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chris.pielkenrood

macrumors member
Feb 24, 2018
34
3
Anyone here using a Kingston A2000 blade? This one has currently the best price per gb in the market in my country. I did not find the name in the list on this forum so therefore my question.
 

crjackson2134

macrumors 601
Mar 6, 2013
4,824
1,948
Charlotte, NC
You are right, I had to clarify that the Kingston A2000 is the one of the cheapest ssd with tlc-nand instead of qlc-nand per gb.

The addlink S70 is TLC NAND.

It's also just as fast or faster at most tasks when compared to my 970 Pro's (the exception being very long sustained writes. It dips for a couple of seconds and then speed returns after the cache is emptied).

Screen Shot 2019-11-02 at 5.51.45 PM.png


5 year warranty on all models above​
 
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vett93

macrumors 6502
Jul 27, 2014
279
40
California
Is Intel SSDPEKNW020T8 compatible with Mac Pro 6,1? I sent my 2013 Mac Pro to a company for CPU and SSD upgrades. In the invoice, we specified for Samsung NVMe SSD. But I found they gave me an Intel SSD instead. It seems to work fine so far, even though the benchmark throughput is a bit low (1171/1348 MB/s). I am deciding if I want to accept their work.
 

Pressure

macrumors 603
May 30, 2006
5,055
1,391
Denmark
They differ in the amount of SLC cache. Short benchmarks are basically just testing the SLC cache. That’s why all cheap drives tank at the sight of any sustained load (and why they are cheap).
 

gugy

macrumors 68040
Jan 31, 2005
3,892
5,310
La Jolla, CA
Hi,
I just want to confirm the Syba pcie card with two blade support (page 1) is the best option in terms of price/performance for the MP 5,1.
I was originally looking for 4 blade card but the Sonnett and Highpoint are too expensive for me.
I appreciate the feedback.
 
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chris.pielkenrood

macrumors member
Feb 24, 2018
34
3
Checking on that..

Looks like you can buy them here if you really want one of these...

ubuy.co.nl

Well that’s just a China store with an url ending in .nl but definately not an NL shop. To risky for me but thanks for the search. I found maybe some people also interested in this hardware on a Dutch board sommaybe we can do a group buy. Keep you posted.
 

mikas

macrumors 6502a
Sep 14, 2017
888
645
Finland
Hi,
I just want to confirm the Syba pcie card with two blade support (page 1) is the best option in terms of price/performance for the MP 5,1.
I was originally looking for 4 blade card but the Sonnett and Highpoint are too expensive for me.
I appreciate the feedback.
As it happened I just was in the middle of installing this. It's been waiting to replace my 480GB Kingston HyperX AHCI M.2.
It's now in there, and the speed is of course really good. I CCC'd Kingston (to EVO 970) with the help of Yottamaster M.2 USB enclosure, and then installed the thing to IOCrest.

There is one thing though. If you want all of the potential speed, you need to install it to x16 slot. I happen to have a Sapphire RX 580, and it is a little bit high card, though listed as a 2x slot equipment. I had the fans scratching the IOCrest. I quickly looked in to my options.
- take away the backplate of my RX580
- switch RX to slot number 2, and IOCrest to slot number 1
- get rid of one card and get along with it
- do a paddle hack (w/tape)

decided to go with a hack, and now everything seems to be fine. Tempretaures seem to fine too, at least for now. I'll be monitoring. And I'll be checkin the pads regularly, if the heat is gonna make a difference in there with tape sticckiness. It's good tape though, and that bump is a little thermal pad under the red tape.

Everything is just fine. Long term experiences can be read from other users replys/threads. I use only one blade at the moment. I think it's a good card with just a little bit under 200(€/$).

Attached couple of pics..
 

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gugy

macrumors 68040
Jan 31, 2005
3,892
5,310
La Jolla, CA
As it happened I just was in the middle of installing this. It's been waiting to replace my 480GB Kingston HyperX AHCI M.2.
It's now in there, and the speed is of course really good. I CCC'd Kingston with the help of Yottamaster M.2 USB enclosure, and then installed the thing to IOCrest.

