MP 7,1 Sonnet 4x4 availability UK

[goodbye_harmony]

Hi folks

Just about to buy a macpro 7,1 - was planning to use the Sonnet 4x4 card.

Tried several suppliers all saying none until March in the UK. How accurate is this likely to be? Does anyone have stock at all?

Any alternatives folk would recommend?

cheers

 

[RyanFlynn]

I purchased a couple $15 PCIe m.2 adapters and I'm seeing 4-5000 MB/s in a raid zero config. This is getting me by until the 4x4 arrives.

 

[goodbye_harmony]

I purchased a couple $15 PCIe m.2 adapters and I'm seeing 4-5000 MB/s in a raid zero config. This is getting me by until the 4x4 arrives.

Can I ask what you bought please? I’m a bit wary of the Highpoint as folk are saying it’s noisy

Cheers

 

[RyanFlynn]

Certainly.
2 of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GCXCR7W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Trippertipper]

Hi folks

Just about to buy a macpro 7,1 - was planning to use the Sonnet 4x4 card.

Tried several suppliers all saying none until March in the UK. How accurate is this likely to be? Does anyone have stock at all?

Any alternatives folk would recommend?

cheers

I ordered before xmas but finally tomorrow I'll get mine, seems they are scarce at the moment. I ordered
from Rob and pro video kit uk and he managed to get some in yesterday

 

[goodbye_harmony]

Cheers for that. Will go with some cheap adapters for now. Appreciate the help

 

[Hydle]

Certainly.
2 of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GCXCR7W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'll also buy a Sonnet 4x4 when the stock is available in Europe. I'm thinking of adding two of these x4 PCIE cards to run two blades in the meantime, do you think I should be fine or perhaps I should choose a x8 or x16 cheap card from amazon?

 

[tsialex]

I'll also buy a Sonnet 4x4 when the stock is available in Europe. I'm thinking of adding two of these x4 PCIE cards to run two blades in the meantime, do you think I should be fine or perhaps I should choose a x8 or x16 cheap card from amazon?

M.2 is a x4 device, the connector is just a PCIe x4 slot miniaturised. Won't matter if the adapter has x4, x8 or x16 physical PCIe format, a M.2 blade will always be a x4 or less lanes device.

 

[Hydle]

Thanks for letting me know! Been a long time since I had to work with PCIe.. Will order those cheap cards then and use two blades while I decide between the Sonnet and Highpoint.

 

[tsialex]

Thanks for letting me know! Been a long time since I had to work with PCIe.. Will order those cheap cards then and use two blades while I decide between the Sonnet and Highpoint.

Why not something with a heatsink and from a reputable manufacturer like AquaComputer kryoM.2 EVO? You can't use NVMe blades without a heatsink, you will cook the blade the first time it's indexed by mds.

Aqua Computer kryoM.2 evo PCIe 3.0 x 4, adapter

I just installed this PCIe card with a 970 pro NVMe to boot from ( big thanks to TSIALEX for modding my boot rom's top man ) https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0742LW4WB/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 this adapter card is very very nice, and as I have the PX1 angel wings to...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Hydle]

I was just considering this option because the cards were so cheap and @RyanFlynn was running them also.
Those KryoM.2 look much better indeed but for the price of 2 of those it's more valuable for me to wait for the Sonnet 4x4 Stock to be available.

 

[bsbeamer]

NEVER run an NVMe without a heatsink.

As I've said in other threads, if you're spending $6K+ on an MP7,1 you can afford to pay around $40-$50 for a PCIe NVMe adapter that ships with a heatsink included. If it does not include a heatsink, it's a cheap adapter and probably a piece of s***.

 

[RyanFlynn]

its true, mine is definitely a temporary option. I haven't noticed any thermal throttling, but I'm just using as a scratch disk in premier.

 

[Theophilos]

For what it's worth, there isn't much availability of the Sonnet 4x4 even here in the U.S. I ordered from Adorama more than a week ago and it's still "Temporarily on Backorder."

