USB 3.x PCIe Cards for Classic Mac Pro

[TheShortTimer]

An Apple computer dose not need any drivers, as far as the mac Pro 5,1 goes if somebody is using El Capitan they are missing out...

Ok but I don't have a 5,1. I'm using the Mac Pro 1,1 - which is listed in my signature but I suppose I should've drawn greater attention to that. As you know, it cannot run any Apple OS later than El Capitan due to the SSE4 issue. According to what @tommy chen has stated, El Capitan has issues with USB cards and this means that if I revert to Yosemite or Mavericks that the card will work under macOS. That will be a good enough solution for me with a triple boot involving Windows 10 and some form of Linux. 🙂

 

[drolson]

Have one of the last of the Power Mac G5's just for the heck of it that i like to mess with once in a while, But it is only the Mac Pro 3,1 and 5,1 that work with Yosemite to Ventura and all the USB 2.0 to 3.2 cards, i skip the 1,1 and 2,1, have always been known for years to not work, one reason for a newer operating system is that with every operating system the Safari Browser is updated and only in the operating system, the only operating system right now that will run Netflix normally is the newest Ventura Safari Web Browser, that is one reason, the older the operating system the older the web browser and it can not be changed until the operating system is updated

 

[flowrider]

The RocketU 1144B card uses the ASMedia 1042 chipset, which from what I've read in earlier posts is supported by macOS...

Yet I'm unable to get it to work in El Capitan.

As you can see there's no driver installed. Which one would I need for the ASMedia 1042 chipset under El Capitan? Any information or tips would really be appreciated.

I have a RocketU 1144C and have been using it for a number of years. First in my cMP 5,1 and now in my NcMP 7,1. Never had an issue with it over multiple Mac OSs.



Lou

 

[TheShortTimer]

I have a RocketU 1144C and have been using it for a number of years. First in my cMP 5,1 and now in my NcMP 7,1. Never had an issue with it over multiple Mac OSs.

View attachment 2169271

Lou

Including El Capitan?

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Yes!

Lou

 

[TheShortTimer]

^^^^Yes!

Lou

Sorry, just needed to confirm because this is confusing. It then means that my El Capitan installation is missing a driver...

...and it returns me to the question from my original post, how do I restore/add this driver so that my card is recognised?

 

[weckart]

Sorry, just needed to confirm because this is confusing. It then means that my El Capitan installation is missing a driver...


...and it returns me to the question from my original post, how do I restore/add this driver so that my card is recognised?

I'm pretty sure that it uses the generic driver GenericUSBXHCI.kext. That's the one usually cited for ASMedia unless your particular card has some weird proprietary stuff on it but, as said, El Capitan has a very buggy USB stack, which Apple has never deigned to fix.

I have an Inateck KT4004 in my MP 1,1 so can't really help much further.

 

[flowrider]

Sorry, just needed to confirm because this is confusing. It then means that my El Capitan installation is missing a driver...

Test from 2011 on a 5,1:

HighPoint RocketU Quad USB 3.0 RAID adapter

real world speed test results for performance minded Macintosh users

barefeats.com

BTW, Rob died last year.

Lou

 

[seek3r]

BTW, Rob died last year.

Lou

Crap, that’s a legit tragic loss, may their memory be a blessing :/

 

[TheShortTimer]

el capitan has a fail in USB driver and apple has never fixed this.

most of the USB cards will not work in el capitan!

I'm pretty sure that it uses the generic driver GenericUSBXHCI.kext. That's the one usually cited for ASMedia unless your particular card has some weird proprietary stuff on it but, as said, El Capitan has a very buggy USB stack, which Apple has never deigned to fix.

I have an Inateck KT4004 in my MP 1,1 so can't really help much further.

You were correct, El Capitan was the culprit!

