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Highpoint 7101A - PCIe 3.0 SSD performance for the cMP
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ZombiePhysicist
Suspended
Try a new MBP M1max machine and see if you still think it doesnt make a difference. Getting around 5GB/s really makes things way snappier. I also have a relatively 'slow' boot drive, theoretically 3500MB/s but with encryption/OS overhead, gets around 2800MB/sec. It's fine, but I'm now contemplating how I can get a boot drive that raids to over 8GB/sec, ideally 12+GB/sec.
tsialex
Contributor
For a Mac? Seems you are forgetting Apple don't allow bootable RAID arrays since Mojave and the easy hacks to get a bootable array stopped to work with Catalina. BigSur and Monterey sealed containers make it almost impossible now.
ZombiePhysicist
Suspended
I've seen some cards that came out recently and they purport 7GB/sec plus. I suspect it's as you say, a non bootable RAID option to get those speeds. I wonder if any cards will come out that let you use PCIe4 NVMe sticks, in a 16lane slot, so that it would at least let us get to around the 7GB/sec mark on bootable drives. Not sure if that would be doable or not.
skodises
Contributor
I’ve found the best bang for the buck with my 7101A is to boot from a single blade, and then run my Windows VMs under Parallels from two blades in a striped Raid 0 array. The NVME boot drive makes the Mac adequately fast, and the Windows bloatware VMs clearly need all the help they can get…
Back when you could still do a Raid boot drive with High Sierra, I found that (for my needs) there really wasn’t enough of an advantage to make it worth the added fragility- it seemed as if there was always something going sideways. Of course, I was always experimenting with the actual Raid implementation- using the High Point drivers, or Soft Raid, or Apple’s own Raid software, trying to find an optimal setup. When they finally killed the possibility of booting from a Raid array, they actually saved me some trouble.
For a production-use daily driver machine, reliability/stability outstrips marginally improved specs, to my way of thinking. Your mileage may vary, of course.
Back when you could still do a Raid boot drive with High Sierra, I found that (for my needs) there really wasn’t enough of an advantage to make it worth the added fragility- it seemed as if there was always something going sideways. Of course, I was always experimenting with the actual Raid implementation- using the High Point drivers, or Soft Raid, or Apple’s own Raid software, trying to find an optimal setup. When they finally killed the possibility of booting from a Raid array, they actually saved me some trouble.
For a production-use daily driver machine, reliability/stability outstrips marginally improved specs, to my way of thinking. Your mileage may vary, of course.
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Hello Guys - I am hoping someone can help me
I have a 7101A-1 Card with one 970 Pro SSD on it. OpenCore 0.76 Martin Lo package. I am having an issue with the drivers.
While I was on Big Sur 11.0.1 -
1.1.20 - Driver worked fine
1.1.25 - Driver worked fine also
1.1.26 has issues. I am not able to boot to 11.0.1, the OS stall halfway at loading
- From 7,1 thread with @Bggale help I have been able to find out that deleting the kext file allowed the boot to continue.
- I was able to do this by having back Mojave install on a separate SATA SSD.
So it clearly seems to me that the 1.1.26 driver is the issue. I wanted to see if other users here have had any issues like I am having.
I have a 7101A-1 Card with one 970 Pro SSD on it. OpenCore 0.76 Martin Lo package. I am having an issue with the drivers.
While I was on Big Sur 11.0.1 -
1.1.20 - Driver worked fine
1.1.25 - Driver worked fine also
1.1.26 has issues. I am not able to boot to 11.0.1, the OS stall halfway at loading
- From 7,1 thread with @Bggale help I have been able to find out that deleting the kext file allowed the boot to continue.
- I was able to do this by having back Mojave install on a separate SATA SSD.
So it clearly seems to me that the 1.1.26 driver is the issue. I wanted to see if other users here have had any issues like I am having.
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roobarb!
macrumors 6502
Same here, though it's a 970 EVO Plus at this end and my OpenCore is installed on the NVMe drive itself, on the 7101A. I remember hearing this wasn't necessarily recommended, but it's been working fine for a couple of years now.
HighPoint finally acknowledged Mac OS 12 on their Downloads website, and they have updated the driver to v1.1.29. I have not tried it yet, since, for some reason, I suddenly can't get v1.1.26 to work on my clone drive, even though it's a clone of my boot drive where v1.1.26 works fine. Every time I boot the clone, I get a message about a third party extension conflict, and the HP driver gets disabled. Weird.
I am afraid to try this as the drivers are are most likely are meant for 7,1 mac. I wonder what would happen if its installed on 5,1 OC... Anybody willing to try ?
Hey guys. My highpoint 7101a is in slot 2 of my 5.1 CMP. System profiler lists it operating at 2.5GT/s. I want to begin trouble shooting why that is. I’ve been using the 7101 for quite a while and it’s flawless, but I never really got around to optimizing it. Now the build is getting close to completely maxed out, this is one of those details that I’d like to figure out… how to get past 2,500 Mb/s.
