New Mac Pro (7.1)

[Oblivion777]

I'd go for 1GB. Definitely. I don't know if a separate drive is still recommended, but what I've done in my MacPro 2019 is that I've put in a OWC 4TB drive and have allocated 3GB for libraries (RAID) and 1GB for audio. It's the same drive, but AFAIK these drives actually contain 4x 1GB SSD's. The PCIe slot is more than capable of handling the data for the libraries and for audio. I ran a BlackMagic read/write test and on the 3GB I reach speeds of more than 5GB read/write and on the 1GB audio more than 2.5GB read/write.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by Oblivion777

I'd go for 1GB. Definitely. I don't know if a separate drive is still recommended, but what I've done in my MacPro 2019 is that I've put in a OWC 4TB drive and have allocated 3GB for libraries (RAID) and 1GB for audio. It's the same drive, but AFAIK these drives actually contain 4x 1GB SSD's. The PCIe slot is more than capable of handling the data for the libraries and for audio. I ran a BlackMagic read/write test and on the 3GB I reach speeds of more than 5GB read/write and on the 1GB audio more than 2.5GB read/write.

I would keep it in one APFS container to get full speed for everything. As you may or may not know, with APFS if you have 4TB physical storage you do not need to limit yourself to hard-partition it to 3+1TB but instead can create 4+4TB "volumes" that share the physical capacity of the "container". As long as the total used space fits into container all is well.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Oblivion777

I'd go for 1GB. Definitely. I don't know if a separate drive is still recommended, but what I've done in my MacPro 2019 is that I've put in a OWC 4TB drive and have allocated 3GB for libraries (RAID) and 1GB for audio. It's the same drive, but AFAIK these drives actually contain 4x 1GB SSD's. The PCIe slot is more than capable of handling the data for the libraries and for audio. I ran a BlackMagic read/write test and on the 3GB I reach speeds of more than 5GB read/write and on the 1GB audio more than 2.5GB read/write.

What exact OWC 4TB card? This one: https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/SSDACL4M204T?

The issue with that card is it's stuffing four PCIe 3 x 4 lane M.2 cards into 8 total PCIe 3 lanes. So half the raw PCIe bandwidth on paper, although you'll see a lot less than that decrease for typical use. And all this is so much faster than what most folks are used to it may not be worth worrying about.

OTOH if you really want to build the fastest possible SSD storage with four M.2 drives you need a x16 lane card. Like this one https://www.sonnettech.com/product/m...pcie-card.html. And my personal bias would be to go with Samsung M.2 SSDs. Including if you really want to squeeze most write performance and wear life then the the 970 Pro, but for most folks the 970 Evo is fine (and cheaper per GB and available in larger sizes).

These computers are great... but the new crop of PCIe 4 M.2 cards are arriving and they are fast, I've been lucky enough to play with them on some AMD servers. And the PCIe 6 standard is being worked on for 2021... isn't the technology treadmill wonderful

[LukeHoward]

Originally Posted by JFreak

I would keep it in one APFS container to get full speed for everything. As you may or may not know, with APFS if you have 4TB physical storage you do not need to limit yourself to hard-partition it to 3+1TB but instead can create 4+4TB "volumes" that share the physical capacity of the "container". As long as the total used space fits into container all is well.

Which is very cool! Clearly they got that idea from ZFS :)


You still need to use RAID to aggregate the 4x1TB drives into a disk upon which you can create the APFS container, as I understand it – the card is just a ”dumb” PCI switch from the NVMe SSDs to the PCI bus. (BTW does anyone know if the MacPro7,1 supports PCIe bifurcation?)

[LukeHoward]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

... but for most folks the 970 Evo is fine (and cheaper per GB and available in larger sizes).

Or 970 Evo Plus.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by LukeHoward

Or 970 Evo Plus.

Yes, but the Evo Plus really does not give any benefit over the Evo and folks were scared off after previous problems (which were fixed) with those drives. So I generally just don't mention them.

[Oblivion777]

This one:

OWC Accelsior 4M2

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc-accelsior-4m2

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Oblivion777

This one:

OWC Accelsior 4M2

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc-accelsior-4m2

OK great, will be stonking fast compared to SATA etc. but to restate my earlier point that is a x8 card so if you have a x16 slot in your new Mac free you are giving up some performance.

[nojubilees]

Hi all. I'm just looking at aux cables for our Mac Pro 7,1 with the AVID HDX cards. Is it absolutely necessary to go with the Belkin kit, or could we just get a standard 6pin mini to 6pin PCIe aux cable like this one https://www.moddiy.com/products/Appl...wer-Cable.html

Cheers all.

[uptheoctave]

Originally Posted by nojubilees

Hi all. I'm just looking at aux cables for our Mac Pro 7,1 with the AVID HDX cards. Is it absolutely necessary to go with the Belkin kit, or could we just get a standard 6pin mini to 6pin PCIe aux cable like this one https://www.moddiy.com/products/Appl...wer-Cable.html

Cheers all.

That looks like it will work but there is no official guidance from Avid or Apple on how to get this working.

Either try it and see (and let us know) but at your own risk, or wait until Avid come up with a recommended configuration.

I think I was one of the first people to get HDX working- mine is still going strong but not everyone has been so lucky.