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USB 3.x PCIe Cards for Classic Mac Pro
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Sorry it took so long for the review Lou. It's hard to test this stuff sometimes. I mostly connect rometly these days, but once in a while I actually get to sit at big desk
Latest on USB3 on PCIE
Anyone been playing with new PCIe cards on Mac Pros lately and having a good experience? I've tried a couple and all have problems with improper unmounting during sleep.
Anyone been playing with new PCIe cards on Mac Pros lately and having a good experience? I've tried a couple and all have problems with improper unmounting during sleep.
The sleep issue is more of an OSX driver issue and not on the PCie card as far as know. For now just unmount first the external HD before putting the machine to sleep. Though if you use the energy server under System Preferences to put your Mac to sleep, the ext HD does not get unmounted and no error messages. But if you use the Apple finder to put the Mac to sleep, the ext HD gets disconnected and you get the error message.
USB3 Sleep
Actually I get the error regardless if sleep cycle is manually or automatically initiated (by power management)
Actually I get the error regardless if sleep cycle is manually or automatically initiated (by power management)
As do I. Users that don't even have 3rd party cards (RMBP, MBA, etc...) get the same error with external drives attached. I've been bombarding Apple with bug reports.
There are 3rd party apps. that help (Jettison, and Mountain just to name a couple). I use Mountain and it does the trick (most of the time, but not always).
I use Jettison and it does the trick (most of the time, but not always).
So far ... all the sleep "improper dismounts" have remounted automatically and I haven't discovered any problems with any of them.
I have a feeling you are absolutely correct. I've now confirmed that I get the exact same result when the drive is connected to the MP USB 2.0 system ports. It seems I can defragment individule files, but I can't consolidate the free space fragments. The issue doesn't exsist on any of my 1TB drives.
Soooo.... It's either the file system or the drive(s) and I'm thinking FS since it occurs on different drive brands and enclosures.
OTOH, all of my 4TB drives are Seagate and WD in their own branded/sealed enclosures. Seagate tech. support tells me that these large drives (4TB+) have some sort of block spoofing firmware so that they will work correctly with the MS Windows line of OS's. We discussed ripping out the drives and reformatting them while installed in an enclosure that doesn't employ this technique. Since these are all new drives, I'm not going to rip them apart and void the warranties. I'll have to wait until I populate some internal bays with 4TB+ drives for testing.
I might format to NTFS just for testing (with Windows, or an NTFS driver). If this boils down to the file system, I'll be very disappointed. If it's due to the enclosure 's firmware/electronics, I can live with that easier.
drives and power
Somewhat related, I find that there are certain bare drives (1 - 4 TB) that will start up fine if I put them in my Plugable USB3-SATA-UASP1 Lay Flat drive dock, but if I use my Inateck dock or Rosewill adapters, OS X immediately offers to initialize the drives. What the hell! Was it a brand thing?
The drives in question include a Hitachi 4 TB AF drive and a Western Digital 2.0 WD20EARS drive; sometimes it can be an older 750 / 500 GB drive. Their vintages fall from mid 2013 to early 2011.
Recently I figured it out, even a monkey could if it kept happening to him/her over and over.. I played a hunch and picked up a Sabrent enclosure that was a functional clone of the Plugable (or the other way around, who knows) and hey presto, those same drives mounted just fine.
What was it? Well, the Sabrent and the Plugable come with power supplies that provide 12V @ 2.5A. The others had a power supply that only provided 12V @ 2.0A.
In some isolated cases, yes it's a drive with bad media, but in others it's a drive that for some reason, probably due to components gone out-of-spec or 'born that way,' want extra power to start up. Some drives just decide to work with the lower amperage but eventually drop out with the initialize message sooner or later; they don't at the higher amperage.
