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Asus U3S6 OS X compatibility?
- Thread starter Transporteur
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Hi there,
has anyone tried the Asus U3S6 in a Mac Pro yet? If so, which OS X version does it require, and are additional drivers needed?
It would be an extremely cheap option to get both USB 3.0 and eSATA 6Gb/s in our machines (would require two PCIe slots though).
I have one of those! In my Mac Pro, three things to know, firstly it will boot you in 64bit mode when you have it in your machine. Not really an issue. Secondly USB ports don't work in OSX don't ask my why, they just don't maybe a driver issue, I'm not sure but it dosen't work, thirdly 6GB/ SATA works a treat, shows up as eSATA so you can't boot from it but it works great.
Thanks neckarb!
Bummer that the USB ports don't work, but I kind of expected that because other OS X compatible cards (Caldigit and Lacie) ship with custom drivers for their chips. I'm not sure which chips their cards use, might be the same Marvell ship, so their drivers might actually work with this card as well.
Good to know that SATA works, though. Do you have any information whether the SATA ports support port multiplying?
If so, I'm definitely going to do some DIY work to route the SATA ports to eSATA in the same slot cover. This card is considerably cheaper than the 6Gb/s eSATA cards from OWC, especially if you have to pay the price to ship them to Europe, not to mention the taxes.
Bummer that the USB ports don't work, but I kind of expected that because other OS X compatible cards (Caldigit and Lacie) ship with custom drivers for their chips. I'm not sure which chips their cards use, might be the same Marvell ship, so their drivers might actually work with this card as well.
Good to know that SATA works, though. Do you have any information whether the SATA ports support port multiplying?
If so, I'm definitely going to do some DIY work to route the SATA ports to eSATA in the same slot cover. This card is considerably cheaper than the 6Gb/s eSATA cards from OWC, especially if you have to pay the price to ship them to Europe, not to mention the taxes.
Thanks neckarb!
Bummer that the USB ports don't work, but I kind of expected that because other OS X compatible cards (Caldigit and Lacie) ship with custom drivers for their chips. I'm not sure which chips their cards use, might be the same Marvell ship, so their drivers might actually work with this card as well.
Good to know that SATA works, though. Do you have any information whether the SATA ports support port multiplying?
If so, I'm definitely going to do some DIY work to route the SATA ports to eSATA in the same slot cover. This card is considerably cheaper than the 6Gb/s eSATA cards from OWC, especially if you have to pay the price to ship them to Europe, not to mention the taxes.
I'm sorry I've not tried, I just set it up with a couple of 6GB/s SSD's in a software RAID and left it alone
It may be an NEC USB 3.0 chip (came out first).Thanks neckarb!
Bummer that the USB ports don't work, but I kind of expected that because other OS X compatible cards (Caldigit and Lacie) ship with custom drivers for their chips. I'm not sure which chips their cards use, might be the same Marvell ship, so their drivers might actually work with this card as well.
Good to know that SATA works, though. Do you have any information whether the SATA ports support port multiplying?
If so, I'm definitely going to do some DIY work to route the SATA ports to eSATA in the same slot cover. This card is considerably cheaper than the 6Gb/s eSATA cards from OWC, especially if you have to pay the price to ship them to Europe, not to mention the taxes.
You're right. It's NEC: http://www.ocworkbench.com/2009/asus/ASUS-U3S6-USB3-SATA3-card-review/g2.htm - square chip between USB ports and PCIe bridge chip.
Nice find.
I've not looked, so would anyone know what the CalDigit or Lacie cards use?
Those drivers may not work (possible they use authentication, as Lacie seems to with the drive enclosure, from what I recall in the thread on it), but it's worth a try for those that have one.
Others could benefit. Both of them are using NEC chips too. LaCie uses authentication, exactly like you said: http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/11/05/lacie-usb-30-driver-mac-osx-troubleshooting/ I don't know if CalDigit does that same.
AFAIK LaCie drivers were patched for Hackintosh usage and they're work with most of onboard USB 3.0 after that (without authentication ofc).
Here they are
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I don't know if the authentication goes beyond the enclosure or not (looks for a Manufacturer ID in the firmware as well as the enclosure), but it's quite possible IMO if they did it on the enclosure side. They know full well that others would try their drivers with other products to try and save money, and the MP market isn't that big from what I can tell (no where near the size as the PC side).
This would be nice if it works.
Perhaps Transporteur and/or neckarb would give them a try, and report back if asked nicely (perhaps bribed if that doesn't work...).
NEC D720200F to be specific. I mixed up the different chips on the board. The Marvell chip is for the SATA ports.
Here is a good review of the card which includes an identification of the used chips.
nanofrog said:Perhaps Transporteur and/or neckarb would give them a try, and report back if asked nicely (perhaps bribed if that doesn't work...).
Considering the price, I will definitely give it a shot. The card is about 30 quid here (plus about 5 for the SATA to eSATA slot bracket). Would be very nice to have both PM supported 6Gb/s eSATA and USB 3.0 on a single slot.
I will definitely report back when I'm done testing. I need some weeks, though.
I've been waiting, watching and searching myself... had this same post about 3 weeks ago.
