Fastest bootable SSD for the Mac Pro 5,1

I'm running with FileVault full disk encryption.

Nikolass-Pro:current nbritton$ ./iozone -a Iozone: Performance Test of File I/O Version $Revision: 3.434 $ Compiled for 64 bit mode. Build: macosx Contributors:William Norcott, Don Capps, Isom Crawford, Kirby Collins Al Slater, Scott Rhine, Mike Wisner, Ken Goss Steve Landherr, Brad Smith, Mark Kelly, Dr. Alain CYR, Randy Dunlap, Mark Montague, Dan Million, Gavin Brebner, Jean-Marc Zucconi, Jeff Blomberg, Benny Halevy, Dave Boone, Erik Habbinga, Kris Strecker, Walter Wong, Joshua Root, Fabrice Bacchella, Zhenghua Xue, Qin Li, Darren Sawyer, Vangel Bojaxhi, Ben England, Vikentsi Lapa, Alexey Skidanov. Run began: Mon May 9 13:18:59 2016 Auto Mode Command line used: ./iozone -a Output is in kBytes/sec Time Resolution = 0.000001 seconds. Processor cache size set to 1024 kBytes. Processor cache line size set to 32 bytes. File stride size set to 17 * record size. random random bkwd record stride kB reclen write rewrite read reread read write read rewrite read fwrite frewrite fread freread 64 4 633392 3588436 3203069 4274062 2892445 2923952 1421755 2923952 3363612 2689580 1879725 1991276 3203069 64 8 969761 4988978 4897948 6421025 4274062 4564786 3057153 4988978 3203069 2923952 4564786 2052169 4274062 64 16 1226821 2561267 3541098 9006179 4564786 5283570 4018152 5860307 5389653 5389653 5283570 2379626 4897948 64 32 1421755 2662899 4274062 3791156 6271021 5735102 1679761 7100397 6271021 6421025 2561267 1933893 5860307 64 64 1780008 3057153 10402178 10402178 7100397 9006179 4897948 7940539 2467108 6421025 4564786 1363961 5283570 128 4 744820 1663139 2784517 4267461 3199360 2920861 1152564 3359523 2511022 2784517 1543594 2673584 3053774 128 8 824932 2464907 3759450 5122535 4557257 4759253 2098744 5122535 5122535 4934216 3867787 2367096 4135958 128 16 1561553 3560017 6406138 7917784 6045455 6114306 2985839 6812590 6406138 4407601 2905056 3124872 5325799 128 32 1885042 3199360 7582312 8548124 7582312 7082197 4889281 7476717 4717434 5847904 6727225 2621367 5603747 128 64 2098744 3445772 5325799 10567140 7582312 7476717 2286447 8548124 5325799 5603747 3759450 2248149 5379161 128 128 2367096 2727923 9129573 9795896 7917784 8036304 5545860 8548124 3468030 8036304 3867787 1123617 5122535 256 4 766517 2903529 1696795 4070199 3123106 2975955 2975955 3236056 3159869 3499745 3499745 2911402 3009318 256 8 1185399 3410808 4009406 5428265 4734192 4929815 4264168 5347168 4054829 5217259 5217259 3605511 4264168 256 16 1543163 6398720 3159869 7120034 5971678 5841722 2754556 6554972 5569035 3950402 6073004 4477549 5022044 256 32 1405778 5022044 4054829 8534922 6936061 7314033 4054829 8024634 5810112 3605511 7120034 4734192 5569035 256 64 2242541 5810112 8208677 9114515 7735574 7735574 5347168 9114515 4197489 5320671 3326279 2223962 5810112 256 128 2441400 5347168 7518900 9192546 7735574 6107548 3770085 6554972 4572895 4350555 5217259 3410808 5217259 256 256 2665657 8024634 7965107 8815202 7518900 7965107 5971678 7735574 7314033 7791708 7314033 1254656 4652146 512 4 778128 2638816 2942541 4163357 3145087 2991733 2625909 3320137 2471765 2655129 3099691 2739816 3239989 512 8 1227971 5177083 4660280 5699180 4650188 4195896 3941742 5278892 4701087 4610256 4690818 3788747 4305250 512 16 1510391 4163357 4660280 7211022 6104175 6104175 5744919 6652558 6018636 6491676 5566231 3388236 5019764 512 32 1729323 5453155 6632013 8394979 7435738 6395018 4000485 8265729 7758090 4838792 4000485 3877684 5566231 512 64 2196227 7115451 7211022 9304292 8265729 6909408 5699180 9468384 7647578 4742616 5067142 3279573 5744919 512 128 2497638 7022379 7115451 8701110 7871843 6652558 6395018 8701110 8528336 6652558 6821616 4305250 5227492 512 256 3182373 5566231 7435738 8265729 7758090 7647578 5127637 6571132 6571132 5624545 5951911 3459188 4340054 512 512 3325278 6414119 8528336 8701110 8265729 8528336 5886650 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2907554 3078580 16384 16 1398533 2346671 3823525 4039516 4229201 3623144 3761986 6948516 4015675 2438088 2310845 3155047 3364840 16384 32 1631717 2451569 4017553 4409106 4421020 4141522 4000946 8790123 4234674 2386937 2289824 3311174 3558786 16384 64 1946352 2474522 3995131 3996060 4677083 4375975 4150026 10058757 4626700 2571662 2432650 3153165 3445655 16384 128 1876719 2462286 4134048 4248025 4453395 4321760 4272322 9199633 4941072 2478270 2405149 3210619 3423340 16384 256 1942610 2425096 3873307 4131065 4486248 4447342 4307133 8511410 4472816 2428352 2455599 2898845 3096614 16384 512 1934626 2506747 4007713 4223742 4517212 4455994 4417325 8687884 4531211 2426551 2439559 2851453 3118961 16384 1024 1881498 2502183 3879649 4246712 4586862 4340047 4208739 8485137 8000120 2703170 2471229 2837442 3103607 16384 2048 1915322 2486520 4031459 4342516 4343614 4220370 4131065 8337915 7560891 2541701 2438866 2683745 2987568 16384 4096 1939376 2403467 4268872 4352693 3981474 3977556 3886231 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4011884 1519990 1525159 3013156 3085503 131072 4096 1493034 1523081 3967184 3998171 3906074 4000732 3897711 7849078 3874663 1522908 1507858 2504824 2596055 131072 8192 1490742 1498168 3180282 3208701 3128361 1549826 3033155 3414678 3274347 1510289 1522570 1798463 1789891 131072 16384 1481758 1505137 2966108 3041327 3007140 1513358 2979515 1924640 2968398 1514809 1491741 1759872 1751033 262144 64 1436035 1446718 4115881 4214936 4031002 4072962 3941780 10203355 4072826 1399080 1447013 3385823 3392216 262144 128 1449847 1240841 4195507 4315485 4117422 4030130 4177336 9540826 4108314 1421404 1468602 3233555 3257254 262144 256 1467352 1484949 3998663 4008693 3896727 4127996 3966237 8636775 3976522 1472222 1485638 3099723 3111134 262144 512 1463101 1417422 3945330 4062683 4005071 4180576 3999448 8608711 4085978 1353923 1479375 3032877 3064261 262144 1024 1473829 1442188 4065312 4139605 4114510 4245861 4021301 8582504 3938518 1482229 1474956 3092200 3110245 262144 2048 1463044 1363613 4008678 4045254 3938702 4170807 3990985 8446164 4013346 1267675 1241405 2981081 3025109 262144 4096 1483611 1347300 3952535 3968928 3928611 4042741 3886713 7932709 3953672 1238860 1474584 2532399 2629380 262144 8192 1476035 1295779 3108328 3120608 3085033 1396870 3058108 3357033 3065620 1374814 1471669 1802186 1800365 262144 16384 1398460 1458633 3002655 3020928 3004763 1439924 2998225 1942871 3003754 1454278 1360783 1721212 1763805 524288 64 1442614 1436335 4449763 4416216 4124162 2640331 4264236 10105582 4145972 1436999 1433553 3592982 3568401 524288 128 1435901 1432900 4473216 4453873 4341718 2983705 4329273 9247177 4373408 1434165 1437449 3346339 3371081 524288 256 1438230 1440173 4246728 4116519 4058842 3178211 4217480 8721409 4057644 1435685 1439912 3116141 3119200 524288 512 1439259 1443258 4186567 4224619 4095230 3274466 4146801 8694375 4134568 1434321 1442102 3138960 3237605 524288 1024 1444029 1432661 4149853 4202609 4159429 2986972 4163130 8562314 4148632 1425707 1434228 3121095 3160929 524288 2048 1436138 1435661 4189950 4124711 4116357 3010274 4138256 8501505 4170481 1423588 1430905 3163771 3217675 524288 4096 1433702 1426796 4067686 4107937 4018640 2933341 4054883 7778046 4010797 1426867 1429497 2582432 2607322 524288 8192 1424431 1425536 3158305 3187933 3143083 1481077 3160911 3421306 3126380 1426276 1425052 1865368 1890824 524288 16384 1439960 1432681 3048099 3082360 3089536 1472045 3082758 1937802 2885888 1410112 1433761 1781971 1792977 iozone test complete.

