Sonnet Tech Tempo SSD Pro Plus or Velocity Duo x2

[Keter]

Hi all ,

This is my first post.

I recently acquired a 2010 DP 2.66 6-Core cMP. The system is configured with the stock 5770 graphics, 32GB of RAM, (2) 1TB HDD and (2) 3TB HDD. I have 10.10.2 on Disk1 (1TB) and then I have Windows 7 Pro and 10 Tech Preview on Disk2 (1TB) partitioned 50/50 split. The two 3TB disks are just storing files for now.

I intend to pick up a PC version EVGA GTX 630 SC to be flashed with BIOS/EFI for Mac to occupy PCIe slot 1, and thinking of adding a Inateck 4 Ports PCIe USB 3.0 card on slot 4 and the SSD card on slot 2.

What I am not set on is what SSD solution is best for me. I am going to order two 500GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD's and install them to either a Sonnet Tech Tempo SSD Pro Plus or a Velocity Duo x2, but I am not sure which one? The price difference is about $100 between the two cards. I plan to run the two drives in RAID 0, so the card needs to be bootable. I will be backing up to Disk1 once I have cloned that volume to the RAID 0 SSD's later on adding a cloud backup with CrashPlan Pro.

I read m4v3r1ck's thread about the Apricorn. My concern is if there is a significant difference in performance from the Apricorn with it being only a 2 lane card compared to the Sonnet being a 4 lane card. Also I am concerned about option-key booting issue the Sonnet has exhibited for a some owners, but appears to be resolved by updating the firmware with a PC.

If you own one either of these cards or have had experience with them, your insight would be appreciated.

 

[SDAVE]

I have a velo duo x2 with a 256GB Samsung 830, has been flawless. I get full speed on a 2010 cMP.

 

[h9826790]

AFAIK, the Tempo card boot manager problem is not solved yet. There is no new firmware since Jan 2013. The new tool in there webpage is for the new machines that has problem in Windows, not for Mac.

Some user able to recover the boot manager by doing some reset with a bare card installed. However, it's not 100% work. At least, I try that few times, it was able to recover the boot manager, but can't display the Windows partition (on a internal HDD). Also, if any further reset required due to other problem, may break the boot manager again.

For me, it's not a problem. I don't really need the boot manager. If I really need it, rEFInd can do the job. However, if you need that, I will say don't go for the Tempo card. It works flawlessly on a 4,1, but not that well on a 5,1.

 

[matthewtoney]

AFAIK, the Tempo card boot manager problem is not solved yet. There is no new firmware since Jan 2013. The new tool in there webpage is for the new machines that has problem in Windows, not for Mac.

Some user able to recover the boot manager by doing some reset with a bare card installed. However, it's not 100% work. At least, I try that few times, it was able to recover the boot manager, but can't display the Windows partition (on a internal HDD). Also, if any further reset required due to other problem, may break the boot manager again.

For me, it's not a problem. I don't really need the boot manager. If I really need it, rEFInd can do the job. However, if you need that, I will say don't go for the Tempo card. It works flawlessly on a 4,1, but not that well on a 5,1.

Ditto - I'm also on a flashed 2009 with a Tempo Pro Plus and I have the exact same behaviour. Like you, I tried all the various posted tricks when I first put it in the machine to get the boot manager back but eventually just gave up and moved on. Now I use QuickBoot to go back and forth (https://buttered-cat.com/products/QuickBoot) and find I don't really need the old boot manager.

(and the Sonnet card is quite fast - especially if running RAID0 across 2 SSDs)

 

[scottsjack]

I have a velo duo x2 with a 256GB Samsung 830, has been flawless. I get full speed on a 2010 cMP.

Ditto for the Velo Duo x2. I have Windows 8.1 and Yosemite booting each off of a 960GB Crucial M500 SSD. It works wonderfully. A Tempo I had a while back had no boot screen at all.

 

[Machines]

Ditto - I'm also on a flashed 2009 with a Tempo Pro Plus and I have the exact same behaviour. Like you, I tried all the various posted tricks when I first put it in the machine to get the boot manager back but eventually just gave up and moved on. Now I use QuickBoot to go back and forth (https://buttered-cat.com/products/QuickBoot) and find I don't really need the old boot manager.

(and the Sonnet card is quite fast - especially if running RAID0 across 2 SSDs)

I have a Mac Pro 4,1 > 5,1 with dual GTX 970s (no EFI) and the Sonnet Tempo Pro Plus card with two 256GB Samsung 850 PROs in RAID 0 . It's an awesome rig , not optimised due to immature driver support from nVidia . Sonnet card is bootable in OS X . OS X Installation is a bit tricky as it did not like my local USB install drives .

But , the Tempo has consistantly high sequential speeds (850-950 MB/s) in all Mac OS X from 10.6.8 to 10.10.1 . I tested this personally for a client .

I also have issues with boot selectivity at start up (option key) . but that could be because of the lack of video EFI or the Sonnet card .

