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MP 1,1-5,1 4x sata3 drives on 5,1 macPro?

Dewdman42

Dewdman42

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 25, 2008
513
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I currently have 2 sata3 SSD drives in my 5,1 MacPro, they are mounted on a Sonnet Tempo card. Performance is good, but I want to expand to 4 sata3 drives and I don't have any more free PCI slots.

What are some reasonably affordable options?

I have thought about putting a 4x sata3 drive into the slot where the Sonnet Tempo is, but the problem is where on the MacPro can I mount 4 drives that don't plug directly into some fancy socket, but rather would let me run 4 sata3 cables from the drives to the sata3 card?

I've seen some other solutions where a minisas cable could perhaps be used in some way to connect the 4 internal bays to a PCI card instead of directly to the logic board.... But its not clear to me what I'd need to get or whether it would be affordable enough. Is there some kind of fan out cable or something that can connect 4 sata3 internal connectors on a PCI sata3 card directly to the drive bay backplane via minisas, or something like that? Or does anyone know any other solution to mount drives into a MacPro without having to connect to the actual backplane and just run sata3 cables throughout the box like a typical PC?
 
Given the complexity of what you're describing, it might be better to go a different direction. Can you provide some details on what drives you already have, the programs you use that read from and write to the drives, and what you're trying to accomplish, so that we have an idea what kind of performance you need?

Can you also list all the PCIe cards you have in your system? It might be possible to consolidate cards by function or find a way to connect new drives externally.

Also, please speak a bit about what your price range is.
 
audio production workstation

all slots are full and can't easily change that. Lynx audio card, RX580, sonnet Tempo (could be replaced by a 4 port sata3 card), the audio card requires two slots only because it has a breakout RJ45 socket that has to mount and be grounded to the chassis and sits in the opening in front of the slot..the slot is unfortunately unused, but not possible to use it because of the RJ45.

Currently have 1 ssd boot drive (sata2) and 2 ssd drives (2TB each) on the Sonnet Tempo (sata3). Need to add an additional 2TB SSD an would prefer it to be sata3, as well as would like t make the boot drive sata3.

I'm only willing to spend a few hundred bucks(not included the drives) to move to 4 sata3 drives.

I don't want external drives either.

If this is not possible I will make due with two of my SSD's being sata2. Just investigating if its possible to make them all sata3.

I don't want raid.
 
I'll leave others to weigh in on your questions about rigging up SATA 3 to the backplane. I believe this is impossible on the 2009 and 2010 Mac Pros (it worked on prior models), but don't quote me on that. I have read elsewhere about successful attempts at using the bays to mount the drives in special trays, but connecting them to a SAS controller rather than the backplane.

As an alternative, have you considered using 4 M.2 blades on a PCIe card instead of SATA SSDs? You do not need to use RAID (though you can) and it would be much faster. You'd probably have to sink a bit more money into it, but I think you'd be happier with the results and it would probably be a more reliable solution, given that there are no cables or power connections.

If you haven't already, have a look at the first post of this thread for ideas and cost comparisons:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/blade-ssds-nvme-ahci.2146725/
 
The the 4 x m.2 would be a really nice solution but I'm already invested in most of the SSD drives...3 already installed

the M.2 blades + PCIe card would be significant money, I could try to sell my SSD's I suppose, but anyway, that's probably more money than I want to get into for this 5,1. That would be a nice way to go if money were no object for sure.

I'm not opposed to just stashing the SSD drives inside the case somewhere and running sata3 cables over to a PCI card. its not like they have spinning parts or anything. But I'd love to hear from someone that has already tried to do something like that.
 
another way I could go is to just buy a 4TB SSD to replace one of my 2TB's. That would gain me the extra space I need without requiring any more ports. Cost is not bad compared to any cost of buying new PCI cards, etc..

If I end up needing even more space then that later, I can swap the other 2TB for another 4TB.

I also may end up just putting additional drive onto the sata2 port and not worry about it. I haven't really been able to find any solution for 4x sata3 to be honest.
 
have you connected an SSD to the spare SATA connector in the DVD drive bay?

you could put 4TB SSD on the Tempo and then put the old 2TB under the DVD drive
 
Don't need to use the DVD bay, I still have 2 more normal drive bay slots open, but they are all sata2, as are the ports under the DVD.

If I get the 4TB, I will try to sell one of my 2TB drives on Ebay anyway.
 
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I think your options are:
- 6 SATA II connections (Bays1-4, plus 2 optical. If you place a SATA III card on PCIe, and connect to SSDs, those things can really be placed/glued/duct taped anywhere. Some amount of thinking needs to keep cooling in mind
- PCIe slots. OWC used to sell one that held 2x 2.5-in SSD.
- PCIe cards that hold NVMe. I believe some can hold up to 4. Check out the bottom of the page. Perhaps with some fiddling they can go in the slot that has the RJ-45 connectors.
 
Dewdman42 said:
are you aware of a single PCIe card that provides 4 sata3 ports?
Click to expand...

You'd probably be looking for a SAS controller. SATA drives can connect to SAS controllers, but not the other way around.

If it's helpful, I came across this comment describing how someone did something similar in their Mac Pro 5,1. Some of the parts might no longer be available, but perhaps it will help in your research. I can't vouch for anything in this post, unfortunately.

https://blog.macsales.com/12247-upgrade-your-06-08-mac-pros-internal-bays-to-sata-3-0/#comment-95897
 
yep. Thanks for that. I believe that is for pre-2009 macPros. Apparently on the 2009+ the minisas connector is not exposed in the right way to do that with a sas controller.
 
My suggestion is use the HD bays as is and stripe RAID the ssds together with software. Performance may be not as good as PCI card but poss simpler solution.
 
Dewdman42 said:
yep. Thanks for that. I believe that is for pre-2009 macPros. Apparently on the 2009+ the minisas connector is not exposed in the right way to do that with a sas controller.
Click to expand...

The article itself is for pre-2009, but I linked to a comment by someone who replicated similar functionality in a 2010. Hopefully that provides some toeholds for further research.

Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of demand for this stuff on the Mac side at the moment, so I'm not sure you'll have many options.
 
8 bay Icydock in optical drive bay plus 8-port sata card (or 4 port for cheaper) is probably your best bet as krakman suggested. You can upgrade the backplane to SATA-3 on a Mac Pro 3,1 but not on a 4,1 or 5,1. Note that the 8-bay version will only fit 9mm high drives and not 14mm but if you are putting in SSDs that should work. You'll need a sata-3 controller card, my understanding is that ASM chipsets have drivers included with in recent macOS versions (10.12+.) For 8-port it may be hard to find a sata controller card that is Mac compatible unless you get a high end RAID card unfortunately.
 
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