I need to add an USB 3.0 interface card to my Mid 2010 Mac Pro running Yosemite (OS X 10.10). So far, all the cards I've found say they won't work with Yosemite. Anyone know of one that does?
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What is the state of USB 3.0 on Mac Pro? (
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User reports on OS X USB 3.0 PCI express cards - Sonnet Allegro USB 3.0, the HighPoint RocketU USB 3.0 & Caldigit USB 3.0 + eSATA 3Card. |
I have a rev. 1 CalDigit USB3/eSATA card in my 2010 Mac Pro. Although the site describes the driver package for that card as containing drivers for 10.5 through 10.9, there IS a driver for Yosemite in there, and it works. I would contact CalDigit and ask whether the current rev. 2 card needs a driver for Yosemite, and if so, when they will have one for download.
I read through that thread and saw where the Inateck KT4004 was known to woik with Yosemite. I bought one, plugged it in and not only didn't it work, it kept my HighPoint Rocket eSata interface from working. I tried changing the order of the cards, but still no go. I wrote Inatech and this is their reply:
Dear customer,
I'm sorry that our PCI-E cards can't perfectly support Yosemite for now.
Sorry for the inconvenience, I wish you could find an excellent one.
Did you report that experience to the MacRumors thread? It would be good info for them to have.
It seems at least somewhat likely that Inateck will develop a 10.10 driver. You'd think they'd have had enough time by now, though.
That's weird. this question is marked as solved, however, I have a mid 2010 Mac Pro running Yosemite 10.10, with a CalDigit USB3/eSATA card installed and the latest drivers for the card (10.9, since 10.10 is not available) but no USB3 support for my hard drive enclosure of Startech.com. This USB3 enclosure is recognised as such by my Macbook pro (model 2015), so the problem is on the Mac Pro side...
One problem forum Users have reported has to do with USB-provided POWER.
If you have a drive that requires USB power, you must make an additional electrical connection to supply that power to the USB card. Generally, these cards can only draw enough power from the PCIe slot alone to power their own electronics, not to power external devices.
Another alternative is to use an external power supply for the drive.
hadieandre wrote:
...a mid 2010 Mac Pro running Yosemite 10.10, with a CalDigit USB3/eSATA card installed and the latest drivers for the card (10.9, since 10.10 is not available) but no USB3 support...
As I learned in planning for my upgrade to Yosemite, that CalDigit card will no longer work. The solution was to replace it with the new version. No drivers are necessary and, unlike most USB3/eSATA cards, connections to the eSATA side are bootable. That works very well with the NewerTech Voyager Q for quick, temporary attachment of 3.5" and 2.5" drives.
Hi Grant,
Thanks for your response. The drive has its own separate power source, so USB power is not required for this USB 3.0 drive I use.
By the way, to be more specific: I have Yosemite 10.10.5 installed.
hi FatMac,
That sounds like a great card, and even UASP compatible. However at a price point of 170 dollar one question comes to mind: will it be compatible with El Capitan 10.11 that will be released shortly (or even beyond)?
That makes me think of buying a cheap card, like this one on Ebay for 45 dollar (supporting USB 3.1 up to Mac OS version 10.10.5):
Or this one for only 22 dollar (supporting USB 3.0 up to Mac OS version 10.10.5):
If these cheap cards don't support El Capitan, I wouldn't mind buying a new one.
hadieandre wrote:
hi FatMac,
That sounds like a great card, and even UASP compatible. However at a price point of 170 dollar one question comes to mind: will it be compatible with El Capitan 10.11 that will be released shortly (or even beyond)?...
If the answer to that were known, it couldn't be discussed here because it's unreleased software. But a major stumbling block for other software has been the increased security of the OS and restrictions on software installed by third parties (for example, trying to get TRIM to work on earlier versions of Yosemite). There are no added drivers in the new CalDigit card. And while the availability of USB 3.0 is great, for me, the real benefit is support of eSATA booting. With the Voyager Q I linked to, installing a drive is as easy as putting bread in a toaster and getting it back out means just pushing the button in the front; the drive simply pops out just like toast when it's done. That's a lot easier than changing sleds.
eSata booting is indeed a major advantage; that would make it easy to revert back to an older OS version, if a newer version would screw things up on the compatibility front.
A pity though that the new Caldigit card "only" supports USB 3.0 and not USB 3.1. For the one bay enclosure I have it makes no difference, but I guess it would make a major different if I would connect a RAID system to it.
I use this enclosure: http://sgcdn.startech.com/005329/media/products/gallery_large/S3510WMU33T.B.jpg
It is a trayless design, yet completely encloses the drive. I used to have a 4 bay "bread toaster" of Startech.com, but the fans made noise, it collected dust, and actually ruined two of my drives, because he mixed the drives up. I also owned several 1 bay versions, one of the brands was Sharkoon. They all gave up on me pretty quickly. The top loading system without closing made me feel not secure enough anymore.
And a minor detail: I don't like black, and somehow these bread toasters ar all black, eating away the light in my dark house.
This is weird but mine works on 10.8.5 and 10.10.5. My Yosemite OS was installed directly over an existing 10.6.8 Snow Leopard system.
I'm on a 2009 Mac Pro, recently upgraded to a mid 2010 EfiRom.
usb 3.0 interface for 2010 Mac Pro running Yosemite?
