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Thanks for the advice! I'm also starting to suspect if i got a bad Sintech card. I've been getting crashes and errors for some reason when running Google Chrome. I reverted back to my old SSD and formatted the new SSD so its completely clean. It's still giving me 380 MB/s read writes, but suddenly the drive is "ejecting" all by itself.

Well i formatted the drive and did a completely clean install of El Capitan on the drive, but it still has only 380 MB/s read/write speeds. So i guess its not a software issue. Now i'm thinking maybe its the fact I have a GTX 770 (firmware modified to work on Mac) installed as a graphics card? I read that the power draw on all the PCI slots is 300 watts maximum. Is it possible that the graphics card is throttling the bandwidth for the SSD??
 
I don't think, i have a GTX 770 with EFI firmware. And no issues with the PCI-E SSD.

Damn. Did you upgrade your CPUs as well? I went from the 8-core 2.26 ghz, to the 12-core 3.46 ghz too. Its like we got the same computer lol. Is there a step in upgrading the CPUs that might have messed up the PCI lanes? I updated mine from the 4,1 system to the 5,1 system too. I'm running out of ideas lol. I will try to run the hardware diagnostic tool.
 
Yes, have a Xeon W3690 3.46 GHz installed, of course with 5,1 firmware upgrade.

Could you try an other PCI-E slot?
 
Yes, have a Xeon W3690 3.46 GHz installed, of course with 5,1 firmware upgrade.

Could you try an other PCI-E slot?

Well i've tried every slot 2,3,and 4 and taken out every other extraneous bit of hardware with only it and the graphics card But it still doesnt work. This is a bit mind boggling
 
It sounds like one of the traces or contacts from the back half of the connector is broken, and the card is only negotiating a 1x connection with your Mac. The unmounting suggests a circuit leading to the front half of the connector is also about to fail. The gold connectors in your photo look like they were painted on by hand compared to those on video cards from reputable manufacturers. I'd stop using it before you damage your SSD and look elsewhere for an adaptor.
 
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It sounds like one of the traces or contacts from the back half of the connector is broken, and the card is only negotiating a 1x connection with your Mac. The unmounting suggests a circuit leading to the front half of the connector is also about to fail. The gold connectors in your photo look like they were painted on by hand compared to those on video cards from reputable manufacturers. I'd stop using it before you damage your SSD and look elsewhere for an adaptor.
Wow that would explain it! Thanks so much for letting me know otherwise i would have kept trying to use it haha. I will look for another adapter!
 
Wow that would explain it! Thanks so much for letting me know otherwise i would have kept trying to use it haha. I will look for another adapter!

sorry if im repeating previous info:

1) the apple ssd connector gold fingers may be damaged with repeated swaps between slots. Sintech makes an adapter for this specific reason.

2) i would examine the SSD gold fingers for any damage, as well as the PCIe card. Damaged fingers can be fixed with a condictive pen to fill the gouge.

3) If you havent reseated the SSD, taking it out for pics, and re-inserting it may fix the issue.

4) if you need another card, I can send you on via priority mail. Merry Xmas. However, Amazon prime is much faster this time of year.
 
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sorry if im repeating previous info:

1) the apple ssd connector gold fingers may be damaged with repeated swaps between slots. Sintech makes an adapter for this specific reason.

2) i would examine the SSD gold fingers for any damage, as well as the PCIe card. Damaged fingers can be fixed with a condictive pen to fill the gouge.

3) If you havent reseated the SSD, taking it out for pics, and re-inserting it may fix the issue.

4) if you need another card, I can send you on via priority mail. Merry Xmas. However, Amazon prime is much faster this time of year.
Thanks for the reply and the generous offer! I only put the SSD into the card once screwed the heatsink on and havent taken it out yet. I did take the pci card in and out many times though. I will try taking the actual SSD out again one more time. Hopefully that will work!
 
image.png


FWIW... The controller is the only thing warming up on the M.2 SSD. $75 seems rather pricey for a thermal solution.

A small piece of thermal tape and a low-cost heatsink should do the trick. While this person was excessive with raspberry pi heatsinks, the temp never exceeds 65c.

image.jpeg
 
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Not exactly $75 for the thermal solution. The Lycom DT-120 M.2 Adapter still cost around $30, so the extra $45 may be for better cool, and better protection to the SSD, or may be better looking (compared to a small piece of thermal tape / heatsink). Doesn't sounds too bad for me.
 
Not exactly $75 for the thermal solution. The Lycom DT-120 M.2 Adapter still cost around $30, so the extra $45 may be for better cool, and better protection to the SSD, or may be better looking (compared to a small piece of thermal tape / heatsink). Doesn't sounds too bad for me.

Apparently, tis the season to over-charge for a $15 product. Ouch!! A m+b key adapter can be delivered for less than $10 on ebay. Amazon has rebadged Lycom cards for $23 delivered with prime.