There is one thing though. If you want all of the potential speed, you need to install it to x16 slot. I happen to have a Sapphire RX 580, and it is a little bit high card, though listed as a 2x slot equipment. I had the fans scratching the IOCrest. I quickly looked in to my options.
- take away the backplate of my RX580
- switch RX to slot number 2, and IOCrest to slot number 1
- get rid of one card and get along with it
- do a paddle hack (w/tape)

decided to go with a hack, and now everything seems to be fine. Tempretaures seem to fine too, at least for now. I'll be monitoring. And I'll be checkin the pads regularly, if the heat is gonna make a difference in there with tape sticckiness. It's good tape though, and that bump is a little thermal pad under the red tape.

Everything is just fine. Long term experiences can be read from other users replys/threads. I use only one blade at the moment. I think it's a good card with just a little bit under 200(€/$).

Attached couple of pics..
Thanks for the detailed explanation. Yeah this card looks like a good alternative if you want a good value.
are you using it as your boot drive? How was that set up, easy to do?
 
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PetteriKiller

macrumors newbie
Oct 8, 2019
25
1
Finland
Slot 4: Radeon RX 460 (card backplate bracket needs a small cut to fit in)
Slot 3: Inateck KT4006 (2xUSB3)
Slot 2: IOCrest NVMe adapter + Samsung 970 EVO 1 TB
Slot 1: Sapphire Radeon RX 580

(an older post about my slot 4 install)

I had some thermal issues with Sapphire RX 580 Pulse, but wanted to keep my superset IOCrest with 2 x 512 Gb Radeon Pro 960 on the slot 2, so I had to swap the RX580 Pulse to AMD WX7100:


SybaWX7100.jpg


Looking forward to get the slim-line Radeon RX 5700..
 

mikas

macrumors 6502a
Sep 14, 2017
888
645
Finland
are you using it as your boot drive? How was that set up, easy to do?
You need the right firmware and a new enough OS. And the NVMe blade needs to be formatted as APFS. It's really easy after that, it's almost just like every other bootable OS container there ever have been.

This is my boot drive. If I remember it right, it's gotta be firmware 140.0.0.0.0 or newer, and High Sierra or newer OS to boot from NVMe. Better check the facts though if you are not there yet. All info can be found out in theose wiki posts.

I have to say this card comes out with a little bit more noise. But I think I can take it.
 
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KeesMacPro

macrumors 65816
Nov 7, 2019
1,453
592
Hi, im new here and my knowledge is limited:)
Im using a MP 5,1 (see attachment) with HS installed and 2 OWC Accelsior S with 2 samsung 850 evo.
One disk to boot and the 2nd one with the Home folder , because I've been told that it would be faster.
I use it daily for audio recording, editing, mixing (Logic) and it works fine.
Im planning to replace the (boot) owc by a Kryo m2 evo with a samsung 970 evo and later on the 2nd as well with a kryo/970 evo.
My question is:
- is it possible to combine a AHCI with a NVME? (especially because of the home folder separated on another drive)
-Is there any advantage to keep the homefolder separate with NVME?
-Because of the gtx780, im obliged to use slot 3 and 4, will this be ok, or will the speed be limited to the speed I see now( around 520 R/W)?
I would appreciate any help on this , since I'd like to buy something for a setup which has already been tested by someone....
Thx in advance,
cheers
[automerge]1573228984[/automerge]
oops forgot the attachment
 

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tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,016
13,241
Hi, im new here and my knowledge is limited:)
Im using a MP 5,1 (see attachment) with HS installed and 2 OWC Accelsior S with 2 samsung 850 evo.
One disk to boot and the 2nd one with the Home folder , because I've been told that it would be faster.
I use it daily for audio recording, editing, mixing (Logic) and it works fine.
Im planning to replace the (boot) owc by a Kryo m2 evo with a samsung 970 evo and later on the 2nd as well with a kryo/970 evo.
My question is:
- is it possible to combine a AHCI with a NVME? (especially because of the home folder separated on another drive)
-Is there any advantage to keep the homefolder separate with NVME?
-Because of the gtx780, im obliged to use slot 3 and 4, will this be ok, or will the speed be limited to the speed I see now( around 520 R/W)?
I would appreciate any help on this , since I'd like to buy something for a setup which has already been tested by someone....
Thx in advance,
cheers
[automerge]1573228984[/automerge]
oops forgot the attachment
Slots 3 and 4 share bandwidth, is just 4 lanes of PCIe 2.0 (~1500MB/s) available for both slots.

