Shecky Lovejoy

Q: Getting 6G SATA into the Mac Pro 2010 drive trays

After some research, it seems like the procedure for attaching a PCIe miniSAS card to drives in the internal Mac Pro drive trays is pretty straightforward for the 2006-8 Mac Pros, but not so much for 2009-2012.

 

Regarding the very simple procedure for 2006-8 Mac Pros:

 

http://blog.macsales.com/12247-upgrade-your-06-08-mac-pros-internal-bays-to-sata -3-0

 

AFA I can tell, the 2009-12 Mac Pro is not a SATA passthrough to a mniSAS connector on the motherboard like the 2006-8, but requires some more monkeying around. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I found this kit, which is pricey, but seems like it will do the job

 

https://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ ID=189&ParentCat=351

 

Any thoughts on any of this or alternatives?

 

Hardware:

 

3x Samsung EVO 850 1TB 2.5" drives

1x HGST Ultrastar 3TB 3.5" drive

Areca ARC-1882-ix-24

 

Thanks for reading this.

Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), 2010, 12-core 3.33, 64 ram

Posted on Jul 16, 2016 1:35 PM

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Q: Getting 6G SATA into the Mac Pro 2010 drive trays

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  • by theratter,

    theratter theratter Jul 16, 2016 1:45 PM in response to Shecky Lovejoy
    Level 4 (3,907 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 16, 2016 1:45 PM in response to Shecky Lovejoy

    Why not simply purchase a special tray in which you mount the SSD and it connects to your SATA bus using one of the four internal trays. However, that bus only supports 3G in that model, but a 6G SSD will work, just not as fast.

  • by Shecky Lovejoy,

    Shecky Lovejoy Shecky Lovejoy Jul 16, 2016 1:50 PM in response to theratter
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 16, 2016 1:50 PM in response to theratter

    Thanks for the response. I'm looking for 6G speeds, or else the SSDs will run at approximately half speed. Speed is sort of the whole point with SSD

  • by theratter,

    theratter theratter Jul 16, 2016 1:54 PM in response to Shecky Lovejoy
    Level 4 (3,907 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 16, 2016 1:54 PM in response to Shecky Lovejoy

    Even at half speed it will be a lot faster than an HDD. However, I can't help you. I'm not familiar with your model. I have a 2006 model which is different, apparently, as you've stated. You might ask about the matter at OWC. Their techs are pretty knowledgeable. They also may have a card just suited for your use.

  • by Shecky Lovejoy,

    Shecky Lovejoy Shecky Lovejoy Jul 16, 2016 1:57 PM in response to theratter
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 16, 2016 1:57 PM in response to theratter

    Thanks, I will ask them

  • by John Lockwood,Solvedanswer

    John Lockwood John Lockwood Jul 18, 2016 7:48 AM in response to Shecky Lovejoy
    Level 6 (9,324 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Jul 18, 2016 7:48 AM in response to Shecky Lovejoy

    I have a Mac Pro 2010 model and I have fitted a PCIe miniSAS card and the maxupgrades drive bay adapter sleds. I did this more because I could then having a real need and got the parts cheap off eBay. (I have upgraded practically everything in my Mac Pro so I now have 802.3ac WiFi & Bluetooth 4.0 LE with Continuity support, USB 3.0, a new video card, faster CPU chips with more cores and of course SATA III.)

     

    It all works fine and does give a genuine SATA III speed. For traditional hard disks you are not going to notice the improvement but for SATA SSD drives you can easily spot the improvement. Obviously a PCIe direct connect SSD is even faster these days.

     

    I have tried two different miniSAS cards both successfully for booting in to OS X, and both successfully for booting via Boot Camp in to Windows. There is however an issue with Boot Camp you need to be aware of to get that to work successfully. Read on…

     

    While Windows can boot directly from the standard internal drive bay connections because the drivers are built-in, it will not boot from a PCIe miniSAS card initially. I got round this by first having the drive connected using the original drive bay connection, then booting via Boot Camp in to Windows, then installing the Windows driver for the PCIe miniSAS card, and then shutting down, swapping the connection for the drive bay to the miniSAS and then I was able to boot Windows via the PCIe miniSAS card.

     

    I have successfully done this with both a StarTech PCIe card, and an Attotech ExpressSAS card. Both these cards have Windows drivers, neither needs any Mac software but the Attotech one does have Mac software. The Areca card seems huge overkill, the StarTech card is the cheapest and lowest end option, the Attotech is available as both a RAID and non-RAID version and would be in the middle ground. I believe Highpoint do a suitable card as well but I would avoid them as their Mac driver situation is a mess.

     

    PS. For 2.5" SATA SSD drives you normally could get drive sleds specifically for 2.5" drives but these then do not work with the miniSAS. Instead you need to fit a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter to the maxupgrades drive sleds. The following or similar will do the job. See http://www.newertech.com/products/adaptadrive.php I have again done this myself.

  • by Shecky Lovejoy,

    Shecky Lovejoy Shecky Lovejoy Jul 18, 2016 8:03 AM in response to John Lockwood
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 18, 2016 8:03 AM in response to John Lockwood

    Thanks John, this is all very helpful. I am in the process of doing the same as you. So far I've replaced my stock 8-core 2.4 with a 12-core 3.33 and the improvement is marked. I've also added a USB3 card, bumped up to 64 GB RAM, and added an nVidia GTX 980 Ti. All very worthwhile upgrades and Adobe CC is running much faster now.

     

    The final step is getting the 6G SSD working. I am out of PCI slots, so PCIe SSD is out of the question. I already have the Areca card for my RAID, and it has a free internal 8087 port.

     

    Thanks for the tip regarding the 2.5" drives. Are you saying that the Maxupgrades kit is sized only for 3.5" drives so you need to use the converter? Is there any reason you prefer the Newertech to the IcyDock?

     

    Thanks again, super-helpful

  • by John Lockwood,Helpful

    John Lockwood John Lockwood Jul 18, 2016 9:19 PM in response to Shecky Lovejoy
    Level 6 (9,324 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Jul 18, 2016 9:19 PM in response to Shecky Lovejoy

    I would suspect the Icydock kits are more expensive than the Newertech (or similar) adapter. The Newertech as it simply is a pass-thru adapter is not tied to a specific SATA speed.

     

    And yes the maxupgrades sleds are like the standard sleds and designed for just 3.5" drives so yes you do need some form of adapter.

  • by Shecky Lovejoy,

    Shecky Lovejoy Shecky Lovejoy Jul 18, 2016 9:19 PM in response to John Lockwood
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 18, 2016 9:19 PM in response to John Lockwood

    IcyDocks are actually cheaper on Amazon. Thanks again, very helpful