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MP All Models PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI

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The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
tsialex

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
12,963
13,199
Orionator said:
Fantastic, thank you. One more question, aside from nvram and time discrepancies, can you think of any reason the message "an error occurred while preparing the installation try running this application again" would come up when trying to install Mojave onto this drive?
Click to expand...
Did you downloaded the installer after October 29 re-issue? When the signing certificates expired?

This Lenovo txt has all the Lenovo NVMe firmware updates up to October 2.

Current PM961:

Model Firmware
---------------- ----------------------
[Samsung]
MZVLW256 5L7Q5L7QCXB7/5L7Q
MZVLW512 7L7QCXY7/7L7Q
MZVLW1T0 7L7QCXY7/7L7Q
MZVLB512 4L2QEXA7/4L2Q
MZVLB1T0 4L2QEXA7/4L2Q
 
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Orionator

Orionator

macrumors newbie
May 8, 2019
10
0
Spokane, WA
tsialex said:
Did you downloaded the installer after October 29 re-issue? When the signing certificates expired?

This Lenovo txt has all the Lenovo NVMe firmware updates up to October 2.
Click to expand...
Yeah, just downloaded today, reset nvram and tried install (time was set to automatic so I thought there wouldn't be an issue there). It keeps saying that same thing.

I've also reformatted multiple times so I dont think its firmware as OS recognizes the drive, just wont install OS. I'm going to try the cycle one more time to see if that helps. If it doesn't, I guess I'll just use it in the AMD machine I built and use the (way over qualified) 970 PRO in this machine. I say over qualified because I'm just using it as a server at this point...
 
Orionator

Orionator

macrumors newbie
May 8, 2019
10
0
Spokane, WA
Orionator said:
Yeah, just downloaded today, reset nvram and tried install (time was set to automatic so I thought there wouldn't be an issue there). It keeps saying that same thing.

I've also reformatted multiple times so I dont think its firmware as OS recognizes the drive, just wont install OS. I'm going to try the cycle one more time to see if that helps. If it doesn't, I guess I'll just use it in the AMD machine I built and use the (way over qualified) 970 PRO in this machine. I say over qualified because I'm just using it as a server at this point...
Click to expand...
Finally got it. Just did a fresh download of the installer and reser nvram and reboot and it worked. Go figure. Thanks again for the info Alex!
 
A

Azatos

macrumors newbie
Nov 22, 2019
16
0
A surface search on the Internet gives you options for using nvme on El Capitan (with kext messaging)
Or will it still not work?
 
tsialex

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
12,963
13,199
Azatos said:
A surface search on the Internet gives you options for using nvme on El Capitan (with kext messaging)
Or will it still not work?
Click to expand...
Even if it works, how you gonna boot from it? That 3rd party kext for NVMe is unsupported since at least Sierra and never worked reliably.

The oldest Mac Pro where is possible to have NVMe support, with a lot of work, is MP3,1.
 
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A

Azatos

macrumors newbie
Nov 22, 2019
16
0
So far, I generally have a poor idea of what can await me. Well at least the adapter didn't take that much money
 
D

DJ_Road

macrumors newbie
Nov 20, 2019
7
2
North Dakota
splifingate said:
Thanks for posting . . . you're in the appropriate space ;)

I re-purposed the 512GiB ssd from my 2015 MBP when I got the Sabrent, with a Sintech m.2>12+16 adapter:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0173ODBCE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Only caveat is that said adapter increases the vertical height by almost 9mm:

View attachment 878536

In this photo, the m.2>12+16 ssd adapter is attached to a EZDIY-FAB m.2>pic-e 4X adapter...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GCXCR7W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It gets the Job done :)

I do not know 'why' said m.2>12+16 interface needs-be twice the vertical height of the {industry} standard m.2 interface, that's just the way it (currently) is ;(

There are multiple options for the m.2>pic-e variants, and I've had no failures with any of the ones I've purchased/used.

hth

Regards, splifingate
Click to expand...

Thank you for the info, splifingate. Much obliged. Now I know it is technically possible, I will have to see if It will be physically possible using the EZDIY-FAB card in the PCI bay with my current configuration. I have a Radeon RX580 Sapphire video card, plus a usb 3.0 card installed in the 4-slot bay. The video card is in the bottom slot and, because of it's fans located on the top of the card, pretty much invalidates the use of slot 2. I might just order it and see if I can swap the USB 3 card into 2nd from the top and put the EZDIY-FAB card in the top slot. Thanks again for the valuable information!

DJ
PCI Bay.jpg
 
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chris.pielkenrood

macrumors member
Feb 24, 2018
34
3
DJ_Road said:
Thank you for the info, splifingate. Much obliged. Now I know it is technically possible, I will have to see if It will be physically possible using the EZDIY-FAB card in the PCI bay with my current configuration. I have a Radeon RX580 Sapphire video card, plus a usb 3.0 card installed in the 4-slot bay. The video card is in the bottom slot and, because of it's fans located on the top of the card, pretty much invalidates the use of slot 2. I might just order it and see if I can swap the USB 3 card into 2nd from the top and put the EZDIY-FAB card in the top slot. Thanks again for the valuable information!

DJ View attachment 879198
Click to expand...

Just a question I cannot resist to ask. But why does it seem that you have post-it notes in the internals of your Mac-Pro?
 
kings79

kings79

macrumors regular
Sep 16, 2015
227
105
I have a refund at NewEgg. The drive was F$#@%^

So I can buy any drive I want.

I need 1Tb and I have the Aqua Computer kryoM.2 evo PCIe 3.0 x 4
s-l500.jpg

I only need the drive for storage not OS. What is the most know working drive with the above adapter in Hi Sierra & Mojave?

Thanks for your help.
 