I've found a lot of drives people put on the discard pile that work perfectly fine IF you use an adapter / enclosure with that higher power. Shame on WD for making a green drive that wants extra power! Or let one come off the assembly line that does. Got a pile of these 'needy' drives now, none of them act up if I use the higher power adapters, but I clearly mark them so they don't go into any mission-critical usage.
Also, that can be one more reason a drive may not work with a certain connection, especially if it's something to do with something in the power supply. Maybe they draw too much power during a defrag?
Somewhat related, I find that there are certain bare drives (1 - 4 TB) that will start up fine if I put them in my Plugable USB3-SATA-UASP1 Lay Flat drive dock, but if I use my Inateck dock or Rosewill adapters, OS X immediately offers to initialize the drives. What the hell! Was it a brand thing?
The drives in question include a Hitachi 4 TB AF drive and a Western Digital 2.0 WD20EARS drive; sometimes it can be an older 750 / 500 GB drive. Their vintages fall from mid 2013 to early 2011.
Recently I figured it out, even a monkey could if it kept happening to him/her over and over.. I played a hunch and picked up a Sabrent enclosure that was a functional clone of the Plugable (or the other way around, who knows) and hey presto, those same drives mounted just fine.
What was it? Well, the Sabrent and the Plugable come with power supplies that provide 12V @ 2.5A. The others had a power supply that only provided 12V @ 2.0A.
In some isolated cases, yes it's a drive with bad media, but in others it's a drive that for some reason, probably due to components gone out-of-spec or 'born that way,' want extra power to start up. Some drives just decide to work with the lower amperage but eventually drop out with the initialize message sooner or later; they don't at the higher amperage.
I've found a lot of drives people put on the discard pile that work perfectly fine IF you use an adapter / enclosure with that higher power. Shame on WD for making a green drive that wants extra power! Or let one come off the assembly line that does. Got a pile of these 'needy' drives now, none of them act up if I use the higher power adapters, but I clearly mark them so they don't go into any mission-critical usage.
Also, that can be one more reason a drive may not work with a certain connection, especially if it's something to do with something in the power supply. Maybe they draw too much power during a defrag?
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Well, what I've learnd is that different drive enclosures/interfaces require that the drive be formatted by the individule controller (a lot of raid conrollers are that way, or were back in the day).
It's not so much a defect as that the controller usese a specific way of doing it's drive translations and the media must be formatted to that exact language in order for operation. We don't see this problem so much in internal drives that are preformatted, but for some reason, USB throws a monkey wrench into the works.
I'm finding now (over night) that I can easily defragment the files on the drive any of my USB controllers, but the corruption occures when doing volume optimazation (free space consolidation). As long as I stay away from that I'm good.
It's not so much a defect as that the controller usese a specific way of doing it's drive translations and the media must be formatted to that exact language in order for operation. We don't see this problem so much in internal drives that are preformatted, but for some reason, USB throws a monkey wrench into the works.
I'm finding now (over night) that I can easily defragment the files on the drive any of my USB controllers, but the corruption occures when doing volume optimazation (free space consolidation). As long as I stay away from that I'm good.
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Based on Mr. Jackson's post, I bought a RocketU 1144C USB 3.0 PCIe Card. It arrived today, and I replaced my Inateck KT-4004.
Just for the hell of it, I went back to onboard Bluetooth just to see what would happen. Well my Microsoft mouse paired and seemed to be working fine. I worked with it for about an hour, and every so often I would notice very small signs of interference, nothing that would make the mouse unusable as the Inateck did.
So, the RocketU Card seems to be better shielded than the Inateck Card. I guess you get what you pay for.
I have since returned to using the MVC dongle, there is absolutely no interference when using the dongle and the 3 ft. USB cable.
Lou
Just for the hell of it, I went back to onboard Bluetooth just to see what would happen. Well my Microsoft mouse paired and seemed to be working fine. I worked with it for about an hour, and every so often I would notice very small signs of interference, nothing that would make the mouse unusable as the Inateck did.
So, the RocketU Card seems to be better shielded than the Inateck Card. I guess you get what you pay for.
