Quote:
Originally Posted by musicman691
Mid 2012 5,1 MacPro with 3.46 GHz hexcore cpu. Going to add a 960 gig Samsung 850 Evo as system drive to replace the 1 TB drive currently there. I know the 850 will be way faster than the old spinner with both in their respective drive sleds. My question is: will I see any appreciable improvement in performance between that same drive in the drive sled or via an OWC Mercury Acelsior S in one of the pcie slots? I know the pcie card position will be faster but with the drive in question will it be enough to make it worthwhile to get the Acelsior card?
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I purchased two Samsung 850 Pro SSDs (512GB each) to put into two Mac Pro towers. I installed one on a drive sled in a 2010 2.66 GHz 12-core and the other in a 2009 5,1 firmware 3.47 GHz hex-core on an OWC Accelsior PCIe card.
I posted some results in an earlier thread titled "Latest thoughts on 500 GB SSD for Mac Pro."
2009 Mac Pro 6-core 3.47 (4,1 flashed to 5,1):
Seagate Constellation 1TB spinner: Write 169.4, read 153.3
Hitachi 1TB spinner: Write 128.1, 132 read
Vertex 4 128 GB SATA III 6Gbs (in a SATA II drive bay): Write 258.2, read 262.1
Samsung 850 Pro 512 GB in a PCIe slot (in an OWC Accelsior adapter): Write 501.6, read 516.4
2010 Mac Pro 12-core 2.66 (stock 5,1):
Seagate "Hybrid" spinner 2TB 7200 rpm (larger than normal cache, see below*): Write 180, read 208
Western Digital "Black" 1TB 7200 rpm: Write 171.9, read 173.7
Apple SSD 512GB (original boot drive) Write 155.4, read 217.2
Samsung 850 Pro 512 GB (in a SATA II drive bay) Write 257.1, read 270.0
The Accelsior PCIe card is pretty much twice as fast. It is a combination of both the PCIe bus and the fact the Accelsior enables SATA III.
Still slow compared to the MBP on-board drives:
Early 2015 MacBook Pro i5 dual core 2.7 GHz has PCIe 2.0 4-lane technology: Write: 1,359, read 1,381.7. The late 2013 and mid 2014 MBPs shipped as PCIe 2.0 2-lane, but will recognize a PCIe 2.0 4-lane from a black cylinder Mac if swapped out (per everymac.com).
The Accelsior setup outperforms these external drives connected by either TB2 or USB3 to the MBP:
external drives on the MBP:
Seagate BU+ 4TB connected to USB 3.0 (spinner): Write 143.5, read 158.0
G-Technology G-Raid Studio 6TB connected to Thunderbolt: (2) 7200 spinners configured in RAID "0" Write 287.7, read 291.9
G-Technology G-Drive SSD ev512 GB connected to USB 3.0: Write 404.6, read 417.4
Tests were with the Blackmagic Design drive test.
The 2016 and 2017 MBPs have PCIe 3.0 and are even faster (have one on the way).
Even with the SATA II sled, you will get performance almost equal to a 7200 rpm RAID 0 TB2 external drive setup.