K

kohlson

macrumors 68020
Apr 23, 2010
2,425
736
kings79 said:
another 800 MB/s write seems worth another odd $55AU
Click to expand...
Note that the slot speed is limited to 1500 MBps. Doesn't matter how fast the SSD is. The only way to improve that is with a switched adapter. Pricey (er).
Hiher priced SSDs, like Samsung and WD Black, seem to go for reliability (more TBWs), which come with certain technologies. But with a relatively simple set up, like the Kryo, the max speed is 1500 MBps.
FWIW I have an HP EX 920. A little old technology but well thought of at the time of release. 1TB. Comes in at 1450 MB/sec when measured with BM Speed Test.
 
kings79

kings79

macrumors regular
Sep 16, 2015
227
105
kohlson said:
Note that the slot speed is limited to 1500 MBps. Doesn't matter how fast the SSD is. The only way to improve that is with a switched adapter. Pricey (er).
Hiher priced SSDs, like Samsung and WD Black, seem to go for reliability (more TBWs), which come with certain technologies. But with a relatively simple set up, like the Kryo, the max speed is 1500 MBps.
FWIW I have an HP EX 920. A little old technology but well thought of at the time of release. 1TB. Comes in at 1450 MB/sec when measured with BM Speed Test.
Click to expand...

So there is not net gain going for the EVO Plus over the EVO on a cMP 5,1 with a Aqua Computer kryoM.2 evo PCIe 3.0 x 4?
 
Last edited:
mikas

mikas

macrumors 6502a
Sep 14, 2017
886
645
Finland
I bet you couldn't see any difference without carefully benchmarking or measuring your daily tasks. But there are differences of course. They just happen to be so small, and in both directions.

If googled: EVO vs EVO plus, you can see that besides max speeds EVO Plus has got better IOPS numbers than EVOtoo (approx. 20%).
Then again, in some tests plain EVO wins by a little margin.
1574826751999.png

1574826913899.png


When last time buying a NVMe, I chose EVO, because I would not want to worry about any firmware flashes. There's not so much of a difference there, but then again - there might be a difference for some folks.

If you want or need more speed than the above mentioned 1500 MBps, you'd need something like
IO Crest Syba SI-PEX40129. To find out more options, please read the first post of this thread we are discussing at the moment : Blade SSDs - NVMe & AHCI

In my opinion this IO Crest is a little bit noisy though. I believe it needs this extra cooling because of the switch chip in it, I think. To get all the potential extra speed with IO Crest and the likes, you need to sacrifice a 16 x slot for it, a.k.a slot 1 or 2.

I am thinking to downgrade my main machine from Syba IO Crest to Aqua Comp Kryo at the moment. I thought I could take the extra fan noise, but I'm not quite so sure anymore. I already took away my other card, and put the IO Crest to slot 1, and RX 580 to slot 2, other slots empty and left Mac Pro without the in between PCIe shield backplates to let air flow through better. It didn't make much of a difference. I guess the fan rotates at a fixed rpm in an IO Crest card.

O, I could make a little cable hack published by a forum member earlier:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/blade-ssds-nvme-ahci.2146725/page-43
That is if I dare to.
 
kings79

kings79

macrumors regular
Sep 16, 2015
227
105
mikas said:
I bet you couldn't see any difference without carefully benchmarking or measuring your daily tasks. But there are differences of course. They just happen to be so small, and in both directions.

If googled: EVO vs EVO plus, you can see that besides max speeds EVO Plus has got better IOPS numbers than EVOtoo (approx. 20%).
Then again, in some tests plain EVO wins by a little margin.

When last time buying a NVMe, I chose EVO, because I would not want to worry about any firmware flashes. There's not so much of a difference there, but then again - there might be a difference for some folks.
Click to expand...

Yeah I went for the plain 970 EVO. Couldn't be bothered with flashing for no net gain and more $ on the Aqua Comp Kryo.
 
Macschrauber

Macschrauber

macrumors 68030
Dec 27, 2015
2,778
1,376
Germany
Firmware flasher for evo plus runs in FreeDos. So everyone who has a Dos System ready for flashing gpus can handle the evo plus firmware update.
 
tsialex

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
12,963
13,199
waimtrp said:
saw this new card by Syba/IOCrest , can drive Four M.2 SSD, and the Spec. said can achieve full potential up to 10Gb/s .. seems similar to Amfeltec Squid & SSD7101A.

https://www.sybausa.com/index.php?route=product/product&manufacturer_id=13&product_id=1052
Click to expand...
I just took a look at the PFX-L 32xG3 switch, it's a new PCIe 3.0 switch with 32 lanes e 2 NTBs, seems equivalent of the switch Broadcom PEX8732 used on Squid 3.0, but inferior of the PEX8747 used on SSD710xx cards.

On paper seems a good switch family, it's from Microsemi, but Linux kernel have several patches to go around quirks of these switches, the DMA one seems major. I bet that macOS don't have support or the corrections needed for it work correctly.

If was interested in one card that used this switch, wouldn't buy one from a store without a very good return policy.
 
waimtrp

waimtrp

macrumors member
Sep 20, 2008
96
34
tsialex said:
I just took a look at the PFX-L 32xG3 switch, it's a new PCIe 3.0 switch with 32 lanes e 2 NTBs, seems equivalent of the switch Broadcom PEX8732 used on Squid 3.0, but inferior of the PEX8747 used on SSD710xx cards.

On paper seems a good switch family, it's from Microsemi, but Linux kernel have several patches to go around quirks of these switches, the DMA one seems major. I bet that macOS don't have support or the corrections needed for it work correctly.

If was interested in one card that used this switch, wouldn't buy one from a store without a very good return policy.
Click to expand...
looks like it work with macOS natively , found it here https://www.ebay.com/itm/254423159216
 
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