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SATA Express meets the '09 Mac Pro - Bootable NGFF PCIE SSD
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I don't know for sure, but all new Mac models from April 2104 onwards can boot NVMe. I was hoping that the mid model upgrade from 2x PCIe lanes to 4 may have added ability to boot NVMe- it would require a firmware update, but there has been a couple for this model.....
Edited to add-
Yes this may be rubbish because in System Profiler the internal drive is still listed as SATA and not NVMe. The NVMe tab says 'no devices connected'
And yes I have a recent machine with the faster drive
I think that's about as definitive as I will get! Thanks for your help
Edited to add-
Yes this may be rubbish because in System Profiler the internal drive is still listed as SATA and not NVMe. The NVMe tab says 'no devices connected'
And yes I have a recent machine with the faster drive
I think that's about as definitive as I will get! Thanks for your help
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Yes, but i must be an AHCI M.2 SSD: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/m-2-pcie-ssd-adapter-for-macs.1991597/
i hope so...im not in rush upgrading my mac pro since my daily driver is hackintosh...and i glad apple still make SSD removable
im afraid apple would soldering their SSD melting into single logic board like they currently doing with new wi-fi card in MBP2016
wi-fi card now it's soldered and prevent user who wants build/hack older mac/hackintosh using certain actual apple parts to enable certain features
i have a late 2015 retina iMac 5k with a 1TB ssd. I couldn't find on Samsungs website that they make a SM951 part in the 1TB capacity. Since the 1tb ssd requires denser chips, is this part still MLC or could it be TLC? In the past apple had used TLC NAND is some higher capacity iPhones. Thanks.
I did, but it's only available from eBay. Not a 'supplier' I want to buy from.
Anyone can recommend PCIe SATA3 SSD for just macOS, software and my 200GB Photos library? Or perhaps even a simple SATA2 SSD in a drivebay would suffice for my needs? I don't even shoot RAW...
It's a part made especially for Apple. The chips are larger than on the SM951. Search SSUBX on eBay and you will see how big the 1TB version is compare to the 512GB.
This way - yes.
Other way (extended SSDs) - no, unlike the old custom format in Air this one is patented so clones are a violation.
「im afraid apple would soldering their SSD melting into single logic board」
uh oh....i shouldn't say this..but my worse prediction come true with touch bar version recently tear-down...oh my...this macbook not really diffrent with iphone now...everything melted into single piece of board
still praising non toucbar version which have retain some modular components for future upgrade/self-hacks.
[doublepost=1479349513][/doublepost]
Actually im quite new in mac pro forte, but im lived in hackintosh world for long time so probably i can share my own test for SSD.
For SATA SSD on SATA2 drive bay is too slow. I pop my old Sandisk Ultra SSD gave me R/W about 220MB. It's not too much different with my spinning mechanical WD Black which gave me R/W 196MB. Using SATA3 or USB3 enclosure immediately show the actual, faster speed.
For my current Mac Pro setup, im using setup like this below. Im using 1tB samsung evo 850 mSATA SSD and PCIe x2 adapter. You can pop up to 4TB total SSD for extra storage, R/W speed both equal about 480MB (near 500MB). If you RAID it only gave about 700MB, probably pcie x2 limitation.
but im plan to upgrade using SSUBX (image below), is the best and fastest native option right now. You will encounter slim and wider one, slimmer SSD have capacity 512GB or below, 1 TB version is wider due larger and have more density memory cells but both of them had same model code: SSUBX
Or if you don't mind doing some kext hacks, you can use standard SSD NVME blade with pcie x4 adapter, check some previous comments, there's a link where you can enabled NVME SSD, but actually im prefer this way in hackintosh machine instead in actual mac.
tldr summary :
use any SSD using adapter in PCIE slot
SATA3 SSD in drive bay give major bottleneck
have fun ♪
uh oh....i shouldn't say this..but my worse prediction come true with touch bar version recently tear-down...oh my...this macbook not really diffrent with iphone now...everything melted into single piece of board
still praising non toucbar version which have retain some modular components for future upgrade/self-hacks.
[doublepost=1479349513][/doublepost]
Actually im quite new in mac pro forte, but im lived in hackintosh world for long time so probably i can share my own test for SSD.
