What is the state of USB 3.0 on Mac Pro?

[ActionableMango]

I am waiting for a solution that doesn't require third party drivers.

Searching around this forum it seems the only solutions are something with hacked drivers, a USB3.0/eSATA card that is slow because of a central controller chip, and a controller that will only work with drives of the same brand. These are not acceptable to me.

With USB 3.0 available on new Macs, there should be native drivers for one of the USB 3.0 controller chips. Are there no PCIe cards using the same chip as the Macs with built-in USB 3.0?

EDIT:
Indeed there are cards that use native OS X drivers. Instructions here.

[VirtualRain]

Originally Posted by ActionableMango

I am waiting for a solution that doesn't require third party drivers.

Searching around this forum it seems the only solutions are something with hacked drivers, a USB3.0/eSATA card that is slow because of a central controller chip, and a controller that will only work with drives of the same brand. These are not acceptable to me.

With USB 3.0 available on new Macs, there should be native drivers for one of the USB 3.0 controller chips. Are there no PCIe cards using the same chip as the Macs with built-in USB 3.0?

Apple's support for USB 3.0 is limited to the USB ports integrated into Intel's latest chipsets. On the Mac Pro, your only option for USB 3 is on a PCIe card with an NEC chip.

This driver works just fine for any generic NEC based PCIe USB 3 card without any compromises I'm aware of... (see post #6) Almost all PCIe cards that just offer USB 3.0 use the same generic NEC reference design and should work just fine.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1427373

Here's an example of a card just like the one I have that works with the drivers above...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815124102

[ActionableMango]

I do appreciate the response, but this is exactly the sort of thing that bothers me. Hacked drivers from some strange website with the summary "LaCie 1.0.8 driver patched by modbin" and a card with some really horrific reviews, at least on the Windows side.

I'll guess I will keep waiting and hope for improvement.

[wonderspark]

I like my CalDigit card. It may be slower than it should be, but it's far faster than USB 2.0 or FW800, and I can boot from the card, too.

I am always being handed USB 3.0 drives these days, and it's a joy to get the data moving so quickly, with no hassles, ever. I'll take 3x or 5x faster any day, even though they said it would be 10x.

[VirtualRain]

Originally Posted by ActionableMango

I do appreciate the response, but this is exactly the sort of thing that bothers me. Hacked drivers from some strange website with the summary "LaCie 1.0.8 driver patched by modbin" and a card with some really horrific reviews, at least on the Windows side.

I'll guess I will keep waiting and hope for improvement.

Such is life as a Mac Pro owner... Moded kernel extensions, hacked drivers, flashed graphics cards... Where would we be without all this? ... USB 2.0, SATA2, and GT120s for all

[comatory]

Originally Posted by VirtualRain

Such is life as a Mac Pro owner... Moded kernel extensions, hacked drivers, flashed graphics cards... Where would we be without all this? ... USB 2.0, SATA2, and GT120s for all

What about IcyBox IB-AC604? It has this controller chip: NEC µPD720200

Would that work with those drivers?

[texem]

With ML 10.8.2 running, there is a third-party kext free solution.

See here : http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/top...0#entry1862039

works perfect without any patching here in MP 2010

[ActionableMango]

Originally Posted by texem

With ML 10.8.2 running, there is a third-party kext free solution.

See here : http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/top...0#entry1862039

works perfect without any patching here in MP 2010

Awesome, thank you! This is exactly what I was asking for.

I still am running on and prefer Snow Leopard, but it looks like it might be time to switch to ML.

[Lesser Evets]

Good thread. I was wondering about this recently, but am in no hurry to find a solution.

[VirtualRain]

There's also this product from highpoint which appears to offer USB 3 support for the Mac. Not surprisingly it looks like any generic NEC based USB 3 card like the $20 one I linked to earlier. Perhaps it's driver will work on generic cards as well?

http://www.hptmac.com/product.php?_index=78

[texem]

NEVER again HighPoint... I still own their 4 port USB3 adapter but they just stopped support with ML.

I openend a support ticket but that company is absolutely ignorant .. please be warned.

Go for a Fresco chipset based adapter with native support -> ML 10.8.2

[JimT1701]

Do you recommend any specific card with the Fresco chipset?

[texem]

ORICO PFU3-2P f.i.

(see thread in other forum I wrote above)

[Macman45]

Since I'm considering a new Mac Pro early next year, I'd be interested if anybody has used the third party card(s) with a Promise unit? I have an R4 connected to my iMac, and the buying decision will come down to what Apple do as far as upgrades go, and the Thunderbolt issue.

My options as I see it will depend on whether or not they do integrate T/Bolt with a new Logic Board...If not, then another maxed out Imac will be the upgrade.

