MP All Models Bootable PCI SSD Cards/Drives for Mac Pro (NVMe M.2, U.2, EDSFF E3.S, etc.)

[BuxtonAus]

Just ran the ATTO disc benchmark on my HighPoint 7101A-1 (Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500Gb x4 RAID 0) to compare with the BareFeats test.

Both graphs the same test, the first shows the highest Read score number and the second the highest Write score number.

[automerge]1578356962[/automerge]
I've been running the 7101A with the fan unplugged, shroud (heatsink) on and the backplate removed.

During this test the temperature reached 56C.

Returned to its baseline temp of 46C within a few minutes.

For those who are interested, the fan control on the 7101A either requires the card to be returned to HighPoint to be factory reconfigured or if you buy the latest version of the card from them it is now incorporated.

I asked about firmware/software updates and they said "No".

See conversation details below.

Hello,

Thank you for your response.

I purchased my 7101A-1 two weeks ago but it does not support the fan control option.

I am using Web GUTI version 2.12.3 and driver version 1.1.9 (on a Mac Pro 2019)

Will there be a firmware update available for existing cards.

Kind regards,

Scott

Hello Scott,

Unfortunately, there requires to reprogram MCU on SSD7101A-1 in order to support Fan Control function.

If you decide to ship back to us, please register to our webportal for RMA process.
https://highpoint-tech.com/websupport

Thanks.

Sales Department
HighPoint Technologies, Inc.

RAID Storage Solutions Provider

 

[moab1]

Not yet. I'm really frustrated. I have the drive on order in 4 different places but none have it in stock. Ship dates Im getting are anywhere form the 7th to the 16th of this month.

I could get their 12TB Max drive, but I really need the extra few TBs to fit all my stuff. And so I wait...

If anyone knows of a place that actually has it in stock let me know. Most places list it as in stock, you order and then magically it goes on backorder. Not sure what the deal is. The drive was readily available on Amazon just couple of months back.

Keep us posted when you get it. I just saw it on Amazon in stock but now it's out again. Went quick

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Keep us posted when you get it. I just saw it on Amazon in stock but now it's out again. Went quick

Lol, I got that one! I saw that newegg lists them in stock for less (but would take longer to ship). Hopefully should have mine in a couple of days. I cancelled my orders from 4 other places I had it on order from. Fingers crossed.

Curious why the supply is so spotty.

 

[moab1]

Lol, I got that one! I saw that newegg lists them in stock for less (but would take longer to ship). Hopefully should have mine in a couple of days. I cancelled my orders from 4 other places I had it on order from. Fingers crossed.

Curious why the supply is so spotty.

awesome. are you going to do some pictures of your install? Curious how you wire and fit everything in and leave room for 3 more down the road

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

awesome. are you going to do some pictures of your install? Curious how you wire and fit everything in and leave room for 3 more down the road

i was planning on doing a shot of it when it’s done. Of course, when it rains it pours, I have 2 drives coming to me Despite cancelling all the later non shipping places. Beware Cdw will “try to cancel” over 30 hours before still shipping out the drive.

I’m half tempted to keep the second. 😜 but I have a 16tb spinner for time machine duties ready to go.

 

[H. Flower]

OK, so because the speeds were wildly wavering in a Blackmagic test, I took out the OWC card and am returning it.

In it's place, I installed the Sonnet with (4) 2 TB Samsung Evo Plus's. So far, getting no hugely wavering speeds in Blackmagic test, and no problems whatsoever.

There is a slight fan noise, but I'm getting faster speeds at 8g / 9g in tests, which is great. Will maybe upgrade to Squid down the line for even faster speeds.

 

[bxs]

OK, so because the speeds were wildly wavering in a Blackmagic test, I took out the OWC card and am returning it.

In it's place, I installed the Sonnet with (4) 2 TB Samsung Evo Plus's. So far, getting no hugely wavering speeds in Blackmagic test, and no problems whatsoever.

There is a slight fan noise, but I'm getting faster speeds at 8g / 9g in tests, which is great. Will maybe upgrade to Squid down the line for even faster speeds.

Thanks for that info... 8g / 9g speeds are awesome for sure.

