USB 3.x PCIe Cards for Classic Mac Pro

[ActionableMango]

Thanks, problem is I can't get the Inatek card here in Canada and its the only card that will support USB hubs and doesn't require supplemental power, so I am out of luck.

The seller of the Inateck card on AmazonUK (SpringRainUK) will ship internationally, but you have to order outside of Amazon.

Alternatively, you can try the Orico pfu3-2p. This has worked without power for many people. However, I've pulled it from the recommended list in the first post due to QC problems. 4-5 people reported various problems from poor speed to DOA. It's actually the card I use. Although I bought the Inateck, I haven't gotten around to installing it yet mostly because my current card works fine.

 

[ashman70]

Thanks very much, I have asked a friend of mine who lives in the US to see if he can order the Inateck card for me from Amazon and ship it to me.

 

[iamMacPerson]

So Yes, any of the four slots will be just fine for full performance.

Well, the part you quoted from the Inateck site says that it will fit in any PCI-e slot. Which, of course it will. The connectors are all the same. What I want to know is if it will run a full speed in the 4x slot, which you said it will, but the Inateck site didn't.

 

[Robert Davies]

Well, the part you quoted from the Inateck site says that it will fit in any PCI-e slot. Which, of course it will. The connectors are all the same. What I want to know is if it will run a full speed in the 4x slot, which you said it will, but the Inateck site didn't.

The inateck card has only enough pins on it for a 1x pcie lane, so sticking it in a 4x slot will be fine, and anything more it will not make it any better.

 

[flowrider]

What I want to know is if it will run a full speed in the 4x slot, which you said it will, but the Inateck site didn't.

Read there quote again please:

Filtering Unit with Solid Capacitors offer a Reliable and Secure Connectivity , Fit in any PCI-Express x1 , x2 , x4 , x8 or x16 Socket , Compliant with PCI Express Base Specification 2.0.

Pay attention to the part I highlighted in Red

Lou

 

[kic]

Just thought I'd chime in with my results with two cards on my 5,1, the Orico PME-4U and the Inateck KT4004.

The Orico card works in both OS X and Windows 8, but causes issues with Windows not allowing it sleep, hibernate, or even shut down. Any attempt at those three results in a reboot. Sleeping and shutting down work in OS X, but the computer takes an additional 30-60 seconds to decide it wants to do either of those commands. I believe there was some funniness about OS X complaining about drives that were plugged in when sleeping and waking, but I don't recall the specifics, unfortunately.

The Inateck card flat-out didn't work. Granted, I tried it without power as it had been noted in many places that it worked without additional power from one of the SATA ports, but it didn't work for me. Additionally, it added the same sleep/hibernate/shut down problems I had with the Orico card.

I think I'm done with USB 3.0 unless I build a hack. I don't want to fight with trying card after card, especially when I'm already considering building a new machine.

 

[ActionableMango]

The Inateck card flat-out didn't work. Granted, I tried it without power as it had been noted in many places that it worked without additional power from one of the SATA ports, but it didn't work for me.

The Inateck model everyone is using without power doesn't even have a power port for hooking up power. If yours has a SATA power port, you have the wrong model.

The 4-port Inateck with a power port on it absolutely will not work without power hooked up.

I'm sorry you've had so much trouble, and nobody here can promise you won't have more trouble, but it doesn't sound like you tried the right Inateck card and may have come to the wrong conclusion because of it.

 

[flowrider]

Just thought I'd chime in with my results with two cards on my 5,1, the Orico PME-4U and the Inateck KT4004.

The Inateck card flat-out didn't work. Granted, I tried it without power as it had been noted in many places that it worked without additional power from one of the SATA ports, but it didn't work for me. Additionally, it added the same sleep/hibernate/shut down problems I had with the Orico card.

I think I'm done with USB 3.0 unless I build a hack. I don't want to fight with trying card after card, especially when I'm already considering building a new machine.

The correct Inateck has no provision for additional power. I don't understand your statement "I tried it without power"

Lou

 

[kylepro88]

CalDigit and MacSales both have new cards that apparently work very well. MacSales offers a driver and no driver version to avoid sleep issues.

 

[iamMacPerson]

Pay attention to the part I highlighted in Red

Please do the same:

Filtering Unit with Solid Capacitors offer a Reliable and Secure Connectivity , Fit in any PCI-Express x1 , x2 , x4 , x8 or x16 Socket , Compliant with PCI Express Base Specification 2.0.

Fits. Never said anything about full speed, just said that it fit.

 

[flowrider]

Fits. Never said anything about full speed, just said that it fit.

And what the heck do you think that means Would they recommend their card be used in a slot if it didn't perform at full speed Doesn't sound like good marketing to me!

You may friend have much to learn!

Lou

 

[DPUser]

And what the heck do you think that means Would they recommend their card be used in a slot if it didn't perform at full speed Doesn't sound like good marketing to me!

You may friend have much to learn!