For SATA SSD on SATA2 drive bay is too slow. I pop my old Sandisk Ultra SSD gave me R/W about 220MB. It's not too much different with my spinning mechanical WD Black which gave me R/W 196MB. Using SATA3 or USB3 enclosure immediately show the actual, faster speed.
For my current Mac Pro setup, im using setup like this below. Im using 1tB samsung evo 850 mSATA SSD and PCIe x2 adapter. You can pop up to 4TB total SSD for extra storage, R/W speed both equal about 480MB (near 500MB). If you RAID it only gave about 700MB, probably pcie x2 limitation.
but im plan to upgrade using SSUBX (image below), is the best and fastest native option right now. You will encounter slim and wider one, slimmer SSD have capacity 512GB or below, 1 TB version is wider due larger and have more density memory cells but both of them had same model code: SSUBX
Or if you don't mind doing some kext hacks, you can use standard SSD NVME blade with pcie x4 adapter, check some previous comments, there's a link where you can enabled NVME SSD, but actually im prefer this way in hackintosh machine instead in actual mac.
tldr summary :
use any SSD using adapter in PCIE slot
SATA3 SSD in drive bay give major bottleneck
have fun ♪
That's what I figured, and I've used PCIe SSD from OWC but customs added their % to the stock price, which didn't help. It's kaput now, just a few months out of warranty. And I can't find the AHCI 951, nor the SSUBX so I thought why not buy el cheapo SATAIII SSD and put it on a PCIe adapter. I found the 850 from Samsung, only €329 incl VAT for 1TB. I find that cheap, but will need the right PCIe card. Any suggestions? I'm in The Netherlands, and am able to order from Amazon.de
I'd rather not mess with hacks since things can brake with a dot release from Apple. Or so I presume.
BIG thanks!
[stock 5,1 mid 2010 MP, latest macOS, 3 empty PCI slots]
If you don't mind shopping from Chinese Market, you can try purchase from Aliexpress. Im live in Asia Pasific and finding mac pro upgrade parts it's very difficult, most of them are in Ebay US seller which gave me expensive tax and shipping, so im using Aliexpress as alternative. Price is competitive, and the best is most of them is free shipping, though it could take time about 20-60 days to arrived. All my mac pro parts including processor, memory and other stuff purchased from there.
Talking about SATA3 SSD adapter, do you mean card like this? It's comparable with Apricorn Velocity X2 AFAIK.
For Amazon, sorry i can't help you too much since im rarely purchase from there so i don't know too much about Amazon, i only had purchase from there once, and it also requesting from friend help to me bought from there using his account.
Or if you could wait a longer, watch SSUBX Ebay carefully for big deals, maybe you could find nice price like SoyCapitanSoyCapitan said.
Cheers~
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Thanks for the link. I'll see if I can find a similar card closer to home, or at least with shorter delivery times. Plus I'll watch out on the SSUBX sticks.
Good to read you have upgraded so many parts of your MP; I think it's the best desktop they have ever made.
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For your info. I am not sure if your workflow really need that speed. I do have a Tempo SSD card, and I did use it for some time. End up I free up the PCIe slot for my 2nd GPU. TBH, there is almost no real world difference for my usage.
I do copy large files, but the target disk is a HDD, so, it can't utilise the SATA III speed.
For booting, apps loading, etc, I really can't feel any difference between SATA II and SATA III.
I do some video editing (up to 4K), a 840Evo via the SATA II connection is good enough for me, can't feel any bottleneck at there.
It's discussed quite a few times, the sequential speed usually is not the most important factor to determin the user experence, but the 4K random read speed does. For 850, it's 4K random read speed not even close to saturate the SATA II connection. That's why the SATA III card can't make any difference in most real world situation.
If you can easily get a cheap SATA III PCIe card, why not? But if it's hard to get one, or too expensive (relatively). And you rarely able to utilise those extra speed. You may consider just run the 850 via a SATA II port.
