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Can someone recommend a good PCI adapter for my SSD?

PowerMac G4 MDD

PowerMac G4 MDD

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 13, 2014
1,900
277
Hi everyone,

I have a 1,1 Mac Pro running El Capitan. I'm sure these products are pretty much similar to each other across the board, but, just in case:

Can someone recommend a good adapter card for an SSD? I currently have a Samsung 850 Evo SSD connected to my SATA bus, and I'm looking for some better speeds.

One of these shouldn't be more than $30, right? Just need something to adapt my normal SATA SSD to work in one of my PCI slots. Almost seem as though this would be essential in ANY tower with slower bus speeds by today's standards.

(BTW, will my Mac recognize the SSD right away? Also, some say that their SSDs appear as external with these adapters. That's probably not an issue, as I can always change the icon, and you can't eject a the disk while it's being used anyway... but still.)

-Thanks,

MDD
 
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Thanks for the information! Do these products vary in quality? I'm wondering if I could still get a nice one (different brand) for less. I didn't think that this would be almost $50.
 
^^^^There are less expensive ones, but I know nothing about them. And, IMHO, you get what you pay for.

Lou
 
apricorn card + xp941 and you get 600 mo/s, try raid 0 and you can get the same speed of a 6,1 nmp
 
PowerMac G4 MDD said:
...Also, some say that their SSDs appear as external with these adapters...
Click to expand...
Be aware that if you load your OS on a PCIe connected SSD, the MP will first search for an internal boot drive before resorting to the 'external' SSD. This means you will face about 15-20sec idle time at startup while the machine searches for an internal drive.

Furthermore, I had the recovery partition of El Capitan still on an internal drive. This had the annoying consequence that the MP always booted into recovery although there was a full El Capitan installation (on the PCIe-SSD). Setting the boot drive did not help, it would still boot into the recovery (I assume just because that was in an internal drive). The only solution for me was to delete the recovery partition.

Magnus
 
^^^^That's my thinking too, but look at post's #1267 and #1271 of this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...e-ngff-pcie-ssd.1685821/page-51#post-21778615

Maybe the jury's still out?

However, boot times in the 20 to 30 second range are fine for me. Getting more internal fast storage devices are a BIG PLUS for me!

I have never had any trouble choosing the boot drive and having it stick. All five of my SSDs are set up to be boot drives

fhenry said:
apricorn card + xp941 and you get 600 mo/s, try raid 0 and you can get the same speed of a 6,1 nmp
Click to expand...

An XP941 will not mount on an Apricorn x1 or x2 card. Those cards are made specifically for 2.5" footprint devices. And even if it would mount, the 1,1 Mac Pro could not take advantage of it. Also, the XP941 has been replaced by the SM951.

Lou
 
Last edited:
PowerMac G4 MDD said:
Hi everyone,

I have a 1,1 Mac Pro running El Capitan. I'm sure these products are pretty much similar to each other across the board, but, just in case:

Can someone recommend a good adapter card for an SSD? I currently have a Samsung 850 Evo SSD connected to my SATA bus, and I'm looking for some better speeds.

One of these shouldn't be more than $30, right? Just need something to adapt my normal SATA SSD to work in one of my PCI slots. Almost seem as though this would be essential in ANY tower with slower bus speeds by today's standards.

(BTW, will my Mac recognize the SSD right away? Also, some say that their SSDs appear as external with these adapters. That's probably not an issue, as I can always change the icon, and you can't eject a the disk while it's being used anyway... but still.)

-Thanks,

MDD
Click to expand...
You could try to access one of the unused connectors on the main board. They do not support BootCamp, but work well otherwise. You will also need to route power from the SATA bay or route the connector from the board to the SATA bay, if you keep the drive there. The process is not difficult, but requires some disassembly.
I have had that setup on my 2,1 and found it to work well. It is also the cheapest solution.

Detailed instructions are here: http://tech.its.iastate.edu/macosx/downloads/MacPro-SATA-INS.pdf
 
I have this its hackintosh bootable but I don't know if it's Mac bootable you can have it for whatever is costs to ship
 

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lowendlinux said:
I have this its hackintosh bootable but I don't know if it's Mac bootable you can have it for whatever is costs to ship
Click to expand...

Should be depending on the chipset that drives it. I have a dual slot stacked unit similar to that based on the Marvel 9128 I think it is chipset. I used it in my 5,1 before I sold it off to upgrade to a z87 hack setup where it again worked fine for a raid0 boot like I had in the MP. BTW if he is not interested I am, I am looking to gain back a slot in my z800 hack as I have second of them dual jobs in there taking up the slot beside it. PM me if he/she is not interested we can work out the details.
 
haralds said:
You could try to access one of the unused connectors on the main board. They do not support BootCamp, but work well otherwise. You will also need to route power from the SATA bay or route the connector from the board to the SATA bay, if you keep the drive there. The process is not difficult, but requires some disassembly.
I have had that setup on my 2,1 and found it to work well. It is also the cheapest solution.

Detailed instructions are here: http://tech.its.iastate.edu/macosx/downloads/MacPro-SATA-INS.pdf
Click to expand...

