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troy14

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 25, 2008
773
130
Las Vegas (Summerlin), NV
Hi everyone

Just thought i'd share this deal for my fellow Mac Pro people.

Amazon is selling the Apricorn Velocity Solo X2 for $89.99 with a $30 mail in rebate. http://www.amazon.com/Apricorn-Velocity-Extreme-Performance-VEL-SOLO-X2/dp/B0090IA3GY

The Duo is $139.99 with a $40 mail in rebate (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NTQGZH4/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_2?pf_rd_p=1944687602&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0090IA3GY&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1B42QNFVHFX0GN1DZZ1D.

The form can be found here: http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/00/00/63/78/81/90/6378819050._V330909500_.pdf


Hurry though, must be bought by 3/31/15!
 

dmylrea

macrumors 601
Sep 27, 2005
4,783
6,820
Do you have one?

I have two in my 4,1 (flashed to 5,1). Questions?

Also, in addition to the OP's information, the rebate limit is ONE. If you wanted to do TWO in a Mac, just buy the 2nd one at Newegg.com. Same price, same rebate amount, but DIFFERENT rebate so both are valid.
 

H2SO4

macrumors 603
Nov 4, 2008
5,632
6,926
Had one for a while. When it arrives can you do me a favour. Pls?
Install it an open System Profiler. Go to PCI and highlight the card. Check the 'link width'.
Mine is x1 but it should be x2. (I have the Velocity Duo x2).
 

todesto

macrumors regular
Jan 5, 2015
112
8
Fullerton, CA
Thanks for the info. I have been looking at this PCIe card and I currently have SSD in my SATA 1 port and made fusion drive with 2TB HDD which is connected to SATA 2 port in my MacPro5,1.
Would I gain significant increase by using this card?
 

flowrider

macrumors 604
Nov 23, 2012
7,221
2,943
Had one for a while. When it arrives can you do me a favour. Pls?
Install it an open System Profiler. Go to PCI and highlight the card. Check the 'link width'.
Mine is x1 but it should be x2. (I have the Velocity Duo x2).

I have two Duo's and they are both listed as x2 Link Width.

Lou
 
Last edited:

H2SO4

macrumors 603
Nov 4, 2008
5,632
6,926
I have two Duo's and they are both listed (twice) as x1 Link Width. Nor sure what the answer is, I never noticed this before.

Lou

I’ve gone back to Apricorn and they say that it should be x2. Their resident Mac guy gets back on Monday so I’ll go over it with him then.

----------

I have two in my 4,1 (flashed to 5,1). Questions?

Also, in addition to the OP's information, the rebate limit is ONE. If you wanted to do TWO in a Mac, just buy the 2nd one at Newegg.com. Same price, same rebate amount, but DIFFERENT rebate so both are valid.

Have a look at post 5……..
 

Childs

macrumors member
May 28, 2010
48
4
Anyone with the Solo or Duo have problems picking boot drives at startup? I saw one review about the Solo on Youtube and he mentioned he cannot hold option to select a boot device with the card installed.
 

H2SO4

macrumors 603
Nov 4, 2008
5,632
6,926
I have a velo x2 with a Samsung 830 256GB and its listed as x2 in link width.

Would you or anybody else mind posting a shot from Profiler as per?;
 

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H2SO4

macrumors 603
Nov 4, 2008
5,632
6,926
Anyone with the Solo or Duo have problems picking boot drives at startup? I saw one review about the Solo on Youtube and he mentioned he cannot hold option to select a boot device with the card installed.

Nope. OptionBoot works well for me. That said, I have two drives on mine. The OSX one is always hidden but the Windows one always mounts on the desktop. Also if I boot into Windows, when I come back to OSX it always forgets that the Velo drive is the boot drive and starts up from one of the OSX installs I have in a regular sled.
It also forgets my Finder window settings.
 

666sheep

macrumors 68040
Dec 7, 2009
3,686
291
Poland
Had one for a while. When it arrives can you do me a favour. Pls?
Install it an open System Profiler. Go to PCI and highlight the card. Check the 'link width'.
Mine is x1 but it should be x2. (I have the Velocity Duo x2).

Have you tried to reset PRAM? It sometimes can fix incorrect link width in ASP. You can check actual value using lspci.
 

H2SO4

macrumors 603
Nov 4, 2008
5,632
6,926
Have you tried to reset PRAM? It sometimes can fix incorrect link width in ASP. You can check actual value using lspci.