As a test, I set up Mavericks on the Mac Pro and installed GenericUSBXHCI with the help of Kext Wizard. I rebooted and this is what I found within the USB heading:

Hooray! I then connected a USB 3.0 external HDD enclosure and the drive's partitions were immediately mounted and displayed on my desktop and I was able to access its files:

Success, the card is working 100%! 😀

Thanks to @tommy chen and @weckart for information which steered me towards this resolution. 🙂 Hopefully this will be of help to others who find themselves experiencing this problem with El Capitan.

An Apple computer dose not need any drivers...

Every computer needs drivers and the Mac is no exception, as my experiences here have demonstrated. The GenericUSBXHCI driver wasn't present in El Capitan - or Mavericks for that matter but the latter has a USB stack which is functioning properly which meant that once the driver was installed, my card was able to work correctly.

Now I've got USB 3.0 functionality on my Mac Pro 1,1 alongside eSATA. Great stuff!

Edited to add: during a further test, I installed Yosemite and it has exactly the same issues as El Capitan - the card requires drivers but even after they're installed, it still won't work. USB devices are not detected or mounted. Apple really messed up here...

 

[Levina]

Hello,

I am about to purchase a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB PCIe NVMe M.2 and a Aqua Computer kryo M.2 evo PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter with passive cooling.

Will this work in my Mac Pro early 2009? The Mac is flashed to 5,1, has firmware 144.0.0.0.0 and running High Sierra and, for now, still the old GT120 GPU.

 

[chris-snd]

Hello,

I am about to purchase a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB PCIe NVMe M.2 and a Aqua Computer kryo M.2 evo PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter with passive cooling.

Will this work in my Mac Pro early 2009? The Mac is flashed to 5,1, has firmware 144.0.0.0.0 and running High Sierra and, for now, still the old GT120 GPU.

Running the same aqua kryoM.2 pcie nvme adapter, with a recent samsung evo plus 1 tb in a mac 5.1. No problems

 

[Levina]

Running the same aqua kryoM.2 pcie nvme adapter, with a recent samsung evo plus 1 tb in a mac 5.1. No problems

Thanks!

 

[Gigolo Joe]

Trying in vain to get a "Startech PEXUSB321C" USB 3.2 card working at full speed as opposed to USB 2.0, in Monterey with latest OCLP updated EFI, on Mac Pro 5,1...

After scouring the web, this forum, even chat gpt, for days, I found hardly any trace of a soluition other than numerous blind alleys.

The card shows as "USB32Bus" but with a "USB 2.0 Hub" listed below it in System Info. Also shows Max speed of 480Mbps. It's supposed to be compatible out of the box, so could it be OCLP, and is there an OCLP setting that will fix it?

I installed the card after initial install of Monterey/Opencore if that has any impact.

 

[drolson]

Trying in vain to get a "Startech PEXUSB321C" USB 3.2 card working at full speed as opposed to USB 2.0, in Monterey with latest OCLP updated EFI, on Mac Pro 5,1...

After scouring the web, this forum, even chat gpt, for days, I found hardly any trace of a soluition other than numerous blind alleys.

The card shows as "USB32Bus" but with a "USB 2.0 Hub" listed below it in System Info. Also shows Max speed of 480Mbps. It's supposed to be compatible out of the box, so could it be OCLP, and is there an OCLP setting that will fix it?

I installed the card after initial install of Monterey/Opencore if that has any impact.

Just get a sonnet USB-4MP-E USB Card or a Nano Tech 4PUSB3.0PCI, They both have a Fresco Logic USB chip that is made for the Mac Pro 3,1 and 5,1, On ebay, Is going now for $30, anything else in no good

 

[drolson]

Hello,

I am about to purchase a Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2 TB PCIe NVMe M.2 and a Aqua Computer kryo M.2 evo PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter with passive cooling.

Will this work in my Mac Pro early 2009? The Mac is flashed to 5,1, has firmware 144.0.0.0.0 and running High Sierra and, for now, still the old GT120 GPU.

