USB 3.x PCIe Cards for Classic Mac Pro

[kings79]

Get any SATA power cable and just cut off the end you don't need. As a side bonus it will already be wired. But if you really want just the connector, Mouser has them.

However, your SATA pinout shows that is expects 3.3V, 5V, and 12V. Your AUX pinout only supplies 12V. Are you going to add DC voltage converters? Or does the USB card only need 12V from that SATA connector? (That seems unlikely to me since USB is 5V.)

Back when cards required supplemental power, I pulled it in from a SATA connector in the optical bay via Y-cable. That way physical drive capacity was not reduced like it would be if I blocked a drive sled.

I was just going to make a new cable so I wasn't stuck with something that is the wrong length and I want custom. But I will keep that as a backup thanks man . Mouser is great but when you in Australia Shipping is a b*&^%...

DC power?

When you say;
"I pulled it in from a SATA connector in the optical bay via Y-cable. That way physical drive capacity was not reduced like it would be if I blocked a drive sled."

There are 2 6 pin PCIe ports behind the optical drives arn't there? 1 would be being used for the GPU.

I was just going to connect the 12v and omit the rest of the pins not needed. I think I will contact StarTech and ask what pins the card is expecting. Pins 4, 5 & 6 are Common and 13, 14 & 15 are +12v.
all the Manual says is:

"7. Optional: Connect a 15-pin SATA power connector from your computer’s power supply to the card’s SATA power connector.
Note: It’s highly recommended that you connect SATA power to ensure sufficient power is provided to the card as well as to each USB port."

Manual

"That seems unlikely to me since USB is 5V"

The card may have a transformer circuit to provide the 5v for USB. Failing that, is there somewhere inside the Mac Pro 5, that has AUX 5v connection?

 

[ActionableMango]

When you say;
"I pulled it in from a SATA connector in the optical bay via Y-cable. That way physical drive capacity was not reduced like it would be if I blocked a drive sled."

There are 2 6 pin PCIe ports behind the optical drives arn't there? 1 would be being used for the GPU.

No, the PCIe AUX power ports are not in the optical bay. In the 5,1 optical bay there is a cable with two SATA connectors. Because this is a cable you can "Y" the SATA power so you can still connect two drives but also have SATA power to run elsewhere, such as your USB card. This has the added benefit of connecting SATA to SATA with all the proper pins and voltage.

The PCIe AUX power ports are 12V only and the wrong connector. I feel like you are doing this in hard mode and I don't understand what the benefit is, but as someone else said, to each his/her own.

is there somewhere inside the Mac Pro 5, that has AUX 5v connection?

All of the SATA ports do. It still seems logical to me to just hook up the card's SATA connector to a SATA connector on the Mac Pro.

 

[kings79]

No, the PCIe AUX power ports are not in the optical bay. In the 5,1 optical bay there is a cable with two SATA connectors. Because this is a cable you can "Y" the SATA power so you can still connect two drives but also have SATA power to run elsewhere, such as your USB card. This has the added benefit of connecting SATA to SATA with all the proper pins and voltage.

The PCIe AUX power ports are 12V only and the wrong connector. I feel like you are doing this in hard mode and I don't understand what the benefit is, but as someone else said, to each his/her own.



All of the SATA ports do. It still seems logical to me to just hook up the card's SATA connector to a SATA connector on the Mac Pro.

Thanks for the thorough response mango.

What SATA port would you suggest? I can only remember seeing those 6 pin PCIe ports.

Thanks again.

 

[ActionableMango]

Thanks for the thorough response mango.

What SATA port would you suggest? I can only remember seeing those 6 pin PCIe ports.

Thanks again.

The easy SATA ports are the 3.5" drive bays because they are nearby. On the other hand, this blocks the drive bay from being used by a normal 3.5" drive. On the third hand, if you Y-cable one of those, you could power the card and still connect a 2.5" drive in the drive bay.

What I did was a little harder but retains every drive bay for its normal capability by using the optical bay SATA cable. The instructions are here. That's for a Molex-powered card though, so you'll either need a different card or you'll will have to do a SATA version of what I did.

