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Resolved USB 3.0 card questions

UncleSchnitty

UncleSchnitty

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 26, 2007
851
14
I am looking to put a USB 3.0 card in my 2008 MacPro(3,1) my question is if I put the card in will I get the full USB3.0 speed? I don't know if the system would bottleneck it down since it is old hardware. Also would I be able to boot to a drive plugged into the card or would drivers not work until it boots fully?
Thanks for any help you can give.
This is the card Im looking at:
http://www.amazon.com/Ports-USB3-0-...&qid=1359363724&sr=1-1&keywords=orico+usb+3.0
 
Last edited:
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sorry to hijack the thread. I am also looking at the same product.

I realize we need alot more things than just to put the card into the pcie slot:

Installation:
-A 15PIN SATA Power Connector in Available Hard Drive Bay and A 15PIN Male to 4PIN Female Cable (NOT Included in the Box) is Required for The Power Supply of ORICO Storm USB3.0 Card.Please ensure you do have the Cable and connect the Card to 15PIN SATA Power Connector in Hard Drive Bay with it

I don't really understand the above. To my best knowledge it says we need an adapter from an existing SATA drive to power the card. Anyone used this b4?
 
I think after reading over everything Im going to go with the:APRICORN VEL-SOLO-X2. All the USB 3 cards seem unreliable for boot and iffy with sleep. I guess for external Ill have to just stick with FW800 maybe look into a esata card but my apricorn card and graphics will take up both my high speed pci slots. oh well this seems like my best option for now.
 
The Velocity Solo x2 card has 2 SATA ports, the onboard mounted disk drive, and a secondary aux port. If you aren't using it for another drive, get a eSATA cable with slot bracket to make it an externally accessible eSATA port for external drives ... no additional card needed, no controller conflicts.



-howard
 
UncleSchnitty said:
I am looking to put a USB 3.0 card in my 2008 MacPro(3,1) my question is if I put the card in will I get the full USB3.0 speed? I don't know if the system would bottleneck it down since it is old hardware. Also would I be able to boot to a drive plugged into the card or would drivers not work until it boots fully?
Thanks for any help you can give.
This is the card Im looking at:
http://www.amazon.com/Ports-USB3-0-...&qid=1359363724&sr=1-1&keywords=orico+usb+3.0
Click to expand...

I've just installed the same card in my 2008 macpro 3.1 and I can confirm that you do get full USB 3 speeds. Remember to connect a molex power connector to the card or you will hit problems.there is a spare one in the second optical bay but you will need a molex to molex extension cable.

If you have installed another USB 3 card previously you will need to remove any third party USB 3 drivers. This card uses the native drivers from apple and mine is running under mavericks without issue

I installed it in the top slot nearest the hard drive sleds.

I've also got an apricot velocity solo x2 in slot 2 with a 256 ssd as a photoshop scratch disk and a sapphire 7850 mac edition.

All working perfectly with no fan or sleep issues.

This is still a very fast computer, I run photoshop cc and other cc apps and Lightroom 5 all day with my Nikon d800 files and it never stutters at all.
 
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colincarter said:
I've just installed the same card in my 2008 macpro 3.1 and I can confirm that you do get full USB 3 speeds. Remember to connect a molex power connector to the card or you will hit problems.there is a spare one in the second optical bay but you will need a molex to molex extension cable.

If you have installed another USB 3 card previously you will need to remove any third party USB 3 drivers. This card uses the native drivers from apple and mine is running under mavericks without issue

I installed it in the top slot nearest the hard drive sleds.

I've also got an apricot velocity solo x2 in slot 2 with a 256 ssd as a photoshop scratch disk and a sapphire 7850 mac edition.

All working perfectly with no fan or sleep issues.

This is still a very fast computer, I run photoshop cc and other cc apps and Lightroom 5 all day with my Nikon d800 files and it never stutters at all.
Click to expand...

What slot did you put the USB3 card into? I read somewhere that they had issues in slots 3 and 4? I would really like to run both cards if possible and if the USB3 card works in other slots I can very easily get a Y adapter to get power from my optical bay.
 
UncleSchnitty said:
What slot did you put the USB3 card into? I read somewhere that they had issues in slots 3 and 4? I would really like to run both cards if possible and if the USB3 card works in other slots I can very easily get a Y adapter to get power from my optical bay.
Click to expand...

What issues in slots 3 and 4 have you read about? Mine is in slot 4 and works.
 
ActionableMango said:
What issues in slots 3 and 4 have you read about? Mine is in slot 4 and works.
Click to expand...
It may have been cards that don't use the fresco logic boards you talked about in other posts. I know you said in other places that it worked and then other people said they had problems but in the jumble of all the posts they may have been talking about boards that need 3rd party drivers.
Anyway you haven't had any issues? Booting and wake from sleep have been fine?
 