Might have to update the computer firmware to a 2010 if you haven't but it works, So dose any NVME, Using one right now, the plus is the fastest, tested the 970 plus on my Mac Pro 5,1 and it says read at 1700 mps, Found that the Nvidia GT 780ti works real good for me and has been that way for a long time now no matter what i install on the computer, Go with the Dartania opencore 6.6, have Mac OS 13 Ventura on my 5,1 and it works perfect and you will have a mac boot screen on top of it with the opencore, it is easy to do

 

[Pablo Wannafly]

Hello, I'm having some issues with an Inateck RedComets U25 PCIe on my Mac Pro early 2009 (4,1 -> 5,1 - OCLP Monterey 12.6.2) and an external NVMe Crucial P3 plus SSD and I can't find any solution on the web.

Inateck support told me it is a compatibility issue between the devices, but I'm not satisfied with the answer...
I tested the SSD on an iMac 13.1 (from 2012) to see if the problem could be with the SSD, the cable or the case, but everything works fine.

Here's the problem:
- if I connect the SSD to the inateck card with a USB 3 cable (both A or C type) it's not recognized – the case is shown on the USB tree but not the disk;
- if I connect the SSD to the inateck card with a USB 2 cable it is recognized but obviously it is very slow.

Also I tested an external sata SSD on the Mac Pro, connected with USB 3 cable and it works, even if slow reading.

Here some results with blackmagick disk speed test:

	Crucial P3 plus NVMe - 2TB​	Crucial MX500 SATA - 250GB​
Mac Pro early 2009	Write ~40MB/s – Read ~40MB/s (USB 2 only)​	Write ~320MB/s – Read ~120MB/s (slow reading, isn't it???)​
iMac 13,1	Write ~415MB/s – Read ~380MB/s​	Write ~340MB/s – Read ~400MB/s​

Any idea?
Or @drolson has the definitive sentence?

Just get a sonnet USB-4MP-E USB Card or a Nano Tech 4PUSB3.0PCI, They both have a Fresco Logic USB chip that is made for the Mac Pro 3,1 and 5,1, On ebay, Is going now for $30, anything else in no good

 

[AlexMaximus]

Hello, I'm having some issues with an Inateck RedComets U25 PCIe on my Mac Pro early 2009 (4,1 -> 5,1 - OCLP Monterey 12.6.2) and an external NVMe Crucial P3 plus SSD and I can't find any solution on the web.

Inateck support told me it is a compatibility issue between the devices, but I'm not satisfied with the answer...
I tested the SSD on an iMac 13.1 (from 2012) to see if the problem could be with the SSD, the cable or the case, but everything works fine.

Here's the problem:
- if I connect the SSD to the inateck card with a USB 3 cable (both A or C type) it's not recognized – the case is shown on the USB tree but not the disk;
- if I connect the SSD to the inateck card with a USB 2 cable it is recognized but obviously it is very slow.

Also I tested an external sata SSD on the Mac Pro, connected with USB 3 cable and it works, even if slow reading.

Here some results with blackmagick disk speed test:

	Crucial P3 plus NVMe - 2TB​	Crucial MX500 SATA - 250GB​
Mac Pro early 2009	Write ~40MB/s – Read ~40MB/s (USB 2 only)​	Write ~320MB/s – Read ~120MB/s (slow reading, isn't it???)​
iMac 13,1	Write ~415MB/s – Read ~380MB/s​	Write ~340MB/s – Read ~400MB/s​

Any idea?
Or @drolson has the definitive sentence?

The way it works with Apple Thrid Party solutions ist that they differ greatly in terms of qualification, features, quality and drivers with the integration into the Apple Eco System. There are a brands that are great solution providers that develop flawless products that are designed very specific for MAC. And then there are the China-Plastic-Copy-Cats Junker offers out there in the Alibaba Space as well as the never ending PC World of PC parts.
In terms of your Card, you should have gotten one from Sonnet, OWC or CallDigit. Inateck unfortunately is not Mac Specific and belongs to the second group you don't want to buy from.

