USB 3.x PCIe Cards for Classic Mac Pro

[joevt]

You mean SATA II (3Gb/s = 300 MB/s; SATA III is 6Gb/s = 600 MB/s). The speed of the WD Black HDs are slower (202 MB/s for 4TB drivers, 227 MB/s for 6TB, according to their specification sheet pdf) than what I measured for my MacPro3,1 SATA II ports (268 MB/s). So, like I said in #2270, the drives are not currently limited by your MacPro5,1, so you probably won't see an improvement in a different enclosure.

It should be noted that it would be impossible to get 250 MB/s from all four drives bays of the Mac Pro simultaneously (such as with a RAID0) since the south bridge is limited to PCIe 1.0x4 (1000 MB/s). I think 200 MB/s might be doable though. Actually, another thread says 660 MB/s total is the max which is only 165 MB/s per drive.

Anyway, your RAID5 was significantly below 660 MB/s at 390 MB/s so I don't think the south bridge limit is a problem in that setup. I am not sure what the overhead of RAID5 is compared to RAID0. How much actual data (including parity) is being read when a benchmark says 390 MB/s for a RAID5 array?

 

[jscipione]

What is the easiest way / is there a way to power a USB3 card with every SATA bay filled? I need a new USB3 card and I'm getting sick of disconnect notices. I'm thinking about getting a Syba SD-PEX50055 2 port USB 3.0 with 2 port SATA III PCI-E 2.0 X4 card. It uses an Eton EJ168A and asmedia ASM1061 chipset and it provides USB power via a floppy connector. I realize that it won't yield maximum performance but I want to add some more hard drives and this seems like a good way to do it without giving up a slot... IF I can find a way to power the card and drives.

 

[trifero]

What is the easiest way / is there a way to power a USB3 card with every SATA bay filled? I need a new USB3 card and I'm getting sick of disconnect notices. I'm thinking about getting a Syba SD-PEX50055 2 port USB 3.0 with 2 port SATA III PCI-E 2.0 X4 card. It uses an Eton EJ168A and asmedia ASM1061 chipset and it provides USB power via a floppy connector. I realize that it won't yield maximum performance but I want to add some more hard drives and this seems like a good way to do it without giving up a slot... IF I can find a way to power the card and drives.

Take the power from the DVD power cables.

 

[jscipione]

Take the power from the DVD power cables.

Is there a way to do that without losing the port though like a pass-through? Both optical bays are filled with blu-ray burners.

 

[trifero]

Sure, a power cable splitter.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/CBLSATAPWRY/

 

[jscipione]

Sure, a power cable splitter.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/CBLSATAPWRY/

Ok but that's not going to work because I still need to get the data connection into the optical drive somehow. Maybe I could run a very short SATA cable? Does the same Y-splitter exist only with a data pass-through double slot connection instead of just the power pass-through?

 

[mavots]

You guys have done a great job describing the limits of HDD RAID set ups. I'll have the various enclosures and cards this coming weekend and will see what happens. I'll follow up with the results.
Someone mentioned that SoftRAID routes internal bay RAIDs through internal bay 4 and that this might impact a PCIe card in the top slot (also #4). Did I understand that correctly? I'll still have a 2x 6TB RAIDO in the SATAII internal drives. I'll move things around in the PCI slots and see if it makes much difference.
From reading all this, my takeaway is not to expect too much from the HDD RAIDs.

 

[trifero]

Sure, a power cable splitter.

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/CBLSATAPWRY/

You can use also

Ok but that's not going to work because I still need to get the data connection into the optical bays somehow. Maybe I could run a very short SATA cable? Does the sane Y-splitter exist only with a data pass-through double slot connection instead of just the power pass-through?

You mean you want to maintain the DVD drive, correct? You can do it, there is no problen, with a separated male/female sata data cable.

Here you have a built one, but it´s absurd to pay that, when you can do it for a 1-2 bucks more.

https://www.amazon.com/Lindy-SATA-Extension-Splitter-Cable/dp/B002N4TX86

 

[jscipione]

You can use also

You mean you want to maintain the DVD drive, correct? There you have a built one, but it´s absurd to pay that, when you can do it for a 1-2 bucks more.

https://www.amazon.com/Lindy-SATA-Extension-Splitter-Cable/dp/B002N4TX86

That cable costs more than the card itseld yet I'm still shocked that you found it! I think that will work, and it even includes a floppy connector! I wasn't sure it I could fit a regular SATA cable let me see if I can find a short one.

 

[trifero]

That cable costs more than the card itseld yet I'm still shocked that you found it! I think that will work, and it even includes a floppy connector! I wasn't sure it I could fit a regular SATA cable let me see if I can find a short one.