Lou

We all learn from each other, but some seem to feel the need to take the credit.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Tis True! I've learned quite a bit from this forum and from the Netkas forum.

Excellent Resources!

But when you try to help somebody and they argue - well, I guess I let my emotions get the best of me

Lou

 

[crjackson2134]

^^^^Tis True! I've learned quite a bit from this forum and from the Netkas forum.

Excellent Resources!

But when you try to help somebody and they argue - well, I guess I let my emotions get the best of me

Lou

You know Lou, while lying here in my hospital bed, and heavily medicated with Hydromorphone just 12 hrs. after a major surgery, I too find it hard to NOT feel like posting an emotional response to some of the comments. Don't worry about it, you are a very helpful person (as are many others here).

Just to stay on topic, I'll say this... USB 3.0 is alive and working quite well on the cMP now days. There are several good options available, but you still can't satisfy some people.

 

[rugmuncha]

Kernel Panic Crashes with 3,1 Mac Pro, Orico PFU3-4P, Sans Digital TR8U+

I just installed the Orico PFU3-4P USB3 into my 3,1 Mac Pro. Getting severe auto restart kernel panic crashes when copying to my 24TB Sans Digital TR8U+, configured Raid 5 in SoftRaid. SoftRaid says it's the Orico card, however I had an hour long tech support with Sans Digital last night and they had me try a firmware flash update to the enclosure through Bootcamp. They weren't confident it worked, here is the email I sent this morning. Any help or guidance as to the cause would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!!!

Good morning Alfred (Sans Digital) and Mark (SoftRaid),

Mark, Alfred and I spent some time on the phone last night because I’m still having serious issues with my updated raid 5 volume on the Sans Digital unit.

It worked, although with issues, in USB2 previously. However I ran out of drive space, so I put in 7 new 4TB HGST's.

I installed an Orico PFU3-4P USB3 card yesterday and my portable drive works reads and writes fine connected to it.

Alfred coached me through a firmware flash to the USB3 Sans Dig enclosure, although he was not 100% sure it was the right FW.

I left my studio last night with it copying 250gb of 3.3tb without a crash.

I just got into the studio and unfortunately there were error messages that said something like items could not be copied to the DKMP RAID BACKUP (but no kernel system crash).

I started deleting the uncopied folders on the raid backup that had nothing in it, and it kernel crashed, auto system restart.

I reinitialized all 7 drives and created a new SoftRaid raid 5 volume (once again, 3rd time).

I started copying to it from my main DKMP RAID (SAS) and it kernel crashed again.

So the cause is either one or more of the following:

Sans Digital TR8U+ enclosure with bad firmware or hardware
SoftRaid 5 Beta incompatibilities
Orico PFU3-4P USB3 card for my Mac Pro 3,1 (drivers are built into OSX 10.9 so no 3rd party drivers necessary)

I would really like to get to the bottom of this and your help would be very much appreciated, I just dread going back to USB2.

DK

 

[stmp]

Anyone have UASP info on FL chipset PCIe cards?

Hi there and thanks first off to all the good info shared here.

Taking the advice of the forum I have the 4 port Orico that does require power, running it in a 1,1 with Tiamo EFI to enable 10.9.2

Card works fine (don't have Windows on this machine so can't speak to that), my question is about UASP, the newer UASP protocol that provides much faster I/O speeds.

I've searched on this forum and also looked through all the Orico-provided info I could find but nothing seems conclusive. Actionablemango's Front page post explains that UASP is supported in the CalDigit eSata/USB 3.0 combo card, but I'm curious about the Orico or Inatek cards. Hopefully I haven't just been careless and missed the answer in this thread; my apologies if that's the case.

Does anyone know if these PCIe cards by Orico or Inatek utilize the UASP protocol for USB 3.0?

Thanks much in advance for any help here.

 

[crjackson2134]

Does anyone know if these PCIe cards by Orico or Inatek utilize the UASP protocol for USB 3.0?

Thanks much in advance for any help here.

To my knowledge neither of these cards support UASP.

 

[Earl Urly]

I don't think so

Neither of these cards support UASP.

Pretty sure the Inateck KT4004 does. When I connect this Plugable USB 3.0 dock into my KT4004 card, the IOUSBAttachedSCSI driver in Mavericks loads and is enabled (as per System Information,) and I can get 400 MB/sec reads and writes (according to Blackmagic Disk Speed Test) from a spare 250 GB Samsung 840 SSD.

Same thing happens when I use this Inateck USB 3.0 enclosure.

And to top it off, it's in a Mac Pro 1,1 running Tiamo enabled 10.9.2.

I already put my Orico PFU3-4P card into a Windows box and am using the driver available from Fresco Logic direct here.

 

[crjackson2134]

Pretty sure the Inateck KT4004 does. When I connect this Plugable USB 3.0 dock into my KT4004 card, the IOUSBAttachedSCSI driver in Mavericks loads and is enabled (as per System Information,) and I can get 400 MB/sec reads and writes (according to Blackmagic Disk Speed Test) from a spare 250 GB Samsung 840 SSD.