 

[RyanFlynn]

Yeah, my authorized retail supplier in Los Angeles, who got me the Mac Pro and Cinema Display within 24 hours of ordering this week, says that the shipment of the 4x4 has gone from 3 days to sometime in march. I asked them to keep the order and went with 4 of these little PCI adapters to get me by for the time being. (chosen because the black matches that back of the computer #dontjudgemeyoureprobablythiscrazytoo)

EZDIY-FAB PCI Express M.2 SSD NGFF PCIe Card to PCIe 4.0 x4 M2 Adapter (Support M.2 PCIe 22110,2280, 2260, 2242)

EZDIY-FAB PCI Express M.2 SSD NGFF PCIe Card to PCIe 4.0 x4 M2 Adapter (Support M.2 PCIe 22110,2280, 2260, 2242)

www.amazon.com

Some M.2 heat syncs:

MHQJRH M.2 2280 SSD heatsink, Double-Sided Heat Sink, with Thermal Silicone pad for PC / PS5 M.2 PCIE NVMe SSD or M.2 SATA SSD

。

www.amazon.com

The obvious problem with this set up is that it takes up 4 PCIe slots, but it was the best cheap/temporary solution I could find without using bifurcation or spending the same money on 2 2x slot adapters as the 1 slot sonnet option. Most of the 2x NVME us one 4x port and one data 3 cable as a cheap/slow option. Don't go there.

The results speak for themselves. While not ideal, this setup cost less than $1000.

I did order a VROC raid controller that supports 128gb/s, and it looks like the Xeon W-3200 series supports CPU raid, but I don't know about Mac OS. If it tests well, I'll make all kind of noise about it in another post and link from here. If it doesn't work, we can all stay the course.

God Speed.

 

[Kedbear]

Which do you guys think is better and why? A sonnet m.2 4x4 or the latest highpoint with fan control?

thanks

 

[goodbye_harmony]

The thing putting me off the Highpoint is not knowing if I'll get one with the fan control or not. I can't imagine UK stock of those moves fast, so it's a bit of a lottery.

Also Sonnet seem a dedicated Apple aware company, IYSWIM

I've gone for two with the heatsinks for now.

Sonnet seem a good company - but past experience they do seem to keep stuff as vapour - like the dock thing (Echo 15 plus I think) they were doing for the trashcan Mac Pro that took years to appear, by which time most of the market had other solutions out of necessity, so I'll try use this solution until I can get the Sonnet

Just bought the 16 core this morning with 1tb and a Radeon 580, hoping to upgrade to 5700 later. Business discount was worthwhile I must say

Cheers all for the help, appreciated.

 

[Kedbear]

The thing putting me off the Highpoint is not knowing if I'll get one with the fan control or not. I can't imagine UK stock of those moves fast, so it's a bit of a lottery.

Also Sonnet seem a dedicated Apple aware company, IYSWIM

I've gone for two with the heatsinks for now.

Sonnet seem a good company - but past experience they do seem to keep stuff as vapour - like the dock thing (Echo 15 plus I think) they were doing for the trashcan Mac Pro that took years to appear, by which time most of the market had other solutions out of necessity, so I'll try use this solution until I can get the Sonnet

Just bought the 16 core this morning with 1tb and a Radeon 580, hoping to upgrade to 5700 later. Business discount was worthwhile I must say

Cheers all for the help, appreciated.

There's no Sonnet 4x4 left worldwide it seems until March. I went for the highpoint and bought directly from their site and will import it to London. Only the new ones in their factory are guaranteed to have the fan control etc. All the UK current stock are the old ones.

 

[Theophilos]

Based on what I read above, I didn’t expect to receive the Sonnet unit until March, but I just received notice of shipping.

Funny how I have the RAM and Sonnet, but still no Mac Pro yet after the first unit was lost in shipping last week. The replacement unit has been in “Preparing to Ship” status for two days.
[automerge]1579130552[/automerge]
Interested persons should check Adorama, where I ordered mine.

 

[RyanFlynn]

I ordered one direct from sonnet yesterday and I also got my shipping notification