinners with 2.5" Samsung SSDs. I paid $11.50 ea for them.

Now THAT is certainly the most original low-cost solution! If I wasn't in need of it soon, then this is the route I would go. The cooling fins is really what sold me; not sure if it really helps but it certainly can't hurt.

But my new SSD arrives tomorrow and I can get the NewerTech tomorrow as well via Amazon if I order now.

Heck, I may just go ahead and get one because I do have another project that needs an adapter, once the price drops to what you got them for. The only one available now is $15.

 

[bsbeamer]

If I was concerned about long-term durability and reliability, a $20 (or less) spend for a solid metal-based sled would not be out of the budget range. The blue OWC sleds that many use are at B&H for $17.50 each:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...omputing_OWCMMP35T25_Mount_Pro_2_5_Drive.html

 

[Auggie]

If I was concerned about long-term durability and reliability, a $20 (or less) spend for a solid metal-based sled would not be out of the budget range. The blue OWC sleds that many use are at B&H for $17.50 each

The one major advantage of the OWC, Pro Sleds, and AngelBirds are that they involve no add-on electronics by relying solely on precise placement of the SSD connector at the same position as a regular 3.5" hard drive. Thus, one less potential source of failure and unreliability.

 

[bsbeamer]

The one major advantage of the OWC, Pro Sleds, and AngelBirds are that they involve no add-on electronics by relying solely on precise placement of the SSD connector at the same position as a regular 3.5" hard drive. Thus, one less potential source of failure and unreliability.

The exact reason so many people use them. Have 4 OWC blue sleds in my 5,1 right now.

FYI, 2.5" SSDs can also be directly connected to the bay and held in place with rubber bands or gaffer's tape if you're waiting on sleds or adapters to arrive after the SSD does.

 

[flehman]

+1 vote for the Newertech Adaptadrive. I am using 4 of them for the SATA drive bays in my MP 4,1->5,1. Reasonable price, excellent build quality, and you will never need to think twice about them or replace them.

 

[mattferg]

Might be a silly question but maybe a PCIe to 2.5" card would be a better investment? You lose half the speed if you're putting an SSD on a sled.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Not silly at all. For me my four 2.5" SSDs are for storage and backup. I have a Samsung SM951 AHCI in a PX1 PCIe adapter. I have an I/O Crest SI-PEX40129 that just was received by ONTRAC from China. When I receive it, it will contain 2 Samsung 970 NVME SSDs. The 3 PCIe SSDs are all bootable, as is 1 of the SATA SSDs.

Lou

 

[Auggie]

I already have a PCIe card via Velocity Duo with a pair of SSDs, so now I’m in the process of switching out one of my hard drive bays to SSD.

 

[bsbeamer]

I already have a PCIe card via Velocity Duo with a pair of SSDs, so now I’m in the process of switching out one of my hard drive bays to SSD.

FYI, what is being described above with PX1 is NVMe SSD. Velocity Duo is SATA SSD. Both are faster than HDD, but NVMe via PCIe can reach speeds about 3x faster than SATA SSD via PCIe when used in Mac Pro 5,1. There are a few threads dedicated to this if you're interested.

 

[Auggie]

FYI, what is being described above with PX1 is NVMe SSD. Velocity Duo is SATA SSD. Both are faster than HDD, but NVMe via PCIe can reach speeds about 3x faster than SATA SSD via PCIe when used in Mac Pro 5,1. There are a few threads dedicated to this if you're interested.

As exciting as it sounds to having such blazing internal storage speed, I just don’t have a need for that type of performance and wouldn’t be noticeable at all in my typical use. Besides, the cost for having the amount of storage I’m investing in is just too cost prohibitive in NVMe format (the 4TB Samsung SSD enroute is only $680), which is in itself limited to the number of PCIe slots available, of which I have none free unless I dump my existing Duo (and take a loss in that purchase cost).

Besides, SSDs can work with any SATA system so as I upgrade SSD capacity, I can reutilize the replaced SSD in other systems, such as my laptop, Mac Pro 3.1, PC, and NAS.

The real bottleneck in my system is the 1GBe LAN to my 174TB NAS so I’m in the process of upgrading to 10GBe; one of the PCIe slots in my cMP is reserved for a 10GBe NIC.

 

[barmann]

I have one of those , probably the same as Newertech's, and a couple of Icy Docks .
No issues so far in my cMP .

The Icy Docks are nice because you can change your SSDs/2.5" HDDs without using tools .
Cooling and airflow might be suboptimal, but I don't know at what point this will be an issue, if at all .

 

[Auggie]

I have one of those , probably the same as Newertech's, and a couple of Icy Docks .

The advantage of the NewerTechs, Icy Docks, and other adapters that don't completely replace the Apple sleds is that they can be used in non-cMP applications. For instance, I will be getting the WD IcePack carrier adapter for a different project because it completely duplicates the dimensions of a standard 3.5" hard drive in all aspects so I can use it in a hot-swappable 3.5", tool-less, ejectable drive bay that I have set up on my Windows XP-based VHS capture system: after I'm done with a transfer session to the SSD within the IcePack, I can just eject the IcePack module and plug it straight into my USB drive dock attached to my cMP for post-processing and/or transfer to my aforementioned NAS.

