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SATA Express meets the '09 Mac Pro - Bootable NGFF PCIE SSD

This is the Windows 8.1 Experience index of a maxed out 6,1 12 core D700 64Gb 1Tb I did last week for a client as a silent render beast for 3DSMax simulations accessed remotely and hosted in a rack so this one won't be used for playing games like the other two cans I've already done for them.

The disk sequential 64.0 read figure puts a smile on my face and confirms in high performance power settings on bootcamp its got the same ooomph as on OSX. and I'll post up the results from my Sintech 1tb SSUBX 4,1 12 core X5690 when I upgrade it to Win 10 in a few months time...

IMG_4394.JPG
 
Wow just finished reading through this thread...
Just for clarification, If I use the Sintech Apple PCIe Adapter with SSUBX 512GB SSD in slot 3 or 4 of my 2010 cMP 5,1; Can I partition half of it using bootcamp for a windows boot drive? Or will I have to have a separate drive for windows?
(250gb windows partition, 250gb OSX partition on this PCIe SSD?)

Would it work any different on a M951 in the DT120 adapter?

Can this be done another way without bootcamp, advantages/disadvantages?
 
I have a Macbook Pro A1398 which is a 15" Retina Mid 2014 model (11,2). Can I just say that there are two many different ways of identifying a Macbook, they need one consistent method.

I digress... I'm looking to upgrade the hard drive in it form the 256gb to a 1tb, but I'm worried about spending $900 only to find out it won't work.

This is the one I want to buy

Everything I've seen in this thread is about the Cylinder Mac Pro, not the laptop. Can anyone point me in the right direction, or possibly let me know if this will work, and best of all provide a testimonial of it working. Also, would I have to get any adapters, or would it work out of the box?

Thanks,
 
Yeah I'm getting a little confused with all the terms here as I'm not so catchy when it comes to these SSD standards that are available. But I'm looking at getting a Lycom DT-120 with the Samsung SM951. Would that mean boot delays in any form or can I just simple install Windows 7 using bootcamp on it?
 
Re SM951 512mb in a cMP: can any users here confirm in ‘About This Mac’/‘System Information’/‘SATA/SATA Express’ whether OS X identifies the drive as ‘SSD’ or ‘rotational’ please?

Thanks.
 
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With 10.10.4 now released, and the TRIMFORCE command now offering real TRIM for non-Apple SSD's (including the SM951), the first post should be updated to state that.
Upgrader said:
Re SM951 512mb in a cMP: can any users here confirm in ‘About This Mac’/‘System Information’/‘SATA/SATA Express’ whether OS X identifies the drive as ‘SSD’ or ‘rotational’ please?

Thanks.

Also, am I correct in thinking that if I install 2 x SM951’s in slots 2 & 3 (as a boot drive and a media drive) slot 2 will only allow me to connect at 2.5GT/s with a top speed of 768mb/s??
Click to expand...
Medium Type: Solid State

Also, with 10.10.4 TRIM is fully functional (natively) on the SM951 with the TRIMFORCE command.
 
I had the only triple SM951 RAID I have seen. Just did it as an experiment. Synthetic benchmarks were very high but real world performance in Photoshop, app launching, boot time etc was not better than a single SATA III SSD.

Here is the video of my experiment


I sold my SM951 blades and now only have a Samsung Evo 850 with native TRIM force enabled.

I have two questions

1 does any respectable company sell an NGFF to USB 3.1 adapter for M key blades?

2 will it be possible for External PCIE slot enclosures to connect to USB 3.1 or not?
 
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Thanks for sharing. Your raid 0 performance is limited by the sm951 in slot 0/1 @ <800 mb/s. Running 3 xp941's or 1tb Ssuax drives at x4 5.0 gts in all slots should hit > 3000 mb/s with large files and should scale nicely for smaller files, depending on block size.

Thx!


SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said:
I had the only triple SM951 RAID I have seen. Just did it as an experiment. Synthetic benchmarks were very high but real world performance in Photoshop, app launching, boot time etc was not better than a single SATA III SSD.

Here is the video of my experiment


I sold my SM951 blades and now only have a Samsung Evo 850 with native TRIM force enabled.

I have two questions

1 does any respectable company sell an NGFF to USB 3.1 adapter for M key blades?

2 will it be possible for External PCIE slot enclosures to connect to USB 3.1 or not?
Click to expand...
 
Issues with Sandisk 128GB/No-name adapter combo
I upgraded my rMBP Late 2013 and got a 128 GB Sandisk, which I mounted in my 2009 Mac Pro (see signature) using this adapter. (Not the Sintech as recommended in the 1. post, but it looks almost similar)

Sintech
sintech.JPG


No-name
other brand.JPG

Configuration
  1. Adapter in slot 4
  2. Gfx card in slot 1
  3. Installed 10.10.4 on the ssd
  4. Linked user to existing userfolder in 10.10.4 volume on hdd
  5. Fixed permissions using disk utility.
  6. I did also reset the NVRAM.

