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USB C Cards for Mac Pro 5,1/4,1

J

Jigga Beef

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 11, 2009
252
23
Philadelphia, Pa
Hello I am hoping to add some USB C ports to my early 2009 4,1 / firmware updated 5,1 mac pro.

I have a USB 3.0 card added to my last PCI slot current looking to swap that out.

Ideally the new card will have 2 USB C ports and 2 USB 3.1 (Type A) ports as i use 2 of the ports in the back right now for the added speed.

I could live with 1 USB-C Port though.

Any ideas?
 
h9826790

h9826790

macrumors P6
Apr 3, 2014
16,656
8,587
Hong Kong
Jigga Beef said:
Hello I am hoping to add some USB C ports to my early 2009 4,1 / firmware updated 5,1 mac pro.

I have a USB 3.0 card added to my last PCI slot current looking to swap that out.

Ideally the new card will have 2 USB C ports and 2 USB 3.1 (Type A) ports as i use 2 of the ports in the back right now for the added speed.

I could live with 1 USB-C Port though.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Which OS you are running (or going to run) with the USB-C card?
 
J

Jigga Beef

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 11, 2009
252
23
Philadelphia, Pa
I will be using High Seirra.

I am not necessarily concerned with display alternate mode I have 2 decent video cards powering my 3 displays.
 
Susurs

Susurs

macrumors 68000
Jun 18, 2010
1,609
11,017
Interested in this as well. I would need at least 1x A, 1x C ports.
 
pierrox

pierrox

macrumors 6502
Jun 19, 2015
271
81
Paris, France
CalDigit makes great stuff. I don't know why they removed the internal Sata on this card (previous version had it). I guess one could run an eSata cable back into the case to plug to an internal SSD with SATA III speed.
 
TheIguana

TheIguana

macrumors 6502a
Sep 26, 2004
678
492
Canada
macuser453787 said:
The CalDigit FASTA 6GU3 Plus meets this requirement, and also includes 2 ESATA ports.

I have this card in my 4,1 --> 5,1 and it works well.
Click to expand...

I have seen that card come up in conversations before, I've noticed that it looks like it has a SATA power port on the end of it. Do you need to run power from the optical disk drive to get it to run or does it pull all the power it needs from the PCI bus?
 
M

macuser453787

macrumors 6502a
May 19, 2012
578
151
Galatians 3:13-14
TheIguana said:
I have seen that card come up in conversations before, I've noticed that it looks like it has a SATA power port on the end of it. Do you need to run power from the optical disk drive to get it to run or does it pull all the power it needs from the PCI bus?
Click to expand...

The card is powered through the PCIe bus, however some USB devices with greater electrical demands require their own external powering.
 
ActionableMango

ActionableMango

macrumors G3
Sep 21, 2010
9,613
6,909
I'm curious what you people are hooking up to the USB-C port.

I've made mine useful only by buying a USB-C to Lightning cable, but obviously that was going out of my way.
 
splifingate

splifingate

macrumors 68000
Nov 27, 2013
1,918
1,708
ATL
ActionableMango said:
I'm curious what you people are hooking up to the USB-C port.

I've made mine useful only by buying a USB-C to Lightning cable, but obviously that was going out of my way.
Click to expand...

I'm hooked to an external 2.5 enclosure with a SATA v.3 drive for ad hoc 1:1 imaging/backup...
 
ActionableMango

ActionableMango

macrumors G3
Sep 21, 2010
9,613
6,909
Jigga Beef said:
Bought this card, but can't figure how what kind of cable / adapter I need to power it.

Anybody have any ideas?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076WK3LH6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Click to expand...

That is a bus-powered card so it should work fine with anything that isn't super power hungry like charging an iPad or something like that. But if you want to hook up the optional supplemental power, it's a SATA connector.

Unfortunately it uses the NEC chipset, which is not a great choice for Macs since the drivers are not built into MacOS. Personally I would have bought a card with an Apple-supported chip like Fresco Logic or Asmedia.
 
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M

macuser453787

macrumors 6502a
May 19, 2012
578
151
Galatians 3:13-14
pierre1610 said:
Can a thunderbolt 2 drive be used with this on a cmp 5,1
Click to expand...

From Sonnet's tech specs page for this product, under the Thunderbolt Compatibility section:

"Supports USB 3 peripherals on a Mac or Windows PC when installed in a Thunderbolt 2 or Thunderbolt 3 PCIe expansion system"

So it can be installed into a Thunderbolt expansion chassis, which would then connect to a Thunderbolt-compatible Mac (none of the cMP's are compatible -- 5,1 or lower), at which point a USB3 peripheral (such as an external hard drive) could be connected to the Allegro card.
 
iGobbleoff

iGobbleoff

macrumors 6502
May 2, 2011
354
469
Has anyone tried an eGPU with this card? I have a Mantiz case with a Vega 56 on my 17” MBP now, but have picked up a 2009 (flashed to 5,1) to replace it.
 
M

macuser453787

macrumors 6502a
May 19, 2012
578
151
Galatians 3:13-14
iGobbleoff said:
Has anyone tried an eGPU with this card? I have a Mantiz case with a Vega 56 on my 17” MBP now, but have picked up a 2009 (flashed to 5,1) to replace it.
Click to expand...

eGPU through USB3? If that's even possible, it's probably not a good idea for fast I/O between GPU and computer.

Speaking of possibility, is there even such a thing as a PCIe expander chassis that has a USB interface?
 
iGobbleoff

iGobbleoff

macrumors 6502
May 2, 2011
354
469
macuser453787 said:
eGPU through USB3? If that's even possible, it's probably not a good idea for fast I/O between GPU and computer.

Speaking of possibility, is there even such a thing as a PCIe expander chassis that has a USB interface?
Click to expand...

No, with usb-c/tb3 port on these cards?
 
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