MP 7,1 Storage flexibility Built-in Vs. PCI

[mattspace]

Another basic question for folks who've worked with it - are there any downsides to the internal storage in terms of flexibility with its use.

Can it be partitioned and have different operating systems (or user home directory kept separate from OS) installed on it, or is multi-booting really best done with separate physical drives?

Thinking of secondhand systems, and wondering if there's any point to paying for a built-in storage larger than necessary for the primary operating system & apps (and wondering if keeping user files on a PCI blade is inherently safer, given it can be moved to a different machine in an emergency).

 

[DrEGPU]

You can definitely load windows using Bootcamp on the internal SSD

 

[DrEGPU]

Third-party storage is much cheaper than Apple, so it’s worth it in that regard

 

[mattspace]

You can definitely load windows using Bootcamp on the internal SSD

Right, so can you do it on a partition on the internal storage, like alternately boot macOS, Windows, or Linus, all from partitions on the same internal built-in storage?

Does Windows / Linux handle booting from an APFS container, or is the formatting done differently for the physical storage, and APFS only applies to the macOS partition?

 

[DrEGPU]

Right, so can you do it on a partition on the internal storage, like alternately boot macOS, Windows, or Linus, all from partitions on the same internal built-in storage?

Does Windows / Linux handle booting from an APFS container, or is the formatting done differently for the physical storage, and APFS only applies to the macOS partition?

Correct, APFS is only for MacOS. When you go through the Bootcamp procedure it will repartition the drive. As for Linux, that is very tricky on these Mac pros. It’s not stable because of PCIe enumeration or assignment or something. That, and grub2 is really f*ing annoying, since it really really wants to mess around with your EFI , even when you specifically tell it not to. That said, WSL2 in windows is pretty impressive these days!

 

[MarkC426]

Something I have wondered.....why do Apple use a 'pair of ssd's' in the 7.1 mp?
Is it in a Raid configuration?

 

[rpmurray]

Something I have wondered.....why do Apple use a 'pair of ssd's' in the 7.1 mp?
Is it in a Raid configuration?

I don't know why they do it, but yes, it is in a RAID 0 configuration so if one fails you lose everything.

 

[rpmurray]

Can it be partitioned and have different operating systems (or user home directory kept separate from OS) installed on it, or is multi-booting really best done with separate physical drives?

If you have it formatted as APFS then you don't need to worry about partioning it if all your OSes are macOS variants more recent than High Sierra. You can just create multiple volumes and store an OS on each. They'll all share the same container, so you don't have to worry about allocating how much space you think each will need.

Personally I prefer to have a smaller internal NVMe for the OS and have everything else on an external Thunderbolt drive. In my case the externals are a 2TB Envoy FX and a Thunderbay 6 with gobs of spinning rust for backups and archives. I also have an external dock that I can plug bare hard drives into so I can do backups to take off-site. I'm not a big fan of cloud storage.

 

[rpmurray]

Can it be partitioned and have different operating systems (or user home directory kept separate from OS) installed on it, or is multi-booting really best done with separate physical drives?

The home directory is already separate from the OS on APFS volumes. There's the Macintosh HD volume that has a sealed copy of the OS, and a Macintosh HD - Data volume that is where everything else is stored. The OS makes it all look like one drive.

If you use something like Carbon Copy Cloner it will make a backup of the Macintosh HD - Data but unless you specifically tell it to won't do the same with the OS. Since the OS is immutable, it can just be re-installed using the OS installer. The Data volume stores all your settings and other files than a unique to your setup, the stuff that really matters to you.

 

[mattspace]

Something I have wondered.....why do Apple use a 'pair of ssd's' in the 7.1 mp?
Is it in a Raid configuration?

It's cheaper to make two lower capacity drives, than one high capacity drive?

 

[tsialex]

Something I have wondered.....why do Apple use a 'pair of ssd's' in the 7.1 mp?
Is it in a Raid configuration?

It's not a RAID per se, it's a wide bus. With one NAND module, you have half the bus, half the bandwidth available and have the possibility of selling an entry level model with just one NAND module.

It's cheaper to make two lower capacity drives, than one high capacity drive?

Yes, but it's more of a question of doubling the bandwidth with the two NAND modules installed.

 

[DrEGPU]

Something I have wondered.....why do Apple use a 'pair of ssd's' in the 7.1 mp?
Is it in a Raid configuration?

Seems more like JBOD than RAID to me. The Mac Pro SSD tops out at around 3.4 GB/s, which is the limit of PCIe Gen3 speeds (ie, 4x lanes of PCIe). It would have been nice if they gave each drive their own set of 4x PCIe lanes. If they did, the Mac Pro SSD would have rivaled PCIe 4.0 SSDs!

 

[mattspace]

Bumping my old thread here and just wanted to revisit:

• Is there anything that the built-in storage can't do, which could be done by a more generic ssd on a PCI card (as in, limitations of it being T2 managed storage)?
• Has anyone heard of any long term survivability issues with spinning hard drives in the 3rd party bracket downstream of the CPU's heat exhaust?