Has anyone here tried running a Pegasus unit with the PCIE card on a Pro? I don't want to lose speed at all, as I can currently work in real-time on the iMac. any degradation in performance would take me away from the Pro, although I do want the extra CPU grunt, it's really only for running X-Plane....My 3.4GHZ iMac with 16GB RAM 2GB VRAM handles all work tasks well.

[Redneck1089]

I'm using a LaCie PCI card for USB 3. I'm using LaCie's drivers for USB 3 as well. Seems to work well enough for me...

[Macman45]

Originally Posted by Redneck1089

I'm using a LaCie PCI card for USB 3. I'm using LaCie's drivers for USB 3 as well. Seems to work well enough for me...

So at present there is no direct Thunderbolt cable to Thunderbolt connection for the Pro? The USB is going to create a bottleneck for me for sure.

[Redneck1089]

Originally Posted by Macman45

So at present there is no direct Thunderbolt cable to Thunderbolt connection for the Pro? The USB is going to create a bottleneck for me for sure.

Not that I am aware of at the moment.

USB 3 is pretty darn fast though.

[Macman45]

Originally Posted by Redneck1089

Not that I am aware of at the moment.

USB 3 is pretty darn fast though.

Fast, yes, but nowhere near the speeds a RAIDo array can achieve with T/Bolt...Oh well thanks for the info..I guess It's wait and see now.

[wonderspark]

The PCI slots allow for proper hardware RAID cards, which are faster than Thunderbolt, and as I understand it, TB was designed to be "one cable to rule them all" in regards to display + data at once, not strictly data, thought it works fine for data only.

I think I saw some Thunderbolt-MiniSAS adapters somewhere, so if you *did* end up with a Mac Pro, you could get a RAID card and still use your Promise/Pegasus kit, or sell it and get a bigger RAID box for a whole lot less.

[Macman45]

Originally Posted by wonderspark

The PCI slots allow for proper hardware RAID cards, which are faster than Thunderbolt, and as I understand it, TB was designed to be "one cable to rule them all" in regards to display + data at once, not strictly data, thought it works fine for data only.

I think I saw some Thunderbolt-MiniSAS adapters somewhere, so if you *did* end up with a Mac Pro, you could get a RAID card and still use your Promise/Pegasus kit, or sell it and get a bigger RAID box for a whole lot less.

Interesting, but still would prefer an "Out Of The Box" T/Bolt port on the Pro. My own guess is that the Pro is all but dead, but I hope I'm wrong...Thanks for the information!

[texem]

Are we talking about USB 3.0 here ?

[revelstudios]

Our entire workflow switched over to USB 3.0 external drives, docks, and raid arrays. We went through a series of cards before landing on one that actually worked every bit as advertised -- this one:

http://www.amazon.com/HighPoint-Rock...ighpoint+usb+3

All of the other cards we tried had crash bugs and suffered problems like not being able to hot swap a USB 3 connection or remount an ejected drive [without reboot]. Very aggravating trial and error process.

We absolutely love the Buffalo Terrstation raid cans and the Porsche 3 TB external drives. Good luck!

[texem]

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost...7&postcount=11

[revelstudios]

Originally Posted by texem

http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost...7&postcount=11

I think you've got something else going on. We're using HighPoint cards and that's on 10.8.2 and 10.8.3 ML all around. Best USB 3.0 cards we've tested.

**Clarifying: You don't state which HighPoint card you're now having problems with. We've only tested the one I provided the Amazon link to above. I know HP makes a few different cards so it is possible you're having your compatibility issues with one of those other cards. Best of luck with that and sorry to hear it, but don't think that's across their line. We've got a number of these cards up and running with 10.8.2 and 10.8.3 (plus 10.8.1 before it). All performed extremely well with no errors, crashes, mounting issues, or anything else. Great cards.

[ActionableMango]

Originally Posted by Macman45

So at present there is no direct Thunderbolt cable to Thunderbolt connection for the Pro? The USB is going to create a bottleneck for me for sure.

I honestly don't believe there will ever be a Thunderbolt upgrade card. If you want a Mac Pro with Thunderbolt you'll have to wait till Apple makes a new Mac Pro that includes it.

Originally Posted by texem

ORICO PFU3-2P f.i.

(see thread in other forum I wrote above)

I couldn't find any of these for sale in the USA. I did find them on Amazon.co.uk, but the vendor selling them there won't ship to the USA.

Originally Posted by JimT1701

Do you recommend any specific card with the Fresco chipset?

I picked up a different card with the exact same chipset as the Orico mentioned above. I figure/hope if the built-in drivers in 10.8 work with the Orico, they'll work with any card using the same chipset.

I'm going to try it out later this week and will report back on what happens.