2012 Macpro Multiple pci-e 'sata' boards?

[rshanahan]

Folks,

I have been using an OWC Acceslior (128gb) for a year and a half (moved from my 2007 mp to my 2012 mp). I needed more space and considered upgrading the memory and to the new board w/external data connectors. The cost was a little high and with the Black Friday specials abound I ended up ordering a Samsung Evo 250GB and an Apricorn pci-e card. That works like a champ. I decided to keep the OWC card as well. Here's where my problem arises. With both cards in the machine, it fails to boot (or at least takes a very very long time, which I didn't wait). It takes forever just to get the boot menu up (pressing the option key).

Each board works ok by itself, they just don't work together. I have even tried moving them around (I'll admit that I didn't try EVERY combination of the two in the three available slots).

Any ideas? I think I may just try to sell the OWC card and call it a day. Note that all 4 of my sata drive bays are occupied.

Thanks!

Rick

 

[hfg]

There have been several threads here where we noted issues with PCIe SATA board incompatibility. The Solo x2 is a very nice card ... but it also seems sensitive to what other SATA controllers are on the bus at the same time. I have had the best success with it in PCIe slot #2 (next to the video card) while also using a Sonnet Tempo Pro dual SSD card (slot #3), but I have issues if I also have a CalDigit eSATA/USB3 card (slot #4) installed at the same time. Some users report that the older Solo x1 card works better, although not as fast (it has a different controller on it).

I ended up not using the Solo x2 card.


Please report back if you discover a cure for the problem.


-howard