Same thing happens when I use this Inateck USB 3.0 enclosure.

And to top it off, it's in a Mac Pro 1,1 running Tiamo enabled 10.9.2.

I already put my Orico PFU3-4P card into a Windows box and am using the driver available from Fresco Logic direct here.

I'm glad you're getting great transfer rates, here's what Inateck said to me when I contacted them directly.

From: "Inateck Marketing" <marketing@inateck.com>
Date: February 24, 2014 at 2:23:31 AM EST
To: "'crjackson2134
Subject: RE: UASP vs. kt4004-4 port card for Mac

Hi Charles,

My apologies for the late reply. I have been out of office for a while.

As for your concern, the USB 3.0 PCI-E card for Mac Pro is not UASP enabled.

Unfortunately it is out of stock at this moment in the US market. It should be back in stock at Amazon.com by mid March (Model number issues need to be fixed).

Thanks again and I will keep you updated as inventory becomes available.

Warm Regards,

Ring L. | Marketing Department
---------------------------------------------------------------


BrünnerStraße 10 | Leipzig, Deutschland | 04209
Tel.: 0341-5199 8407 | Fax: 0341-5199 8413
E-mail: marketing@inateck.com | Web: http://www.inateck.com
Twitter: twitter.com/inateckofficial
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/inateckofficial

And yes it is supported by some of their enclosures but not all. I have those too. I researched the subject before posting my review here and on my blog. I'll investigate further.

 

[Earl Urly]

Then why does the IOUSBAttachedSCSI extension become enabled when I plug in UASP-enabled devices? I get the feeling you're talking to the wrong arm of Inateck; you should try to get a response from their tech support, not their sales team.

 

[Macsonic]

And yes it is supported by some of their enclosures but not all. I have those too. I researched the subject before posting my review here and on my blog.

Thanks Crjackson2134 for effort in contacting and sharing the response from the Inateck marketing dept to clarify on UASP. Hope you're having a good weekend.

 

[Earl Urly]

don't count your chickens..

Fresco Logic, who makes the FL1100 USB 3.0 Host Controller chip for the Inateck KT4004, has this to say about the chip's UASP capability:

Fully Complies with the UASP Requirements

FL1100 fully supports the UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) standard, the next generation storage protocol designed for USB 3.0. This feature optimizes the transfer efficiency for the 5Gbps channel by eliminating some of the classic BOT (bulk-only transport) bottlenecks.

Also I have written to Inateck's tech support, not their sales staff, to verify UASP compatibility. So we shall see.

It's definitely possible that Inateck chose to geld the UASP capability of the host controller chip in some byzantine way so the card wouldn't need the additional +5V from an outside source, but the fact that Apple's IOUSBAttachedSCSI extension loads when I hook in UASP devices makes me doubt that marketing statement.

 

[fiatlux]

I have an Inateck powered card and issues with a Lexar® Professional USB 3.0 Dual-Slot Reader: whenever I stick an SD card in it, the card unmounts after a few seconds. If I try accessing before It unmounts, access is very slow. Still have the older USB 2.0 version of the same reader which works OK with all my cards.
Is the USB 3.0 reader very specific in what memory cards it supports or is it incompatible with the Inateck controller?

 

[colincarter]

I have an Inateck powered card and issues with a Lexar® Professional USB 3.0 Dual-Slot Reader: whenever I stick an SD card in it, the card unmounts after a few seconds. If I try accessing before It unmounts, access is very slow. Still have the older USB 2.0 version of the same reader which works OK with all my cards.
Is the USB 3.0 reader very specific in what memory cards it supports or is it incompatible with the Inateck controller?

My lexar pro USB 3 dual slot reader does the same thing so I threw it in the bin and got the lexar pro workflow solution with the 4 bays and everything works perfectly now. The transcend usb3 multi card reader also works perfectly at full speed with the inatech card.

The fault lies with the reader not the sd or cf card and not the USB 3 card, bin the lexar reader and get a different one.

 

[Earl Urly]

Direct from the source

Does anyone know if these PCIe cards by Orico or Inatek utilize the UASP protocol for USB 3.0?

Neither of these cards support UASP.
I researched the subject before posting my review here and on my blog.

From: <support@inateck.de>
To: <Earl Urly>
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 16:56:51 +0800
Subject: Re:Question about the Inateck KT-4004 for Mac Pro


Dear <Earl>,

I can confirm that UASP is working under Mac OS 10.8.2 or above, as we tested this for ourselves already. Just give it a try.

Yours sincerely

Sebastian Thurm
SpringRain / Inateck
_________________

F&M Technology GmbH
Brünner Str. 10
04209 Leipzig

Tel.: 0341/51998410
Fax: 0341/51998413
E-Mail: info@orico.eu
Twitter: twitter.com/inateckofficial
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/inateckofficial

Yeah, so UASP *IS* supported by the Inateck KT4004 in both Mountain Lion and Mavericks.

Marketing as usual tends to be misinformed.