As an aside wrt fan noise.... I've always been a bit confused over peoples' fixation on fan noise because from what I've seen is that people working on their film editing computers wear headphones.

 

[H. Flower]

It's only an issue if I have to record a voiceover - A noisy comp can be a problem in that situation. But the Sonnet's fan is well below that threshold, so I'm very happy.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Ok so I got the drive. I got a bracket and it all seems to fit in decently tidy. Some pics:

So I have the Pegasus J2i in there. Swapped the useless 8TB for a 16TB spinner. I got a 3.5" to 2.5" bracket. One note, the screws in the J2i that hold larger drives, are too big for both the 2.5"/3.5" brackets I got, so I had to find smaller screws to hold the bracket in the J2i. You can see the J2i's black power cable and sata cables. One went to the 16TB spinner. The other went into a NVMe U.2 cable I got, which feeds right into the Micron 9300 Pro 15.36 TB U.2 drive. I pushed the cables as far back up agisnt the motherboard to allow for the most air flow. All in all it seems a pretty tidy install.

So here is what I got/needed for this:

Micron 9300 Pro 15.36TB drive:

Micron 9300 Pro 15.36TB NVMe U.2 Enterprise Solid State Drive

Performance-critical cloud and enterprise workloads demand consistently Fast throughput and immediate access to data. The Micron 9300 Series of NVMe SSDs delivers industry-leading sequential write performance with the lowest write latency on the market, to accelerate your datacenter to meet the g...

www.amazon.com

Pagasus J2i bracket:

Promise Pegasus J2i 8TB Internal Storage Enclosure for Mac Pro

Promise Pegasus J2i two-drive internal storage enclosure delivers 8TB of SATA storage for your Mac Pro. This module can be installed in your Mac Pro and connects to the main logic board with included cables. You also have space to add a second 3.5-inch SATA drive to your system.

www.apple.com

16TB Exos Spinner Drive:

Seagate 16TB HDD Exos X16 7200 RPM 512e/4Kn SATA 6Gb/s 256MB Cache 3.5-Inch Enterprise Hard Drive (ST16000NM001G)

Seagate brings innovative helium technology to the Exos X16 hard drive. The drive is designed for maximum storage capacity and the hiest rack-space efficiency. Features a 16TB drive in the same 3. 5-inch footprint for 33% more petabytes per rack compared to leading 12TB drives. Helium-enabled low...

www.amazon.com

3.5" to 2.5" Drive bracket:

Dual 2.5" to 3.5" HDD & SSD Converter Bracket Converts 2.5" Notebook Hard Drive to 3.5" Desktop Hard Drive Bay Mounting Bracket Adapter Mac | PC | Linux

Dual 2.5" to 3.5" HDD & SSD Converter Bracket Converts 2.5" Notebook Hard Drive to 3.5" Desktop Hard Drive Bay Mounting Bracket Adapter Mac | PC | Linux

www.amazon.com

Highpoint 7120 card:

HighPoint SSD7120 NVMe 4-Port M.2/U.2 Unbeatable Performance/Comprehensive Selection; No Motherboard Bifurcation Required

Ultra-High Performance, Flexible NVMe U.2 RAID Controller - Designed for high-end desktop & workstation platforms, the SSD7120 is capable of delivering transfer performance up to 8x faster than onboard NVMe solutions and up to 44x faster than SATA SSD's. The SSD7120's unique hardware architecture...

www.amazon.com

U.2 Cable:

Cable Matters Internal 12G U.2 Cable (Mini SAS HD to U.2, SFF-8643 to SFF-8639 Cable) with SATA Power - 0.7m, 2 Feet

Cable Matters Internal 12G U.2 Cable (Mini SAS HD to U.2, SFF-8643 to SFF-8639 Cable) with SATA Power - 0.7m, 2 Feet

www.amazon.com

So the drive came right up. I was able to format it APFS Encrypted. I havent done any tests with it yet for speed, nor have I been able to determine if it will boot the system. I guess more to come on that.


Update 2020-01-20:
Please note, a way cheaper solution can be achieved as noted below in this post:

Mac Pro support for NVMe U2 Micron 9300 Pro 15.36TB U.2 Drive SSD?

