I have a Mac 5,1 2012 with a Velocity Solo 2X PCI Card that currently has (2) Samsung 540 EVO 500GB SSDs.
Is there a better SSD now if I need to swap one out?
Is there a better SSD now if I need to swap one out?
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MP 1,1-5,1 Best SSD Currently?
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Years ago I had a Velocity Solo (one SATA SSD dive) and a Velocity Duo (2 SATA Drives) If I were you, and I and I was. I retired the Velocity cards and moved the drives to the SATA HD bays. I then went to an Angelbird PX1 and a Samsung AHCI SSD. Later I added 2 Samsung 970 Pros on an I/O Crest PCI card. And Later I moved those three drives and an added a 970 EVO to a HighCrest card. I'll probable resurrect the I/O Crest card when I get a 7,1 Mac Pro.
Any way, my point is you are way behind the curve, and I would abandon the Velocity Card.
Lou
Any way, my point is you are way behind the curve, and I would abandon the Velocity Card.
Lou
I think the Samsung SSDs are very good.
You might want to go for a 1TB or 2TB.
That said, I'm very interested in Lou's reply.
I'm using a Sonnet Tempo PCI card with 2 Samsung EVOs.
Pretty good read and write speeds.
Was thinking of adding a second card.
The EVOs in my SATA hd bays are much slower.
Hey Lou, sounds like you have scoped this out.
I'll add my behind the curvedness to the OPs and ask for your help.
Best way to get max SSD speed without spending too much with our ancient 5,1s?
You might want to go for a 1TB or 2TB.
That said, I'm very interested in Lou's reply.
I'm using a Sonnet Tempo PCI card with 2 Samsung EVOs.
Pretty good read and write speeds.
Was thinking of adding a second card.
The EVOs in my SATA hd bays are much slower.
Hey Lou, sounds like you have scoped this out.
I'll add my behind the curvedness to the OPs and ask for your help.
Best way to get max SSD speed without spending too much with our ancient 5,1s?
@choreo @Mactrunk
There is a very large sticky thread at the top of the forum, which is loaded with great info and covers many options:
PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI
This is a general info thread for blade SSDs that can be used in the Mac Pro. This is a WikiPost so anyone with the proper credentials may edit it. NVMe SSDs can be used as a boot drive in the MP5,1 and MP6,1 with the latest firmware installed (beginning with version 140.0.0.0.0 for MP5,1 and...
forums.macrumors.com
I’m currently using a Highpoint SSD7101A with several Samsung 970 Pro M.2 NVMe blade SSDs and it’s very speedy!
The reason is...?
If you want more capacity, then quite a few SATA SSD out there provide up to 4TB per SSD. Almost all of them are good for normal daily use, IMO, just get the cheapest one is fine.
But if you want more performance, then you may have to further upgrade to NVMe.
What about this solution being offered from OWC? According to their Sales Support line, this will work in ALL Mac Pros since 2010. Pricy, but should be fairly fast?
OWC 1.0TB Accelsior 4M2 PCIe SSD for 2019 Apple Mac Pro
OWC's fastest SSD ever with up to 6000MB/s speed for large format video editing, VR/AR/MR environments, extreme gaming, and other high bandwidth needs.
Will work:
forums.macrumors.com
forums.macrumors.com
Lou
OWC's Accelsior 4M2 PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD Adapter Card - Empty enclosure
Subject: OWC's Accelsior 4M2 PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD Adapter Card - Empty enclosure After reading this -> https://macperformanceguide.com/blog/2019/20191220_1554-2019MacPro-OWC-Accelsior4M2.html that is dated 2019-12-20 it's stated this OWC card can be purchased for $249.99 empty. Quote The...
forums.macrumors.com
PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI
Added OWC ACCELSIOR 4M2 to the first post. It's a x8 card, with the same PCIe switch as IO Crest IO-PCE2824-TM2 (aka Syba SI-PEX40129).
forums.macrumors.com
Lou
I think you may want to consider your options:
- Fastest performance, price is less of a consideration
- Better performance, price is a consideration
(Grossly summarizing for cMP)
HDD is 80-250 MBps
SATA SSD is 400-ish MBps
NVMe SSD is 1400-ish MBps
NVMe on a switched PCIe card, is 3000-5900-ish MBps
As mentioned above, moving SSDs to SATA bays (mostly optical) or an external USB3 enclosure is a good way to re-purpose your existing kit.
A low-cost way to get NVMe with a good performance jump is a Kryo or similar. You can install a 1TB set up for $150-$200 depending on the NVMe brand. Select from the sticky.
If you need more performance, or simply "neeeed" more performance then study the sticky and/or go with the OWC, as Lou suggested above.
- Fastest performance, price is less of a consideration
- Better performance, price is a consideration
(Grossly summarizing for cMP)
HDD is 80-250 MBps
SATA SSD is 400-ish MBps
NVMe SSD is 1400-ish MBps
NVMe on a switched PCIe card, is 3000-5900-ish MBps
As mentioned above, moving SSDs to SATA bays (mostly optical) or an external USB3 enclosure is a good way to re-purpose your existing kit.
A low-cost way to get NVMe with a good performance jump is a Kryo or similar. You can install a 1TB set up for $150-$200 depending on the NVMe brand. Select from the sticky.
If you need more performance, or simply "neeeed" more performance then study the sticky and/or go with the OWC, as Lou suggested above.
Also, in my case I am still running High Sierra with boot ROM version 10.13.6 with MP51.0089.B00 . So I guess I would need to install a Metal enabled video card and upgrade to Mojave and a more recent boot ROM version before the OWC card would work?
Yes, you need 14x.0.0.0.0 BootROMs to have native boot from NVMe.
MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)
I just went with a HighPoint SSD7101A-1, first went with ssd's, over the old spinners.
then a Sonnet Technologies Tempo. the tempo card had some issues at first, like no boot screen, would not let me boot the OS,
but after a bios update, it has been running fine, about 500 writes, and 530 reads, Ish ...
seems the cards can be hit or miss, but a lower cost way to speed up drives you all-ready have.
after birddogging Alex and Reading his excellent posts, (thank you Alex, I learn a lot from you) TheHighPoint seems to be one of the best for the 5,1. Have one in the mail ...lol
I think right now with the 5,1 "best" would be a M.2 NVMe setup.
the sticky on this is long, but a bunch of very good info in it.
then a Sonnet Technologies Tempo. the tempo card had some issues at first, like no boot screen, would not let me boot the OS,
but after a bios update, it has been running fine, about 500 writes, and 530 reads, Ish ...
seems the cards can be hit or miss, but a lower cost way to speed up drives you all-ready have.
after birddogging Alex and Reading his excellent posts, (thank you Alex, I learn a lot from you) TheHighPoint seems to be one of the best for the 5,1. Have one in the mail ...lol
I think right now with the 5,1 "best" would be a M.2 NVMe setup.
the sticky on this is long, but a bunch of very good info in it.