The placement of your particular cards does not matter . Slots 2 , 3 or 4 are equally good choices .

Just watch out they don't interfere with some other card's cooler system .

 

[MacSince1985]

Ditto for the Velo Duo x2. I have Windows 8.1 and Yosemite booting each off of a 960GB Crucial M500 SSD. It works wonderfully. A Tempo I had a while back had no boot screen at all.

I have a Velocity duo x2 with two 960GB Crucial M500 SSD configured as a raid 0. Extremely fast and lots of space. I left bootcamp on a hard drive since I don't need it that often.

 

[Keter]

I have a Mac Pro 4,1 > 5,1 with dual GTX 970s (no EFI)....

I also have issues with boot selectivity at start up (option key) . but that could be because of the lack of video EFI or the Sonnet card .

With your card not flashed with the video EFI, do you get full lane performance in both Mac and Windows?

I read somewhere that without the flashing the OS's are unable to run the video cards on all 16 lanes of the PCIe bus.

 

[Machines]

With your card not flashed with the video EFI, do you get full lane performance in both Mac and Windows?

I read somewhere that without the flashing the OS's are unable to run the video cards on all 16 lanes of the PCIe bus.

I don't know for certain that an unflashed GTX 970 operates at PCIe REV 1 or 2 throughput or how many lanes they use in Mac OS X . It doesn't really matter too much , as they benchmark at the expected levels in Open CL tests (Like LuxMark) in Mac OS X .

 

[flowrider]

I am running two Velocity Duo x2s. I can boot from either one. I have four Samsung SSDs and I am very happy with the combo. IMHO, the Apricorn cards are the best ones out there.

Lou

 

[Keter]

I am running two Velocity Duo x2s. I can boot from either one. I have four Samsung SSDs and I am very happy with the combo. IMHO, the Apricorn cards are the best ones out there.

Lou

What kind of read and write speeds do you get?

 

[matthewtoney]

But , the Tempo has consistantly high sequential speeds (850-950 MB/s) in all Mac OS X from 10.6.8 to 10.10.1 . I tested this personally for a client .

I also have issues with boot selectivity at start up (option key) . but that could be because of the lack of video EFI or the Sonnet card .

Yes I have 2 1tb 840 EVO's on mine and get the same speeds - it is nice and fast, although the boot manager deal is a know issue with the Sonnet and doesn't seem to matter about whether its matched with a video card w/no EFI. (I tried it with and without an EFI card and had the same issue on the boot manager)

 

[flowrider]

What kind of read and write speeds do you get?

These.

Lou

 

[scottsjack]

I have a Velocity duo x2 with two 960GB Crucial M500 SSD configured as a raid 0. Extremely fast and lots of space. I left bootcamp on a hard drive since I don't need it that often.

I thought about doing that. First I put my Aperture libraries on the second SSD. They really flew but with Windows 8.1 being very usable and Windows 10 looking really nice I decided to put Mr. Softy on the second SSD.

In the back of my mind was "hmmm, maybe get a 12-core 2012 MP, move Yosemite to it and have separate machines?". Dreamland.

 

[MacSince1985]

I thought about doing that. First I put my Aperture libraries on the second SSD. They really flew but with Windows 8.1 being very usable and Windows 10 looking really nice I decided to put Mr. Softy on the second SSD.

In the back of my mind was "hmmm, maybe get a 12-core 2012 MP, move Yosemite to it and have separate machines?". Dreamland.

Thankfully, I rarely launch Windows. So I don't need the speed boost there.

You didn't mention if any of your drive bays are still open.

It does make sense to keep caches and scratch files on a drive that doesn't get backed up (why fill your backup with files that can easily and automatically be re-created when necessary).

 

[scottsjack]

Thankfully, I rarely launch Windows. So I don't need the speed boost there.

You didn't mention if any of your drive bays are still open.

It does make sense to keep caches and scratch files on a drive that doesn't get backed up (why fill your backup with files that can easily and automatically be re-created when necessary).

All six drive bays are full, 1 Blu-ray drive, 2 2TB WD RE2 drives and 3 4TB WD RE drives, none RAIDed.

 

[Keter]

These.

Lou

Are you getting these speeds with RAID 0? and what model of Samsung do you use?


My concern is that because the Apricorn is a 2 lane PCIe, the dual Samsung's will outperform the controller of the Apricorn card.

I am still on the fence of which card to get.

 

[flowrider]

Are you getting these speeds with RAID 0? and what model of Samsung do you use?

No, I am not using RAID at all. That speed test was made with a 500GB Samsung 840 EVO, my Samsung 512 GB 840 Pro produces similar results, and my Samsung 500GB series 840 is a bit slower.

Lou

 

[hfg]

Are you getting these speeds with RAID 0? and what model of Samsung do you use?


My concern is that because the Apricorn is a 2 lane PCIe, the dual Samsung's will outperform the controller of the Apricorn card.