And if you really need the speed. Apart from SM951. There are few more PCIe SSD you can choose. I personally believe buy the more expensive PCIe SSD and cheap adaptor to enjoy the speed, make more sense than buy the SATA SSD and an expensive adaptor to enjoy the speed that not even half the PCIe SSD can do. Of course, this is base on you really need the high sequential speed.
Well, TBH, I don't actually know if I 'need' the speed. I didn't like the speed of the HDD, and got the PCIe SSD from OWC, and paid import tax. But wow, was that money wisely spend! No idea on how fast it was, but I really liked the fast startup times of apps. Booting, no. OSX still had to scan all 4 HDD's so that didn't make a difference, but once logged in I 'felt the difference'.
My main use if for photos, just jpg's, no raw, and am a impatient person. So I want software to load quickly, and photos to open instantly (usually they're ≈ 3MB)
So, no, no idea if I'll saturate SATAII, but I've enjoyed the PCIe SSD card from OWC very much. Just looking for a cheaper alternative now that it's broke.
Thanks for your post; much appreciated!
I posted a video about my apps loading time in the following link, which including BR and Photos. You may go to have a looks. It's just a 840Evo connected via the native SATA 2 port.
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...adaptor-worth-the-cost.1960359/#post-23721268
Thanks for that video. I think I saw it already, as I've read the entire thread. But that took a while, so had forgotten about it lol. Seems similar in speed to what I had with the PCIe SSD from OWC. Guess I should simply replace 1 HDD with a SSD and put all sw and photos on it. And the next time the 951 of SSUBX are available, or their successors, I'll buy it locally, avoiding import tax.
Tnx
Question:
I have a 2009 4,1-->5,1 with an SSD mounted on an Apricorn Velocity Solo x2 card: https://www.amazon.com/Apricorn-Velocity-Extreme-Performance-VEL-SOLO-X2/dp/B0090IA3GY
It's possibile to attach this adapter from sataIII to m2 at the second port of the Apricorn? https://www.amazon.it/Kalea-Informatique©-Adattatore-Sandisk-Versione-compatta/dp/B00J33EJ3O
And use the adapter to install a Samsung SM951?
It will works? At what speed? I can use this for boot OSX?
I have a 2009 4,1-->5,1 with an SSD mounted on an Apricorn Velocity Solo x2 card: https://www.amazon.com/Apricorn-Velocity-Extreme-Performance-VEL-SOLO-X2/dp/B0090IA3GY
It's possibile to attach this adapter from sataIII to m2 at the second port of the Apricorn? https://www.amazon.it/Kalea-Informatique©-Adattatore-Sandisk-Versione-compatta/dp/B00J33EJ3O
And use the adapter to install a Samsung SM951?
It will works? At what speed? I can use this for boot OSX?
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Yes.
No.
That adaptor is meant for SATA M.2 SSDs. The speeds will be the same as any other SATA SSD. Yes, they are bootable.
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mmmmm i
I'm confused!
Why i cannot use the adaptor for a Samsung SM951? It's a M.2 SSD, so it could be compatible...
Which one I could use to have 1500 MB/s speed? I must change the adapter, or i must change the disk?
THANKS!
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The theoretical speed limit of SATA 3 is 600MB/s. You will never get 1500MB/s through SATA 3.
If you want 1500MB/s, you need AHCI or NVMe M.2 to PCI-e. The adaptor you found is a SATA M.2 adaptor.
I'm a bit confused on m.2 SSD's and which can be used in a 2010 Mac Pro.
I have an extra Lycom DT-120 from back when I put a SM-951 in my Mac Pro. Fast forward, and I want to put a 525GB SATA m.2 stick (Crucial MX300) in a different 2010 Mac Pro. The Lycom + MX300 isn't seen the Mac Pro 2010.
What do I need for normal SATA m.2 PCI-e SSD sticks to work in a Mac Pro 2010 (at SATA speeds, of course).
I have an extra Lycom DT-120 from back when I put a SM-951 in my Mac Pro. Fast forward, and I want to put a 525GB SATA m.2 stick (Crucial MX300) in a different 2010 Mac Pro. The Lycom + MX300 isn't seen the Mac Pro 2010.
What do I need for normal SATA m.2 PCI-e SSD sticks to work in a Mac Pro 2010 (at SATA speeds, of course).