USB 3.x PCIe Cards for Classic Mac Pro

[Loa]

Hello,

I got a reply from Caldigit regarding my two questions for the Pro version:

The fastest speed is around 450MB/s for internal SATA and eSATA.

Yes, it is bootable (both internal and external SATA ports) on the latest OSX (10.7 and above).

There you go! That Caldigit pro card looks really good!

Loa

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Hello,

I got a reply from Caldigit regarding my two questions for the Pro version:

The fastest speed is around 450MB/s for internal SATA and eSATA.

Yes, it is bootable (both internal and external SATA ports) on the latest OSX (10.7 and above).

There you go! That Caldigit pro card looks really good!

Loa

Thanks Loa. Do you know if there is a way to connect the Sata from the Caldigit card into the drive backplane on the MacPro? The idea being that you can get all 4 drives to use the upgraded Sata bus? Wonder if anyone has tried this?

 

[Loa]

Do you know if there is a way to connect the Sata from the Caldigit card into the drive backplane on the MacPro?

Quite sure it's impossible. Also, there are only 2 internal SATA ports on the card, and there are 4 drive slots on the MP.

Most people place those SATA3 drives in the optical bays. SSDs are small and easy to fit, and in any case, SATA3 is wasted on mechanical HDs.

All you have to do is provide power.

Loa

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Quite sure it's impossible. Also, there are only 2 internal SATA ports on the card, and there are 4 drive slots on the MP.

Most people place those SATA3 drives in the optical bays. SSDs are small and easy to fit, and in any case, SATA3 is wasted on mechanical HDs.

All you have to do is provide power.

Loa

Thanks Loa. Was afraid of that.

 

[Loa]

Hello,

If you want to have a lot of fast SATA3 ports, look for rocketraid cards. Search this forum, someone made a very lengthy and informative post about this. Then again, be sure you really need it, as only SSDs will benefit from this.

Loa

 

[leon771]

I have the Inatek 4004 and it ejects my USB drives when my 4,1 goes to sleep. I've had it corrupt a single drive so far doing this.

I have Jettison installed now to eject the drives before sleep.

Annoying.

 

[crjackson2134]

I have the Inatek 4004 and it ejects my USB drives when my 4,1 goes to sleep. I've had it corrupt a single drive so far doing this.

I have Jettison installed now to eject the drives before sleep.

Annoying.

As annoyed as you are, it's not the card that causes this. It's the OS mostly. It's fairly well documented. Mac Format recently addressed the issue and explained that it's a combination of the OS X sleep routines and the drive's (to include the drive controller) sleep routine.

 

[Macsonic]

Thanks Macsonic. Can you boot the Caldigit from the internal eSata? Is the internal eSata the 6GBps version? If so, I wonder if there is someway to feed that to the 4 sleds so it would be a nice upgrade for the entire machine to have the faster SATA connection.

Welcome ZombiePhysicist. I am booting from an external HD that is connected to the Caldigit card. My Caldigit is the older model so I guess it's not 6GBps. For the 4 HD bays, might not be possible to connect to the card's extra Sata port. Maybe, but a long shot, you can try to connect the optical drive's sata to the Caldigit card. Remove the optical drive and install a SSD or HD at the optical bay. But I am not sure if this works fine.

 

[Loa]

Maybe, but a long shot, you can try to connect the optical drive's sata to the Caldigit card. Remove the optical drive and install a SSD or HD at the optical bay. But I am not sure if this works fine.

It does work, many people (including me) have this set-up using various cards. The only issue is splitting the SATA power in the optical bay. There are a few threads here that explain how. It's not that hard and it's well worth the time!!! And according to Caldigit, you can do that with their Pro card. I'll know in a few days as I have one on the way.

Loa

 

[Macsonic]

It does work, many people (including me) have this set-up using various cards. The only issue is splitting the SATA power in the optical bay. There are a few threads here that explain how. It's not that hard and it's well worth the time!!! And according to Caldigit, you can do that with their Pro card. I'll know in a few days as I have one on the way.

Loa

Hi Loa. Thanks for confirming. Usualy, I am careful of sharing information and as much as possible I try to provide supporting verified articles. It's great to know it works. Keep us posted. I think Amazon sells some Y split power cables.

 

[Loa]

There you go.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1648335/

Not the same card, but exactly the same principle. That's exactly what I have in my 2009, and it works great.

