Mac Pro extra sata cable connector question

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Mac Pro extra sata cable connector question

I have an early Mac Pro and would like to add a 5th drive on the internal sata buss. Do I need a male or female cable end to plug into the motherboard connector?

In all the articles, the Sonnet thing, and such, nobody ever says what type connector you need for this. I have several of what must be female to female, and I use one now to connect this 5th drive to a cheap PCIX card with an internal. I'm thinking a right angle male on one end - the mobo end, and a regular female sata on the drive end. Is that correct? TIA.

Mac pro,, Mac OS X (10.6.3), MDD, 8600, G4 mini, G3 PowerBook, G5 iMac

Posted on Apr 21, 2010 4:14 PM

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Answer 1

HolySmoker Author

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May 5, 2010 3:48 PM in response to HolySmoker

standard female to female duh

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Answer 2

The hatter

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May 5, 2010 3:57 PM in response to HolySmoker

a cheap PCIX card

Careful with spelling or ordering, you need PCIe.

NewerTech has SATA III 6Gbps 2-port card (PM support also) but external.

I always look to see what MacSales/OWC has to get ideas first.

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Answer 3

May 14, 2010 5:28 PM in response to HolySmoker

Where do you plan on mounting your 5th drive? An external enclosure?

I bought a dual-HD docking station from Cyberguys. It came with an eSATA cable extender with a connector that plugs into the port on the board. The other end is the PCIe where the dock's cable is supposed to be plugged in. That part goes into one of the empty slots above the graphics card's dual-link DVI connectors.

My problem is that it does not recognize the drive when using the eSATA. It does recognize it when I use the USB connector. But it is extremely slow when using USB, so I would like to use the eSATA.

The part that came with the dock has only one cable / connector. OWC sells one that has 2 cables / connectors ($20). The board has 2 ports. Maybe I am plugged into the wrong port on the board. Or maybe the connection is not adequate since the fan housing causes the connector to be angled.

OWC also has a video on how to install eSATA cable extenders, among other installations.

Anyone have more info on installing such cables? I'd appreciate hearing from you.

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Answer 4

May 30, 2010 7:30 AM in response to Leon Smith

Update – in case anyone else reads this.
When the cable that was supplied with the dock is connected to the top SATA port in the Mac Pro (3,1), and with the hard drive in the rear bay, only 8 GB is recognized. (I moved the SATA cable to the top port when I was unable to have a drive recognized in either bay.)
When I inserted the drive in the front bay (with the power off to the dock), powered up the dock, and THEN re-started my Mac Pro, the hard drive was recognized for its full capacity.

The key is to *have the dock powered prior to the computer being powered*. +But this still doesn't answer the question as to why only one bay works properly.+ I have contacted Vantec to ask if this is a known problem since it is not covered in their FAQs. Their FAQ tells users to connect the dock to the computer using the supplied cable after the dock is powered. Powering up the dock/hard drive and then connecting the cable does not result in the drive being recognized in either bay. Only by re-starting the computer is the drive recognized.

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