MP 1,1-5,1 PCIe NVMe in 5,1 Mac Pro - Recommendations?

[riven2000]

I have a 2009 5,1 upgraded Mac Pro running Mojave, firmware updated, and am a little confused on which NVMe drives are good to use. I've looked at OWC's offerings, but I've noticed some studies from the last few years showing NVMe's that fail. Just wondering if there are ones to stay away from (or recommend) for this cMP. I can't really afford the $300+ multi-drive boards that boost a 5,1 speed to 3000; looking for a simpler single PCIe board/drive. A lot of it will be used for installed games. The Mac is a single CPU upgraded to a 3.46 X5690 quad. I was thinking of getting OWC's Accelsior 1M2 card and then an NVMe drive separately.

 

[haralds]

I got an Aquacomputer kryoM.2 evo PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter for M.2 NGFF PCIe SSD, M-Key with passive heatsink 2 1/2 years ago and it has worked well. Since the Mac Pro bandwidth is limited, you do not need a top performer.
But the drive makes a BIG difference.
It has a light flashing out of the back cheese grater holes.

 

[bookemdano]

I got an Aquacomputer kryoM.2 evo PCIe 3.0 x4 adapter for M.2 NGFF PCIe SSD, M-Key with passive heatsink 2 1/2 years ago and it has worked well. Since the Mac Pro bandwidth is limited, you do not need a top performer.
But the drive makes a BIG difference.
It has a light flashing out of the back cheese grater holes.

Yes the LED strip is a gaudy bright orange color but I actually found it pretty useful to show when the os was accessing the drive. I've never been a fan of Apple's longtime design decision to not provide drive activity LEDs like PCs do. There are times when it's not clear if the computer is hung up or just working hard, and the flicker of the LED helps to re-assure that it's working.

I moved up to a High Point 7101A to get the additional 3 NVMe slots, but damn I really do miss the KyroM.2's big bright activity LED (which, incidently, can be disabled if desired). Even without the LED, the kyroM.2 is a really well-built card IMHO. The heatsink and thermal pad did a fine job cooling the WD Black blade I had in there for 3+ years.

 

[bookemdano]

I have a 2009 5,1 upgraded Mac Pro running Mojave, firmware updated, and am a little confused on which NVMe drives are good to use. I've looked at OWC's offerings, but I've noticed some studies from the last few years showing NVMe's that fail. Just wondering if there are ones to stay away from (or recommend) for this cMP. I can't really afford the $300+ multi-drive boards that boost a 5,1 speed to 3000; looking for a simpler single PCIe board/drive. A lot of it will be used for installed games. The Mac is a single CPU upgraded to a 3.46 X5690 quad. I was thinking of getting OWC's Accelsior 1M2 card and then an NVMe drive separately.

I'm a fan of Samsung's SSDs, personally. They are proven reliable, fast and usually long-lived. You might look for the 970 EVO or 970 EVO Plus. They're an older model but seem to still be somewhat available at reasonable prices. They use TLC NAND chips, which is more robust than the QLC used on many newer/cheaper drives on the market now. They're "only" available up to 2TB in size though (I say "only" because 4TB and larger SSDs are coming down in price and readily available these days).

There are other good makes too--such as Western Digital Black SSDs, among others. But IMHO the 970 EVO Plus is an easy choice.

BTW I have nothing against OWC but I don't see any reason to buy their SSDs. Best to go with something from one of the major NAND manufacturers IMHO.

EDIT: There's also a sticky thread up top about this very subject, so you may want to skim some of the posts there (especially the last few pages for current info).

 

[riven2000]

So that's a "middle of the road" card? It looks like it's more than the OWC dumb card, but not as elaborate as some of $300-$700 ones.

I'm a fan of Samsung's SSDs, personally. They are proven reliable, fast and usually long-lived. You might look for the 970 EVO or 970 EVO Plus. They're an older model but seem to still be somewhat available at reasonable prices. They use TLC NAND chips, which is more robust than the QLC used on many newer/cheaper drives on the market now. They're "only" available up to 2TB in size though (I say "only" because 4TB and larger SSDs are coming down in price and readily available these days).

There are other good makes too--such as Western Digital Black SSDs, among others. But IMHO the 970 EVO Plus is an easy choice.

BTW I have nothing against OWC but I don't see any reason to buy their SSDs. Best to go with something from one of the major NAND manufacturers IMHO.

EDIT: There's also a sticky thread up top about this very subject, so you may want to skim some of the posts there (especially the last few pages for current info).

Thanks much! Nice to know there are more -potentially better- options out there.