 

[bookemdano]

Thanks for the thorough response mango.

What SATA port would you suggest? I can only remember seeing those 6 pin PCIe ports.

Thanks again.

Pull out your optical cage. You will see the two SATA power connectors he is talking about right there. If you have no desire to use the lower optical bay then you can just tap into that one. If you do want to use it then you can attach a SATA power splitter and then extend one of them down to your card.

 

[kings79]

Pull out your optical cage. You will see the two SATA power connectors he is talking about right there. If you have no desire to use the lower optical bay then you can just tap into that one. If you do want to use it then you can attach a SATA power splitter and then extend one of them down to your card.

Thanks man.

Yes I should just open it up and take a look but I've been busy with other projects.. I modded my old Mac Pro 1,1 to the top CPU's a couple of years ago but haven't poked around in this newly purchased 5,1 yet.

Good to know I can get 5v from somewhere other than the PSU directly. I was considering doing the PSU mod which is easy compared to the man drum machines and synthesizers I have built over the last few years.

I like the idea of getting some cables run from the PSU so extra drain is taken off the 3.3/5/12v power rails on the man PCB. And I've see a method of taking the tap from the actual PSU connector that looks like the best option.

I don't like connecting adapter cables on adapter cables and then having 1 end of various y splitters hanging around in my machine and these cables are expenno when you have to buy multiple for 1 cable run compared with making your own custom one. So I'll have more of a poke around and make my decision...

Anyway, I'm going to get that StarTech card and do the front USB socket mods too.

Thanks for the power hookups

 

[kings79]

What is the cable route most people have used getting from inside the 2nd optical bay to underneath where the PCI cards are?

 

[bookemdano]

What is the cable route most people have used getting from inside the 2nd optical bay to underneath where the PCI cards are?

It's a real pain. I haven't even attempted it yet myself but there are several write-ups on how to do it. Here's one with pictures:

http://pindelski.org/Photography/2013/07/12/mac-pro-2009-part-xiv-2/

 

[kings79]

Of course!

I've seen this thread.

Thanks!

 

[ActionableMango]

I don't like connecting adapter cables on adapter cables and then having 1 end of various y splitters hanging around in my machine and these cables are expenno when you have to buy multiple for 1 cable run

I agree--I didn't like that solution either, but it was a necessity at the time. I strongly prefer running a card that doesn't need or use supplemental power and just ignore the disconnection messages.

If I had to provide supplemental power to a USB card today (and I'm still unsure what the use case for this is) I'd put a Y-cable in one of the 3.5" drive bays which would be a lot simpler, and still allow use of a 2.5" SATA drive in the bay with the right physical adapter. It's SATA to SATA so very simple, but obviously that wouldn't work for someone wanting 4x 3.5" drives there.

If your goal is to keep the card powered while the computer is asleep, then I strongly recommend that you verify whatever power source you're using remains powered while the computer is asleep! I tried to look this information up on your behalf, but could not find a reliable answer. It seems to depend on the type (or level) of sleep, and I'm not sure which type the Mac Pro uses. So verify power at the source before you start buying or working on cable.

What is the cable route most people have used getting from inside the 2nd optical bay to underneath where the PCI cards are?

There's a little square hole that existing cables run through. I used that. But it is a very small hole and I'm not sure you'd get a SATA power connector through there. I was able to get a disassembled molex through it and reassembled on the other side. It sounds like you are making your own cable, which should work fine, provided you don't add the connector until after you've threaded the wires through the hole.

The only other two routes I've seen in this thread required cutting the drive cage or cutting the case lid to make a route. I'm personally not fond of that, and I'm unable to find the posts to share with you anyway.

Good luck.

 

[jscipione]

If you use a USB3 card with an external power connector and go through the trouble to route a Y-splitter from your optical bay you won't get USB drive disconnected notices on sleep? That might be worth it to get around that limitation if true.

 

[ActionableMango]

Good to know I can get 5v from somewhere other than the PSU directly.

I just thought of a few other potential power sources right in the PCIe bay.

The front panel PCB (for power button, USB, and FW ports) has a cable going into it, so you might be able to tap into that. I don't know what the voltages are or whether they remain powered or not, but I suspect that they remain powered since USB devices can wake the computer.