Problems:
  • Slow boot (grey screen persist for a while before showing the apple logo).
  • Unable to wake from sleep (black screen, fan and hdd running).
  • Cold boot loads volume on hdd instead of ssd, despite setting ssd volume as startup disk.


When setting startup disk to Yosemite volume on the hdd, loadtimes improves, the problems dissapears.
I have tried mounting the ssd in PCI-slot 1,3 and 4. (slot 2 unavailable due to the size of the gfx card). Same result.

I guess maybe the no-name adapter really isn't bootable as the ebay descrition says.

Sintech/Sandisk combo?
Does anyone have experience with Sandisk/Sintech combo, and is it bootable?
 
handheldgames said:
Thanks for sharing. Your raid 0 performance is limited by the sm951 in slot 0/1 @ <800 mb/s. Running 3 xp941's or 1tb Ssuax drives at x4 5.0 gts in all slots should hit > 3000 mb/s with large files and should scale nicely for smaller files, depending on block size.

Thx!
Click to expand...
Quick Qustion.
If for some ridiculous reason and push came to shove and you had to take the blade(s) out, could you put into an adaptor and use in a standard drive bay?
 
H2SO4 said:
Quick Qustion.
If for some ridiculous reason and push came to shove and you had to take the blade(s) out, could you put into an adaptor and use in a standard drive bay?
Click to expand...

Are you asking if the PCIe SSD can be installed into an SATA drive bay by using an adaptor?

If that IS the question, then the answer is no.

EDIT: it seems I may have been wrong. My apologies. Please read the post after mine. This card calls for an SATA III slot so it may or may not work as expected in the SATA II slot. of the cMP. If it does work, it would likely force the PCIe SSD to perform at SSD II speeds.
 
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SomeFruitGuy said:
...
Configuration
  1. Adapter in slot 4
  2. Gfx card in slot 1
  3. Installed 10.10.4 on the ssd
  4. Linked user to existing userfolder in 10.10.4 volume on hdd
  5. Fixed permissions using disk utility.
  6. I did also reset the NVRAM.
...
Click to expand...

Could it be that this is the problem? I have been using both the Sintech adapter as well as (and currently still use) the no name one. I have none of the problems you mentioned. But I had/have them either as a complete start disk (with entire installation on the SSD) or as a FusionDrive with a conventional hard drive.

BTW, there is a difference between the various models on the market. There is a Sintech with heat sink which won't recognise Apple/Toshiba PCIe SSDs. The no name as well as the Sintech without heat sink do seamlessly and recognise all Apple PCIe SSDs, regardless of OEM.

Best,
Magnus
 
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crjackson2134 said:
Could you please elaborate on this? I have the Sintech card with an Apple/Samsung SSUBX as a boot drive.
Click to expand...

That should not make a difference as I were specifically referring to an Apple/Toshiba PCIe SSD. Those SSDs were rare and to my knowledge sold only with an Apple MBA.

Delving deeper into my memory, the problem were solely detected with the Sintech card with heat sink, not with the cheaper & simple one. I have updated my above post.

Does this help?

Cheers,
Magnus
 
mbosse said:
That should not make a difference as I were specifically referring to an Apple/Toshiba PCIe SSD. Those SSDs were rare and to my knowledge sold only with an Apple MBA.

Delving deeper into my memory, the problem were solely detected with the Sintech card with heat sink, not with the cheaper & simple one. I have updated my above post.

Does this help?

Cheers,
Magnus
Click to expand...

Yes I understand more clearly now. Is there a physical connection difference between the two SSD models? For instance, would the Apple/Samsung SSD work in the generic (non-Sintech) card? I'm wondering if the different card could make a difference in the Apple/Samsung SSUBX Slot 3/4 boot picker issue, or the Slot 2 2.5 GT/s issue? Although I do have the non-heatsink version of the Sintech card.
 
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crjackson2134 said:
Yes I understand more clearly now. Is there a physical connection difference between the two SSD models? For instance, would the Apple/Samsung SSD work in the generic (non-Sintech) card? I'm wondering if the different card could make a difference in the Apple SSUBX Slot 3/4 boot picker issue, or the Slot 2 2.5 GT/s issue?
Click to expand...

No, within the Apple ecosystem the interfaces are normed - thus, no matter which Apple PCIe SSD you fit into the adapter, physically it should match. I have testet all three adapters with a variety of SSDs (OEM Toshiba, Sandisk and Samsung), they all work with the sole exception noted in my previous posts.

Unfortunately I have no SSUBX card at hand and I don't plan on getting one. The simple reason is that for my workflows there is little difference even between a SATA III SSD and a PCIe one.
 
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