I have since returned to using the MVC dongle, there is absolutely no interference when using the dongle and the 3 ft. USB cable.
Lou
Hello - A lot has gone on the past week with a lot more people jumping to Yosemite, and was wondering if any new info is out there regarding the compatibility of existing USB 3.0 PCIe cards for Mac Pros?
I really don't care about speeds too much. I'm more concerned with stability and expansion. My 2.0 ports are taking a huge dump and I can hardly keep a thumb drive in without it unmounting.
Also it's important to
A) attach devices more than just hard drives/thumbs (ie - scanners, etc)
and
B) I don't want to spend more than $30 for a card. I don't mind not having 2 or 4 ports, I can always add hubs.
thanks!
I really don't care about speeds too much. I'm more concerned with stability and expansion. My 2.0 ports are taking a huge dump and I can hardly keep a thumb drive in without it unmounting.
Also it's important to
A) attach devices more than just hard drives/thumbs (ie - scanners, etc)
and
B) I don't want to spend more than $30 for a card. I don't mind not having 2 or 4 ports, I can always add hubs.
thanks!
If you don't want to spend more than $30 then the Inateck KT-4004 is the card you want. It works just fine with Yosemite (no drivers required). Look at the post right above yours. Follow that link.
Also here is a review of that particular card.
Inateck KT4004 4-Port USB 3.0 PCI-E Express Card For MAC Pro
This is all very terrific and the one reassurance I needed to put me over the top!
THanks so much.
I guess the only thing it won't be able to do is support a boot-drive external of any kind from what I can find about any USB ports coming off a PCIe.
I suppose I can grab a decent 3.0 hub and just mount it on the back of my desk for whatever I need then.
A 2.0 hub I have now should be fine until I get that (just limited to 2.0 speeds of course)
THANK YOU!
OK I'm seeing $8 shipping unless I spend an additional $5 so I'm really liking the 3 port bus-powered hub with the SD card reader built in!
I'm a photographer so that would be an incredibly handy thing for faster transfers of all those massive D800 Raw files
But if the PCIe card isn't powered and neither is the Hub - could that present problems down the line?
They have a powered 7-port 'MacBook' hub with AC power I would get instead just to be on the safe side...
I'm a photographer so that would be an incredibly handy thing for faster transfers of all those massive D800 Raw files
But if the PCIe card isn't powered and neither is the Hub - could that present problems down the line?
They have a powered 7-port 'MacBook' hub with AC power I would get instead just to be on the safe side...
^^^^If you want a brand new Inateck KT4004 (in a sealed box) at a lower price with no shipping charges, Look Here:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1801886/
Lou
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1801886/
Lou
It's letting me see this thread, and post to it, but any M-Rum links takes me to a page that I haven't confirmed through their email yet - YET I'm able to comment! I click send email and it doesn't....ugh tech...
okay, I see you only have a post count of 41, so you don't have access to the market place. Hopefully you got Lou's PM.
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I have two WD My Passport USB 3.0 drives that aren't powered externally (only powered when connected to the mac pro through the usb 3.0 cable). Will the WD drives be able to power up if i purchased a Inateck KT4004 4-Port USB 3.0 PCI-E?
thanks.
thanks.
It should be just fine. I used to keep 4 buss powered drives connected 24/7 without issue.
Keep in mind (all) the reason I'm doing this is because the USB Control center of the mother board has been taking a huge dump the last couple years. What's infected my whole bus system is probably a lack of power. I can't even run Sypder4 to calibrate my monitor, IT DROPS!
I'd feel safer getting the 7 port version of this and tapping into the useless Superdrive power SATA power. And I'd be looking at free shipping over $35, so I'm breaking even!
That would make for an even more rock solid connection. Basically the entire enchilada (including charging iPhone/Pad, running up to 3 external spinners, scanner, SD card backup - you name it) would be riding on that one slot