 

[zedex]

^^^^Not silly at all. For me my four 2.5" SSDs are for storage and backup. I have a Samsung SM951 AHCI in a PX1 PCIe adapter. I have an I/O Crest SI-PEX40129 that just was received by ONTRAC from China. When I receive it, it will contain 2 Samsung 970 NVME SSDs. The 3 PCIe SSDs are all bootable, as is 1 of the SATA SSDs.

Lou

This is almost identical to my setup! Got that ioCrest PEX PCIe board 3 weeks ago with my SAMSUNG EVO 970 NVME SSDs arriving the same day.. initially I was excited until.. TESTING BEGINS AND DISASTER DAWNS.... unless you have somehow managed to migrate to one of the barely functional APFS macOS releases (OSX v13 and v14), super-fast NVMe SSDs are basically useless*.

AN EXPENSIVE DISAPPOINTMENT :/
Even though I waded through apple's shame (OSX v13 and v14) in order to get the firmware update (140.0.0.0) necessary for native NVMe booting.. the new disks simply wouldn't show up (not on macOS 10.10, 10.11 or 10.12). IN SHORT - unless you've "mastered" macOS High Sierra, your bootable NVMEs are heart-breakingly "good for nothing" on the glorious cMP (I sold the Samsung EVO 970s a week later).

So whatever you do DON'T abandon your AHCI PCI-E SSDs. They are more valuable now than ever before.

THE GOOD NEWS:
Thanks to ioCrest, your AHCI SSDs will now do speeds well in excess of the 1500mbps you're currently achieving through your PX1.

A FINAL NOTE:
I'm an avid reader of this forum and I'm truly surprised that no-one has raised the issue of NVME not working on macOS versions 10.9 through 10.12 -- is there a workaround that I'm not aware of that would allow me to mount an NVMe in 10.12..? I'd be happy if I could just use them as block devices (non-bootable drives) in my ioCrest PEX HBA?

 

[Auggie]

AN EXPENSIVE DISAPPOINTMENT :/
Even though I waded through apple's shame (OSX v13 and v14) in order to get the firmware update (140.0.0.0) necessary for native NVMe booting.. the new disks simply wouldn't show up (not on macOS 10.10, 10.11 or 10.12). IN SHORT - unless you've "mastered" macOS High Sierra, your bootable NVMEs are heart-breakingly "good for nothing" on the glorious cMP (I sold the Samsung EVO 970s a week later).

Interesting.

I know that APFS drives are not recognized under those older systems you mentioned, except 10.12, so I'm curious what format your NVMe drives are in. Even if they are regular HFS+, perhaps this issue is related to recognizing APFS?

 

[flowrider]

AN EXPENSIVE DISAPPOINTMENT :/
Even though I waded through apple's shame (OSX v13 and v14) in order to get the firmware update (140.0.0.0) necessary for native NVMe booting.. the new disks simply wouldn't show up (not on macOS 10.10, 10.11 or 10.12). IN SHORT - unless you've "mastered" macOS High Sierra, your bootable NVMEs are heart-breakingly "good for nothing" on the glorious cMP (I sold the Samsung EVO 970s a week later).

I am aware of the NVME SSDs not working properly with OSs prior to HS. It's been touched upon in other threads. I am running HS, can't yet update to Mojave because of my Nvidia GTX 1080. So I sould be OK
[doublepost=1545496919][/doublepost]

I will be getting the WD IcePack carrier adapter for a different project because it completely duplicates the dimensions of a standard 3.5" hard drive in all aspects so I can use it in a hot-swappable 3.5", tool-less, ejectable drive bay that I have set up on my Windows XP-based VHS capture system: after I'm done with a transfer session to the SSD within the IcePack, I can just eject the IcePack module and plug it straight into my USB drive dock attached to my cMP for post-processing and/or transfer to my aforementioned NAS.

Thanks for finding that. The WD IcePack is exactly the same as the VelociRaptor Heat sink that I use. Didn't know it was available separately, at a much higher price.

https://www.amazon.com/IcePack-Adap...TF8&qid=1545496829&sr=8-1&keywords=wd+icepack

Described here:

https://gzhls.at/blob/ldb/5/a/7/9/42f3c5a5507324e73d7c3c80f8490ba4199c.pdf

Interesting.

I know that APFS drives are not recognized under those older systems you mentioned, except 10.12, so I'm curious what format your NVMe drives are in. Even if they are regular HFS+, perhaps this issue is related to recognizing APFS?

As I recall from the other threads, it has something to do with the specification related to the number of bits in an NVME SSD vs an AHCI SSD.

Lou

 

[flowrider]

Just a follow-up to my fingers crossed above. My I/O Crest card came in this morning. Everything's up and running

Lou

 

[zedex]

I've populated my ioCrest with 2 SSUBX and I'm getting sustained transfer speeds of 1800 - 2100 mbps between disks!! So happy. Hope you have a similarly favourable experience

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Your answer is in this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/blade-ssds-nvme-ahci.2146725/page-13#post-26938683

Lou