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USB 3.0 Card for Mac Pro 4,1 (2009)

C

canon1243

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 6, 2013
9
0
Chicago, IL
Looking for some definitive info from US residents on a USB 3.0 card (out of US purchasing is highly difficult when looking for a card as it seems.)

I have the 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 with 2 superdrives installed. Never use more than one, so OK with disconnecting one if necessary. (Please provide any install info you have)

Will be using External Hard Drives and a USB 3.0 Card Reader.

First post, thanks all!
 
I have both the CalDigit and High Point Rocket dual USB 3.0 cards. Neither required additional power. However, when ML came out, it killed the Rocket. Cal Digit was quick with a new driver, so I went with theirs. I do get a disk eject error when waking from sleep, which is common. I just click and ignore with no other issues. R/W speeds are up there where they should be. These are in a 4.1 flashed to 5.1.
 
xav8tor said:
I have both the CalDigit and High Point Rocket dual USB 3.0 cards. Neither required additional power. However, when ML came out, it killed the Rocket. Cal Digit was quick with a new driver, so I went with theirs. I do get a disk eject error when waking from sleep, which is common. I just click and ignore with no other issues. R/W speeds are up there where they should be. These are in a 4.1 flashed to 5.1.
Click to expand...

I also have the CalDigit card in a 2012 5,1 Mac Pro. After waking from sleep, I receive the "disk eject" error message pop-up on both USB-3 and eSATA external disks. I can simply acknowledge the message and the disks will reconnect on their own. Even Time Machine disks seem to recover on their own and will perform the next scheduled TM backup without further issues.
 
Thanks for the replies all,

Any experiences with Orico PCIe cards? I would like to avoid any eject error messages, or anything like that.

Have heard conflicting info on powering that card, etc etc.
 
Have the Caldigit USB3/eSATA cards in my 2006 1.1 and they work well. I will be looking for a 4 port USB3 card though. I hear the problems are with Mountain Lion for the most part.
 
Was hoping to get feedback related to Lion systems, 4,1 Mac Pros.

Any info on power cables necessary would help too! thanks!
 
canon1243 said:
Thanks for the replies all,

Any experiences with Orico PCIe cards? I would like to avoid any eject error messages, or anything like that.

Have heard conflicting info on powering that card, etc etc.
Click to expand...

I am using Orico but the eject error you'll see with any card.
To get rid of it, you can use a small tool called "Jettison" from App-Store (f.i.)

Works perfectly here because it ejects any devices before sleep and mounts them back after wake.
 
texem said:
I am using Orico but the eject error you'll see with any card.
To get rid of it, you can use a small tool called "Jettison" from App-Store (f.i.)

Works perfectly here because it ejects any devices before sleep and mounts them back after wake.
Click to expand...

Thanks texem! Can you give me the specific model? And also, what power cable situation is necessary on my 4,1??

I don't normally sleep my computer, so hopefully that wouldn't be an issue but that is good to know!
 
RoastingPig said:
so if i have no device plugged in when waking from sleep: i will get no error message?
Click to expand...

no error message, if there is nothing mounted there is nothing to eject :)

----------
canon1243 said:
Thanks texem! Can you give me the specific model? And also, what power cable situation is necessary on my 4,1??

I don't normally sleep my computer, so hopefully that wouldn't be an issue but that is good to know!
Click to expand...

There is a long thread https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1501482/

I am using a PFU3-2P, no need for extra power but that card is out of sale
 
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I have the Orico PFU3-202I four port, and the HighPoint RocketU 1144CM (Mountain Lion/Mavericks supported)

Both cards work very well. The Orico requires additional power, the RocketU does not. The RocketU does not support FULL SLEEP. It does let the drives and monitor sleep properly, but not the whole system. I works very well with no errors ever. The RocketU is designed for storage devices (not USB Hubs) only, and is quite expensive compared to the Orico.

+Orico doesn't need additional driver support. ML supports the device OOTB driver wise.
 
Thanks all for the feedback.

Got the Orico 2 port card today for my 4,1. Put it in the second "x16" slot right above my GT120.

The USB is recognized and tried my USB 3.0 card reader and it worked with a CF card. About 2x faster than USB 2.0.

I did NOT do any sort of added power cabling. Should I? Am I missing out on more speed because i don't have added power?
 
canon1243 said:
Thanks all for the feedback.

Got the Orico 2 port card today for my 4,1. Put it in the second "x16" slot right above my GT120.

The USB is recognized and tried my USB 3.0 card reader and it worked with a CF card. About 2x faster than USB 2.0.

I did NOT do any sort of added power cabling. Should I? Am I missing out on more speed because i don't have added power?
Click to expand...
Adding power to the card won't increase performance. It only helps provide additional power to devices that requires more than what the card can supply.
 
canon1243 said:
I did NOT do any sort of added power cabling. Should I? Am I missing out on more speed because i don't have added power?
Click to expand...

OrangeSVTguy said:
Adding power to the card won't increase performance. It only helps provide additional power to devices that requires more than what the card can supply.
Click to expand...

Actually, testing appears to show that connecting the power dramatically increases the speed, at least in the one specific scenario where it was tested. From user Thomaspin:

http://pindelski.org/Photography/2013/07/12/mac-pro-2009-part-xiv-2/
Import time for 50 RAW files using USB3: 52.1 seconds – with no power feed to the USB3 card
Import time for 50 RAW files using USB3: 28.1 seconds – with power connected to the USB3 card
Click to expand...
 
I just ordered the Orico card. I don't think I will need power, because my monitors already have a usb 3.0 powered hub in them. The power/speed issue is for hard drives or other devices that need extra power compared to things like a usb stick etc. If he had something like my setup he wouldn't have had to bother. Once I get the card I'll let you guys know how it goes.
 
^^^^Hard Drives do not get their power from the USB Port, but rather from a transformer that goes to an AC outlet. USB memory sticks on the other hand do get power from the USB Port. It will be interesting to see your results. Keep us posted.
 
flowrider said:
^^^^Hard Drives do not get their power from the USB Port, but rather from a transformer that goes to an AC outlet. USB memory sticks on the other hand do get power from the USB Port. It will be interesting to see your results. Keep us posted.
Click to expand...
Not exactly true. Portable hard drives get power from USB. 3.5 Inch drives in enclosures get their power from AC. A portable drive draws more power than a usb stick so that would be the most beneficial scenario.
 
crjackson2134 said:
I have the Orico PFU3-202I four port, ...
+Orico doesn't need additional driver support. ML supports the device OOTB driver wise.
Click to expand...

Are you doing anything with the "2I" portion of the card? Had been thinking about this one myself and couldn't work out what to do with the internal port.
 
I have a 4 port (all external) Orico USB 3 card and tried to use it without connecting the internal power cable. It did not work. Even externally powered drives didn't work.
 
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