MP All Models PCIe SSDs - NVMe & AHCI

[startergo]

Hey pretty good price? 298$ for 1TB
398$ for 2TB
[automerge]1578173920[/automerge]
Is it bootable in Windows too? Does somebody know?
Only the SoftraidXT which is included is 129$

 

[Grumply]

Are there any caveats to be aware of with NGFSS/NF1 Enterprise SSDs in a 7,1?

After having wasted an inordinate number of hours spreadsheeting various SSD configurations, NF1 is looking to be the best bang-for-buck option for getting a decent amount of local high-speed storage into the machines.

For a little more money, U.2 can match the capacity and give higher performance (3000MB/s vs 1900MB/s writes), so I was leaning more in that direction at first, but on reflection the NF1 performance is already so high, that it's not really a big deal for my use-case.

Going for a single high-capacity enterprise SSD (7.68TB or 15.36TB) on a vastly cheaper/simpler single-slot PCIe card, looks like it can really help if you're on a budget.

I REALLY want the Amfeltec 6x M.2/NF1 card, because with just a single slot, you could combine both Enterprise NF1 drives for capacity, and MLC M.2 drives for speed. But it's $800 USD :/

 

[tsialex]

Hey pretty good price? 298$ for 1TB
398$ for 2TB
[automerge]1578173920[/automerge]
Is it bootable in Windows too? Does somebody know?
Only the SoftraidXT which is included is 129$

It's a 8X card, both the old and new models. OWC is probably trying to sell fast the old stock of cards that are incompatible with 2019 Mac Pro.
[automerge]1578189632[/automerge]

Are there any caveats to be aware of with NGFSS/NF1 Enterprise SSDs in a 7,1?

After having wasted an inordinate number of hours spreadsheeting various SSD configurations, NF1 is looking to be the best bang-for-buck option for getting a decent amount of local high-speed storage into the machines.

For a little more money, U.2 can match the capacity and give higher performance (3000MB/s vs 1900MB/s writes), so I was leaning more in that direction at first, but on reflection the NF1 performance is already so high, that it's not really a big deal for my use-case.

Going for a single high-capacity enterprise SSD (7.68TB or 15.36TB) on a vastly cheaper/simpler single-slot PCIe card, looks like it can really help if you're on a budget.

I REALLY want the Amfeltec 6x M.2/NF1 card, because with just a single slot, you could combine both Enterprise NF1 drives for capacity, and MLC M.2 drives for speed. But it's $800 USD :/

AFAIK, no one tested yet with MP7,1. U.2 works fine with MP5,1.

 

[startergo]

It's a 8X card, both the old and new models

I was quick to order the 2TB. They claim:
Internal Connectivity:
(4) NVMe 1.3 M.2 Slots (PCIe 3.0 x4)

• Sequential Read (Max) Up to 6318 MB/s
• Sequential Write (Max) Up to 6775 MB/s
• Sequential Read (Average) 6280 MB/s
• Sequential Write (Average) 6356 MB/s

I intend to run it in my expansion chassis plus Of course I expect PCIE2.0 to top at 3000MB/s, but I can put it in my PC mobo which is PCIE3.0 as well.

 

[tsialex]

I was quick to order the 2TB. They claim:
Internal Connectivity:
(4) NVMe 1.3 M.2 Slots (PCIe 3.0 x4)

• Sequential Read (Max) Up to 6318 MB/s
• Sequential Write (Max) Up to 6775 MB/s
• Sequential Read (Average) 6280 MB/s
• Sequential Write (Average) 6356 MB/s

I intend to run it in my expansion chassis plus Of course I expect PCIE2.0 to top at 3000MB/s, but I can put it in my PC mobo which is PCIE3.0 as well.

I've been burned by OWC RAM and SSDs more than once, I honestly wouldn't buy anything from them if there are alternatives. Seems that they have good support and warranty, but it's useless for people outside the US.

Btw, the scores are for the 8TB card, no? I expect that the 2TB will have less throughput.

 

[startergo]

I also looked at the 5 years warranty

 

[Romanesco]

The OWC 4M2 8TB went up today from $1,599 to $1,949. I was considering getting one, but with the latest price hike it’s definitely an overpriced trash for a x8 card. Look elsewhere.