Heat sinks & thermal tape should be under $10 for those needing thermal assurance.
 
Angelbird seems to learn from the best in selling overpriced stuff (OWC).:rolleyes:
Any heatsink which you can attach to the SSD will do, there is no "proper one".
Rest is a matter of look.
 
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sorry if im repeating previous info:

1) the apple ssd connector gold fingers may be damaged with repeated swaps between slots. Sintech makes an adapter for this specific reason.

2) i would examine the SSD gold fingers for any damage, as well as the PCIe card. Damaged fingers can be fixed with a condictive pen to fill the gouge.

3) If you havent reseated the SSD, taking it out for pics, and re-inserting it may fix the issue.

4) if you need another card, I can send you on via priority mail. Merry Xmas. However, Amazon prime is much faster this time of year.

One more question! Is there any other brand of PCI card that i can use for the apple SSD besides Sintech?
 
Apparently, tis the season to over-charge for a $15 product. Ouch!! A m+b key adapter can be delivered for less than $10 on ebay. Amazon has rebadged Lycom cards for $23 delivered with prime.

Heat sinks & thermal tape should be under $10 for those needing thermal assurance.
Apparently, tis the season to over-charge for a $15 product. Ouch!! A m+b key adapter can be delivered for less than $10 on ebay. Amazon has rebadged Lycom cards for $23 delivered with prime.

Heat sinks & thermal tape should be under $10 for those needing thermal assurance.
Does this bird do full speed with SM951 at slot 2?
 
For those of us who may be on the verge of setting up a (512mb) PCIe Blade SSD home brew fusion drive, is there any benefit to going with the sm951 over the SSUBX (apple pull) in terms of fusion compatibility?

I currently have a slot 2 Apricorn Solo w/ an 850pro partitioned into two, with half going to a 4TB fusion drive and the other half used as a El Capitan boot/repair disk. I'd like to boost this up to the amazing 1400mb/s as I've seen users getting . I'm concerned what may happen to a fusion drive on a cold boot where the blade is slow to be recognized. Anyone try slapping a PCIe blade ssd into a home made fusion drive?

Huge thanks go out to the original poster and for the many contributions that continue to make this thread the bible of cMP SSD upgrades!
 
Does this bird do full speed with SM951 at slot 2?

The first link in my Post #1436 above, does not mention Slot 2, but I would assume not. When I get mine I will try it, but I'm doubtful since it appears to be nothing more than a Lycom style card with a heatsink. Also folks who have used Apple's OEM SSD on a SSUBX card have the same Slot 2 issue.

Lou
 
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I've used a Apple/Samsung 1 TB PCI-E SSD for one year, but at the moment I'm using a Samsung 850 Pro SATA 2 TB SSD as System Volume.

There are no relevant differences regarding OS startup times between PCI-E and SATA SSD's. But in daily use (e.g. surfing, MS Office, Spotlight Search, especially starting Outlook with database 1.4 GByte) I do indeed notice that the SATA SSD is always a little bit slower. Not disturbing but noticeable when used to PCI-E SSD's.

Going back to PCI-E SSD as soon as possible (when 2 TB PCI-E versions appear).
 
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Some real world benchmark tests to compare 2.5 AHCI SSDs, Intel 750, SM951, and 950 PRO. Almost no significance differences between them as almost all software and OS loading can't take advantage of the tremendous bandwidth of the newer storage devices.

http://techreport.com/review/29221/samsung-950-pro-512gb-ssd-reviewed/4

Unlike Windows, the TechReport is top shelf. Sorry to hear your OS has issues. OS X is a completely different beast and rather excels with PCIe SSD's.
 
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Unlike Windows, the TechReport is top shelf. Sorry to hear your OS has issues. OS X is a completely different beast and rather excels with PCIe SSD's.
Wrong. I have thoroughly benched both operating systems and previously posted my results on this forum. OSX is slower with PCIE SSDs. Even the much loved SM951 gets around 100MB/s less read performance in a cMP than it does under Windows on the same machine. The average score posted on this forum is around 1400MB/s. Under Windows it's consistently closer to the 1550MB/s limit of the PCIE 2.0 x4 lane configuration.
 
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Wrong?

Synthetic benchmarks are no greater than the numbers genenetated in their scripted usage scenarios. Period.

As a software developer / graphic artist, my workflow takes advantage of what PCIe SSD's offer in OSX.

While this may not be relavent in a particular work flow or operating system or usage work flow. It is highly relavent in my work flow. Working in windoze is not an option, nor is writing apps for the platform. I write apps for OSX and iOS and trust windows to run my television sets and theatre, not much more.

A PCIe ssd make a difference on OS X in my scenario. Nuff said.
 
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