I posted this in another thread, but a way cheaper solution to getting the Highpoint card, if you want only one drive, was noted in this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/suggestions-for-best-bootable-pci-nvme-card-for-2019-ncmp-7-1-mac-pro.2189591/post-28140333 All you need is a...

forums.macrumors.com

You would just need the Micron 9300 Pro drive and just this adapter (i.e., no cables, brackets, etc., as long as having just one drive is all you need, which with a 15.36TB SSD might be the case):

StarTech.com U.2 to PCIe Adapter - x4 PCIe - For 2.5" U.2 NVMe SSD - SFF-8639 PCIe Adapter - U.2 SSD - PCIe SSD - U.2 drive (PEX4SFF8639)

"Get ultra-fast data access by adding an NVMe U.2 SSD to your computer. This U.2 to PCIe adapter lets you add a high-speed, U.2 (4-lane PCIe) 2.5"" NVMe SSD, such as the Intel 750 Series drive, to a PC with an available x4 PCI Express expansion slot. You can mount the PCIe U.2 drive directly onto...

www.amazon.com

Hope that helps.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Ok, so follow on. Yes, the system can boot off the Micron drive w00t!

Speed is decent considering I did APFS full disk encyrpiton. I get around 2200MB/s writes and 2600MB/s reads with the Black Magic Drive test. For comparison, the 256GB interanal apple SSD posts 1400MB/s writes and 2750MB/s reads.

I wish I could get 4 of these 15TB micron drives, and try and RAID them together and see if it would boot, but thats not in the cards for right now.

System is dead quiet since there are no fans on the HighPoint 7120 card.

Im really happy with this solution. I look forward to seeing if others take this further and RAID the u.2 drives. Seems to me the possibility of having 60TB of RAID'd and possibly bootable drives with no fan on the 7120 makes it a really interesting solution.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

So just as a followup, I got my HighPoint 7120 booting up off a Micron 9300 Pro 15.36TB U.2 SSD drive successfully.

Relevant posts in here:

Mac Pro support for NVMe U2 Micron 9300 Pro 15.36TB U.2 Drive SSD?

Ok so I got the drive. I got a bracket and it all seems to fit in decently tidy. Some pics: So I have the Pegasus J2i in there. Swapped the useless 8TB for a 16TB spinner. I got a 3.5" to 2.5" bracket. One note, the screws in the J2i that hold larger drives, are too big for both the 2.5"/3.5"...

forums.macrumors.com

and here:

Mac Pro support for NVMe U2 Micron 9300 Pro 15.36TB U.2 Drive SSD?

Ok, so follow on. Yes, the system can boot off the Micron drive w00t! Speed is decent considering I did APFS full disk encyrpiton. I get around 2200MB/s writes and 2600MB/s reads with the Black Magic Drive test. For comparison, the 256GB interanal apple SSD posts 1400MB/s writes and 2750MB/s...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[bxs]

Ok, so follow on. Yes, the system can boot off the Micron drive w00t!

Speed is decent considering I did APFS full disk encyrpiton. I get around 2200MB/s writes and 2600MB/s reads with the Black Magic Drive test. For comparison, the 256GB interanal apple SSD posts 1400MB/s writes and 2750MB/s reads.

I wish I could get 4 of these 15TB micron drives, and try and RAID them together and see if it would boot, but thats not in the cards for right now.

System is dead quiet since there are no fans on the HighPoint 7120 card.

Im really happy with this solution. I look forward to seeing if others take this further and RAID the u.2 drives. Seems to me the possibility of having 60TB of RAID'd and possibly bootable drives with no fan on the 7120 makes it a really interesting solution.

You did a very good job. You should be proud of yourself.... Well done. 👍

Did you have to modify the "Cable Matters..." cable ? If so what did you have to do ?

N.B. macOS will not boot up off a RAID-0 unit at this time.... and Apple may never develop this as a feature.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

You did a very good job. You should be proud of yourself.... Well done. 👍

Did you have to modify the "Cable Matters..." cable ? If so what did you have to do ?

N.B. macOS will not boot up off a RAID-0 unit at this time.... and Apple may never develop this as a feature.