Loa

 

[flowrider]

You two guys were exactly right. After 3 months of screwing around with this and trying all sorts of "fixes", I finally solved the problem. No More Spastic Arrow jumping around the screen. My Mouse is now stable and for the first time since mid February I finally have full and complete control:

So, I have working USB 3.0 with the Inateck Card and a strong non interference Bluetooth signal with the Kinivo Bluetooth Dongle.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1733267/

Lou

Well, the fix was not as easy as I thought it was. It seems that all USB devices need to be plugged a certain way - certain ports, or even with the external BT dongle, you will get a spastic BT mouse. I have an external LaCie USB 2.0 external HDD that's dying, and I am replacing it with a Fantom USB 3.0 HDD. In preparation for this, I moved a couple of USB cables around last night, and bingo, my mouse problems reappeared WITH the dongle. I tried moving the dongle around. And, this only exacerbated the problem. So, I returned the dongle to it's original home - the rear (toward the center) internal port, and moved my USB Cables back to their original placements, and all was good again.

So, when I first installed the dongle, the stars were aligned (though, I didn't know it) and when I moved cables around - NOT GOOD.

Just wanted to let everyone know, that this fix is indeed finicky. And, I believe the Inateck Card could be shielded better.

Lou

 

[crjackson2134]

Well, the fix was not as easy as I thought it was. It seems that all USB devices need to be plugged a certain way - certain ports, or even with the external BT dongle, you will get a spastic BT mouse. I have an external LaCie USB 2.0 external HDD that's dying, and I am replacing it with a Fantom USB 3.0 HDD. In preparation for this, I moved a couple of USB cables around last night, and bingo, my mouse problems reappeared WITH the dongle. I tried moving the dongle around. And, this only exacerbated the problem. So, I returned the dongle to it's original home - the rear (toward the center) internal port, and moved my USB Cables back to their original placements, and all was good again.

So, when I first installed the dongle, the stars were aligned (though, I didn't know it) and when I moved cables around - NOT GOOD.

Just wanted to let everyone know, that this fix is indeed finicky. And, I believe the Inateck Card could be shielded better.

Lou

Sorry to hear this Lou, you have been through the wringer with this BT issue. Have you tried plugging the dongle into the front of the case? Moving the dongle away from the cables/card MIGHT help a little.

 

[hfg]

Well, the fix was not as easy as I thought it was. It seems that all USB devices need to be plugged a certain way - certain ports, or even with the external BT dongle, you will get a spastic BT mouse. I have an external LaCie USB 2.0 external HDD that's dying, and I am replacing it with a Fantom USB 3.0 HDD. In preparation for this, I moved a couple of USB cables around last night, and bingo, my mouse problems reappeared WITH the dongle. I tried moving the dongle around. And, this only exacerbated the problem. So, I returned the dongle to it's original home - the rear (toward the center) internal port, and moved my USB Cables back to their original placements, and all was good again.

So, when I first installed the dongle, the stars were aligned (though, I didn't know it) and when I moved cables around - NOT GOOD.

Just wanted to let everyone know, that this fix is indeed finicky. And, I believe the Inateck Card could be shielded better.

Lou

Are you using quality double-shielded (braid and foil) cables for your USB 3.0? I have found that often the "free" cables supplied with the device are of rather poor quality and caused me lots of interference affecting Bluetooth mouse performance.

 

[flowrider]

Sorry to hear this Lou, you have been through the wringer with this BT issue. Have you tried plugging the dongle into the front of the case? Moving the dongle away from the cables/card MIGHT help a little.

Just tried the bottom front one and got a spastic pointer. Moved back to the rear.

Lou

----------

Are you using quality double-shielded (braid and foil) cables for your USB 3.0? I have found that often the "free" cables supplied with the device are of rather poor quality and caused me lots of interference affecting Bluetooth mouse performance.

There was interference even before I got my Hub. The spasticity (with the internal BT) happened when nothing was plugged into the Card. When I plugged a USB 3.0 stick directly into the card, all pointer movements ceased. So, it's not cables.

Lou

 

[crjackson2134]

Just tried the bottom front one and got a spastic pointer. Moved back to the rear.

Lou

It was worth a try.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Ya, talk about living on the edge

Lou

 

[ActionableMango]

This is a common problem with even built-in USB 3.0 solutions, not just add-in cards. Having read the Intel white paper on the subject, shielding the card around the connector area helps, but doesn't solve the problem. Shielding also has to be applied around the ends of the cables.

I don't understand how USB 3.0 could have been released in such a sorry state.

 

[ActionableMango]

First post summary updated.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^

[*]Transferring large amounts of data over USB 3.0 interferes with bluetooth reception. This does not occur when USB 3.0 is idle. Some people report having this problem and some people do not. This problem is not limited to the Mac Pro nor the cards listed here but because Mac Pros already have notoriously spotty bluetooth reception, it is worse for us. Nevertheless, even official built-in solutions such as the Mac Mini's USB 3.0 suffer from this problem. The Intel white paper on the topic suggests that this is widespread problem and is due to inadequate shielding in the cable connections.

