Mac Pro ( late 2013 ) USB issues, slow and no hot swap.

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Mac Pro ( late 2013 ) USB issues, slow and no hot swap.

I have been very impressed with most things about my new macpro, but one thing has worried me.

I had a complex setup on USB using my old 17 laptop, to make all my devices work I used the belkin USB 3.0 thunderbolt hub.

When I plugged in the same config on my new machine USB 3.0 directly it was very weird, devices would not remount and only show up if they were then when present at startup, and thruput was sluggish.

So I stopped using the in built USB 3.0 and grabbe the old belkin thunderbolt USB hub, and BAM it all works perfectly.

Better than that after testing the throuput , the belkin gave me 30-50% better performance that the inbuilt USB, that is without any hubs just direct.

I am wondering if anyone else is experiencing problems with apples implementation of USB 3.0 on the mac pro and if it is the chipset apple has chosen or hopefully a driver issue.

Since I exlcusivly use plugable hubs , I have also sent in infromation to them, but seeing the perfomrance increase even without hubs I am not holding out hope that the Hubs are the issue.

Suggestions comments welcomed.

Mac Pro (Late 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Mar 13, 2014 1:13 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

innocentius

Level 4

1,898 points

Mar 13, 2014 9:00 AM in response to symonty Gresham

I was supriced to find out how slow USB 3 in my new Mac Pro is. I could confirm that by using the free Speed Test from Black Magic. I use LaCie Thunderbolt for my video editing and it is really fast. USB 3 does not come near in performance.

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Answer 2

Mar 13, 2014 12:30 PM in response to innocentius

Yeah I have tested it with spinning media and it was 30-50% slower than the belkin via thunderbolt.

I am not game enough to try SSD.

And the reliability issues are driving mew crazy, I ordered anotehr belkin thunderbolt hub, and I am now just leaving it to very poor USB chips.

According to this article the design is very poor,

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7603/mac-pro-review-late-2013/8

"Here we really get to see how much of a mess Intel’s workstation chipset lineup is: the C600/X79 PCH doesn’t natively support USB 3.0. That’s right, it’s nearly 2014 and Intel is shipping a flagship platform without USB 3.0 support. The 8th PCIe lane off of the PCH is used by a Fresco Logic USB 3.0 controller. I believe it’s the FL1100, which is a PCIe 2.0 to 4-port USB 3.0 controller. A single PCIe 2.0 lane offers a maximum of 500MB/s of bandwidth in either direction (1GB/s aggregate), which is enough for the real world max transfer rates over USB 3.0. Do keep this limitation in mind if you’re thinking about populating all four USB 3.0 ports with high-speed storage with the intent of building a low-cost Thunderbolt alternative. You’ll be bound by the performance of a single PCIe 2.0 lane."

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Answer 3

Mar 14, 2014 7:46 AM in response to symonty Gresham

What readings do you get ? I get about 90 read and write with USB 3. With thunderbolt connection I get about 200 read and write.

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Answer 4

Mar 14, 2014 8:24 AM in response to symonty Gresham

RE: USB3 Bus speeds

Although theoretically capable of 5 Gigabits/sec, or about 625 Mega Bytes/sec, USB-3 is also said to fall somewhat short of its theoretical maximum speeds.

RE: Mac Pro (late 2013) USB architecture

"Bound by the limits of a single PCIe 2.0 lane" which is 500GB/sec.

My take-away from that: It is a mistake (less than top performance) to invest in multiple USB-3 drive enclosures on your new Mac Pro.

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Answer 5

hualon

Level 1

0 points

Jun 14, 2014 2:20 PM in response to symonty Gresham

Hi, I'm just learning of the performance problems on the USB3 ports on the nMP. I just ordered my 6-core and had been, up to this point, planning to use existing USB3 drives for storage.

It would seem that getting this "belkin USB 3.0 thunderbolt hub" that you talk about is a good idea. I can't find anything that fits the description - can you provide a model number? Has it been discontinued?

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Answer 6

Jun 14, 2014 3:41 PM in response to hualon

This is the unit I used.

http://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F4U055/

Thunderbolt express dock, it solved My problem.

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Answer 7

sgillane

Level 1

0 points

Jul 2, 2014 10:04 PM in response to symonty Gresham

Dealing with same issues on my Mac Pro. Can't believe I'm about to drop $200 on something that is supposedly built in to the machine. USB3 drives work fine on MacBook Pros I've tried with USB3 (or USB2 for that matter) but useless with the Mac Pro...

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