There are also the Airport and Bluetooth cards (Mini PCIe and USB I think), which should also remain powered during sleep, since they'd both also need to be able to wake from sleep. IIRC these might be nonstandard, but there should be information about those pins and wiring somewhere in the big "802.11ac, BT 4.0 and Continuity & Handoff are working" thread.

However, I still think that the best bet is to use an existing SATA power port. That will provide all of the proper voltages and current that the card's SATA power port expects.

If you use a USB3 card with an external power connector and go through the trouble to route a Y-splitter from your optical bay you won't get USB drive disconnected notices on sleep? That might be worth it to get around that limitation if true.

I think someone verified that a couple of pages back, but it wasn't a super clear answer if I recall correctly.

 

[kings79]

Thanks for the great info guys!

I just heard back from StarTech and the StarTech 5-Port USB 3.1 (PEXUSB312EIC)

Only uses 5v+. So effectively pins 7,8 & 9 are the on + voltages you need. I took alot of back and forth because they seem to think that the voltages their care uses are some type of big secret

Anyway frustrations at engineers/customer service aside...

There are really alot of places to get the cable through if you are willing to have a play around. I think what I will do is run it from the 2nd SATA connection in the optical bay. No Y chord at this stage. I have ordered a long SATA (Power only) that I will modify on 1 edge to fit the SATA Power/Data plug. That way I wont have connections/extensions. I going to try and remove the divider between the top and middle sections and run the cable where I see fit.

Sleep & Y chords are not worries for me. This will be a Pro Tools rig and will be either running or not. Plus I will have no need for more than one GPU.

On a side not I ordered 2x X5690's from China. Both were damaged! Missing SMT Capacitors/Resistors on the underside! 'WTF' I say and demand a new one. 2 more on the way via DHL Express.

I think I'll go 6x 8g = 48g. 6 instead of 8 ram sticks is supposed to be optimal for the system. Unless your trying to overclock. Which I'm not.

You can really pimp out and customize this last great Mac every sold!

 

[TinyWorkshop]

nice choice

 

[handheldgames]

The power line, next to the CD Bay SATA II connectors provide sufficient voltage for 2 devices. Using a volt meter and left over PC power supply cables, I've tapped this in the past to power a USB adapter in the PCIe bay and an external card's adapter in the Mini PCIe slot.

 

[PowerMike G5]

Curious... Do you know if there is a cable that can be used from this ODD power port to a 6 pin power connector?

 

[kings79]

Does anyone know how to remove this bottom cage completely to get at the logic board?

[doublepost=1533816568][/doublepost]Fans. Its all about the fans...

 

[saulinpa]

The fans slide in about a 1/2" on each side so that you can get the cage out.

 

[Synchro3]

Release two latches and press the fans with the fingers inside the cage.

 

[kohlson]

Here's the complete Guide: http://tim.id.au/laptops/apple/macpro/macpro_mid2010.pdf

 

[kings79]

Thanks all for the posts but I actually worked it out a couple of minutes after I posted

 

[mikas]

Inateck KT4006 + Gigabyte RX460 didn't want to share PCIe lanes. My second monitor did not find a picture through displayport with below configuration. Took Inateck out, and got immediately signal. I don't know, maybe it's related to Inatecks earlier reported sleep/wake problem, which I have encountered too.

I had done a backplate mod to RX460 so that it fits in slot 4, this way I can use all 4 slots while using two double slot GPU's.

1: RX580 -> Displayport -> 27" WQHD
2: PCIe M.2 SSD
3: USB3
4: RX460 -> Displayport -> 27" WQHD

If I have understood it right, slots 3 and 4 share the lanes through PCIe switch. Slots one and two have the lanes all dedicated per that particular slot only.

This (see picture and list) would have been optimal in my opinion, because USB3 would have been used only occasionally. So no worries about sharing lanes couple of times in a week/month. I wouldn't want to put Kingston HyperX Predator to slot 3, because it is my startup and working drive. It would share the lanes with RX460 running my second monitor, and that could affect the performance of both of them.

