Internal sata3 PCIE card for the Mac Pro

[beto2k7]

Is there any sata3 pcie card out there that allows me to connect my 2 OCZ vertex 4 drives and boot from them?

 

[violst]

Hi beto2K7,

The Mac Pro has extra esata ports on the mother board, so you can use a product like this to utilize those ports.

eSATA Extender Cable Adapter

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/MPQXES2/

I run a 3 TB TimeMachine raid from it with no problems. And its less then $20

 

[Loa]

Hello,

Violst: only older Mac Pros have those extra ports. If he has a 2009 or more recent MP, it won't work.

beto2K7: yes. Search for ASM1061 on eBay, and get some info on that card here: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1280517/

On the other hand, placing two fast SSDs on a single card, on any Mac Pro, is going to throttle your SSDs.

Loa

 

[TomTomTuning]

Is this the right ASM1061 PCIe card?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-eSATA-2-S...635?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item27c7b32f83

 

[ClassObject]

Is this the right ASM1061 PCIe card?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-eSATA-2-S...635?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item27c7b32f83

That's what I use and it works fine. When it arrived the jumpers were smashed in shipping but straightened them out and all is well.

FWIW 2009+ have ports on the board you can use if you unplug the connector already plugged in. It is sata II so no real advantage.

 

[TomTomTuning]

For 12 bucks I'll give it a try. 🙂

 

[violst]

FWIW 2009+ have ports on the board you can use if you unplug the connector already plugged in. It is sata II so no real advantage.

ClassObject is correct. On the older mac pros 2006-2008 you have two extra ports on the 2009+ you have 1 extra port. So the extender cable will work. But yes it is eSATA 2.

Here is a compatability chart.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer Technology/MPQXES2/

 

[beto2k7]

Thanks all for your replies. As for now I have two pcie lanes open. At $12 I might as well buy two of those cards. Will this prevent my ssds from being throttled???

 

[Loa]

Hello,

Not sure about the two cards. If I remember correctly, the top two lanes in recent MP share the same bandwidth.

Hopefully someone like nano could hop by and confirm.

Loa

 

[beto2k7]

Hello,

Not sure about the two cards. If I remember correctly, the top two lanes in recent MP share the same bandwidth.

Hopefully someone like nano could hop by and confirm.

Loa

That was confirmed by nano in the other thread you linked to. Fortunately for me I have lanes 2,3 and 4 available at the moment and will use lanes 2, 4 with the apricorn velocity solo x2 I just got from amazon. Thanks for your help.