Above from your first post. Actually, my interference happens with just the Inateck card being installed. If I just plug in a USB 3.0 stick into the card, no data transfer, just sitting, my internal BT connection is lost. In my case, at least, it is not related to data transfers. It is totally related to the card just being installed in the machine.

Lou

 

[ActionableMango]

^^^^

Above from your first post. Actually, my interference happens with just the Inateck card being installed. If I just plug in a USB 3.0 stick into the card, no data transfer, just sitting, my internal BT connection is lost. In my case, at least, it is not related to data transfers. It is totally related to the card just being installed in the machine.

Lou

I've added this info. However, since other people have reported no problems except when actually doing transfers, and some have no BT problems at all, the statement now just lists the possibilities.

 

[crjackson2134]

^^^^

Above from your first post. Actually, my interference happens with just the Inateck card being installed. If I just plug in a USB 3.0 stick into the card, no data transfer, just sitting, my internal BT connection is lost. In my case, at least, it is not related to data transfers. It is totally related to the card just being installed in the machine.

Lou

Lou, do you think it's possible you got a bad one? Write to inateck support and see if they can help. They may send you a new one for the asking. They're a very good company to deal with.

 

[Loa]

Hello,

Just got my FASTA-6GU3 Pro today. Here is my review.

----------1st: internal SATA test:

Drive: Vertex 4 512GB (rated at 560 read / 510 write)
System: 2009 MP

Black Magic: Read: 440 - Write: 400
Aja: Read 370 - Write 330

I also tested it using a large file on a RAM disk, and the results pretty much match the Black Magic results (434R, 421W). As a boot volume it works fine, with no issues and actual real-world performance in line with the benchmarks (no surprises, no hiccups).

-----------2nd eSATA

The drives in my PM enclosure mount fine, albeit more slowly than when I used my old Sil3132 card. Sadly, when I stress test the drives (by copying files, big or small), the connection fails, the drive locks-up and ends-up dismounting disgracefully (Finder warning about improper dismounting, and Carbon Copy Cloner telling that the mounting point changed.). I verified that phenomenon 3 times before pulling the card out.

In theory, it only works with 1 PM enclusre at a time, but I only have 1 to test in any case...

-----------3rd: USB3 problems

The keyboard and mouse work flawlessly through the USB3 hub in my monitor.

On the other hand, drives in a USB3 enclosure are problematic. I only have 1 (brand new) USB3 dock to test, and it's not working well at all. (The enclosure works flawlessly on my Mac's USB2 ports.) The drives mount, but as soon as I try to test them using Black Magic or AJA, they freeze and crash. When I then try to manually erase the temporary files they create, Finder won't allow it because of a -50 error. Very frustrating. This happens when plugged directly into the card, or through a USB3 hub.

Same thing happens if I simply try to copy a largish file on the drive. Finder copy freezes to death. Strangely enough, when the drive is plugged into the hub, the copy stops, then I get an error and there isn't a death freeze...

After contacting Caldigit, all they could do was tell me to update my system and fix permissions. (I did, to no effect.) They then told me that the only dock that was compatible with their card (on a Mac) was the Voyager. That is just sad.

Clearly, this card is not a complete USB3 solution, and will only work reliably on keyboards, mice, and other very-low data transfer gismos.

Loa

 

[flowrider]

Just a quick note. I received my new Fantom USB 3.0 HDD yesterday, took off my old LaCie HDD and erased and destroyed it. Once the Fantom was installed, no BT with the dongle. The OS wouldn't pair with my mouse. So I tried moving the dongle and cables around. Got everything to work again, with the dongle on the front of the Mac in the lower USB slot. And, the curser is stable. So, it's now in a slot that was unstable before This is crazy business.

Lou

 

[crjackson2134]

Just a quick note. I received my new Fantom USB 3.0 HDD yesterday, took off my old LaCie HDD and erased and destroyed it. Once the Fantom was installed, no BT with the dongle. The OS wouldn't pair with my mouse. So I tried moving the dongle and cables around. Got everything to work again, with the dongle on the front of the Mac in the lower USB slot. And, the curser is stable. So, it's now in a slot that was unstable before This is crazy business.

Lou

Glad you got that to work. I was thinking (an unreliable task for me, but hey, why not). I have a long USB extension cable that came with a dongle like the one you have. I wonder what would happen if you used something like this, and moved the dongle away from your rig.