 

[dpzim]

One thing that's been bugging me about the OWC 4M2 is what OWC's repair policy is, particularly with them not committing to selling the bladeless configuration. I've submitted a question to them about what their policy is w.r.t. an individual blade failure, whether they RMA the specific blade or require you to RMA the entire card as a unit. If you are required to RMA the entire card, that would make a RAID 10 configuration no different than a RAID 01 configuration if you have two of these, since you'd end up having to offline a whole side of the mirror either way in any single blade failure. Haven't heard back yet.

 

[tommy chen]

The OWC 4M2 8TB went up today from $1,599 to $1,949. I was considering getting one, but with the latest price hike it’s definitely an overpriced trash for a x8 card. Look elsewhere.

lol, for the same price you can get now the better and faster 3,0x16 HP7101
with 4 pieces of 2TB samsung best blades.
change the fan for 5.1 (near 6000MB/s) or remove it for the 7.1 (near 12.000MB/s)

 

[ashman70]

Without reading 60 pages in this thread can someone tell me this?:
I just picked up a 5,1 and have upgraded to Mojave on an internal 1TB SATA drive in bay 1. I have ordered this Nvme adapter that I will be using with my Samsung 960 EVO Nvme. Question is, how do I migrate or install Mojave when I am using an RX560 with no boot screen?
I have a feeling that I am going to have to put the 4870 back in the machine, boot up and install High Sierra on the new Nvme then take it out, put the RX560 back in and upgrade to Mojave, correct? My 5,1 is on boot ROM 144.0.0.0.0

 

[tsialex]

Without reading 60 pages in this thread can someone tell me this?:
I just picked up a 5,1 and have upgraded to Mojave on an internal 1TB SATA drive in bay 1. I have ordered this Nvme adapter that I will be using with my Samsung 960 EVO Nvme. Question is, how do I migrate or install Mojave when I am using an RX560 with no boot screen?
I have a feeling that I am going to have to put the 4870 back in the machine, boot up and install High Sierra on the new Nvme then take it out, put the RX560 back in and upgrade to Mojave, correct? My 5,1 is on boot ROM 144.0.0.0.0

Read this thread:

MP 1,1-5,1 So, flashed 4,1 to 5,1 need to clean install Mojave via usb

 

[zhpenn]

hi I saw the post of the 'do not buy' list

Asus Hyper M.2 x16

requires motherboard PCI Express Lane Partitioning support (aka bifurcation)

but I saw max tech video using Asus Hyper M.2 x16, and it works?

 

[tsialex]

hi I saw the post of the 'do not buy' list

Asus Hyper M.2 x16

requires motherboard PCI Express Lane Partitioning support (aka bifurcation)

but I saw max tech video using Asus Hyper M.2 x16, and it works?

Don't work at all with MP5,1.

With MP7,1, for now, we know that works for one blade when installed with a slot controlled by the CPU. No reports of more than one blade and if with just one blade works with slots controlled independently by the PCIe switch. More tests are needed.

Anyway, ASUS made the Asus Hyper M.2 x16 cards to be used with ASUS X299/Z370/X399/X470/B450/X370/B350/Z390 motherboards, no guarantee at all that works with anything else, even if the motherboard supports PCI Express Lane Partitioning.

 

[ashman70]

Read this thread:

MP 1,1-5,1 So, flashed 4,1 to 5,1 need to clean install Mojave via usb

Thanks

 

[ashman70]

Read this thread:

MP 1,1-5,1 So, flashed 4,1 to 5,1 need to clean install Mojave via usb

Do you know how long it should take? I have been waiting about 20 min and I am stairing at black screens, should it take this long? I am trying to boot up to a USB flash drive installer I made for Mojave, its plugged into the front USB port, I tried the back one and it took over 20 min and nothing ever happened.

 

[tsialex]

Do you know how long it should take? I have been waiting about 20 min and I am stairing at black screens, should it take this long? I am trying to boot up to a USB flash drive installer I made for Mojave, its plugged into the front USB port, I tried the back one and it took over 20 min and nothing ever happened.

Usually 3 minutes.

Please ask your questions on the other thread, your problem has nothing to do with this one.

 

[macguru9999]

Do you know how long it should take? I have been waiting about 20 min and I am stairing at black screens, should it take this long? I am trying to boot up to a USB flash drive installer I made for Mojave, its plugged into the front USB port, I tried the back one and it took over 20 min and nothing ever happened.

put in a flashed card like a gtx680 so you can see what you are doing. you can buy them on ebay if you dont have one

 

[ashman70]

It's all good thanks, I got it going in the end, even migrated stuff from the old drive to the new one.
Thanks
[automerge]1578263231[/automerge]
I am now running off a regular SSD attached to a PCIe card, just wondering how much faster an NVMe will be attached to a similar card.

