SATA 3 Anyone!

[Vapor matt]

Well I've got a mac 4.1 that i updated to 5.1 fitted a hex W3680 + 1333 memory, and thought SATA 3 would be nice and found this card which comes up in lion with native drivers and gives me SATA 3 and 400+ MBS read speeds!


Now Iam happy!

[theSeb]

What's the card and where from? (in the uk as well)

[Vapor matt]

The card can be found here


http://www.amazon.co.uk/PCIE-SATA-eS...=5336090759-21

and it works a treat, very fast with my vertex 3 SSD apps open in a blink of the eye

[kgapp]

Originally Posted by Vapor matt

Well I've got a mac 4.1 that i updated to 5.1 fitted a hex W3680 + 1333 memory, and thought SATA 3 would be nice and found this card which comes up in lion with native drivers and gives me SATA 3 and 400+ MBS read speeds!


Now Iam happy!

Image

I am also curious what card you are using. More importantly, can you boot from it? I haven't seen one yet that was capable of booting in OS X.

[Vapor matt]

I am also curious what card you are using. More importantly, can you boot from it? I haven't seen one yet that was capable of booting in OS X.

Iam booting from it now

[kgapp]

Originally Posted by Vapor matt

Iam booting from it now

Image

Well that is definitely good news to me. All the other cards have been reported to not be capable of booting in OS X. Now I just need to find myself one of these here in the U.S.

Do you have the SSD in a standard drive bay or is it in your optical? I am curious as to how I will be able to attach a cable to a drive in a drive sled. Can I do this easily or does it require modifications?

[Vapor matt]

well i have bought a special cable, a serial ATA power extension cable,( has a male and female end to it) i used sled 4 for the vertex and used servo tape to attach the drive to sled. took power with said cable direct from M/B at sled 4 and connected SATA cable to drive from PCIE controller which is directly under sled 4.

when you open the case it all looks normal just a PCIE controller and serial at a cable in view, very neat and tidy.

will take a picture tomorrow when i can find my digi camera

[kgapp]

Originally Posted by Vapor matt

will take a picture tomorrow when i can find my digi camera

Yes, a picture would be most helpful. Thanks for the good info.

[ActionableMango]

You could use this to save your sleds for 3.5" drives and increase overall drive capacity.

http://www.transintl.com/store/categ...estTimeOut=500

[Loa]

Hello

Two questions:

-There are two types of PCIe slots in the Mac Pros, 2 at 16X usually reserved for GPUs, and 2 other slots at 4X. Do we need to put the SATA3 card in a 16X slot to have the full speed?

-does the transintl multi sled interfere with larger GPU cards?

Thanks

Loa

P.S. Oh, we can find that card on eBay for much cheaper than amazon. Search for pcie and sata3, and make sure the card is the same (i.e. chipset ASM1061).

[Honbe]

Maybe it would be easier and better to use this: http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/in...duct_id=189%20

[nanofrog]

Originally Posted by Loa

-There are two types of PCIe slots in the Mac Pros, 2 at 16X usually reserved for GPUs, and 2 other slots at 4X. Do we need to put the SATA3 card in a 16X slot to have the full speed?

No, as it's only a 1x lane card.

Couple of notes:

1. It would be advisable to run a single SSD on it though (PCIe 2.0 lane is good for 500MB/s, which could throttle on a single SSD, and almost certainly so when running 2x SSD's simultaneously).
2. Slots 3 & 4 actually share the same 4x lanes via a PCIe switch, so running cards simultaneously can slow you down a bit as well.

[Vapor matt]

No, as it's only a 1x lane card.

Couple of notes:

It runs fine in both X4 PCIE slots aswell as the 16X PCIE slot, this is with one SSD drive attached to the card, havnt got 2 SATA 3 drives to try. runs the same speed on the 4X as 16X

[xgman]

Originally Posted by Vapor matt

The card can be found here


http://www.amazon.co.uk/PCIE-SATA-eS...=5336090759-21

and it works a treat, very fast with my vertex 3 SSD apps open in a blink of the eye

Who makes this card? No info here. ??

[JavaTheHut]

http://www.ebay.ca

Seems like the same card? chipset ASM1061

[reebzor]

Originally Posted by JavaTheHut

http://www.ebay.ca

Seems like the same card? chipset ASM1061

Looks the same, heres a US link: eBay

[nanofrog]

Originally Posted by Vapor matt

It runs fine in both X4 PCIE slots aswell as the 16X PCIE slot, this is with one SSD drive attached to the card, havnt got 2 SATA 3 drives to try. runs the same speed on the 4X as 16X

Of course it would work in a 4x or 16x lane slot.

