MP 1,1-5,1 Card PCIe 3.0 (x8) Sonnet McFiver for Mac Pro 5,1 (2010) ?

[Mic-M4c]

Hi all !

Is this card compatible with a classic Mac Pro 5,1 (2010-2012) running Sequoia 15.2 (OCLP 2.2.0), and Mojave 10.14.6 ?

Card PCIe 3.0 (x8) Sonnet McFiver for 2 SSD M.2 NVMe, 1 port 10 GbE, 2 ports USB-C​

Thank you for your answers.

 

[Bigwaff]

Many people use it with 5,1 and OCLP. Not sure how many on Sequoia…

https://forums.macrumors.com/search/5034139/?page=1&q=Mcfiver&o=relevance

 

[reader50]

I'm using it on Sequoia, and I'm set up like a developer, with every macOS version installed. No trouble booting into anything from High Sierra to Sequoia, including Mojave. From either M.2 - I'm using sticks from Silicon Power (2TB P34A60) and Addlink (4TB S95).

The 10 Gb USB-c ports both work fine.

Anomaly #1: OCLP makes the 10Gb ethernet port fully work in Monterey, possibly earlier. But the driver OCLP 2.2.0 provides prevents boot in Ventura or later. You have to either use Monterey, or edit config.plist to disable the driver. After which the 10Gb ethernet port will not work. Not even as a gigabit port.

Anomaly #2: the firmware boot picker hangs when my McFiver is installed - the volume icons never appear. You have to use the OCLP boot picker and/or use Startup Disk to switch volumes. I haven't finished diagnosing this - it could be one of my M.2 sticks, rather than the card. Sonnet lists the Silicon Power P34A60 as "not compatible with macOS", but it worked fine for me. Both in a standalone PCIe adapter (firmware boot picker appears) and in the McFiver (no firmware boot picker).

 

[Mic-M4c]

Thank you for your precious feedbacks !

 

[h8zgray]

I'm using it on Sequoia, and I'm set up like a developer, with every macOS version installed. No trouble booting into anything from High Sierra to Sequoia, including Mojave. From either M.2 - I'm using sticks from Silicon Power (2TB P34A60) and Addlink (4TB S95).

The 10 Gb USB-c ports both work fine.

Anomaly #1: OCLP makes the 10Gb ethernet port fully work in Monterey, possibly earlier. But the driver OCLP 2.2.0 provides prevents boot in Ventura or later. You have to either use Monterey, or edit config.plist to disable the driver. After which the 10Gb ethernet port will not work. Not even as a gigabit port.

Anomaly #2: the firmware boot picker hangs when my McFiver is installed - the volume icons never appear. You have to use the OCLP boot picker and/or use Startup Disk to switch volumes. I haven't finished diagnosing this - it could be one of my M.2 sticks, rather than the card. Sonnet lists the Silicon Power P34A60 as "not compatible with macOS", but it worked fine for me. Both in a standalone PCIe adapter (firmware boot picker appears) and in the McFiver (no firmware boot picker).

Good day all, i can confirm anomaly #2 listed above, same exact thing is happening on my 5,1, specifically, when Sonnet Tech's McFiver card is installed on any slot, with or without SSDs installed, system boot picker is not available. Furthermore, holding down Option at boot will hang systen (WSOD). Thank you for the confirmation, take care.

 

[zedex]

Hello all - gotta love Sonnet for giving us a new PCIe add-in card with genuinely distinct functionality and architecture.

I would like to know which PCIe switch Sonnet has used on this card. It's not on the Sonnet website but I'm sure someone on mrf has already identified it.

Is it the ASMedia ASM2824 or the PLX8748 by Broadcom? (these are the two most commonly used active switches on host PCIe NVMe Storage Devices)

Other (lower probability) possibilities are PCIe switches produced by Marvell and/or IDT

Anyone know?