 

[zhpenn]

Don't work at all with MP5,1.

With MP7,1, for now, we know that works for one blade when installed with a slot controlled by the CPU. No reports of more than one blade and if with just one blade works with slots controlled independently by the PCIe switch. More tests are needed.

Anyway, ASUS made the Asus Hyper M.2 x16 cards to be used with ASUS X299/Z370/X399/X470/B450/X370/B350/Z390 motherboards, no guarantee at all that works with anything else, even if the motherboard supports PCI Express Lane Partitioning.

thanks a lot

at 3:16

the video he using ASUS
on the link under video they recommend

StarTech.com U.2 to PCIe Adapter - x4 PCIe - For 2.5" U.2 NVMe SSD - SFF-8639 PCIe Adapter - U.2 SSD - PCIe SSD - U.2 drive (PEX4SFF8639)

and

EZDIY-FAB PCI Express M.2 SSD NGFF PCIe Card to PCIe 3.0 x4 M2 Adapter (Support M.2 PCIe 22110,2280, 2260, 2242)

at 4:00

Mailiya M.2 PCIe to PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter - Support M.2 PCIe 2280, 2260, 2242, 2230

and

ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 PCIe 3.0 X4 Expansion Card V2 Supports 4 NVMe M.2 (2242/2260/2280/22110) Upto 128 Gbps for Intel VROC and AMD Ryzen Threadripper NVMe Raid

at 3:02
EZDIY-FAB PCI Express M.2 SSD NGFF PCIe Card to PCIe 3.0 x4 M2 Adapter (Support M.2 PCIe 22110,2280, 2260, 2242)


these are they using or recommend for MacPro 7.1
I feel super confuse
looks like they are using a lot of cheap cards

Plus the ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 PCIe 3.0 X4 Expansion Card V2 Supports 4 NVMe M.2
that can install 4 blades SSD，can I use raid on this card just like sonect card?

 

[joevt]

at 3:16
the video he using ASUS
on the link under video they recommend

Works fine. It supports a single NVMe or AHCI PCIe device using M.2 connector.

StarTech.com U.2 to PCIe Adapter - x4 PCIe - For 2.5" U.2 NVMe SSD - SFF-8639 PCIe Adapter - U.2 SSD - PCIe SSD - U.2 drive (PEX4SFF8639)

Works fine. It's a single NVMe device using U.2 connector.

EZDIY-FAB PCI Express M.2 SSD NGFF PCIe Card to PCIe 3.0 x4 M2 Adapter (Support M.2 PCIe 22110,2280, 2260, 2242)

Works fine. It supports a single NVMe or AHCI PCIe device using M.2 connector.

at 4:00
Mailiya M.2 PCIe to PCIe 3.0 x4 Adapter - Support M.2 PCIe 2280, 2260, 2242, 2230

Works fine. It supports a single NVMe or AHCI PCIe device using M.2 connector.

ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 PCIe 3.0 X4 Expansion Card V2 Supports 4 NVMe M.2 (2242/2260/2280/22110) Upto 128 Gbps for Intel VROC and AMD Ryzen Threadripper NVMe Raid

They have a link to this but they didn't test it. Only one of the M.2 slots can work because it requires bifurcation.

at 3:02
EZDIY-FAB PCI Express M.2 SSD NGFF PCIe Card to PCIe 3.0 x4 M2 Adapter (Support M.2 PCIe 22110,2280, 2260, 2242)

Already mentioned. Works fine. It supports a single NVMe or AHCI PCIe device using M.2 connector.

these are they using or recommend for MacPro 7.1
I feel super confuse
looks like they are using a lot of cheap cards

Cheap cards supporting only one device are cheap because they only wire the PCIe from the PCIe slot to the PCIe of the M.2 or U.2 slot.

Plus the ASUS Hyper M.2 X16 PCIe 3.0 X4 Expansion Card V2 Supports 4 NVMe M.2
that can install 4 blades SSD，can I use raid on this card just like sonect card?

The Asus is also cheap because it only wires the PCIe from the PCIe slot to the PCIe of the M.2 slots. But that only works with PCIe slots that support bifurcation. Macs don't have slots that support bifurcation. Feel free to be the first to test this card in a MacPro7,1 with more than one NVMe drive.

