USB 3.0 for Mac Pro

[MacOG728893]

Don't mean to derail this thread, but I just ordered one of CalDigit's AV externals with USB 3.0 and got it exactly for that reason.

Just out of curiosity, what kind of speed differences in real world situations will I see over FW800? Also, does it improve on many of the shortcomings of 2.0 besides speed?

Thanks!

 

[wonderspark]

So far, USB 3.0 and eSATA have been about the same in terms of real world speeds, which would make sense, since both 5Gb/sec of USB 3.0 and 6Gb/sec of eSATA III are faster than the drives I've connected to them.

6Gb/sec = 750MB/sec
5Gb/sec = 625MB/sec
Haven't connected drives that fast yet, so the data speed is limited to the drive itself. All have transfered data at the same speed regardless of eSATA connection or USB 3.0 connection.

You can have longer cables with USB 3.0, and bus powered drives like my WD My Passport work on the card.
eSATA will be a bit faster if you can find something fast enough to saturate both.

FW800... forget it. It's a slaughter in fantastic horror-show form. I don't use it unless I have to at this point.

 

[Atroz]

Where's the best deal on USB3 CF card readers?

Thanks!

The Lexar professional USB 3 readers work well and seem to be highly rated. You can easily find them for under $35 online. Buy from whomever you like to deal with.

 

[cfibanez]

The Lexar professional USB 3 readers work well and seem to be highly rated. You can easily find them for under $35 online. Buy from whomever you like to deal with.

Hi Atroz, which MacPro did you put this card in? Will it work on MacPro 4,1 (early 2009)? Thanks in advance!

----------

Anyone tried the Allegro USB 3.0 PCIe from Sonnet? They calim it to be compatible with their DiO Pro CompactFlash & SDXC USB 3.0 Media Reader.

 

[Atroz]

Hi Atroz, which MacPro did you put this card in? Will it work on MacPro 4,1 (early 2009)? Thanks in advance!

I have a mid-2010 MacPro. I wouldn't expect the early 2009 to be much different but I have no experience with it.

One thing to note, I've been having a problem where the card stops working until I reboot. It may take a 1/2 day or many days of running, but eventually it stops communicating with the card reader.

 

[frez]

I have a mid-2010 MacPro. I wouldn't expect the early 2009 to be much different but I have no experience with it.

One thing to note, I've been having a problem where the card stops working until I reboot. It may take a 1/2 day or many days of running, but eventually it stops communicating with the card reader.

Was almost ready to buy until I saw this last post.

Are you still having issues with it stopping?

Has anyone found a reliable solution for:

Mac Pro (mid-2010) + USB 3.0 card + USB 3.0 CF reader?

Thanks.

 

[Atroz]

Was almost ready to buy until I saw this last post.

Are you still having issues with it stopping?

Yup

 

[waywardsage]

Just checking in if your still having problems with that USB 3.0 card reader and that card. I have the following:

3.1 mac pro (Early 2008) and am looking for a solution that will give me USB 3.0 and work with a 3.0 card reader. I was considering the Lexar 3.0 reader until i read this thread.

Anyone have any success?

 

[cfibanez]

Just checking in if your still having problems with that USB 3.0 card reader and that card. I have the following:

3.1 mac pro (Early 2008) and am looking for a solution that will give me USB 3.0 and work with a 3.0 card reader. I was considering the Lexar 3.0 reader until i read this thread.

Anyone have any success?

I finally got the Sonnet card and reader. It works fine, but sometimes the BT connection with the mouse is disrupted. Disconnecting the reader solves the problem. So now I simply plug in the reader everytime I need to upload images from my cards and then disconnect it. Conclusion: the Sonnet card works fine for me.

 

[waywardsage]

I finally got the Sonnet card and reader. It works fine, but sometimes the BT connection with the mouse is disrupted. Disconnecting the reader solves the problem. So now I simply plug in the reader everytime I need to upload images from my cards and then disconnect it. Conclusion: the Sonnet card works fine for me.

Wow, after reading all the terrible reviews on Amazon I'm surprised. Hmm..still on the fence about the whole USB 3.0 thing.

 

[pugwald]

Interesting timing of finding this thread.

Last week, I bought and installed an Allegro USB 3.0 PCIe card into my 2009 Mac Pro to use with a Lexar USB 3.0 CF card reader. It was simple to install, the drivers easy to find and install, and the card speeds are definitely faster than 2.0 by far.

The downside is that the drivers really mess with my BlueTooth mouse; it's choppy, laggy, and sometimes simply unresponsive. I'm going to switch back to a wired mouse, which should solve the issue, but it's a distinct bummer.

 

[cfibanez]

Interesting timing of finding this thread.

Last week, I bought and installed an Allegro USB 3.0 PCIe card into my 2009 Mac Pro to use with a Lexar USB 3.0 CF card reader. It was simple to install, the drivers easy to find and install, and the card speeds are definitely faster than 2.0 by far.

The downside is that the drivers really mess with my BlueTooth mouse; it's choppy, laggy, and sometimes simply unresponsive. I'm going to switch back to a wired mouse, which should solve the issue, but it's a distinct bummer.

That's aso my experience and problem with BT (see above). As mentioned, I solved it by only connecting the card reader when needed. Disconnecting the reader brings back the BT mouse in my case.

