How to use M.2 SSD or PCIe card with Mac Pro

[jasonjt99]

Hello,

I have a Mac Pro 6,1 (cylinder) and I want to setup an external working drive for my photography and videography. I would like to create a RIAD drive out of M.2 SSDs or mSATA SSDs.

However, since my computer does not have a way to expand its PCIe lanes I am not sure how to go about doing this. There is this PCIe add-on card that could host 4 mSATA SSDs but I do not how I would connect it to my computer.

I could just buy a USB 3.0 enclosure to use with a M.2 SSD but that would severely cripple the speed of the drive.

Does anybody know a way to connect either a PCIe add-on card, or an M.2 SSD, without loosing so much speed?

 

[g4cube]

LaCie's Thunderbolt2 Little Big Disk has 2 512GB M.2 PCIe SSD inside.

Search for many positive reviews. Easiest way to add to newest Mac Pro via Thunderbolt.

 

[bokkow]

http://www.akitio.com/accessories/thunder2-pcie-box

 

[g4cube]

That Akitio product is a chassis that connects via Thunderbolt, and permits use of certain PCIe cards.

The OP was asking how to use M2 PCIe SSDs.

In addition to the Akitio, you would also need to identify a compatible PCIe card that accepts PCIe M.2 SSDs. All together, the overall cost would be much more than the cost of the Little Big Disk which takes care of this in one package.

Look bad at some of the previous threads for more details about the difference between M.2 PCIe SSD blades, and PCIe chassis.

Note well, there are also M.2 SATA SSD blades, that look very similar, but are limited to SATA III speeds.

The two M.2 PCIe blades inside the LaCie Little Big Disk can deliver up to 1375 MB/sec performance.

Two M.2 SATA blades will deliver a lot less.

Both scenarios assume the blades are striped.

In order to get more than 1 GB/sec performance from SATA SSDs, you would need a minimum of 4 striped into a RAID-0 array. There are several solutions that can do this, but at considerably more cost.