Yup. Tried that yesterday. (Waited for the obligatory 3 chimes).
What's lspci BTW?
 

666sheep

macrumors 68040
Dec 7, 2009
3,686
291
Poland
If PRAM reset does not help, you can try other PCIe slot. Lspci is command line unix tool capable of listing all PCIe devices and their properties.
 

SDAVE

macrumors 68040
Jun 16, 2007
3,566
585
Nowhere
Would you or anybody else mind posting a shot from Profiler as per?;

Try switching the PCI slot. Try all slots. If you have other cards in slots, take them out (except GFX card of course) and try the Velo in all slots.
 

H2SO4

macrumors 603
Nov 4, 2008
5,632
6,926
Try switching the PCI slot. Try all slots. If you have other cards in slots, take them out (except GFX card of course) and try the Velo in all slots.

So far have only tried in slots 3 & 4. I’ll try in slot 2 but I wouldn’t leave it there permanently I don’t think. It covers the GPU fan.
No other PCI stuff installed……….

Thanks for the screen shot. The only real difference is the slot it’s in. But in a 5,1 all slots should be PCIe Rev2, x4 or better.

----------

If PRAM reset does not help, you can try other PCIe slot. Lspci is command line unix tool capable of listing all PCIe devices and their properties.

Cheers, gonna have a look at that.
 

666sheep

macrumors 68040
Dec 7, 2009
3,686
291
Poland
I owned few various 9230 based cards (except Velo) and put them in all possible slots and never encountered this problem. But never go any of them to work @x2 in a PCIe 1.0 slots of 1,1/2,1.
 

H2SO4

macrumors 603
Nov 4, 2008
5,632
6,926
I owned few various 9230 based cards (except Velo) and put them in all possible slots and never encountered this problem. But never go any of them to work @x2 in a PCIe 1.0 slots of 1,1/2,1.

Hmm. Well hopefully tomorrow. Apricorn themselves will shed some light on it.
 

flowrider

macrumors 604
Nov 23, 2012
7,221
2,943
So far have only tried in slots 3 & 4. I’ll try in slot 2 but I wouldn’t leave it there permanently I don’t think. It covers the GPU fan.
No other PCI stuff installed……….

I have one Duo installed in slot 2 and the other in slot 3. Both (all four drives) are listed as 1x.

Lou
 

dmylrea

macrumors 601
Sep 27, 2005
4,783
6,820
I have one Duo installed in slot 2 and the other in slot 3. Both (all four drives) are listed as 1x.

Lou

If you have Duo's what are your performance speeds (Blackmagic, etc.)? If the Duo's were actually operating at x1 single lane speed, you would top out below 500MB/s, right? If you're getting more than that from two SSD's in one slot, then they must be operating at x2.

Is my thinking correct?
 

hfg

macrumors 68040
Dec 1, 2006
3,621
312
Cedar Rapids, IA. USA
It would appear that my Velocity DUO in slot 3 has a LinkWidth: x2 in a Mac Pro 5,1

I only have a single SSD (Windows 8.1) mounted it to it at the moment ... wonder if that makes a difference vs. having 2 SSDs attached? (really long shot)
 

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H2SO4

macrumors 603
Nov 4, 2008
5,632
6,926
If you have Duo's what are your performance speeds (Blackmagic, etc.)? If the Duo's were actually operating at x1 single lane speed, you would top out below 500MB/s, right? If you're getting more than that from two SSD's in one slot, then they must be operating at x2.

Is my thinking correct?

I get around 330MB/s.

----------

It would appear that my Velocity DUO in slot 3 has a LinkWidth: x2 in a Mac Pro 5,1

I only have a single SSD (Windows 8.1) mounted it to it at the moment ... wonder if that makes a difference vs. having 2 SSDs attached? (really long shot)

I’ll have to give that a try and see also.
 

hfg

macrumors 68040
Dec 1, 2006
3,621
312
Cedar Rapids, IA. USA
If you have Duo's what are your performance speeds (Blackmagic, etc.)? If the Duo's were actually operating at x1 single lane speed, you would top out below 500MB/s, right? If you're getting more than that from two SSD's in one slot, then they must be operating at x2.

Is my thinking correct?

Here is a BlackMagic test with the exact same pair of Crucial M4 SSDs in RAID-0 on both a Tempo Pro and a Velocity DUO in the same slot #2 of the same 5,1 Mac Pro. The Tempo Pro is a 4-lane card vs. the Duo 2-lane.
 

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