 

[bookemdano]

I guess I'd put it this way. The *only* reason I gave up my kyroM.2 was because I wanted additional NVMe slots. If my High Point card dies, I would immediately go back to the kyroM.2.

That said, as long as you can figure out your own cooling for the NVMe blade (some blades come with a built-in heatsink, or you can buy one and apply it yourself) and don't care about the drive activity LED, then honestly there isn't a whole lot of reason to buy a kyroM.2 over a cheaper generic card. The card is basically just adapting the blade's pins to the slot's pins, so its role is pretty minor.

If you just want to get a known good card, I still think the kyroM.2 is worthy, but the fact is that even the cheapest PCIe NVMe card will get you the same performance, because that is determined by the blade itself, not the card.

 

[riven2000]

I may look for a switch card if there are any cheap enough.

 

[riven2000]

Went with the Ableconn PEXM2-130 and a 970 EVO Plus 1TB. Should set up on Friday.

 

[riven2000]

I set up the above except for the heatsink, which is coming. The Ableconn is on slot 2 over the GTX 780, but the machine doesn't seem much faster. I was thinking maybe the cards needed to be swapped, but I don't think the 780 can be put into slot 2 with the NVMe in slot 1, as these are the only 16x slots. Are there other things that can be done to get the 2500-3000 speeds to work?

 

[tsialex]

You will only notice the greater throughput when your workflow is file transfer bound, like massive file transfers. Booting from a NVMe blade is usually slower (just some seconds required for PCIe enumeration, but slower) than from a decent SATA SSD when no PCIe drives are present.

For small transfers, like when you are booting macOS or loading an app, you won't see any notable speed gains with the greater throughput of NVMe drives.

 

[riven2000]

What about games?

 

[tsialex]

What about games?

AFAIK, no advantage. Only video editing, compiling, databases and anything else that require lot's of file transfers.

 

[riven2000]

Oh wow. Clearly I had this whole thing wrong. Gonna be sending some stuff back to Spamazon I think.

 

[tsialex]

A silly analogy is that the SATA SSD is a locomotive made 10 years ago with 30 boxcars hauling freight. The NVMe is new one with several improvements but now with 300 wagons. If you don't have freight to fill all the boxcars, you won't see the cost benefit of switching to a new locomotive capable of carrying 10x more load.

Continuing the idea, loading macOS requires lot's and lot's of travels with just 3 boxcars full…

 

[riven2000]

Nice!! And that, as they say, is that. 👍

 

[pdxplm]

I got this at Amazon RIITOP NVMe PCIe Adapter, M.2 NVMe to PCI-e x4/x8/x16 Card with Heat Sink for M.2 (M Key) SSD 2280/2260/2242/2230 [Upgraded]. I added a wd 2tb to it and it works like a charm. Very reasonable.

 

[Jigga Beef]

I've had issues with some of my Samsung NVME Evos 970's and 980's on my Mac Pro 5,1. The first two failures I chalked up to issues with OpenCore but after having to restart and restore my system a few times in 3 months I realized it was more than likely related to some kind fo Samsung Firmware issue that went a bit above my head.

*used a Samsung Emo 960 for 3 years with no problem.

I was able to repurpose the 3 (2 X 970 & 1 X 980) and strictly as clones and I have been running a Crucial P5 Plus 2TB PCIe 4.0 3D (From Amazon) and I've had no issues!

 

[flat4]

A silly analogy is that the SATA SSD is a locomotive made 10 years ago with 30 boxcars hauling freight. The NVMe is new one with several improvements but now with 300 wagons. If you don't have freight to fill all the boxcars, you won't see the cost benefit of switching to a new locomotive capable of carrying 10x more load.

Continuing the idea, loading macOS requires lot's and lot's of travels with just 3 boxcars full…

good analogy

 

[ivnj]

Some good sales going on right now.

Western Digital WDBLACK SN750 NVMe SSD 2TB Black - Office Depot

The WDBLACK SN770 NVMe SSD delivers top tier performance for gaming and hardware enthusiasts looking to upgrade their gaming PC or a custom PC. Available in capacities ranging from 250GB to 4TB the WDBLACK SN750 NVMe SSD rivals some of the best performing drives on the market to help give gamers...

www.officedepot.com

Crucial P3 Plus 2TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 4 x4 NVMe CT2000P3PSSD8 - Best Buy

Shop Crucial P3 Plus 2TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 4 x4 NVMe at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee.

www.bestbuy.com

Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe MZ-V7S2T0B/AM - Best Buy

Shop Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee.

www.bestbuy.com

Crucial P3 4TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe CT4000P3SSD8 - Best Buy

Shop Crucial P3 4TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee.

www.bestbuy.com

 

[ivnj]

Is that crucial p3 4tb I mentioned a good price for 4 tb.