That solution is mainly used by folks who want to use a modern optical drive and connect it by SATA rather than the ATI connection found on the 1,1 - 2,1 and 3,1 Mac Pros. It gets you no more speed than the SATA connection the OP is currently using with his SSD mounted in a drive bay. The OP is on the right track by pursuing a PCIe solution for realizing some of the untapped potential of his SSD.

Lou
 
Lou, you're seem to overlook the fact, that 1,1/2,1 are equipped with PCIe 1.1 only, what means 200MB/s maximum speed per lane (8/10b bus encoding). No freakin' way to reach 400MB/s on single lane in a 2006/7. Apricorn knows that, so they insured themself by putting "PCIe 2.0" in their Velo x1 specs.

No point in buying Velo x1 for mentioned model.

P.S. Marvell 9230 chip (lowendlinux generous offer) can't negotiate proper lane width with 06/07 EFI, so it will end like Velo x1. Bad choice as well.

You can believe or not. If you don't – buy one yourself and ensure that you can return it or use in a 3,1-5,1 you own.
 
^^^^Yes, I understand, and Apricorn does too, they have the following note in the Solo x1 specs:

NOTE: Early model Mac Pro’s 1,1 and 2,1 have PCIe 1.0 expansion slots. Performance of the Solo will be limited by the PCIe bus to about 250MB/s max.
Click to expand...

However, in practical terms, I believe this to be faster than the SATAIII bays. Not a lot faster, but still faster.

Lou
 
It won't. 250MB/s is theoretical for PCIe, practically it's 200MB/s due to bus encoding. SATA II does not have this limit and it will top out about 250MB/s. I explained that before.
 
flowrider said:
^^^^That's my thinking too, but look at post's #1267 and #1271 of this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...e-ngff-pcie-ssd.1685821/page-51#post-21778615

Maybe the jury's still out?

However, boot times in the 20 to 30 second range are fine for me. Getting more internal fast storage devices are a BIG PLUS for me!

I have never had any trouble choosing the boot drive and having it stick. All five of my SSDs are set up to be boot drives



An XP941 will not mount on an Apricorn x1 or x2 card. Those cards are made specifically for 2.5" footprint devices. And even if it would mount, the 1,1 Mac Pro could not take advantage of it. Also, the XP941 has been replaced by the SM951.

Lou
Click to expand...
Sorry, my mistake! Look at this http://barefeats.com/hard183.html
 
666sheep said:
It won't. 250MB/s is theoretical for PCIe, practically it's 200MB/s due to bus encoding. SATA II does not have this limit and it will top out about 250MB/s. I explained that before.
Click to expand...

I am pretty sure I get about 240MB/s read/write as things are now. Are you sure I won't see a significant speed boost with an adapter card? BTW, would lowendlinux's card at least work in the Mac Pro? If it means boosting the speed a bit, it's still worth it.
 
lowendlinux said:
I have this its hackintosh bootable but I don't know if it's Mac bootable you can have it for whatever is costs to ship
Click to expand...

I'm gonna hear back from 666sheep about it. (He seems to know about how this card may do in a Mac Pro.) If it would work, I'd be happy to accept that card. Thanks for your generous offer!
 
mbosse said:
Be aware that if you load your OS on a PCIe connected SSD, the MP will first search for an internal boot drive before resorting to the 'external' SSD. This means you will face about 15-20sec idle time at startup while the machine searches for an internal drive.

Furthermore, I had the recovery partition of El Capitan still on an internal drive. This had the annoying consequence that the MP always booted into recovery although there was a full El Capitan installation (on the PCIe-SSD). Setting the boot drive did not help, it would still boot into the recovery (I assume just because that was in an internal drive). The only solution for me was to delete the recovery partition.

Magnus
Click to expand...

Would rEFIt help with that?
 
Ooh--thanks for telling me that. I guess this could be a deal-breaker if I decide that I want Windows disk in my machine--unless I just create a Windows partition on the actual SSD. Well, Windows is a bit slow-going on mechanical hard drives, so I might as well, eh?


Hadn't heard that before, but it sounds obvious. I'd expect the Mac to search other drives first.
 
Thanks for all of your replies. Unfortunately, I am limited on time tonight, so I have responded so far to a few replies that have caught my eye. I also may settle for lowendlinux's card if it works in my machine, and may have to just refrain from having any other boot disks inside my machine! Final decisions pending...
 
The only way I know to get higher device speed in a Mac Pro 1,1 is to use a xp941 or a RAID.

With a x1 PCIe card you will get only around 200 MB/s and this is slower than the drive bays.

The XP941 is using x4. So you can get ~720 MB/s.
 
TzunamiOSX said:
The only way I know to get higher device speed in a Mac Pro 1,1 is to use a xp941 or a RAID.

With a x1 PCIe card you will get only around 200 MB/s and this is slower than the drive bays.

The XP941 is using x4. So you can get ~720 MB/s.
Click to expand...

You sure that a PCIe lane will be slower than my SATA bus? (BTW, I get about 250 MB/s in the SATA bay.)
 
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