Anyway, struggling to find info for modifying/ forcing 5.0Gts. There must be a thread someone can point me to? I’m trying to suss out if it’s a software config or physical config and I just need to switch the slots around. Weird that my usb-c card is indicating 5GT/s. Maybe I should just start pulling cards and see if it changes, but then again I wouldn’t expect the 7101 to be effected by what happens in slots 3 and 4 even if switching them is better.
Specs… Slot 1 holds a W5700 video card in Slot 2 the High point 7101a with 4-1TB 970’s (2.5GT/s). Slot 3 holds an AbelCon USBC card (5 GT/s) and slot 4 has a Gigabyte titan ridge thunderbolt 3 card (2.5 GT/s) just installed. MACOS 11.52.
Let me know what you guys think. I would really appreciate a little direction in this one.
Anyway, struggling to find info for modifying/ forcing 5.0Gts. There must be a thread someone can point me to? I’m trying to suss out if it’s a software config or physical config and I just need to switch the slots around. Weird that my usb-c card is indicating 5GT/s. Maybe I should just start pulling cards and see if it changes, but then again I wouldn’t expect the 7101 to be effected by what happens in slots 3 and 4 even if switching them is better.
Specs… Slot 1 holds a W5700 video card in Slot 2 the High point 7101a with 4-1TB 970’s (2.5GT/s). Slot 3 holds an AbelCon USBC card (5 GT/s) and slot 4 has a Gigabyte titan ridge thunderbolt 3 card (2.5 GT/s) just installed. MACOS 11.52.
Let me know what you guys think. I would really appreciate a little direction in this one.
tsialex
Contributor
Check your BootROM version, before 138.0.0.0.0 only Apple GPU cards were correctly initialized as PCIe v2.0 (5GT/s).
Alright. Alright. Thanks for the info. Boot Rom version oddly isn’t listed under hardware overview. it does list the system firmware as 9999.999.999.999. Maybe it’s an open core thing? Maybe the correct rom didn’t load? Hmm.
tsialex
Contributor
Boot vanilla, OC spoofing will mask your real BootROM version. You need to check the real version and upgrade it. See the first post of the thread below to know what to do:
MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)
Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...
forums.macrumors.com
Start by installing High Sierra if you already have MP51.0089.B00 (High Sierra installer will require it) or Sierra if you have a version earlier than MP51.0089.B00.
Thanks! Any idea why the USBC card (which does indicate 5gts) ?Boot vanilla, OC spoofing will mask your real BootROM version. You need to check the real version and upgrade it. See the first post of the thread below to know what to do:
MP5,1: What you have to do to upgrade to Mojave (BootROM upgrade instructions thread)
Please fully read this first post, you will probably find that you have one or more problems described into the various notes below. Mojave will only install if you have upgraded your BootROM to the current release and your Mac Pro have a Metal capable GPU*. If you are trying to install Mojave...
Start by installing High Sierra if you already have MP51.0089.B00 (High Sierra installer will require it) or Sierra if you have a version earlier than MP51.0089.B00.
tsialex
Contributor
Slots 3 and 4 share 4 PCIe lines from the south bridge via a PCIe v2.0 switch, the switch initialize and enumerate the cards correctly, while the PCIe slots 1 and 2 are directly connected to the CPU PCIe lines and initialized to PCIe v1.0 for anything else than AppleOEM GPUs. This issue was corrected with 138.0.0.0.0 and newer MacPro5,1 BootROMs.
You can upgrade directly to 144.0.0.0.0 from MP51.0089.B00, but not from an earlier release.
Ah. It’s making sense to me now. Wish I could buy you a drink. Thank you kind sir.
edamcheese
macrumors newbie
Hello. First time I post on this forum. Tsialex... do you know if there is a list of PCIe cards that will give the HIGHER speeds then the 1500.... I know the sonnet 4x4 silent 4000-5000 mb p/s, or the increst (with the right ssd m2 2500-2800) but is there a complete list of cards that will work in the Mac Pro 5.1 that has 144.0.0.0 or opencore? I'm searching the net but can't find it...I saw your list of cards that will not work so I hope there will be also a list of cards that will work. Only the options HIGHER then the normal 1500..... Hope to hear from you....
tsialex
Contributor
First post of the stickie thread below:
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
Thanks again. I have some more work to do here. Firmware is 144.000. Maybe incomplete? Is there a discrepancy between the boot rom and the smc? Or does that display as normal?
I have 3.46 processors I didn’t see that affecting anything in the notes, but does that effect EFI updates?
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tsialex
Contributor
Possible, could be a BootROM issue, but could also be a hardware issue. People that had installed RX 480 with just one PCIe 6-pin connector frequently damage the PCIe slots. Also an issue with some Titan GPUs.
