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

dmylrea said:
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).
Click to expand...

either a standard SATA -> m2 adaptor, and then install the SSD into any of the SATA port, or a PCIe SATA card that with the m2 connector.

DT-120 has no SATA controller onboard, it's just an adaptor. Therefore, it cannot accept any kind of SATA SSD, but only PCIe SSD.
 
h9826790 said:
either a standard SATA -> m2 adaptor, and then install the SSD into any of the SATA port, or a PCIe SATA card that with the m2 connector.

DT-120 has no SATA controller onboard, it's just an adaptor. Therefore, it cannot accept any kind of SATA SSD, but only PCIe SSD.
Click to expand...

Got it. SATA -> m2 adapter won't gain me full speed since SATA ports are SATA II. There aren't any cards that have a SATA3 adapter -> m.2 socket? I was hoping to get about the full read/write speed of the MX300 in a slot.
 
dmylrea said:
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).
Click to expand...

There are three different kinds of M.2 SSDs:

  1. M.2 AHCI
  2. M.2 NVMe
  3. M.2 SATA
M.2 AHCI and NVMe are PCI-e devices. M.2 AHCI works natively with macOS. M.2 NVMe can work with macOS but special drivers are needed. AHCI and NVMe are both much faster than standard SATA SSDs.

M.2 SATA is nothing more than a regular SATA SSD in a different package with an M.2 connector. Performance in no better than any other standard SATA SSD. This means that for it to work, you would need to connect it to a SATA controller.
Screen Shot 2016-11-27 at 5.18.59 AM.png

Source: Crucial.com - MX300 SSD: Instant performance that lasts
 
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pastrychef said:
There are three different kinds of M.2 SSDs:

  1. M.2 AHCI
  2. M.2 NVMe
  3. M.2 SATA
M.2 AHCI and NVMe are PCI-e devices. M.2 AHCI works natively with macOS. M.2 NVMe can work with macOS but special drivers are needed. AHCI and NVMe are both much faster than standard SATA SSDs.

M.2 SATA is nothing more than a regular SATA SSD in a different package with an M.2 connector. Performance in no better than any other standard SATA SSD. This means that for it to work, you would need to connect it to a SATA controller.
Click to expand...

That makes it much more understandable. Is there a card that would give me the full (>500MB/s) of a SATA SSD m.2 in a slot? I know Apricorn makes them for 2.5" SATA, and with a series of adapters it could work, but anything that goes direct to m.2 SATA to PCIe?

Why did M.2 AHCI have such a short life?
 
Sharky II said:
Because NVMe is faster and 'better'
Click to expand...
Because AHCI pcie suits well only at mac pros. On other "PC" motherboards before 2016 model a very less ammount of users manage to make those ahci pcie ssd to work well with windows. So the new motherboards launched with the nvne "better" protocol and the pcie ahci dead. I guess the new extroardinart nvme speeds is not something can feel in real usage of a computer. Only at benchmark measurments. Its another marketing trick as the memory speed.
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dmylrea said:
That makes it much more understandable. Is there a card that would give me the full (>500MB/s) of a SATA SSD m.2 in a slot? I know Apricorn makes them for 2.5" SATA, and with a series of adapters it could work, but anything that goes direct to m.2 SATA to PCIe?

Why did M.2 AHCI have such a short life?
Click to expand...
I was wondering the same for months now. If there is any adapters maybe are cheaper than apricorn adapter which are not on the cheap side.
 
dmylrea said:
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).
Click to expand...
I think that you need something like this for SATA sticks: https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/PCIEACCELM
 
dmylrea said:
There aren't any cards that have a SATA3 adapter -> m.2 socket?
Click to expand...

dmylrea said:
Is there a card that would give me the full (>500MB/s) of a SATA SSD m.2 in a slot?
Click to expand...

pastrychef said:
I don't know of any.
Click to expand...

Theoprofil said:
I was wondering the same for months now. If there is any adapters maybe are cheaper than apricorn adapter which are not on the cheap side.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what the question is here, maybe i misunderstand it? All slots have at least 4 lanes which support 2.0, a SATA 3 controller with more than one lane (usually 2, sometimes 4, rarely 8/16 except for large SAS controlles) can support the FULL SATA3 speed on at least one SSD.