Or would it?

ps. SSD's will fit to SATAII HDD slots even with double slot card in slot 4, but they are not physically secured in anyway. They did not touch the fans, because of the cards plastic cover design. They did block airflow though. Tried them in a RAID0 for a while, just to test speed (407MB/520MB), but took them out now.

 

[kings79]

Ok, so I finished the USB 3 mod. Startech 5 port USB 3.1 - 1x USB-C, 2x USB-A + 2x IDC (5Gbps) - PCIe.

I would say the difficulty was very low. I powered it from the optical SATA connection and ran the cable through the small hole between HDD bay's 3 & 4.

The hardest things were getting the bloody bottom CPU cage out and fiddling round with the heat shrink and expandable braided sleeve whole the power cables were in situ.

Things I made a point of doing:
- Grounding myself and the cMP chassis
- Tapeing screws to the parts as they come out.
- soldering the 2x power cables together and NOT using connectors. This will get you a FAR better connection and will last WAY longer. Plus it's tidier. Those 4 pin molex connectors SUCK!
- running the power cable in the way I did. It's out of the way and is pretty much a direct route.
- Modding the 2 front USB ports. Its very easy and well worth it as you can see.
- Powering the USB Card
- Use SATA power only. Not SATA power/data splitter cable.

Unfortunately you need to destroy the USB 2 ports on the cMP front connector PCB. Apple are pricks and they use some type of solder that has a very high melting point (Somewhere above 400c). I assume to make you buy parts cause you destroy components trying to melt solder...
Most components won't survive above 400c. In fact I keep my iron at 340c.
I used my good cutters. They have a flat edge that enables you to have the cutting blade flush with a plat surface while cutting.

I used Sikaflex to adhere the USB 3 ports I added. It's Non-Conductive. That stuff will stick a mac truck to a ceiling with 1 tube. No joke. There is a cool metal cage apple have used to keep the Audio jack, 2x Firewire 800 & 2x USB ports in place. So you can place some Sikaflex on the edge of the USB 3 ports, place them and put the cage over the front holes. Then i just used some masking tape for extra strength pressure downward to the gluing surface.

All the bits. These Mac Pro's are made SO well. The last great Mac Pro IMO...

It is necessary to cut the USB 2 ports off the PCB. Just be careful! And take your time...

Front connector PCB place. Note the power button cable/header. This will only go ONE way into the PCB header.

This is the USB 3 face plate I bought. "USB 3.0 20 Pin 2 Ports Front Panel Floppy Disk Bay Hub Bracket Cable GT"
De-Solder the connectors from the PCB. Cost $10AUD

Sikaflex the connectors to the PCB.

This is the 'cage' I was talking about. It's very handy to ensure the ports are placed and aligned correctly.

You can see the Sikaflex once it is dry there if you look closely.

2x cables. Effectively you need about 40-50 cm worth of cable and 1x female and 1x male SATA power connectors.

Cut off those CRAP 4 pin molex connectors.

2x sizes of heat shring on the cables. 1 blac and 1 red. Then those other 2 (Black and blue) are for
the outside. To hold the expandable braided sleeve onto the cables. I ended up NOT using the blue heat shrink.
Tin the cables before you try to join them!

It is necessary to cut off that left edge on the male SATA connector.

Fits like a glove. That's the smallest heat shrink for once the cables are connected.
ON the cable before you solder!

Cable to ensure continued contact...

Tape the cables before you try thread the cables through the sleeve.

This image is upside down... Use these handy holders to help you solder. Or get your wife/girlfriend to hold the hot cables

1st layer of heat shrink.

2nd layer of heat shrink.

Outside heat shrink. This one actually has hot glue on the inside. That is worth considering buying.
A heat shrink with hot glue already on it. Holds the sleeve in place.

This is the hole I used to thread the power cable through..

Push the new USB 3 cables out of the way of the bottom cage while placing the bottom cage.

Bottom cage, Front Fan, GPU & Cables in place.

New USB 3 card.

Finished!

USB 3 ports now on the front!