I can assure you you can do it more simple.

This kit for example, have all you need, and more… Just 7 bucks

https://www.amazon.com/Drive-Connection-Cables-Splitter-ST1003/dp/B01FD7R0ZM/ref=sr_1_7?__mk_es_US=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&keywords=sata+cable&qid=1555385297&s=electronics&sr=1-7

I dit the same some time ago.

 

[joevt]

What is the easiest way / is there a way to power a USB3 card with every SATA bay filled? I need a new USB3 card and I'm getting sick of disconnect notices. I'm thinking about getting a Syba SD-PEX50055 2 port USB 3.0 with 2 port SATA III PCI-E 2.0 X4 card. It uses an Eton EJ168A and asmedia ASM1061 chipset and it provides USB power via a floppy connector. I realize that it won't yield maximum performance but I want to add some more hard drives and this seems like a good way to do it without giving up a slot... IF I can find a way to power the card and drives.

The CalDigit FASTA-6GU3 Plus can use SATA power, so I used the cable linked below from one of the internal drive bays of the Mac Pro.
https://www.microsatacables.com/sat...sata-female-connectors6in-p22pm-2x15pf-7p-6in
The cable splits the power while passing data. I am able to fit a 2.5" SSD easily (I use an adhesive pad to hold the SSD in place). 3.5" drives may require some work because they are heavier and larger. They have a 6 inch and 2 inch cable. I choose the 6" because it's more flexible (I have the 2.5" SSD above the cable with the power and data facing out of the case).

The power cable in my MacPro3,1 DVD bay is molex only (12V, 5V) and therefore doesn't contain a 3.3V source for SATA. I don't know what devices require 3.3V or if the CalDigit card requires 3.3V. i used the SATA power just to be sure. Floppy power doesn't include 3.3V so molex power is sufficient in that case.

 

[jscipione]

Images are all messed up on the site (Magento.) Is this the cable?

Seems like I plug one end into the Mac Pro's 22-pin optical drive cable, plug the other end one of the power connectors and the data cable into the optical drive and then split off from the other power connector, right?

 

[trifero]

Images are all messed up on the site (Magento.) Is this the cable?

Seems like I plug one end into the Mac Pro's 22-pin optical drive cable, plug the other end one of the power connectors and the data cable into the optical drive and then split off from the other power connector, right?

That is

You have it here also..


https://www.amazon.com/SATA-Pin-Male-Female-Connectors/dp/B00ENMFX62

https://www.amazon.com/SATA-Pin-Male-Female-Connectors/dp/B00ENMFXLC

 

[crjackson2134]

I haven't tried this script, but if you are having the notification about your USB drive being ejected improperly after the machine goes to sleep, you may want to try this script.

Fix-usb-sleep

 

[jscipione]

Well I ordered the above splitter cable but I'm afraid that my plan of using a combined USB3/SATA adapter probably isn't going to work after all. The Etron (not Eton) EJ168A chipset only worked with a Mac OS X 10.8 driver that doesn't work so well on more modern releases anymore. Oh well, it might not be a total loss still if I can get a powered ASM2194 adapter like the Ableconn PUSB31P2A USB 3.1 Gen 2 2-Port Type-A PCI Express x4 Host Adapter Card I can get more speed out of it and by powering it and rid myself of pesky disconnect notices.

 

[joevt]

Well I ordered the above splitter cable but I'm afraid that my plan of using a combined USB3/SATA adapter probably isn't going to work after all. The Etron (not Eton) EJ168A chipset only worked with a Mac OS X 10.8 driver that doesn't work so well on more modern releases anymore. Oh well, it might not be a total loss still if I can get a powered ASM2194 adapter like the Ableconn PUSB31P2A USB 3.1 Gen 2 2-Port Type-A PCI Express x4 Host Adapter Card I can get more speed out of it and by powering it and rid myself of pesky disconnect notices.

What's a ASM2194? The Ableconn PUSB31P2A appears to be a ASM1142 based card (probably PCIe 2.0 x2 since it uses an x4 connector and the only other option is PCIe 3.0 x1).

 

[jscipione]

What's a ASM2194? The Ableconn PUSB31P2A appears to be a ASM1142 based card (probably PCIe 2.0 x2 since it uses an x4 connector and the only other option is PCIe 3.0 x1).

Sorry I meant ASM2142 not ASM2194 which is used by the slightly different Ableconn PU31-2C-2 dual USB-C version of the card. Both adapters appear to be PCIe 2.0 x2 cards electrically and x4 physically one has ASM1142 and 2 USB-A ports the other ASM2142 and 2 USB-C ports.