If speed is what you are after then get two 512GB Samsung SM951 AHCI and two Lycom DT-120 PCIe adapters and put them in a RAID 0 configuration, that should double your throughput. Anyway, did you see the iozone numbers?

iozone averaged in megabytes per second:

The Lycom DT-120 board is only $23 USD on amazon.com. The board revision is F120-00B, it's sold under multiple trade names by multiple vendors. It is a "passive" adaptor board, there is no logic on the board, it is simply connects the wiring from the PCIe connector to the M.2 connector.

http://www.amazon.com/Lycom-DT-120-PCIe-Adapter-Support/dp/B00MYCQP38

http://www.amazon.com/Ableconn-PEXM2-SSD-NGFF-Express-Adapter/dp/B017JGVTAM

I purchased my 512GB Samsung SM951 AHCI used for $230 USD. Honestly, I'm not sure what you want to accomplish by having disks that fast, 1,300 MB/s is more than fast enough for everything that I want to do. In fact, I think 1,300 MB/s for $230 is absolutely amazing because I still remember the days when we had ultra slow IDE drives. If a single SM951 isn't fast enough for you then the next best solution is to setup a RAID 0 array and stripe it across two SM951 using two DT-120 boards, this will get you PCIe x8 performance. The Squid seems like overkill for anything that I would want to do on my Mac, it's a lot of money for diminishing returns. My advice is to save the money you would spend on a fancy disk solution and buy the new Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080.

I would also like to add that the iozone benchmark says the SM951 write speed averages at 1820 MB/s. Also, when factoring in caching, iozone says the drive throughput is closer to 4,300 MB/s. Even if you had three Nvidia GTX 1080s in your system, I don't think you could render video fast enough to saturate the bus throughput on the SM951.

Return it if you can, the GTX 1080 is worth the effort to get it. The GTX 1080 is faster then two GTX 980 in SLI, it's even way faster then a Titan X. It Should be available starting May 27th for around $600 USD.