Sata III in Mac Pro 3,1?

[honeycombz]

Hey, been thinking about switching to SSD drives in my Mac Pro 3,1 but after reading about all the third party SSD stuff and Yosemite was considering holding off and maybe exploring upgrading to SATA III. Wondering if this is possible and if there would really be noticeable performance improvements from II to III.

Anyone have any experience with Star Techs PCI-E card?

http://www.startech.com/Cards-Adapt...-Express-SATA-6-Gbps-Controller-Card~PEXSAT32

Looks like I can get a good price on that and some 6gbs SATA 2tb drives.

 

[Pressure]

For what purpose?

Is it mainly for storage or applications?

 

[honeycombz]

I'd probably be looking to use it as my boot drive. I was just about to get Apricorns SSD cards and some SSDs but don't want to bother now because I don't want to deal with some kext headache.

 

[Pressure]

Well in that case I would strongly suggest you buy the appropriate sized PCIe Apple Samsung SSD they use in the Mac Pro and the PCIe adaptor needed.

Easy way to get 1GB/s read/write (on the 512GB or 1TB drives) performance and TRIM by default.

Find them on eBay by searching for "Apple Samsung SSD Late 2013" or similar.

 

[honeycombz]

Isn't a 1tb one like $750? That's definitely above what I'd like to put into this machine right now. I just am looking for a little bump for another year or so. SATA III wouldn't really do much for me I take it?

 

[nigelbb]

I'd probably be looking to use it as my boot drive. I was just about to get Apricorns SSD cards and some SSDs but don't want to bother now because I don't want to deal with some kext headache.

There are only kext headaches if you use the unsupported TRIM enabler. Don't bother with TRIM you won't notice any difference without it. I have a Mac Pro 3,1 with a Crucial SSD in the sled & the boot SSD on an Apricom Velocity card. The performance on the PCI card is about double.

 

[Machines]

Sonnet Tempo Pro Plus PCIe Card + Two Striped RAID 0 256GB Samsung 850 PROs = Dream drive . Max configuration is 2 x 1TB SSD (2TB) .

Bootable with your MP 3,1 , equally fast (850-950 MB/s) with all Oses from 10.6.8 to 10.10.1 . I actually confirmed this for a client in a Mac Pro 4,1 > 5,1 .

Latest ones come with two 6G eSATA ports on the rear .

Only issue is the Sonnet did not like my local USB OS installation thumb drives and you need to add TRIM support .

Had to do the initial install with the DVD and downloaded updates from Apple's servers .

It's possible to do a clean install onto a blank drive direct from your iTunes account with another drive that has an OS X installed in your Mac . Just choose the right target when prompted .

 

[flowrider]

Hey, been thinking about switching to SSD drives in my Mac Pro 3,1 but after reading about all the third party SSD stuff and Yosemite was considering holding off and maybe exploring upgrading to SATA III. Wondering if this is possible and if there would really be noticeable performance improvements from II to III.

Yes. But on a 3,1 Mac Pro you would need to use PCIe slot 3, since the top two slots are PCIe 1.0. I would recommend the Apricorn Velocity Solo x2 (for one SSD) or Velocity Duo x2 (for two SSDs). Also, IMHO, Samsung SSDs appear to be the most reliable SSDs that are in the marketplace. You will see a nice speed improvement and you will realize the real advantages of SATA III.

Lou

 

[honeycombz]

What is the unsupported TRIM enabler and what's the supported TRIM enabler?

 

[Machines]

What is the unsupported TRIM enabler and what's the supported TRIM enabler?

Third party drives require TRIM . I prefer Trim Enabler , but you need to disable some global security settings with regards to kext signing , but only in Yosemite. A kext is a kernel extension - a driver . Apple changed security protocols with Yosemite . Previous OS Xes are not affected , so Trim Enabler runs normally on those OSes . You might run third party drives in Yosemite without TRIM and see what happens , if you do not desire to disable any security features . Take a close look at TRIM-less performance on a periodic basis - it will vary depending on the SSD controller chip used .

 

[flowrider]

What is the unsupported TRIM enabler and what's the supported TRIM enabler?

The only third party SSD that supports TRIM, are from Anglebird:

http://www.angelbird.com/en/prod/ssd-wrk-for-mac-929/

They do this by using Apple's name in the SSD identifier. I don't know how they get away with this, but they do. No TRIM enabling is necessary with theses devices, Apple's TRIM just works.

However, I know of no one who owns one of these drives.

TRIM Enabler available here:

http://www.cindori.org/software/trimenabler/

Works with all other third party drives, but care must be taken with the Text Signing process when updating the OS or doing PRAM Resets. Otherwise, from my experience, it is trouble free.

Lou

 

[honeycombz]

it's trouble free... until it's not. hahaha.

 

[honeycombz]

so what should i do? i keep going in circles here. i like the apricorn pcie cards... and the crucial mx100 ssd... don't like yosemite w/ trim stuff. don't want to spend 800 on an apple samsung as I would like to get a 500gb minimum. Currently running the ATI Radeon 5770 1GB card. 12GB Ram. I could get another 4 gigs of RAM but not sure that will do much for me. Any chance this third party SSD stuff will resolve itself in time or are we all headed for using ipads for computers.

 

[nigelbb]

so what should i do? i keep going in circles here. i like the apricorn pcie cards... and the crucial mx100 ssd... don't like yosemite w/ trim stuff. don't want to spend 800 on an apple samsung as I would like to get a 500gb minimum. Currently running the ATI Radeon 5770 1GB card. 12GB Ram. I could get another 4 gigs of RAM but not sure that will do much for me. Any chance this third party SSD stuff will resolve itself in time or are we all headed for using ipads for computers.

Just ignore TRIM. Plenty of us do & enjoy stellar performance on 3rd party SSDs especially with an Apricom card or similar. Adding an SSD to your system will improve performance out of all recognition.

 

[honeycombz]

nigelbb, you have the crucial mx100 with garbage collection? question... i realize trim should be an ongoing thing but can I boot from an older OS and trim manually once a week?