Thanks! Yes, there was a slight modification here:

Suggestions for best bootable PCI NVMe card for 2019 nCMP 7,1 Mac Pro

Yep, so this seems to work decently elegantly. THe only problem is that U.2 cable has an extra little prong so it doesnt slide right onto the SATA cable provided with the J2i. You could get an adapter, but I decided to just to pry off the prong (might dremel it smooth) and it fits like a glove...

forums.macrumors.com

I ripped off the one prong clip off the U.2 cable matters SATA power cable to make it fit the J2i cable nice and flush. You likely could have also gotten an adapter to accomplish the same thing with less "dremel"

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

Ok so a big lesson learned. Im not sure if it's the drive or the PCI card, but the combo does not like to be put to sleep. If the drive goes to sleep, when you go to wake the system it hangs pretty hard.

The solution is to change the setting enable the "prevent the computer from going to sleep when the display is off" setting....and then it seems to wake and operate just fine. You do not seem to need to deselect the "Put hard disks to sleep when possible". So if I had to guess, the Highpoint 7120 PCI card is getting turned off and cannot recover gracefully?

I forgot that I had both the "dont sleep" and the "dont spin down" settings on on my cMP (dont even remember the reason why--I think my time machine drive wouldnt spin back up well if I let it sleep) but those settings seem to mess up a lot of hardware. But beware if this is an issue for you wrt to power consumption etc.

The drive seems to run warm. It runs around 131F. Not catastrophe but certainly toastier than I'd like. I found this online:

Operating Temperature: 0°C (32°F) to 70°C (158°F) SMART temperature with suggested airflow condition

Micron NVMe | Supermicro Servers Support PCI-E SSD Solutions | Supermicro

Supermicro Servers Support PCI-E SSD Solutions Intel�� NVMe HGST SSDs Micron NVMe

www.supermicro.com

So it's running within spec.

 

[tsialex]

Ok so a big lesson learned. Im not sure if it's the drive or the PCI card, but the combo does not like to be put to sleep. If the drive goes to sleep, when you go to wake the system it hangs pretty hard.

The solution is to change the setting enable the "prevent the computer from going to sleep when the display is off" setting....and then it seems to wake and operate just fine. You do not seem to need to deselect the "Put hard disks to sleep when possible". So if I had to guess, the Highpoint 7120 PCI card is getting turned off and cannot recover gracefully?

I forgot that I had both the "dont sleep" and the "dont spin down" settings on on my cMP (dont even remember the reason why--I think my time machine drive wouldnt spin back up well if I let it sleep) but those settings seem to mess up a lot of hardware. But beware if this is an issue for you wrt to power consumption etc.

The drive seems to run warm. It runs around 131F. Not catastrophe but certainly toastier than I'd like. I found this online:

Micron NVMe | Supermicro Servers Support PCI-E SSD Solutions | Supermicro

Supermicro Servers Support PCI-E SSD Solutions Intel® NVMe HGST SSDs Micron NVMe

www.supermicro.com

So it's running within spec.

I talked to you before abut how hot these U.2 drives are, maybe use that Velociraptor 2,5 to 3,5 adaptor/heatsink?

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

I talked to you before abut how hot these U.2 drives are, maybe use that Velociraptor 2,5 to 3,5 adaptor/heatsink?

thanks. I was thinking a dual mount migHt let me add other drives later and that the bracket I used was exposing the surface on not top and bottom of the drive and that maybe that would actually help cool it (probably a bad assumption).

When I attach he velociraptor heat sink, is just compact enough? I’m looking at the drive and it's temperature is now down to 120, so maybe it was due to high activity in setting the drive up. Regardless, I’ll get adapter and give it a try. Thanks again!

 

[tsialex]

thanks. I was thinking a dual mount migHt let me add other drives later and that the bracket I used was exposing the surface on not top and bottom of the drive and that maybe that would actually help cool it (probably a bad assumption).

When I attach he velociraptor heat sink, is just compact enough? I’m looking at the drive and it's temperature is now down to 120, so maybe it was due to high activity in setting the drive up. Regardless, I’ll get adapter and give it a try. Thanks again!

No, it's the size of a 3,5" drive. Won't work for you if you want to install the HDD and two U.2 drives in a Promise J2i.

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

No, it's the size of a 3,5" drive. Won't work for you if you want to install the HDD and two U.2 drives in a Promise 2Ji.