 

[joevt]

Sorry I meant ASM2142 not ASM2194 which is used by the slightly different Ableconn PU31-2C-2 dual USB-C version of the card. Both adapters appear to be PCIe 2.0 x2 cards electrically and x4 physically one has ASM1142 and 2 USB-A ports the other ASM2142 and 2 USB-C ports.

The ASM2142 is electrically PCIe 3.0 x2 (the product page says "PCIe Gen3 x2") but should be able to negotiate PCIe 2.0 x2 in your Mac Pro. I don't think it will perform much better than the ASM1142 in that case since it will be limited to PCIe 2.0 x2 like the ASM1142. Full performance of the ASM2142 requires a PCIe switch to convert the fast/narrow PCIe 3.0 x2 to the slower/wider PCIe 2.0 x4. The HighPoint RocketU 1344A has that switch (used to connect two ASM2142 to provide four ports). That said, I don't think you'll notice the difference in performance (we're talking about going from 750 MB/s to 900 MB/s for sequential reads).

 

[Mac_User 0101]

Anyway, your RAID5 was significantly below 660 MB/s at 390 MB/s so I don't think the south bridge limit is a problem in that setup. I am not sure what the overhead of RAID5 is compared to RAID0. How much actual data (including parity) is being read when a benchmark says 390 MB/s for a RAID5 array?

RAID 5 suffers from a massive performance loss particularly with the writes. Theoretical Read performance is 2x and theoretical write is 1x (very poor for small files). It also suffers massive performance degradation during partial outage. But you get a storage efficiency of 2/3 (66.7%) and a fault tolerance of 1 drive.

RAID 10 is a smarter option for mavots if using 4 or more identical drives. Theoretical Read is 4x and write 2x at the expense of it's storage efficiency of 1/2 (50%). It offers faster performance than RAID 5 b/c it doesn't need to manage parity. Same fault tolerance of 1 drive.

 

[ActionableMango]

I dit the same some time ago.

It's not clear to me how you've routed the SATA power cable from the optical bay into the PCIe bay. The only route I found when doing this was a square hole used by the existing optical bay cables. That hole is too small for the SATA power connector to pass through. Maybe you have found a different route?

In my case I had the Lindy cable and was able to route Molex power through by removing the connector, passing the wires through, and then reattaching the connector.

 

[joevt]

It's not clear to me how you've routed the SATA power cable from the optical bay into the PCIe bay. The only route I found when doing this was a square hole used by the existing optical bay cables. That hole is too small for the SATA power connector to pass through. Maybe you have found a different route?

In my case I had the Lindy cable and was able to route Molex power through by removing the connector, passing the wires through, and then reattaching the connector.

In my MacPro3,1, there is a hole in the corner near the location of the HD Bay 1 SATA connector. I unscrewed the HD Bay 1 SATA connector to make more room when passing the Molex power extension cable through. I did not have to remove the Molex connector of the power extension cable. Once the power extension cable was passed through the hole, I restored the HD Bay 1 SATA connector. I haven't tried putting SATA power through the hole since my MacPro3,1 doesn't have SATA power in the optical bay.

I supposed, if necessary, you could make a custom SATA power cable. You buy the cable separate from the connectors. The connectors snap into place. Attach them after passing the cable through.

 

[trifero]

It's not clear to me how you've routed the SATA power cable from the optical bay into the PCIe bay. The only route I found when doing this was a square hole used by the existing optical bay cables. That hole is too small for the SATA power connector to pass through. Maybe you have found a different route?

In my case I had the Lindy cable and was able to route Molex power through by removing the connector, passing the wires through, and then reattaching the connector.

Don´t have that cable installed now, no need since some years ago. But I think I used that hole behind the HD1 bay. Are you sure it´s not big enough?

 

[ActionableMango]

Don´t have that cable installed now, no need since some years ago. But I think I used that hole behind the HD1 bay. Are you sure it´s not big enough?

I had a 4,1 and 5,1. The hole I used is the hole toward the front of the case where the existing optical cables already go through.

I don't know what an HD1 bay hole is. Is yours a 3,1?

 

[trifero]

No, no, I mean the hole that there is towards one of the sides. Cables arise just beside tha HD1 bay port.

Like in this video, though this one is a 3.1

 

[joevt]

No, no, I mean the hole that there is towards one of the sides. Cables arise just beside tha HD1 bay port.

Like in this video, though this one is a 3.1

Yes, that video shows the hole in the corner (same as my MacPro3,1) and it shows the four harddrive bays and their 22 pin SATA connectors that are each held in place by two screws. Bay 1 is the left most, above the front fan assembly. Remove the hard drives and the fan assembly. Unscrew the bay 1 22 pin SATA connector to make more room when passing the extension cable through the hole.