Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

drewsof07

macrumors 68020
Oct 30, 2006
2,016
428
Ohio
Wondering if you know how much power will this use? I think I'm running into my max and cannot find any specs on their products as to power consumption.

Should be about what the SSD is drawing. I don't think the card itself uses a lot of power.
 

CrazyNurse

macrumors regular
Oct 23, 2012
153
3
Win 7 (Bootcamp)

Do any of you know if a 2ND SSD with Win7/Bootcamp hooked up to the Velocity will work?

i.e. OSX SSD mounted on the card and Win7 SSD mounted in optical bay but plugged into the extra SATA3 port on the Velocity.
 
Last edited:

drewsof07

macrumors 68020
Oct 30, 2006
2,016
428
Ohio
Do any of you know if a 2ND SSD with Win7/Bootcamp hooked up to the Velocity will work?

i.e. OSX SSD mounted on the card and Win7 SSD mounted in optical bay but plugged into the extra SATA3 port on the Velocity.

I don't think it's bootable, since x2 is recognized as an external drive. But the drive would show up.
 

Gav Mack

macrumors 68020
Jun 15, 2008
2,193
22
Sagittarius A*
I have just registered so please excuse if this is not the way to do it.

I noticed that DPUser mentioned that they had put several SSD's mounted on top of their optical drive. I currently have a Samsung SSD mounted there and want to put in an additional drive connected to an Apricorn Velocity x2. Is it possible for someone to give me a parts list? I essentially want to keep my optical drive and install 3 SSD's ... #1 as a User drive attached directly to the Apricorn, #2 as a Scratch drive connected from the additional sata port on the Apricorn and #3 as a Boot drive in the optical bay and connected to the motherboard. I'd not particularly concerned about boot time.

So ...

1. Do I need a male to female sata cable from the Apricorn to the SSD?
2. How do I split the power supply from the molex connector in the Mac optical bay so that I can supply power for 2 SSD's? The other supply will be connected the the optical drive.
3. I assume I can just buy a short (50cm) sata (data) cable to connect the SSD boot drive to the original mac molex connector. I know this should be male to female although from what I understand I may need to shave it down so I can plug it in beside the cable I'll presumably use to split the power.

I hope that makes sense. I already have the Boot and separate User drive configured and working. I just want to add a Scratch drive attached the the Apricorn.

My Mac Pro is a 6 core 3.33GHz machine.

Please let me know if this question should be asked in another forum.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1675846/

This is the thread for a second SSD stuck on top. Unlike the op I used thermal sticky pads and not static creating Velcro and due to the cards orientation being level in the tower gravity assists. I don't see why you can't stack a third on as long as it doesn't interfere with slot 3, iirc there was a pretty big gap to the next slot. The 840 evo's are 7mm drives and I stuck small 2 thermal sticky pad squares on top of each other at each corner. Optical power obviously needed. You will need a long SATA extension routed from the odd bay (odd power ports are SATA not IDE like the 3,1 though right now I've had quite a few Peroni's and could be wrong lol) and then SATA splitters to power all the drives. They use a fraction of power of a 3.5 spinning disk so will be fine off the one extension.

I had major aggro getting the drive to boot 7x64 off a mixed partition in the pcb bay of the x2 in my 3,1, I gave up cos it refused to boot black screen legacy period. But using port 2 booting off a separate drive it works great. Not so sure the x2 will boot windows with another bootable SATA controller in one of the other slots, think that might be a problem. I personally am very happy with the performance of individual OS SSD's booting off the x2 and the sleds reserved for spinners.
 

CrazyNurse

macrumors regular
Oct 23, 2012
153
3
No Win7/Bootcamp SSD on Velocity x2

I don't think it's bootable, since x2 is recognized as an external drive. But the drive would show up.

Oh, you are right, Sir.

I just got a response from Apricorn saying a separate Win 7 SSD needs to be directly connected to the motherboard (sleds or optical bay), not the pcie card.:(
 

m4v3r1ck

macrumors 68030
Nov 2, 2011
2,565
506
The Netherlands
Oh, you are right, Sir.

I just got a response from Apricorn saying a separate Win 7 SSD needs to be directly connected to the motherboard (sleds or optical bay), not the pcie card.:(

Exactly! :(

That's why I have a seperate SSD in IcyDock in sled #1 (windows 8 x64)

GL & Cheers
 

Gav Mack

macrumors 68020
Jun 15, 2008
2,193
22
Sagittarius A*
Oh, you are right, Sir.

I just got a response from Apricorn saying a separate Win 7 SSD needs to be directly connected to the motherboard (sleds or optical bay), not the pcie card.:(

If that is true Costabunny and myself must be booting a separate bootcamp SSD off the X2's second port via quantum SATA 3 theory. The font of all knowledge for their cards is their tech support!
 

CrazyNurse

macrumors regular
Oct 23, 2012
153
3
If that is true Costabunny and myself must be booting a separate bootcamp SSD off the X2's second port via quantum SATA 3 theory. The font of all knowledge for their cards is their tech support!

So, you two ARE running:

1.) a separate Bootcamp SSD w/Win7 off the SATA3 port successfully while
2.) running OSX on another separate SSD directly mounted to the x2?

And this is all working without any kind of hack?
 

Gav Mack

macrumors 68020
Jun 15, 2008
2,193
22
Sagittarius A*
So, you two ARE running:

1.) a separate Bootcamp SSD w/Win7 off the SATA3 port successfully while
2.) running OSX on another separate SSD directly mounted to the x2?

And this is all working without any kind of hack?

Correct, I am doing exactly that with my 3,1 and costabunny did certainly also do it with her 5,1. I think she has sold it since but she posted the solution on this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1675846/

With pictures.

And I did likewise. You do have to setup bootcamp in the sled and make sure the Windows loads the standard AHCI drivers for the x2 when it is empty. I had both SSD's in the sleds, powered down, moved them both to the X2 sticking it on top and it boots black screen legacy mode Windows 7x64 in SATA3 off the second port with OSX on the primary on the PCB holder.

The only 'hacks' were the thermal sticky pads and power extension though Apricorn obviously think it can't be done. Of course not :D
 

CrazyNurse

macrumors regular
Oct 23, 2012
153
3
Correct, I am doing exactly that with my 3,1 and costabunny did certainly also do it with her 5,1. I think she has sold it since but she posted the solution on this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1675846/

With pictures.

And I did likewise. You do have to setup bootcamp in the sled and make sure the Windows loads the standard AHCI drivers for the x2 when it is empty. I had both SSD's in the sleds, powered down, moved them both to the X2 sticking it on top and it boots black screen legacy mode Windows 7x64 in SATA3 off the second port with OSX on the primary on the PCB holder.

The only 'hacks' were the thermal sticky pads and power extension though Apricorn obviously think it can't be done. Of course not :D

OK, thanks! I'll give it a go.
 

Gav Mack

macrumors 68020
Jun 15, 2008
2,193
22
Sagittarius A*
OK, thanks! I'll give it a go.

Lost my confidence in Apricorn support somewhat when I couldnt get it to boot off a dual partition SSD in the PCB. Offered my technical help via email, got given some very vague replies with advice off the 'manager' which gave me the hint of 'you dont know what you're doing'. When I said I could attempt to fix it by using rEFInd to get the legacy booting correctly and offer my help I got the some total of zero replies back via email. Silence is golden!

Was resigned to leaving it in the sled forever till Costabunny, not Apricorn came up with the fix!
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.