 

[pugwald]

That's aso my experience and problem with BT (see above). As mentioned, I solved it by only connecting the card reader when needed. Disconnecting the reader brings back the BT mouse in my case.

cfibanez, you're a freakin' genius. Unplugging the card reader immediately restored the functionality of the BT mouse. Thanks for the tip!

 

[af896]

Anybody else have any more positive experiences with the Sonnet Allegro or the CalDigit FASTA-6GU3 ?

I need to buy one and not sure which one will work better in a Mac Pro Mid 2010.

Thanks.

 

[VirtualRain]

Anybody else have any more positive experiences with the Sonnet Allegro or the CalDigit FASTA-6GU3 ?

I need to buy one and not sure which one will work better in a Mac Pro Mid 2010.

Thanks.

You don't need to buy a name brand card... They all use the same NEC chip. (See post #14). Besides, that Caldigit card is extremely bottlenecked/crippled.

If youre running Mountain Lion you can get a driver for the NEC chip here...
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1427373/

 

[Atroz]

Yup

With the upgrade to Mountain Lion I installed new drivers and it seems to be stable now. When getting the drivers I saw there had been an update a couple months earlier which may have also fixed the Lion problems but I don't know.

 

[frez]

With the upgrade to Mountain Lion I installed new drivers and it seems to be stable now. When getting the drivers I saw there had been an update a couple months earlier which may have also fixed the Lion problems but I don't know.

Thanks for the update!

 

[AreKane]

RF interference?

Interesting timing of finding this thread.

Last week, I bought and installed an Allegro USB 3.0 PCIe card into my 2009 Mac Pro to use with a Lexar USB 3.0 CF card reader. It was simple to install, the drivers easy to find and install, and the card speeds are definitely faster than 2.0 by far.

The downside is that the drivers really mess with my BlueTooth mouse; it's choppy, laggy, and sometimes simply unresponsive. I'm going to switch back to a wired mouse, which should solve the issue, but it's a distinct bummer.

I've been struggling with the same erratic mouse issues but it's wireless USB (Logitech MX Revolution).

I recently purchased the Lexar Professional USB 3.0 dual card reader because my first purchase (Sonnet DiO SD/CF reader) doesn't use the power indicator as an activity light.

Besides the erratic mouse behavior, I've been getting the previously mentioned Error code -36 ("The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in '_xxxx.NEF' can't be read or written.") and the reader ultimately loses connection resulting in a second warning about properly ejecting the card.

The Lexar has the latest fw.

Can someone explain how a PCIe card (I have the CalDigit FASTA-6GU3) can cause problems with RF signals?

ck

 

[lsaveski]

Nikon D800

With the upgrade to Mountain Lion I installed new drivers and it seems to be stable now. When getting the drivers I saw there had been an update a couple months earlier which may have also fixed the Lion problems but I don't know.

Atroz did the Nikon D800 work with the USB 3.0 Port as i want to shoot tethered with a Mac Pro 2010 model i have using Capture One.

Thx

 

[Tesselator]

So far, USB 3.0 and eSATA have been about the same in terms of real world speeds, which would make sense, since both 5Gb/sec of USB 3.0 and 6Gb/sec of eSATA III are faster than the drives I've connected to them.

6Gb/sec = 750MB/sec
5Gb/sec = 625MB/sec

Those are actually GbT's so it really works out to 600MB/s and 500MB/s max data transfer (respectively).

And for actual throughput all tests I've seen show about three or four hundred MB/s - depending.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/usb-3-uas-turbo,3215.html


.

 

[Atroz]

Atroz did the Nikon D800 work with the USB 3.0 Port as i want to shoot tethered with a Mac Pro 2010 model i have using Capture One.

Thx

I've copied photos from the D800 with it but I've never tried tethered shooting on the Mac Pro.

BTW, I have still had the drivers cause crashes once and a while.

 

[TheEasterBunny]

I've copied photos from the D800 with it but I've never tried tethered shooting on the Mac Pro.

BTW, I have still had the drivers cause crashes once and a while.

Have you tried using "Disk Utility" to just re-mount the card?

 

[Atroz]

Have you tried using "Disk Utility" to just re-mount the card?

it's not a matter of loosing a mounted card. The whole machine will reboot.

 

[ActionableMango]

it's not a matter of loosing a mounted card. The whole machine will reboot.

Atroz, have you tried the cards that use native drivers in OSX? People seem to be happy with those. Yes, they require power hookup, but they seem to run without problem, which to me is far more important than the initial difficulty of running a power cable. At $20 they are also very inexpensive.

Fresco Logic FL1009-200
Orico PFU3-202I
Orico PFU3-4P
Orico PFU3-2P

I have personally tried the first three and they all work with sleep/wake and without KPs, mysterious shutdowns, etc. My personal opinion is that native drivers are the way to go.

 

[macmesser]

Atroz, have you tried the cards that use native drivers in OSX? People seem to be happy with those. Yes, they require power hookup, but they seem to run without problem, which to me is far more important than the initial difficulty of running a power cable. At $20 they are also very inexpensive.

Fresco Logic FL1009-200
Orico PFU3-202I
Orico PFU3-4P
Orico PFU3-2P

I have personally tried the first three and they all work with sleep/wake and without KPs, mysterious shutdowns, etc. My personal opinion is that native drivers are the way to go.

Any problems booting from them?