 

[mode11]

Inateck stuff is well made and frequently advertises Mac compatibility. Their KT4004 is one of the default USB 3.0 suggestions for the cMP. I had a U21 in my old 4,1 > 5,1 Mac Pro and it worked fine, though I didn’t try it with that particular SSD.

USB cards are based around a single chip, and if that chip has been used on an OEM Mac logic board (e.g. certain Fresco Logic chips), there will be native drivers in macOS.

I agree the brands you mention are the gold standard for the Mac though.

 

[poundman]

Since the top thread has not been updated since 2021, what is the latest USB 3 card you have used successfully in a Macpro 2009. I don't see the QNINE 4 Ports PCIe USB 3.0 Card on Amazon anymore. I liked the idea of having BT 4 also. But I am considering this one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BJPMVJ92/ref=ewc_pr_img_1?smid=A1B5498J9RHINF&th=1

 

[drolson]

Just use the Sonnet 3.0 P4-ME , Put it in, it works instantly, It was made for the Mac Pro 3,1 4,1 5,1, Got 3 Mac pros and the cards were going on eBay for $25-$35 a while back and I put two of them in each Mac Pro, Now they all have 8 USB 3.0 ports, Check out the Picture

 

[crjackson2134]

Just use the Sonnet 3.0 P4-ME , Put it in, it works instantly, It was made for the Mac Pro 3,1 4,1 5,1, Got 3 Mac pros and the cards were going on eBay for $25-$35 a while back and I put two of them in each Mac Pro, Now they all have 8 USB 3.0 ports, Check out the Picture

Read the review …

USB 3.x PCIe Cards for Classic Mac Pro

If each controller has a single dedicated PCIe lane, plugging the card into an x1 slot would disable 3 of the 4 ports. This seems counterintuitive to me since “wider” cards in “narrower” slots should just lose bandwidth/performance rather than lose functionality altogether (using an x16 GPU in...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[poundman]

Read the review …

USB 3.x PCIe Cards for Classic Mac Pro

If each controller has a single dedicated PCIe lane, plugging the card into an x1 slot would disable 3 of the 4 ports. This seems counterintuitive to me since “wider” cards in “narrower” slots should just lose bandwidth/performance rather than lose functionality altogether (using an x16 GPU in...

forums.macrumors.com

Thanks. I like the idea of having the USB-C connectors also, think I will try the YEELIYA card. If it doesn't work, I can always return to amazon

 

[macstatic]

Just use the Sonnet 3.0 P4-ME , Put it in, it works instantly, It was made for the Mac Pro 3,1 4,1 5,1, Got 3 Mac pros and the cards were going on eBay for $25-$35 a while back and I put two of them in each Mac Pro, Now they all have 8 USB 3.0 ports, Check out the Picture

I've got the same card in my Mac Pro 5,1 (if it's the USB3C-4PM-E you're referring to). It's worked great (I'm currently using MacOS 10.14.6 Mojave) and it has the following attached to the 4 USB-C ports:

1. OWC dual drive bay dock (takes 2.5" and 3.5" bare hard drives/SSDs)
2. Kingston FCR-HS4 card reader (for SD, CF, Memory Stick etc. cards)
3. USB-C to Lightning cable (allows attaching my iPhone and iPad whenever I need to backup, synchronize or transfer files between them and the Mac Pro)
4. empty

I'm wondering about adding a USB-hub to the unused socket, so that I can further attach devices such as a Wacom drawing tablet, keyboard controller (piano-keyboard that is) and other things. The three rear built-in USB ports of the Mac Pro are all used.

I would appreciate a hub that's unpowered, and according to Sonnet, 1.5A is delivered from each output if the attached device supports "USB-C charging".
How can I tell which USB hubs have this feature? I'm aiming for a solution where I can add multiple USB devices and still have enough power for each of them.

I'm considering the Satechi USB-C combo hub, but I'm not sure if it will allow for this. Anyone know, or can point me towards another USB-hub which will?

(image source: Satechi)

 

[Rimmsi]

Hi, what PCIe card USB 2.0 to MP 7.1 can you recommend? Thanks.