MP 1,1-5,1 Will the Rivo M2 PCIE X4 adapter work with my Mac Pro 4,1 flashed to 5,1?

[iluvmacs99]

I am planning to add a 250Gb Samsung 790 EVO or HP 920EX into my Mac Pro so I can use it as a cache and read drive for my video work. I already have an SSD raid 0 boot drive as well as a HD raid 0 boot drive and a normal storage drive underneath the DVD drive bay, so only looking for a plain NVME drive for reading and caching. That's why I am considering this card and a low cost 250Gb NVMe drive. Anyone know that this card will be ok? Or any dumb PCIE card? The recommended Lycom DT-120 is too expensive where I live, but is it necessary to get the Lycom?

https://www.amazon.ca/Rivo-PCI-Adapter-Card-Supports/dp/B01N09W21D

Thanks!

 

[YZFNYC]

I am planning to add a 250Gb Samsung 790 EVO or HP 920EX into my Mac Pro so I can use it as a cache and read drive for my video work. I already have an SSD raid 0 boot drive as well as a HD raid 0 boot drive and a normal storage drive underneath the DVD drive bay, so only looking for a plain NVME drive for reading and caching. That's why I am considering this card and a low cost 250Gb NVMe drive. Anyone know that this card will be ok? Or any dumb PCIE card? The recommended Lycom DT-120 is too expensive where I live, but is it necessary to get the Lycom?

https://www.amazon.ca/Rivo-PCI-Adapter-Card-Supports/dp/B01N09W21D

Thanks!

You will need a heatsink If you get the Lycom or Rivo cards. I would recommend the RIITOP card.

https://www.amazon.ca/RIITOP-NVMe-P...ds=RIITOP&qid=1562275221&s=electronics&sr=1-1

To save on buying a heatsink for the drive too..

Also if you really wanna go on the cheap a 256GB NVMe drive this has good reviews working on a Mac Pro 5,1.

https://www.amazon.ca/Sabrent-Rocke...MQSZ5QARRFM&psc=1&refRID=65Y0F565JMQSZ5QARRFM

It's a lot cheaper in CANADA then the Samsung $94.99 vs. $59.99. The Sabrent is Toshiba inside. So you can save up or even go up to the 512 for $71.39:

https://www.amazon.ca/Sabrent-SB-RO...5BKREDB81RP&psc=1&refRID=TF028AC9R5BKREDB81RP

 

[iluvmacs99]

You will need a heatsink If you get the Lycom or Rivo cards. I would recommend the RIITOP card.

https://www.amazon.ca/RIITOP-NVMe-P...ds=RIITOP&qid=1562275221&s=electronics&sr=1-1

To save on buying a heatsink for the drive too..

Also if you really wanna go on the cheap a 256GB NVMe drive this has good reviews working on a Mac Pro 5,1.

https://www.amazon.ca/Sabrent-Rocke...MQSZ5QARRFM&psc=1&refRID=65Y0F565JMQSZ5QARRFM

It's a lot cheaper in CANADA then the Samsung $94.99 vs. $59.99. The Sabrent is Toshiba inside. So you can save up or even go up to the 512 for $71.39:

https://www.amazon.ca/Sabrent-SB-RO...5BKREDB81RP&psc=1&refRID=TF028AC9R5BKREDB81RP

Thank you for the reply. This is very helpful to me. I like the price of the Sabrent 256Gb and the RIITOP card looks very interesting indeed!

 

[jbarley]

You will need a heatsink If you get the Lycom or Rivo cards. I would recommend the RIITOP card.

https://www.amazon.ca/RIITOP-NVMe-P...ds=RIITOP&qid=1562275221&s=electronics&sr=1-1

To save on buying a heatsink for the drive too..

Also if you really wanna go on the cheap a 256GB NVMe drive this has good reviews working on a Mac Pro 5,1.

https://www.amazon.ca/Sabrent-Rocke...MQSZ5QARRFM&psc=1&refRID=65Y0F565JMQSZ5QARRFM

It's a lot cheaper in CANADA then the Samsung $94.99 vs. $59.99. The Sabrent is Toshiba inside. So you can save up or even go up to the 512 for $71.39:

https://www.amazon.ca/Sabrent-SB-RO...5BKREDB81RP&psc=1&refRID=TF028AC9R5BKREDB81RP

The reviews on this Blade, (all MS windows BTW) refer to the lack of Cloning ability.
Does this issue apply to Mac users and CCC also?

 

[tsialex]

The reviews on this Blade, (all MS windows BTW) refer to the lack of Cloning ability.
Does this issue apply to Mac users and CCC also?

The problem is that if you use a clone tool that works at sector level, cloning won't work from a 512bytes/sector to a 4096bytes/sector. Tools that work at file level, rsync/ditto/etc, work correctly.

I'm not sure, but I think that CCC works at file level.

 

[flaubert]

The problem is that if you use a clone tool that works at sector level, cloning won't work from a 512bytes/sector for a 4096bytes/sector. Tools that work at file level, rsync/ditto/etc, work correctly.

I'm not sure, but I think that CCC works at file level.

Whenever I run Carbon Copy Cloner I see two instances of rsync in the Activity Monitor, so I think that confirms your last statement, tsialex.

 

[YZFNYC]

Thank you for the reply. This is very helpful to me. I like the price of the Sabrent 256Gb and the RIITOP card looks very interesting indeed!

I currently have it working great with macOS Catalina Beta and worked with Mojave too... If you want to use it for your OS drive it made booting on my old Mac Pro 4,1 way way faster then OWC PCIe SSD drive. Also as for cloning. @tsialex is correct this uses a 4096bytes/sector not 512bytes/sector but there is a tool on Sabrent website to change it if you like. Only issue is that it has to be done in Windows so hopefully you have a windows partition.

https://www.sabrent.com/download/sb-rocket-256/

Since I always do clean formats and transfer needed files and software independently It's not an issue for me and probably wouldn't be one for you but since it was brought up, I figured I should address it.