I am still on the fence of which card to get.

I have both the Sonnet Tempo Pro (non-plus) and the Velocity DUO x2 and ran a test of the RAID-0 performance with the same set of Crucial M4 512 GB SSDs on both boards in the same slot #2 on a Mac Pro 5,1. The Tempo Pro outperformed the DUO on read speeds probably due to the 4-lane vs. 2-lane capability. The write speeds were similar since the Crucial M4 have a fairly low write speed and were probably within the capabilities of both the x2 and x4 interfaces.

I have been running the Tempo Pro as a 1TB OS X boot disk for about 2 years now and really liked it. I purchased the Velocity DUO mainly for its capability to host a bootable Windows 8 SSD which the Tempo Pro will NOT do. I ran RAID-0 comparison just as a matter of interest. I currently have my Windows SSD on the DUO card, but have recently replaced the Tempo Pro with a 1TB Apple PCI SSD.

My best speeds were with a pair of Samsung 840 Pro SSDs where the write and read performance were more equally matched (807 / 956 MB/s). I only had a pair of 256 GB parts, so I ended up using the 512 GB M4s for greater capacity and didn't worry about the write performance.

Here are the Disk Test results I obtained:

Tempo Pro RAID-0 ---------- Velocity DUO RAID-0 (same set of SSDs) ------ Single M4 SSD on PCIe card

Hope this helps...
-howard

 

[Keter]

No, I am not using RAID at all. That speed test was made with a 500GB Samsung 840 EVO, my Samsung 512 GB 840 Pro produces similar results, and my Samsung 500GB series 840 is a bit slower.

Lou

Here are the Disk Test results I obtained:

Tempo Pro RAID-0 ---------- Velocity DUO RAID-0 (same set of SSDs) ------ Single M4 SSD on PCIe card

Hope this helps...
-howard

Thank you for the input of your experience.

Howard: I think that your results with the read speeds demonstrate the limitations of the 2 lanes vs 4 lanes which has been my concern. The 2 lane card is 26% slower than the 4 lane card when reading from the drives.

Now that I have a clearer picture, I think I will invest in the Tempo Pro Plus for now and later on I will pick up the Apricorn Duo with two more 850 EVO and install either Windows 8.1 or 10 later on this year.

Thank you Howard and Lou

 

[Keter]

Well after reading handheldgames thread on the Sintech PCIe adapter with a MacBook Pro 1TB SSD PCIe blade I am ditching my idea of running either of these SATA SSD cards.

Why you ask?

Native support in system, full performance (No startup option issues, direct bus and native TRIM) and having a direct 4 lane PCIe blade without the fear of a scary drive (RAID 0) failing, I feel is the best solution.

And..... dollar for dollar, this choice reduces my cost because the two 850 EVO are $229 a piece and the Sonnet card is $250. I can located a 2013 1TB Apple blade for <$600 and the Sintech adapter is $10.

Now later on I may buy the Apricorn Duo and install SATA SSD's for my Windows/Bootcamp side but if the Sintech and Apple blade solution work out well I may just do that again instead.

 

[hfg]

Well after reading handheldgames thread on the Sintech PCIe adapter with a MacBook Pro 1TB SSD PCIe blade I am ditching my idea of running either of these SATA SSD cards.

Why you ask?

Native support in system, full performance (No startup option issues, direct bus and native TRIM) and having a direct 4 lane PCIe blade without the fear of a scary drive (RAID 0) failing, I feel is the best solution.

And..... dollar for dollar, this choice reduces my cost because the two 850 EVO are $229 a piece and the Sonnet card is $250. I can located a 2013 1TB Apple blade for <$600 and the Sintech adapter is $10.

Now later on I may buy the Apricorn Duo and install SATA SSD's for my Windows/Bootcamp side but if the Sintech and Apple blade solution work out well I may just do that again instead.

Here is the test on my MacPro with the Sintech card and Apple 1TB PCI SSD. Note, I do not have the super fast but unavailable SSD that was mentioned in that thread, I bought a slightly cheaper one on eBay as I think it is fast enough for me.

 

[Synchro3]

I'm sure they will appear in 2015, with the new Mac Pro 2015.

 

[Keter]

Here is the test on my MacPro with the Sintech card and Apple 1TB PCI SSD. Note, I do not have the super fast but unavailable SSD that was mentioned in that thread, I bought a slightly cheaper one on eBay as I think it is fast enough for me.

That is plenty fast for me. Those are the marks I was hoping to achieve with the SonnetTech Tempo Pro Plus in RAID 0.

I haven't completely read every page the thread handheldgames started so I am not familiar with the Apple SSD you have. From what I have read, the 1TB 2013 MBPr is the blade to get.

How is the quality of the Sintech adapter? Any issues?

 

[Keter]

I'm sure they will appear in 2015, with the new Mac Pro 2015.

faster SSD blades?

BTW, awesome numbers.