The point was that it's a waste to use a 16x lane slot for a 1x lane card, so using a 4x lane slot is the way to go (as 4x is the smallest slot width offered in the MP).

And that there are limitations with this and similar SATA controller chips (1x PCIe gen 2.0 spec based controller = max throughput of 500MB/s). Now keep in mind that a single 6.0Gb/s SATA port can sustain ~540 - 550MB/s, so it's actually possible to throttle a 6.0Gb/s SSD on such a card, let alone running two of them.

[Neodym]

Originally Posted by ActionableMango

You could use this to save your sleds for 3.5" drives and increase overall drive capacity.

Sharkoon even offers a solution for six 2.5" drives in one 5.25" bay (also available for 4 drives). Admitted - cable routing would probably be more of a hassle there. But combined you could pack the MacPro to the limit:

Both optical bays with the Sharkoon adapter = 12 2.5" drives.
The TransIntl adapter you linked makes for another 4 2.5" drives.
Makes 16 2.5" drives PLUS 4 3.5" drives (or alternatively PLUS 8 2.5" drives in the 3.5" bays).

So what could one do with 24(!) 2.5" drives in a MacPro? That would be 12TB of disk space when taking comparably inexpensive magnetic drives with 500GB each. IIRC you can get 1TB in a 2.5" form factor these days, which would result in 24TB of disk space internally(!). Take that, iMac!

Though even more important - how could one come even close to properly support them in terms of ports and speeds?

[xgman]

What, does somebody make this card in their basement? It can't have a manufacturer listed?

[Vapor matt]

Of course it would work in a 4x or 16x lane slot.

The point was that it's a waste to use a 16x lane slot for a 1x lane card, so using a 4x lane slot is the way to go (as 4x is the smallest slot width offered in the MP).

And that there are limitations with this and similar SATA controller chips (1x PCIe gen 2.0 spec based controller = max throughput of 500MB/s). Now keep in mind that a single 6.0Gb/s SATA port can sustain ~540 - 550MB/s, so it's actually possible to throttle a 6.0Gb/s SSD on such a card, let alone running two of them.

Hi nanofrog, I totally agree with what your saying, as the 4X slot is no slower than the 16X slot and yes it will throttle a sata 3 SSD drive marginally, but its still a lot faster than the mac 4.1 5.1 SATA 2 system. to which iam seeing very nearly double the speed and through put. even built in SATA 3 on some M/Boards PC based are not reaching full speed. but over my SATA 2 SSD this vertex 3 with the card beats it at double the speed. so for us waiting for the new mac pro with SATA 3 we can now get at least 1 SSD SATA 3 drive running almost at full speed using a very cheap card in a PCIE X4 slot.

also some who won't be buying new mac pro when they finally arrive will benefit from SATA 3 speed on there older mac pros.

[initialsBB]

Originally Posted by nanofrog

[*]Slots 3 & 4 actually share the same 4x lanes via a PCIe switch, so running cards simultaneously can slow you down a bit as well.[/LIST]

The description for the ASM on amazon.fr says that it only has 2 ports, with dip switches to select internal/external.

[JavaTheHut]

Originally Posted by initialsBB

The description for the ASM on amazon.fr says that it only has 2 ports, with dip switches to select internal/external.

Thats nasty!

[Vapor matt]

The description for the ASM on amazon.fr says that it only has 2 ports, with dip switches to select internal/external.

this is correct, you can only run 2 drives off this card, 2 internal, or 2 external, or 1 internal 1 external.

Iam only running 1 vertex 3 internal.

[JavaTheHut]

Originally Posted by Vapor matt

this is correct, you can only run 2 drives off this card, 2 internal, or 2 external, or 1 internal 1 external.

Ok thats not so bad for this price point, I thought the dip was going to limit it to IN or OUT.

To confirm you say you have booted off this card successfully? For how long?

[Vapor matt]

To confirm you say you have booted off this card successfully? For how long?

I have booted off this card since instalation, which was tuesday evening here in the UK, it has never failed to boot, it has never given me any kernel panics, it boots real fast and iam so pleased with the speed!

For the price point its a bargin! and anyone who wants to get SATA 3 speed from there mac pro without having to purchase a new mac pro which isnt availble yet.