 

[tsialex]

I currently have it working great with macOS Catalina Beta and worked with Mojave too... If you want to use it for your OS drive it made booting on my old Mac Pro 4,1 way way faster then OWC PCIe SSD drive. Also as for cloning. @tsialex is correct this uses a 4096bytes/sector not 512bytes/sector but there is a tool on Sabrent website to change it if you like. Only issue is that it has to be done in Windows so hopefully you have a windows partition.

https://www.sabrent.com/download/sb-rocket-256/

Since I always do clean formats and transfer needed files and software independently It's not an issue for me and probably wouldn't be one for you but since it was brought up, I figured I should address it.

Seems this blade is the only solution for Sierra holdouts that don't cost an arm and a leg. If anyone test it I'll add it to the blade thread as a Sierra cost-conscious solution for anyone needing a NVMe blade that still works with 10.12.6.

 

[jbarley]

So here I sit all ready to pull the trigger on this NVME blade and PCIe adapter card for my aging 4,1/5,1 MP.
Anyone here think this combo should work for me?
https://www.amazon.ca/RIITOP-NVMe-P...ds=RIITOP&qid=1562275221&s=electronics&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.ca/Sabrent-SB-RO...5BKREDB81RP&psc=1&refRID=TF028AC9R5BKREDB81RP

 

[YZFNYC]

So here I sit all ready to pull the trigger on this NVME blade and PCIe adapter card for my aging 4,1/5,1 MP.
Anyone here think this combo should work for me?
https://www.amazon.ca/RIITOP-NVMe-P...ds=RIITOP&qid=1562275221&s=electronics&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.ca/Sabrent-SB-RO...5BKREDB81RP&psc=1&refRID=TF028AC9R5BKREDB81RP

This combo works great for me in Mojave and in Catalina Beta. I just have the 1TB drive instead of the 512. I am actually considering get another one.

 

[jbarley]

This combo works great for me in Mojave and in Catalina Beta. I just have the 1TB drive instead of the 512. I am actually considering get another one.

Thank you for replying, can't do any better than getting first-hand experience.

 

[icemanmelb]

Seems this blade is the only solution for Sierra holdouts that don't cost an arm and a leg. If anyone test it I'll add it to the blade thread as a Sierra cost-conscious solution for anyone needing a NVMe blade that still works with 10.12.6.

Hi Tsialex or anyone,
I've got a friend who is running MacOS 10.9.4 on a Classic Mac Pro 2010 with a 1TB harddisk, 8Gb Ram, Nvidia GT120. Reason is due to some old publishing software and lots of documents. Im investigating if I could take it up to MacOS 10.12 and a NVME Blade. So Not sure if the Sabrent NVME + perhaps a Silverstone PCIe x4 adaptor https://www.mwave.com.au/product/silverstone-ecm23-m2-to-pcie-x4-adapter-card-with-heatsink-ac21751 would work with the above setup? My intention is to flash it all the way to almost the latest OS but then revert back to MacOS 10.12 as a running system for software and hardware compatibility.

Not sure if the above suggestion makes sense or would work. Im only askign about the Silverstone as it's available here in this country. Happy for any other suggestions of PCIe Adaptor

regards

Paul
Melbourne, Australia

 

[tsialex]

Hi Tsialex or anyone,
I've got a friend who is running MacOS 10.9.4 on a Classic Mac Pro 2010 with a 1TB harddisk, 8Gb Ram, Nvidia GT120. Reason is due to some old publishing software and lots of documents. Im investigating if I could take it up to MacOS 10.12 and a NVME Blade. So Not sure if the Sabrent NVME + perhaps a Silverstone PCIe x4 adaptor https://www.mwave.com.au/product/silverstone-ecm23-m2-to-pcie-x4-adapter-card-with-heatsink-ac21751 would work with the above setup? My intention is to flash it all the way to almost the latest OS but then revert back to MacOS 10.12 as a running system for software and hardware compatibility.

Not sure if the above suggestion makes sense or would work. Im only askign about the Silverstone as it's available here in this country. Happy for any other suggestions of PCIe Adaptor

regards

Paul
Melbourne, Australia

Please read the first post of the thread PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI, see the limitations and the requirements of the NVMe support (10.2.6 = 4KB/sector, 10.13 = both 4KB/sector and 512KB/sector, BootROM 144.0.0.0.0).

With a GT120 you can't even upgrade to BootROM that supports NVMe natively.

 

[icemanmelb]

With a GT120 you can't even upgrade to BootROM that supports NVMe natively.

What a Pity, I guess the Sabrent NVME can do 4KB/sector with supplied software. The next thing I need to find is the graphics card. Thank you for that clarification.

regards

Paul

** Update ** I found an Apple MAC PRO Nvidia GT 640 1GB PCI-E Video Card for the Apple Mac Pro Native support from OSX Mojave ***

so my quest to get my friends MacPro 2009 to 10.12 Sierra with NVME Drive & PCIe Card Continues.

So as tsialex pointed out, MacOS 10.2.6 = 4KB/sector which https://www.sabrent.com/download/sb-rocket-256/ seems to support. Next is finding a card here in this country which support the above card.

Can anyone please suggestion what PCIe card would work with the Sabernet NVME at 4KB/sector and MacOS 10.12? I would like it to be the boot drive too.

Not sure if Im asking too much. I'll go back to reading the guide just to make sure I haven't missed anything

regards

Paul