Expensive cards work by including a PCIe switch. The PCIe switch is like a network switch. The upstream connection of the PCIe switch is PCIe x8 or x16 lanes to the PCIe slot. The switch has 2, 4, or 6 downstream connections to the M.2 slots (each M.2 slot is x4 lanes).

Don't confuse PCIe lanes x4, x8, or x16 with how many devices a PCIe card supports.

I think this information is all in the first post of this thread.

 

[Virtuoso]

The Asus is also cheap because it only wires the PCIe from the PCIe slot to the PCIe of the M.2 slots. But that only works with PCIe slots that support bifurcation. Macs don't have slots that support bifurcation. Feel free to be the first to test this card in a MacPro7,1 with more than one NVMe drive.

I did this test today and can confirm that it does NOT work. Only the first drive on the card is visible/usable.

I'll be looking into the Sonnet, Highpoint and Amfeltec cards instead.

 

[Xteec]

I did this test today and can confirm that it does NOT work. Only the first drive on the card is visible/usable.

I'll be looking into the Sonnet, Highpoint and Amfeltec cards instead.

Thank you so much for testing this!!!

I can now return the ASUS card. You beat my Mac Pro arriving so I could test it myself ?

 

[dpzim]

So far we have some forum field experience with the OWC 4M2 card from @eric.blair:
#259
#284

and @H. Flower:
#343
#395

and @ARAS Digital:
#225

So two negative and one positive in the forums. In public reviews – and I'm looking for validation of OWC's 6GBps claims – I'm seeing one negative from MacRumors and one positive from Mac Performance Guide.

Anyone else out there have a combination of the MacPro7,1 and the "ACL" variant of the Accelsior 4M2 that is compatible with it, and can provide more performance data?

 

[tsialex]

Added more info to the Don't Buy Section of the first post:

Don't buy PCIe adaptors list:​

Any multiple M.2 blades card from ASRock/Asus/Gigabyte/MSI that don't have a PCIe 3.0 switch and requires a motherboard with PCI Express Lane Partitioning support, also know as bifurcation support, like the cards listed on the table below.

It's already confirmed that MP7,1 PCIe slots are behind a 96-lane PEX8796 PCIe switch, so no PCI Express Lane Partitioning support for 2019 Mac Pro, and the same requirements for PCIe M.2/U.2 adapters as MP5,1 are valid, the only difference is that 2019 Mac Pro slots are PCIe 3.0.

Being crystal clear, 2019 Mac Pro don't support cheap multiple M.2 adapters that require motherboard bifurcation support and only the first blade of the four is recognised.

Adapter:	Motive for not working:
Aplicata Quad M.2 NVMe SSD PCIe x16 Adapter	requires motherboard PCI Express Lane Partitioning support (aka bifurcation)
ASRock Ultra Quad	requires motherboard PCI Express Lane Partitioning support (aka bifurcation)
Asus Hyper M.2 x16 Asus Hyper M.2 x16 v2	requires motherboard PCI Express Lane Partitioning support (aka bifurcation). Confirmed working for one blade, not working for more than one.
Dell Ultra-Speed Drive Quad NVMe M.2 PCIe x16 Card	requires motherboard PCI Express Lane Partitioning support (aka bifurcation)
GIGABYTE Aorus PCIe x16 M.2	requires motherboard PCI Express Lane Partitioning support (aka bifurcation)
GIGABYTE CMT2014, CMT4032 and CMT4034	requires motherboard PCI Express Lane Partitioning support (aka bifurcation)
HP Z Turbo Drive Quad Pro	requires motherboard PCI Express Lane Partitioning support (aka bifurcation)
MSI Xpander-Aero	requires motherboard PCI Express Lane Partitioning support (aka bifurcation)
Squid PCIe Gen 3 Carrier Board for 4 M.2 SSD modules (M-key ) (full or half-height bracket) SKU-086-B4	requires motherboard PCI Express Lane Partitioning support (aka bifurcation)
SuperMicro AOC-SLG3-8E2P	fried @handheldgames Mac Pro
Synology M2D18	it's a ~$200 PCIe 2.0 switch card with SATA + M2 that tops at 1500MB/s

 

[rylim]

Is anyone here using Amfeltec Card and what's your opinion about this card?

Besides that, how do you guys enable SSD trim for your raid card setup?