A better approach is to move your GPU to slot 2, will lose access to slot 3, and install a switched adapter like the Syba/IOCrest on slot-1. This way you will have around 3000MB/s. If you need even more, look at HighPoint SSD710x cards.

You will need to upgrade your BootROM to 144.0.0.0.0, see the sticky thread about Mojave/BootROM upgrade.

With a good NVMe blade like 970 EVO Plus you have enough bandwidth to keep system and user/data files inside one blade, but maybe it’s better to have a separate scratch disk for your audio work, you will have less latency and more bandwidth.
 
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flowrider

macrumors 604
Nov 23, 2012
7,240
2,965
My question is:
- is it possible to combine a AHCI with a NVME? (especially because of the home folder separated on another drive)

I would try to run them as a RAID. But yes you can run NVME, AHCI and spinners on the same machine.

Lou
 

KeesMacPro

macrumors 65816
Nov 7, 2019
1,453
592
Slots 3 and 4 share bandwidth, is just 4 lanes of PCIe 2.0 (~1500MB/s) available for both slots.

A better approach is to move your GPU to slot 2, will lose access to slot 3, and install a switched adapter like the Syba/IOCrest on slot-1. This way you will have around 3000MB/s. If you need even more, look at HighPoint SSD710x cards.

You will need to upgrade your BootROM to 144.0.0.0.0, see the sticky thread about Mojave/BootROM upgrade.

With a good NVMe blade like 970 EVO Plus you have enough bandwidth to keep system and user/data files inside one blade, but maybe it’s better to have a separate scratch disk for your audio work, you will have less latency and more bandwidth.
Thx a lot for the detailed answer Tsialex, I appreciate it very much ........and will check my bankaccount for the Syba;)
You guys know a lot, im impressed!
[automerge]1573231945[/automerge]
I would try to run them as a RAID. But yes you can run NVME, AHCI and spinners on the same machine.

Lou
Thx Flowrider, I was nt sure about this
As a Raid setup is it still faster in slot 3 and 4? ( I read something that they are kind of shared)?
[automerge]1573232112[/automerge]
Slots 3 and 4 share bandwidth, is just 4 lanes of PCIe 2.0 (~1500MB/s) available for both slots.

A better approach is to move your GPU to slot 2, will lose access to slot 3, and install a switched adapter like the Syba/IOCrest on slot-1. This way you will have around 3000MB/s. If you need even more, look at HighPoint SSD710x cards.

You will need to upgrade your BootROM to 144.0.0.0.0, see the sticky thread about Mojave/BootROM upgrade.

With a good NVMe blade like 970 EVO Plus you have enough bandwidth to keep system and user/data files inside one blade, but maybe it’s better to have a separate scratch disk for your audio work, you will have less latency and more bandwidth.
EDIT: the BootROM is 144.0.0.0
 

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,016
13,241
Thx a lot for the detailed answer Tsialex, I appreciate it very much ........and will check my bankaccount for the Syba;)
You guys know a lot, im impressed!
Btw, buy a Syba/IOCrest or any high value adapter where you can return easily, it’s not common but there are at least 2 confirmed reports that Syba/IOCrest don’t work with some MacPros with determined slots. Maybe it’s the slots, my bet, and not the cards, but it’s better to pay some bucks more at Amazon and have peace of mind that you can easily return/replace the card.
 

KeesMacPro

macrumors 65816
Nov 7, 2019
1,453
592
Btw, buy a Syba/IOCrest or any high value adapter where you can return easily, it’s not common but there are at least 2 confirmed reports that Syba/IOCrest don’t work with some MacPros with determined slots. Maybe it’s the slots, my bet, and not the cards, but it’s better to pay some bucks more at Amazon and have peace of mind that you can easily return/replace the card.
thats actually a very good idea , thx tsialex!
 
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