I don't need to install more than the Micron and one spinner. The problem now is I cannot seem to find the velociraptor 3.5" to 2.5" enclosure, that leaves the front open, and without the drive. That said, this refurb drive seems to come with the adapter, would it work, or would you know where one can find just the adapter?

Refurbished: Western Digital 3.5" VelociRaptor 300GB 10000rpm SATA HDD 3Gbs 16MB Cache 7 pin Internal Hard Drive for PC, WD3000GLFS - Newegg.com

Buy Refurbished: Western Digital 3.5" VelociRaptor 300GB 10000rpm SATA HDD 3Gbs 16MB Cache 7 pin Internal Hard Drive for PC, WD3000GLFS with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

 

[tsialex]

I don't need to install more than the Micron and one spinner. The problem now is I cannot seem to find the velociraptor 3.5" to 2.5" enclosure, that leaves the front open, and without the drive. That said, this refurb drive seems to come with the adapter, would it work, or would you know where one can find just the adapter?

Refurbished: Western Digital 3.5" VelociRaptor 300GB 10000rpm SATA HDD 3Gbs 16MB Cache 7 pin Internal Hard Drive for PC, WD3000GLFS - Newegg.com

Buy Refurbished: Western Digital 3.5" VelociRaptor 300GB 10000rpm SATA HDD 3Gbs 16MB Cache 7 pin Internal Hard Drive for PC, WD3000GLFS with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

Sometimes eBay have the Velociraptor heatsink/adapter, but it's a very sought after item and it's usually sold very fast when someone is selling it, I have a search for Velociraptor heatsink below $20 and I don't remember getting the ebay email lately. A Taiwanese or Chinese company made a clone of that heatsink years ago, but I don't remember the name from memory.

I'm almost certain that the Micron U.2 drive is smaller than the original Velociraptor size and will work fine, I had both on hands in the past, but you can always check the specs. It's a really good heatsink, open an eBay search and try to find one, if I remember correctly was sold for less than $15+shipping last time.

You should buy the heatsink of a Velociraptor 300GB and not the bigger versions, don't buy this one 3ME8E4PI1YLWD Western Digital Icepack 2.5" > 3.5" HD SSD Mount Caddy Sled for Apple Mac Pro.

This is the model you want, but the seller is asking a crazy price VPU0DFDH9AIWD IcePack 2.5" to 3.5" Hard Drive Tray Converter Kit w/Heatsink -SSD & 2.5" HDD, maybe this one is the same 4DUC8BYGIXFWestern Digital VelociRaptor 300 GB,Internal,10000 RPM,3.5" (WD3000GLFS) Hard...

 

[rylim]

Ok, so follow on. Yes, the system can boot off the Micron drive w00t!

Speed is decent considering I did APFS full disk encyrpiton. I get around 2200MB/s writes and 2600MB/s reads with the Black Magic Drive test. For comparison, the 256GB interanal apple SSD posts 1400MB/s writes and 2750MB/s reads.

I wish I could get 4 of these 15TB micron drives, and try and RAID them together and see if it would boot, but thats not in the cards for right now.

System is dead quiet since there are no fans on the HighPoint 7120 card.

Im really happy with this solution. I look forward to seeing if others take this further and RAID the u.2 drives. Seems to me the possibility of having 60TB of RAID'd and possibly bootable drives with no fan on the 7120 makes it a really interesting solution.

What format type your Micron drives are in right now?

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

What format type your Micron drives are in right now?

APFS Encrypted.

 

[rylim]

APFS Encrypted.

I see. I assumed you are not able to install boot camp on it?

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

I see. I assumed you are not able to install boot camp on it?

I havent tried. I usually install bootcamp on a seperate drive.

 

[bxs]

No, it's the size of a 3,5" drive. Won't work for you if you want to install the HDD and two U.2 drives in a Promise 2Ji.

J2i and not 2Ji. I know, it's easy to get it wrong as I'm always getting it wrong and have to edit my postings. 😇

 

[AidenShaw]

J2i and not 2Ji. I know, it's easy to get it wrong as I'm always getting it wrong and have to edit my postings. 😇

Filed a report asking if this can be added to the MR spell checker.