 

[Jigga Beef]

Some good sales going on right now.

Western Digital WDBLACK SN750 NVMe SSD 2TB Black - Office Depot

The WDBLACK SN770 NVMe SSD delivers top tier performance for gaming and hardware enthusiasts looking to upgrade their gaming PC or a custom PC. Available in capacities ranging from 250GB to 4TB the WDBLACK SN750 NVMe SSD rivals some of the best performing drives on the market to help give gamers...

www.officedepot.com

Crucial P3 Plus 2TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 4 x4 NVMe CT2000P3PSSD8 - Best Buy

Shop Crucial P3 Plus 2TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 4 x4 NVMe at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee.

www.bestbuy.com

Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe MZ-V7S2T0B/AM - Best Buy

Shop Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee.

www.bestbuy.com

Crucial P3 4TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe CT4000P3SSD8 - Best Buy

Shop Crucial P3 4TB Internal SSD PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee.

www.bestbuy.com

Prices are matched on amazon as well!

 

[zachek]

Has anyone used the Crucial P3 4TB PCIe 3.0 3D NAND NVMe M.2 SSD, up to 3500MB/s - CT4000P3SSD8 in a highpoint 7101A in a RAID 0? I have one single drive inside one at present, and its worked mostly fine. I'm looking to possibly add three more and prices are good today. Since upgrading to Ventura on my 7,1 I've had the both of my highpoints disappear on boot once or twice. Wondering if anyone else has had any problems.

 

[Mark.g4]

Hi there,

I would like to upgrade my Mac Pro 4.1-->5.1 2009, firmware updated, with an PCIe + NVME.
Low budget solutions.
I found these two products:

GLOTRENDS PA09-HS M.2 NVMe to PCIe 4.0 X4 Adapter with M.2 Heatsink for 2280/2260/2242/2230 M.2 NVMe SSD

GLOTRENDS PA09-HS M.2 NVMe to PCIe 4.0 X4 Adapter with M.2 Heatsink for 2280/2260/2242/2230 M.2 NVMe SSD

www.amazon.co.uk

fanxiang M.2 SSD - 1TB SSD PCIe Gen3x4 2280, Up To 3500MB/s, NVMe SSD with Cooling Sticker, SLC Cache 3D NAND TLC, Internal Solid State Drives SSD 1TB for Laptop Desktop PC

Fanxiang adheres to the principle of professional quality and honest service, and provides first-class products and services to our customers. We provide S500 Pro m.2 ssd, also known as nvme ssd, with a wide capacity range to meet customers' different needs, such as 256gb m.2 ssd / 512gb m.2 ssd ...

www.amazon.co.uk

Can I boot from NVME?
What actual speeds will I achieve on my Mac Pro?

What do you think?
Are there any criticisms of these two products?

Are there any better recommendations or products in the low price range?

Thank you!

 

[Mark.g4]

up!

 

[Pointy-Head]

Can I boot from NVME?
What actual speeds will I achieve on my Mac Pro?

What do you think?
Are there any criticisms of these two products?

Are there any better recommendations or products in the low price range?

Thank you!

Yes. I'm booting from NVMe. I don't remember which firmware version introduced NVMe support but if you are running the latest firmware I believe you should be fine.

As tsialex said earlier in the thread, you probably won't notice a significant speed increase compared to SATA unless you are doing some serious data transfers to/from the drive.

I have no experience of those two products. Like pdxplm (above) I went for the RIITOP NVMe PCIe Adapter, M.2 NVMe to PCI-e x4/x8/x16 Card. It has been a good, reliable, budget option. It's no longer listed on Amazon UK, I think, but this Sabrent card looks absolutely identical apart from the branding and is only £1 more than the glotrends one:

SABRENT M.2 SSD NVMe to PCIe Adapter with Aluminum Heatsink and Thermal Pad, for SSDs up to 16TB, M.2 NVMe to PCI-E converter 3.0 X4 X8 X16 Card (EC-PCIE)

At least Sabrent is an established brand.

Likewise I put a Samsung 970 EVO Plus in it, also recommended by bookemdano above, and I think widely recommended elsewhere. It's £20 more than the fanxiang card on Amazon UK:

Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1 TB PCIe NVMe M.2 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (MMZ-V7S1T0BW )

As far as I know, both the Samsung and fanxiang cards use TLC NAND chips. The Samsung has a 5 year warranty.