MP 7,1 HighPoint 7103 Drivers and Fan Disable

[arjunchawda]

Just a couple of questions:

- I know the HighPoint 7103 will work natively in the Mac Pro 7,1. But are there drivers/utility software for it available on Mac? I can’t see anything to it on the website...

- I’ve been reading on HighPoint 7100 series being able to disable the fan on the newer series when used in the new Mac Pro, as airflow would be sufficient from the Mac Pro’s ‘wind tunnel’ design. Has anybody done this yet?

 

[Bradleyone]

I know the HighPoint 7103 will work natively in the Mac Pro 7,1. But are there drivers/utility software for it available on Mac? I can’t see anything to it on the website...

Only Windows and Linux, I believe. HighPoint aren't making any reference to the 7103 in their promotion of solutions for the Mac Pro 7,1. Though as you mention, people seem to be using the 7103 natively just fine.

You could always boot into a Boot Camp Windows to set up and run the native monitor.

Furthermore, as the 7103 is HighPoint's NVMe Bootable RAID Solution, it might even be possible to boot into Windows to set up a RAID, then reboot into the Mac which might then see the setup as one big drive.

At that point, Catalina might even allow you to install a boot volume...?

(Normally, Apple has given Catalina/APFS a strict no-boot-from-RAID directive, which means such a solution will likely never exist for SoftRAID or Disk Utility RAID setups.)

It'd be very interesting for someone to test this possibility for the 7103. Theory is good, but it may or may not actually work.

I’ve been reading on HighPoint 7100 series being able to disable the fan on the newer series when used in the new Mac Pro, as airflow would be sufficient from the Mac Pro’s ‘wind tunnel’ design. Has anybody done this yet?

Owners of the 7101A are discussing their findings. Those should apply to the 7103 as well.

 

[Getthisfaster]

Watch out as those statements are not yet from those who have actually tested what they proposed....

 

[arjunchawda]

Only Windows and Linux, I believe. HighPoint aren't making any reference to the 7103 in their promotion of solutions for the Mac Pro 7,1. Though as you mention, people seem to be using the 7103 natively just fine.

You could always boot into a Boot Camp Windows to set up and run the native monitor.

Furthermore, as the 7103 is HighPoint's NVMe Bootable RAID Solution, it might even be possible to boot into Windows to set up a RAID, then reboot into the Mac which might then see the setup as one big drive.

At that point, Catalina might even allow you to install a boot volume...?

(Normally, Apple has given Catalina/APFS a strict no-boot-from-RAID directive, which means such a solution will likely never exist for SoftRAID or Disk Utility RAID setups.)

It'd be very interesting for someone to test this possibility for the 7103. Theory is good, but it may or may not actually work.



Owners of the 7101A are discussing their findings. Those should apply to the 7103 as well.

Ahh, I see. Ok, well thank you!

I had something strange happen with my HighPoint 7103 card which is making me think to open an RMA and return it:

I have three NVMe blades installed inside it.

4TB Sabrent Rocket

1TB Sabrent Rocket

2TB ADATA

Now all three blades were fine for a couple of days, but eventually, out of nowhere, the Sabrent 4TB blade was not being recognised at all in the 7103. Although, the Sabrent 1TB + ADATA 2TB were still fine.

A few days later, the same thing happened with the Sabrent 1TB, and now both the Sabrent blades were just not being recognised at all.

The ADATA 2TB has and still is absolutely fine.

I took both the Sabrent blades out of the 7103 and put them in their own single nvme to pcie cards, a cheap £20 startech one, and it’s absolutely fine. They’ve been registering in MacOS and running completely fine with good temps.

It’s strange how the Sabrent blades started off absolutely fine in the 7103 card, and then eventually both decided to knock off, on after another.

I’m using all three drives as independent volumes.

 

[arock]

This is worrysome - I had the same thing happen with a Sabrent 2TB stick in the SSD7101A. I had 4 of them in a RAID0 to test throughout. Within 3 minutes of starting the test, it hung the machine. When I did a force shutdown and restart, the drive no longer showed up in the web gui for the Highpoint card. I just figured that it was faulty from the factory and started a replacement with Amazon. Your story has me worried that the same thing will eventually happen with the other Sabrent sticks. The other 3 have been reliable so far but it's just been a few days.

 

[jasonmvp]

FWIW, Sabrents are really economical NVMe drives. But if you read the negative reviews of them (focus on the negatives), you'll see a lot of comments that are similar to what you guys are saying. I almost went that route with their 4TB drives. Ultimately my concern over their overall reliability got the better of me and I punted.

 

[arjunchawda]

This is worrysome - I had the same thing happen with a Sabrent 2TB stick in the SSD7101A. I had 4 of them in a RAID0 to test throughout. Within 3 minutes of starting the test, it hung the machine. When I did a force shutdown and restart, the drive no longer showed up in the web gui for the Highpoint card. I just figured that it was faulty from the factory and started a replacement with Amazon. Your story has me worried that the same thing will eventually happen with the other Sabrent sticks. The other 3 have been reliable so far but it's just been a few days.

It’s really strange!

I’m definitely going to be returning my 7103 now, as it’s definitely the card that’s the issue.

Proven by the fact the Sabrent sticks work perfectly fine in those cheap startech nvme to pcie x4 adapters.

 

[tommy chen]

.....Proven by the fact the Sabrent sticks work perfectly fine in those cheap startech nvme to pcie x4 adapters.

because they are not really challenged there either

 

[arjunchawda]

because they are not really challenged there either

I’ve been using the Sabrent sticks in the startech adapters for four days now consistently writing and reading to it, without heatsinks. They’ve been rock solid, and at 38 degrees celcius

 

[tommy chen]

in contrast to the x16 cards, the NVMe is not loaded with full I/O on a x4

 

[arjunchawda]

in contrast to the x16 cards, the NVMe is not loaded with full I/O on a x4

Gotcha