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MP 1,1-5,1 Mac Pro 5,1 SSD?

quad121

quad121

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 25, 2007
139
9
Hi all. Got the RX580 installed and it has improved the graphics a lot. So as I’m on a roll, looking now at the HDD which are the standard SATA HDD.
I came across these:

Flexx 512GB LX400 Pro PCIe NVME SSD AND Adapter for 2010-19 MacPro tower/rack​

will these be a good upgrade over a standard install eg. samsung evo range etc?

any advice on the subject would be most appreciate.
 
Never heard of it, and it is not listed here as good or bad:

forums.macrumors.com

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 forums.macrumors.com

I would stick to any from the wiki, these have all been fully tested.
Most people go with Samsung.
 
For advice on which NVMe SSD to choose look up to the "PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI" thread linked above and in the sticky posts section.

From my personal experience I'd avoid Sabrent and go with either Samsung or WD. You don't need anything too fancy in a classic Mac Pro because you'll be limited by PCIe v2 x4 bandwidth of ~1500MB/s anyway.

The Flexx LX400 Pro PCIe NVMe SSD Adapter seems to be one of the many generic x4 m.2 to PCIe adapter options and it should work fine. Just make sure to get one that uses a x4 connector and not a x1 (super short) connector. There are many other equivalent options available though and none of them need to be specific to the Mac Pro to work until you get into multi-ssd RAID adapters.
 
Thank you all for your advice. Just looking for a good upgrade to the boot drive to give me a good performance hike to the standard HDD I have.
be it a Samsung Evo SSD. Which interface would give you the best performance?
 
For a boot drive, a sata connected ssd in one of the hdd bays is plenty fast enough.
For scratch disk (video/audio) an nvme pcie will give you the fastest.

Also depends what MacOS you are on, and what bootrom version.
 
quad121 said:
Thank you all for your advice. Just looking for a good upgrade to the boot drive to give me a good performance hike to the standard HDD I have.
be it a Samsung Evo SSD. Which interface would give you the best performance?
Click to expand...

Best performance is from m.2 NVMe SSDs ~3,000MB/s (but limited to ~1500MB/s on classic Mac Pro due to PCIe v2 x4 bandwidth) then m.2 AHCI SSDs such as the SM951 AHCI ~1500MB/s (but these are older and harder to find these days) then your standard run-of-the-mill 2.5" form factor SATA AHCI SSDS ~600MB/s. Samsung Evo can refer to either an m.2 NVMe SSD or a SATA AHCI SSD but I assume that you mean something like a 970 Evo or 980 Evo both of which are m.2 NVMe SSDs.

To boot from an NVMe SSD you must upgrade your machine to Mojave first to get the latest 144.0.0.0.0 firmware. In order to do that you need a Metal supported GPU which it sounds like you now have (RX 580.) Samsung 970 Evo is an excellent choice. Samsung 980 Evo works too but will be a waste unless you plan to use it on another computer someday. A WD Blue M.2 is also a good choice, WD Black M.2 also works, but like the 980 will not reach its full potential in this machine. Sandisk and other manufacturers also work if you find something cheaper. Watch out for server-grade SSDs (e.g. HP Exo) as they tend to have slower write performance.

If you'd rather get a standard 2.5" AHCI SSD for the lower price and good enough performance just about anything will do as they are all practically identical in performance at this point. I just threw a Leven (non brand name) 2TB SSD in a Mac mini and it performs just as well as the (slightly) more expensive ones from WD, Samsung, and Sandisk.
 
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Thanks again for all this information. If I go with the NVMe SSD, I noticed after having a look at these they are a ‘card’ style where do these ‘plug in‘? I would probably be looking at the Samsung 970 Evo ? There is also a ‘plus’ version which seem to crop up more often than just the Evo on its own also is there any gain in going down that root?
 
They plug into a pcie slot, when connected to a card.
Make sure you get one with a heat sink.

Refer to wiki, as it all depends on performance you want and price you want to pay.
 
Ive had a good look around and sort of settled on:
Highpoint M.2 to PCIe Controller
WD Black SN750 or Sabrent Rocket SSD

Would these work ok together?

I'm on Mojave 10.14.6 and have a boot ROM 144.0.0.
 