My bad, haven't really searched for this topic before I posted.
NEC D720200F to be specific. I mixed up the different chips on the board. The Marvell chip is for the SATA ports.
Here is a good review of the card which includes an identification of the used chips.
Considering the price, I will definitely give it a shot. The card is about 30 quid here (plus about 5 for the SATA to eSATA slot bracket). Would be very nice to have both PM supported 6Gb/s eSATA and USB 3.0 on a single slot.
I will definitely report back when I'm done testing. I need some weeks, though.
My bad, haven't really searched for this topic before I posted.
Exactly the reason I bought it, £29 on amazon, definately worth the risk
Just to recap...
1. SATA on this card works without the need for additional drivers in Mac Pros.
2. SATA is not bootable on Mac Pros.
3. SATA runs at 6.0 speeds.
4. Port multiplier support has not been tested on Macs yet.
5. USB3 could possibly work with hacked LaCie drivers, but has yet to be confirmed.
Is this all correct?
1. SATA on this card works without the need for additional drivers in Mac Pros.
2. SATA is not bootable on Mac Pros.
3. SATA runs at 6.0 speeds.
4. Port multiplier support has not been tested on Macs yet.
5. USB3 could possibly work with hacked LaCie drivers, but has yet to be confirmed.
Is this all correct?
Exactly
one thing I would add is the reason (I assume) that it's not bootable is it shows up as eSATA
It uses a Marvell 88SE9123 for the SATA chip, and there's no indication of PM support on Marvell's website (makes sense from another perspective; the newertech card that has PM support requires drivers, and it's also based on a Marvell 6.0Gb/s controller).
It's the non PM cards that have been able to use the existing SATA drivers under OS X, which you discovered that this card will do.Glad you're willing to give testing a go, and report back.
Thanks. If USB3 can be made to work, I may replace my $7 JMB360 based PCI-e card with this one. I lose the ability to boot, but save a slot.
It uses a Marvell 88SE9123 for the SATA chip, and there's no indication of PM support on Marvell's website (makes sense from another perspective; the newertech card that has PM support requires drivers, and it's also based on a Marvell 6.0Gb/s controller).
Has the newertech card that supports PM a different Marvell chip, or is it the same as in their non PM card?
I'm thinking about applying the newertech PM driver to the ASUS card in case that the chips are equal.
No PM support would make this card pretty useless for me.
I went back and took a closer look (details were in the Product Brief). As it turns out, there's 3x parts in the series, and all are PM compliant. So the cheaper card sold by newertech must disable it.Has the newertech card that supports PM a different Marvell chip, or is it the same as in their non PM card?
I'm thinking about applying the newertech PM driver to the ASUS card in case that the chips are equal.
No PM support would make this card pretty useless for me.
In your case, make sure you've the right drivers (try newertech's site for the RAID version drivers). Worth a shot, but it's in the hardware you have afterall.
Good luck.
sata 6GB/s options for Macpro1,1
Does anybody know any bootable options for a SATAIII controller for my Macpro1,1
I recently picked up a drive which supports this speed and would like a controller so I can use it to run OSX off.
Patrick
Does anybody know any bootable options for a SATAIII controller for my Macpro1,1
I recently picked up a drive which supports this speed and would like a controller so I can use it to run OSX off.
Patrick
There's one unit out right now (ATTO's products have historically booted OS X once flashed with EFI), but it's not cheap (ATTO non-RAID HBA <H608> that goes for $400USD).Does anybody know any bootable options for a SATAIII controller for my Macpro1,1
I recently picked up a drive which supports this speed and would like a controller so I can use it to run OSX off.
Patrick
I have 2009 mac pro quad and picked this card up today and to my surprise it works great. I installed it with the LaCie hacked drivers and both USB 3.0 and Sata ports are working fine. The USB 3.0 ports are not port multipliers and don't work with USB 3.0 hubs. (I tried 2 different types) However, I have a Zalman ZM-MH200 U3 that houses 2 drives and even supports raid0 or raid1 and both drives are mounted and working fine via USB3.0.
I currently have two SSD's in the lower optical bay using both optical bay sata ports.... so I really needed an extra sata port for my blu-ray dirve. I'm now using one sata port for my Blu-ray drive and haven't tested any SSD's with it yet. A previous post mentioned it is bootable and SSD's work on the sata 6g internal ports... I have a couple of C300 SSD's that I would like to try in raid0 and see what speeds I get?
I currently have two SSD's in the lower optical bay using both optical bay sata ports.... so I really needed an extra sata port for my blu-ray dirve. I'm now using one sata port for my Blu-ray drive and haven't tested any SSD's with it yet. A previous post mentioned it is bootable and SSD's work on the sata 6g internal ports... I have a couple of C300 SSD's that I would like to try in raid0 and see what speeds I get?
I'm sorry I've not tried, I just set it up with a couple of 6GB/s SSD's in a software RAID and left it alone
What kind of speeds are you getting off the 6GB/s ports?
That's very good news.
I have the card lying here for more than a month now but haven't had any time trying it yet (looking forward to next week
).When you say the SATA ports are bootable, do you mean they boot OS X or Windows?