This is such a card for 2 M.2 SATA modules, 81EUR:

https://www.startech.com/eu/Cards-Adapters/HDD-Controllers/SATA-Cards/dual-m2-controller-card~PEX2M2

By the pictures it connects 2 lanes on a 4 lane connector to a single ASM chip which provides 2 SATA3 ports. Should be fully OSX compatible.

OWC and others sell the same for the 2.5" as mentioned in a very large price range and one/two drives - M.2 should even at the high cost of this card be a cheaper option.
 
Hi,

I have a 256GB SM951 (SAMSUNG MZHPV256HDGL) in Slot 2 of my 4,1 -> 5,1 flashed Mac Pro and I'm only getting (under) 750MB read/write using the Black Magic Disk Speed Test. I was getting about 250MB with my Samsung 830 128GB plugged in via SATA II in the DVD bay.

Can anyone suggest what the problem could be?

Slot 1: (PC unfleshed) ATI 5770 1GB (30" ACD)
Slot 2: Lycom DT-120 M2 PCIe adaptor with SM951
Slot 3: nVidia GT120 (Dell 24" / Boot Screen)
Slot 4: SSL MadiXtreme64 audio card

Any ideas? The SSD was purchased second hand via eBay.

Thank you!

Ed
 
Thank you for that - I know I'm not the first with this! So much information to absorb.

Moving from slot 2 to slot 3 sent speeds (I removed GT120 and PCIe sound card for now) from 745MB/s Read & 765MB/s 1245MB/s Read & 1410MB/s Write.

Is that as fast as I'm able to get, I assume the elusive 2150MB/s read is not possible? From what I'm reading, this seems to be the case.

Much better than my 250MB/s read/write on my old Sata II drive, but I was a bit ignorant that I won't be getting full speed in any case.

Hopefully adding my audio card and GT120 back in slots 2 and 4 won't do anything to mess with the current performance.

Apparently I'm getting faster reads than is supposed to be possible (1200MB/s)!
 

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Last edited:
Hello,

I've tried to follow this thread and realize that there is now a lot more info than what's on the original post.

I'm looking for a 256GB drive to be used as my boot drive on my 2009MP. Anything above 700MB/s will be fine.

Can anyone suggest an inexpensive drive/adaptor combo?

Thanks!

Loa
 
Loa said:
Hello,

I've tried to follow this thread and realize that there is now a lot more info than what's on the original post.

I'm looking for a 256GB drive to be used as my boot drive on my 2009MP. Anything above 700MB/s will be fine.

Can anyone suggest an inexpensive drive/adaptor combo?

Thanks!

Loa
Click to expand...

Any AHCI M.2 SSD with PCI-e M.2 adaptor should work for you. Just plug it in to either slot 3 or 4 in your Mac Pro.

Apple SSUBX SSDs also work when used with the appropriate PCI-e adaptor.
 
Thanks! Is it normal that the AHCI versions are hard to find? There are only a couple on eBay (at least those that ship to Canada)
 
Yes, they've become increasingly difficult to find. h9826790 found some on a website at very reasonable prices but I don't have the links...
[doublepost=1481322112][/doublepost]
Loa said:
Thanks! Is it normal that the AHCI versions are hard to find? There are only a couple on eBay (at least those that ship to Canada)
Click to expand...

I forgot to mention that the Kingston Predator M.2 SSDs work. They are not quite as fast as the SM951s but still very fast.
 
pastrychef said:
Yes, they've become increasingly difficult to find. h9826790 found some on a website at very reasonable prices but I don't have the links...
[doublepost=1481322112][/doublepost]

I forgot to mention that the Kingston Predator M.2 SSDs work. They are not quite as fast as the SM951s but still very fast.
Click to expand...
pastrychef said:
Any AHCI M.2 SSD with PCI-e M.2 adaptor should work for you. Just plug it in to either slot 3 or 4 in your Mac Pro.

Apple SSUBX SSDs also work when used with the appropriate PCI-e adaptor.
Click to expand...

Hi pastrychef,

Is the Kingston Predator M.2 SSD bootable in Mac Pro? Thanks a lot.
 
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