Both front and back ports work. Fast transfers and I hooked up an Audio interface front and back with no problems

 

[ActionableMango]

Both front and back ports work. Fast transfers and I hooked up an Audio interface front and back with no problems

Awesome post! Thanks for the effort.

Next time anyone asks about USB3.x to the front panel, I'd point them here.

 

[abdyfranco]

Ok, so I finished the USB 3 mod. Startech 5 port USB 3.1 - 1x USB-C, 2x USB-A + 2x IDC (5Gbps) - PCIe.

I would say the difficulty was very low. I powered it from the optical SATA connection and ran the cable through the small hole between HDD bay's 3 & 4.

The hardest things were getting the bloody bottom CPU cage out and fiddling round with the heat shrink and expandable braided sleeve whole the power cables were in situ.

Things I made a point of doing:
- Grounding myself and the cMP chassis
- Tapeing screws to the parts as they come out.
- soldering the 2x power cables together and NOT using connectors. This will get you a FAR better connection and will last WAY longer. Plus it's tidier. Those 4 pin molex connectors SUCK!
- running the power cable in the way I did. It's out of the way and is pretty much a direct route.
- Modding the 2 front USB ports. Its very easy and well worth it as you can see.
- Powering the USB Card
- Use SATA power only. Not SATA power/data splitter cable.

Unfortunately you need to destroy the USB 2 ports on the cMP front connector PCB. Apple are pricks and they use some type of solder that has a very high melting point (Somewhere above 400c). I assume to make you buy parts cause you destroy components trying to melt solder...
Most components won't survive above 400c. In fact I keep my iron at 340c.
I used my good cutters. They have a flat edge that enables you to have the cutting blade flush with a plat surface while cutting.

I used Sikaflex to adhere the USB 3 ports I added. It's Non-Conductive. That stuff will stick a mac truck to a ceiling with 1 tube. No joke. There is a cool metal cage apple have used to keep the Audio jack, 2x Firewire 800 & 2x USB ports in place. So you can place some Sikaflex on the edge of the USB 3 ports, place them and put the cage over the front holes. Then i just used some masking tape for extra strength pressure downward to the gluing surface.

All the bits. These Mac Pro's are made SO well. The last great Mac Pro IMO...

It is necessary to cut the USB 2 ports off the PCB. Just be careful! And take your time...

Front connector PCB place. Note the power button cable/header. This will only go ONE way into the PCB header.

This is the USB 3 face plate I bought. "USB 3.0 20 Pin 2 Ports Front Panel Floppy Disk Bay Hub Bracket Cable GT"
De-Solder the connectors from the PCB. Cost $10AUD

Sikaflex the connectors to the PCB.

This is the 'cage' I was talking about. It's very handy to ensure the ports are placed and aligned correctly.

You can see the Sikaflex once it is dry there if you look closely.

2x cables. Effectively you need about 40-50 cm worth of cable and 1x female and 1x male SATA power connectors.

Cut off those CRAP 4 pin molex connectors.

2x sizes of heat shring on the cables. 1 blac and 1 red. Then those other 2 (Black and blue) are for
the outside. To hold the expandable braided sleeve onto the cables. I ended up NOT using the blue heat shrink.
Tin the cables before you try to join them!

It is necessary to cut off that left edge on the male SATA connector.

Fits like a glove. That's the smallest heat shrink for once the cables are connected.
ON the cable before you solder!

Cable to ensure continued contact...

Tape the cables before you try thread the cables through the sleeve.

This image is upside down... Use these handy holders to help you solder. Or get your wife/girlfriend to hold the hot cables

1st layer of heat shrink.

2nd layer of heat shrink.

Outside heat shrink. This one actually has hot glue on the inside. That is worth considering buying.
A heat shrink with hot glue already on it. Holds the sleeve in place.

This is the hole I used to thread the power cable through..

Push the new USB 3 cables out of the way of the bottom cage while placing the bottom cage.

Bottom cage, Front Fan, GPU & Cables in place.

New USB 3 card.

Finished!

USB 3 ports now on the front!

Both front and back ports work. Fast transfers and I hooked up an Audio interface front and back with no problems

Excellent job! I have the same USB card, I will try to do the same mod.