MP 1,1-5,1 Target Disk Mode... Over USB-C or Thunderbolt?

[wyattaj25]

Hello everyone,

Good news! After much trial and tribulation, I finally got my Titan Ridge 2.0 Card to work with my 2010 Mac Pro 5,1 and my two 27" Apple Thunderbolt Displays.

However, I am trying to look towards the future with this Mac Pro. I will be retiring it by the end of next year, when macOS Monterey's support is dropped by Apple. The best use case I could think the Mac Pro would be used for when I replace it with an Apple Silicoln Mac is using it as a file server.

But, having the server run over measly Gigabit Ethernet just doesn't cut it. Plus, 10Gb networking really is not feesable with the infrastructure that I already have in my home.

I had the idea that I could possibly load the Mac Pro up with four, maybe five high capacity hard drives (but keep the Blu-Ray drive currently installed) and a few NVMe drives in PCI-E slots. Then, using the Titan ridge card I have installed, possibly run the drives over Thunderbolt 3 or USB-C to a new Mac - in Target Disk Mode. Essentially, the Mac Pro woult turn into a massive hard drive enclosure.

Would the Mac Pro's Target Disk Mode support the Titan Ridge, either using USB-C or Thunderbolt? Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

[tsialex]

I will be retiring it by the end of next year, when macOS Monterey's support is dropped by Apple.

Monterey supports officially ends the moment Apple releases Sequoia in the next few weeks, but effectively Apple already terminated it, since no beta for a 12.7.7 was released to this day.

Would the Mac Pro's Target Disk Mode support the Titan Ridge, either using USB-C or Thunderbolt? Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Nope, MacPro5,1 firmware does not support ThunderBolt and Target Disk Mode only works with FireWire with an early 2008 to mid-2012 Mac Pro.

Since TDM target mode requires that the firmware/BootROM supports the interface and MacPro3,1/4,1/5,1 does not know anything about the TB card, TDM can't work with the interface.

 

[bzgnyc2]

Hello everyone,

Good news! After much trial and tribulation, I finally got my Titan Ridge 2.0 Card to work with my 2010 Mac Pro 5,1 and my two 27" Apple Thunderbolt Displays.

However, I am trying to look towards the future with this Mac Pro. I will be retiring it by the end of next year, when macOS Monterey's support is dropped by Apple. The best use case I could think the Mac Pro would be used for when I replace it with an Apple Silicoln Mac is using it as a file server.

But, having the server run over measly Gigabit Ethernet just doesn't cut it. Plus, 10Gb networking really is not feesable with the infrastructure that I already have in my home.

I had the idea that I could possibly load the Mac Pro up with four, maybe five high capacity hard drives (but keep the Blu-Ray drive currently installed) and a few NVMe drives in PCI-E slots. Then, using the Titan ridge card I have installed, possibly run the drives over Thunderbolt 3 or USB-C to a new Mac - in Target Disk Mode. Essentially, the Mac Pro woult turn into a massive hard drive enclosure.

Would the Mac Pro's Target Disk Mode support the Titan Ridge, either using USB-C or Thunderbolt? Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Alternatively, if you were planning to put the Mac Pro physically close enough to the new Apple Silicon computer that Thunderbolt/Target Disk mode would have otherwise worked, you could just connect them over 10Gb Ethernet directly. That used to require an Ethernet crossover cable but I think all recent Ethernet will even negotiate that directly over a regular Ethernet cable.

Potentially that would require just an additional network interface on one or both computers and/or you could just use WiFi for Internet while reserving the 10Gbit interfaces for the file server connection.

Or what might work at least as well is to connect the two computers via IP over Thunderbolt in regular operating mode rather than target disk mode:

Use IP over Thunderbolt to connect Mac computers

Connect two Mac computers together using Thunderbolt and set them up to communicate with each other using Internet Protocol (IP).

support.apple.com

The new machine won't be able to access the drives in the Mac Pro as fast as it would if those drives were directly connected, but it may be a reasonable tradeoff to make use of the hardware you have. Otherwise if you really want local disk speed performance, you are probably better off spending the money on new hard drive enclosures rather than trying to turn this Mac Pro (or any Mac) into a dumb enclosure.

 

[bradman83]

The new machine won't be able to access the drives in the Mac Pro as fast as it would if those drives were directly connected, but it may be a reasonable tradeoff to make use of the hardware you have. Otherwise if you really want local disk speed performance, you are probably better off spending the money on new hard drive enclosures rather than trying to turn this Mac Pro (or any Mac) into a dumb enclosure.

I would also add to take power consumption and the related cost into consideration as well. Repurposing a Mac Mini or even an old laptop as a file server/glorified drive enclosure is a viable option because the max power consumption on those machines is less than the idle power consumption on the 5.1. I did that with my 2010 MBP for several years. Selling the Mac Pro and putting the money towards a quality multi-drive Thunderbolt enclosure is probably going to be more cost effective in the long term when you take energy costs into consideration (and maybe even the short term depending on how much you can sell it for).

 

[haralds]

I use my CMpro as a second machine in my study. I normally shut it down when not in use.
But it does keep that room warm in the winter!

 

[flat4]

I use my CMpro as a second machine in my study. I normally shut it down when not in use.
But it does keep that room warm in the winter!

I have 2 MP6,1 running at the same time and they are keeping that small study pretty warm..or I have weak AC