You can eliminate the BootROM with a BootROM reconstruction service, send me a PM when you need it.
SMC is not upgrade-able, 1.39f11 is the correct SMC version for a mid-2010/mid-2012.
I don't see the relevance of the Xeons processors, but memory defects can brick the backplane when doing firmware upgrades. Did you ever run ATD/ASD?
BTW, this now have nothing to do with the thread topic, you should open or search a more appropriated thread.
MarkSt
macrumors newbie
I did try this setup and have a similar experience to yours.
( HighPoint driver v1.1.29 is working as expected in Big Sur and Monterey on 7,1 )
With the kext installed - booting proceeds to the halfway point and then stalls for as long as I want to leave it sit. I can reboot into a stable Mojave from SSD with the recommended HighPointNVMe.kext v1.1.25 and see my raided 2TB NVMe user data drive. This allows me remove the HighPointNVMe.kext from the Big Sur 11.6.3 /Library/Extensions folder on the single 1TB NVMe. (3 total 1TB drives on a HighPoint 7101A) After I remove the kext I can reboot into Big Sur through OpenCore and log into my ADMIN account that has its user data on the non-raided 1TB NVMe boot drive. (My other accounts user data exists on the HighPoint 2TB RAID NVMe) I have tried HighPoint drivers: v1.1.25(doesn't load but does not stall boot) v1.1.26 (stalls boot halfway mark) v1.1.29 (stalls boot halfway mark)
Has anyone with a 5,1 OC Big Sur 11.6.3 and a HighPoint 7101A gotten their kext to load and support a NVMe raid?
My backup plan was to install another 2TB NVMe onto my 7101A and clone the user data from the raided 2TB NVMe drive and point user accounts to this drive. - no more raid for user accounts but also no control of the 7101A through the HP RAID Management window in Big Sur.
1) Any trouble with using the 7101A without a driver while running Big Sur?
2) Any issues with pointing the user accounts at the new 2TB NVMe from both Big Sur and Mojave? (same accounts shared data folders)
Cyberdoc71
macrumors member
Hi guys,
Got a Highpoint 7204 trying to get recognized on Opencore .80 and when I run the webgui it says that the adapter and driver not found. Checked system profiler and the driver is loaded. Have four generic 500gb Forza nvme drives installed. The system when dual booted into Windows recognizes the array but not when I load Catalina or even Big Sur. Not trying to make it bootable or anything like that. Just a data drive.
Anyhow when Catalina loads up I get a message about 4 different drives that need to be initialized or ignored. Have disabled SIP and secure boot and played around with TP setttings no luck. Using the latest Highpoint kext they released for Catalina and even Big Sur. Think the problem is ACPI related. Had to make a custom SSDT for the drives to show up as internal because my motherboard uses a bridge switch on each slot nevermind the two switches on the SSD7204.
Anyone experience the same issue?
Thanks
Got a Highpoint 7204 trying to get recognized on Opencore .80 and when I run the webgui it says that the adapter and driver not found. Checked system profiler and the driver is loaded. Have four generic 500gb Forza nvme drives installed. The system when dual booted into Windows recognizes the array but not when I load Catalina or even Big Sur. Not trying to make it bootable or anything like that. Just a data drive.
Anyhow when Catalina loads up I get a message about 4 different drives that need to be initialized or ignored. Have disabled SIP and secure boot and played around with TP setttings no luck. Using the latest Highpoint kext they released for Catalina and even Big Sur. Think the problem is ACPI related. Had to make a custom SSDT for the drives to show up as internal because my motherboard uses a bridge switch on each slot nevermind the two switches on the SSD7204.
Anyone experience the same issue?
Thanks
I picked up one of these cards used recently and it is a version 2 with the 3-pin fan connector. The fan speed control shows up on the web configurator interface but changing the setting has no effect, so I can't reduce the speed of the fan to make it quieter. I emailed Highpoint support and they said that an even newer hardware version (3.10) is required to for fan speed control and that is was not possible for my v2 card to be flashed to gain that functionality, even if I sent it in to them.
That's sort of contrary to posts I read earlier in this thread, but not sure what else I can do since they've already told me no.
So I figured I would at least replace the fan with one of the quieter models you linked in the thread. The problem is that they are all out of stock.
Were these fans actually all in stock a couple years ago when you bought them? I looked on DigiKey and Mouser to no avail--no one seems to have any. They only have quantities of the 37.5db BFB0512HHA, which is the one my card shipped with.
It's looking like my only option is to try to buy one on aliexpress, which if it even comes is likely to be a knockoff
Just wondered if you knew of another source for these fans or if there is some other model that is quiet and in-stock in the US. Or did anyone in the US buy extras and would be willing to sell me one?
Appreciate any info or leads.