Last edited:
quad121 said:
Ive had a good look around and sort of settled on:
Highpoint M.2 to PCIe Controller
WD Black SN750 or Sabrent Rocket SSD

Would these work ok together?
Click to expand...

Does "Highpoint M.2 to PCIe Controller" refer to the SSD7101A or SSD7103 raid controller or does it refer to a single SSD adapter? Are you planning to run multiple SSDs in a RAID configuration?

As I said earlier, you should probably avoid Sabrent Rocket SSD. They do work but they don't perform as well as some of the alternatives in macOS and they have the wrong sector size (512) by default so you'll want to update that using their utility from a Windows box which will also involve reformatting the drive. You could go with the WD Black SN750 but a WD Blue will work just as well in this machine. How did you come to this decision?
 
Its for the SSD7101A< I was thinking of running two drives as a Raid, which would give me the best performance as far as what I have read on different forums etc? Obviously correct me if I'm wrong
 
SSD7101A does work in a classic Mac Pro, but it's not your fastest option anymore now that the Sonnet one exists. Two drives in a RAID does give better performance but can't be used as a boot drive without some caveats so this is to be avoided unless you really know what you're doing. There are a few dual m.2 blade controllers that work with Mac Pro as well and they are a bit cheaper.

You're so all over the place with this thread you must be learning all the possibilities as you go. The simplest solution to save yourself money and pain is to get a single SSD adapter (for around ~$10-$15) and a decently supported m.2 blade of the capacity you need noting that price goes up dramatically as you go up in capacity from 256GB to 512GB to 1TB to 2TB (and even higher capacities for even higher prices.)

You should only go the way of a multi-ssd RAID adapter if you really need the extra speed and as secondary storage.

You should only go with the faster SSDs like WD Black SN750 and Sabrent Rocket Q over the less expensive options if you are planning to reuse the drive on another machine someday.
 
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I'm using the Mac for Video and Picture editing, I have been using Macs for years but have never got into Modding them as such.
On the SSD7101A it has 4 ports, could I have one SSD on its own for the boot up, then have a pair of SSDs on 2 of the other ports in a raid configuration ?
 
A single blade to boot, and two more in a RAID 0 as a scratch disk all connected to a SSD7101A would work. Note that if you're going the way of a SSD7101A that needs to go into the x16 slot 2 in order to provide a x4 connection to each blade which means it will but right up against your GPU in slot 1. Initially you indicated that you put an RX 580 in. Depending on what model of RX 580 you have some take up 2.5 slots and so block access to slot 2. Even if you have a 2 slot card the fans will blow hot air right onto the back of the SSD7101A which could cause issues when you really start cranking up the GPU and SSDs. I haven't heard too many reports of that being a real issue in practice but it's something that you should be aware of depending on the fan configuration of your RX 580. If you have a blower style card then you'll probably be ok, but if you have a 2 or 3 fan version that might cause thermal issues under full load reducing your SSDs lifespan. One way to solve this would be to put the SSD7101A in slot 1 and the GPU in slot 2, but that will block access to slot 3 and possibly also slot 4 if the GPU is > 2 slots wide.
 
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yes the RX580 is in slot 1 as you say and it has 2 fans on it! Theres always a pondery!
 
quad121 said:
yes the RX580 is in slot 1 as you say and it has 2 fans on it! Theres always a pondery!
Click to expand...

I'm guessing the presence of 2 fans means that it's a Sapphire Pulse RX 580 which is a 2 slot card, not 2.5 so that should work fine with a SSD7101A in slot 2. It will blow hot air directly on the back of the SSD7101A but that may not be a practical problem IRL. Double check that the RX 580 card you have provides clearance for slot 2 when you get a chance.
 
Ive had a quick look and there is clearance but not a lot.
 

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Well it doesn't look too bad! there is some clearance between the two cards.
 
quad121 said:
Well it doesn't look too bad! there is some clearance between the two cards.
Click to expand...
You will be fine, everything done right. The Highpoint is one of the best choices, WD SSD will work great as well. There is not much to add here. Abonding the 3.1 was the right choice..
 
Well I am very happy with this Mac so far. After swapping the GPU out that's made a whole lot of difference just need to address the Storage side now, I think I've got a plan for the SSD. I have 32gb memory probably need to up that also a bit ?
 
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