Also is there really an issue with it interfering with bluetooth? I use the apple keyboard and mouse both wireless so that would be an issue aswell.
 
UncleSchnitty said:
What slot did you put the USB3 card into? I read somewhere that they had issues in slots 3 and 4? I would really like to run both cards if possible and if the USB3 card works in other slots I can very easily get a Y adapter to get power from my optical bay.
Click to expand...

slot 4 and working perfectly with power from the spare molex in the optical bay

no issues with bluetooth either.

other cards needs a Pci 2 slot so only slots 1 and 2. they also need third party drivers as they have ned chipsets but the fresco chipsets work perfectly.
 
UncleSchnitty said:
It may have been cards that don't use the fresco logic boards you talked about in other posts. I know you said in other places that it worked and then other people said they had problems but in the jumble of all the posts they may have been talking about boards that need 3rd party drivers.
Anyway you haven't had any issues? Booting and wake from sleep have been fine?
Click to expand...

No add-in USB 3.0 card is going to boot. Every single one of them requires drivers, either third-party or included in OS X, and drivers do not load until the OS loads.

Upon wake from sleep I get a warning message that the drive was removed without ejecting first. I've never experienced any problems as a result of this. A couple of people have reported they have to unplug and replug their drive after sleep in order for the drive to be mounted again; I do not have this problem, the drives always remount by themselves.
 
ActionableMango said:
No add-in USB 3.0 card is going to boot. Every single one of them requires drivers, either third-party or included in OS X, and drivers do not load until the OS loads.
Click to expand...

What drives would be capable of boot? Can I get an ESATA card, or is that going to be another that needs the drivers to boot? Do I have to stick with the built in options (USB2.0 and Firewire)
The reason I want to be able to boot is to run an OS off it so obviously it would have to work before drivers could be loaded.
 
UncleSchnitty said:
What drives would be capable of boot? Can I get an ESATA card, or is that going to be another that needs the drivers to boot? Do I have to stick with the built in options (USB2.0 and Firewire)
The reason I want to be able to boot is to run an OS off it so obviously it would have to work before drivers could be loaded.
Click to expand...

For external drives, ESATA, USB2.0, and Firewire. ESATA is supported at boot time by the existing SATA firmware.
 
ActionableMango said:
For external drives, ESATA, USB2.0, and Firewire. ESATA is supported at boot time by the existing SATA firmware.
Click to expand...

So I could put a ESATA card in slot 4 and be able to have a SATA3 connection externally or would my motherboard bottleneck it back down to SATA2?
Sorry if these seem like dumb questions but I just dont really understand how the Internal Hdds only run 3gbts but if I put a Sata card in like the velocity solox2 or an ESATA card I get faster rates.
 
Has anyone used these on Mavericks? I was thinking of upgrading from 10.6 to 10.9, and adding in cards to a Mac Pro 5,1s in my office. Also are there any USB3 hubs that work yet? I have been looking around and most posts around here still are claiming there are problems, I know I tried one last year with my CatDigital FASTA-6GU3 and I got kernel panics.
 
cbt3 said:
Has anyone used these on Mavericks? I was thinking of upgrading from 10.6 to 10.9, and adding in cards to a Mac Pro 5,1s in my office. Also are there any USB3 hubs that work yet? I have been looking around and most posts around here still are claiming there are problems, I know I tried one last year with my CatDigital FASTA-6GU3 and I got kernel panics.
Click to expand...

The Orico and the Inateck cards all work fine with the Mac Pro's on 10.9 using standard apple drivers for the Fresco usb 3.0 chipset. Inateck found in Europe and have a SATA power connection whereas the Orico has molex.
 
cbt3 said:
Also are there any USB3 hubs that work yet? I have been looking around and most posts around here still are claiming there are problems, I know I tried one last year with my CatDigital FASTA-6GU3 and I got kernel panics.
Click to expand...

I don't think I've ever read about anyone having kernel panics with hubs connected to Fresco Logic based USB 3 cards.
 
UncleSchnitty said:
So I could put a ESATA card in slot 4 and be able to have a SATA3 connection externally or would my motherboard bottleneck it back down to SATA2?
Sorry if these seem like dumb questions but I just dont really understand how the Internal Hdds only run 3gbts but if I put a Sata card in like the velocity solox2 or an ESATA card I get faster rates.
Click to expand...

I don't use ESATA myself, so I don't know. I do know you can get Mac-supported ESATA cards, and at least some of them are bootable. Start a new thread asking the forums for ESATA card recommendations and I'm sure others will help you.
 
ActionableMango said:
I don't use ESATA myself, so I don't know. I do know you can get Mac-supported ESATA cards, and at least some of them are bootable. Start a new thread asking the forums for ESATA card recommendations and I'm sure others will help you.
Click to expand...

Ive been doing research and it turns out yes they are bootable(some atleast) so that helps. Thank you for all your help
 
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