Fanless thunderbolt enclosure?

[uptheoctave]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Thank you for caring

Can we cuddle now?

[685]

The new Mac Pro should be great by having everything inside one unit.

I'm running a Sonnet Echo Desktop 3 with my Mac Studio and it sits under/behind the desktop. The Mac Studio sits on top the desktop just under the screen and I personally don't have any issues with noise. My monitors actually hiss louder than any noise coming from the computer. And the word "louder" is probably not the best description.
I moved my Samsung 870 and 840 Evo SSDs directly from my old Mac Pro(Mojave) and into the Sonnet chassis via the Sonnet Fusion Dual 2.5 card. They are used for sample/sound libraries. I have a 970 Evo Plus on a PCIe to M.2 adapter card for audio sessions. My backup drive is a separate external WD drive. Another engineer and I were discussing the Sonnet M.2 4x4 card a few days ago. He's running mostly OWC units.

I started to sell off my old Mac Pro and luckily I didn't have time to do so. I got mix revision requests for 2 old sessions and a few of the plugins were not available for the Mac Studio(Monterey). I was able to open those sessions on the old Mac Pro and screenshot the plugin settings. That situation also made me think about using my Macbookpro as a backup if the Mac Studio went down for any reason. One cable connects the Sonnet chassis. I also have a TB hub still in the box that I haven't used.

[rosindabow]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

\
Even with the super-good cooling in the Mac Pro I'd still go with M.2 SSDs with heatsinks on them (get the Samsung versions that come with heatsinks). \

I am still awaiting delivery on my Mac Pro but the other components are getting here. For the moments, I purchased 4 Samsung 990 Pro with the heatsink and 4 OWC Accelsior 1M2 cards. The 1M2 comes with a heatsink as well and I cannot install both the heatsink that comes with the 1M2 card and the heatsink on the 990. WHich would you recommend that I keep Thanks.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by rosindabow

I am still awaiting delivery on my Mac Pro but the other components are getting here. For the moments, I purchased 4 Samsung 990 Pro with the heatsink and 4 OWC Accelsior 1M2 cards. The 1M2 comes with a heatsink as well and I cannot install both the heatsink that comes with the 1M2 card and the heatsink on the 990. Which would you recommend that I keep Thanks.

Just use the heat sink on on the 990 Pro, that way you are not having to lever them off and not risking causing hassles if there ever was a warranty return. I'm pretty sure 1M2 instructions make it clear you can just use the M.2 card heatsinks if they have them. Read all the documentation/instructions.

The first thing I would do is run those SSDs up in your current Intel Mac Pro and check their firmware versions (under System Report/System Info for that SSD), and if necessary go through the PITA process of updating that firmware using the Intel Mac Pro to do that. Work with one M.2 card / slot adapter at a time. Check it's detected OK, check it's firmware and maybe run a short Blackmagic I/O test to confirm it's just working. (unless you also have a Intel PC and can do it even more easily through the Samsung Magician Software that only runs on Windows). See the instructions on the Samsung 990 Pro support web site. https://semiconductor.samsung.com/co.../support/tools.

The one firmware update available today for the 990 Pro is not critical AFAIK (but don't rely on that), the update avoids drives locking up in the Samsung Magician Software but you should that this chance to see how you update the firmware and confirm you can on any drive that needs it... if the update fails return that drive under warranty.

It is not uncommon for SSD drives from all the leading manufactures to at some time have discovered (potentially serious) firmware issues that need to be solved by updating firmware. Hopefully Samsung will provide a solution to allow updates natively on Apple silicon in future. They are not alone here, this is an issue with multiple vendors.

Never assume a new SSD has recent firmware, treat every SSD you buy as if it will likely need a firmware upgrade. And I'm paranoid with components like SSD and potential supply chain or grey market issues -- I'd only buy direct from Amazon or a similar reseller. I'd return anything that looked like open packaging or that had wear life stats that show it had been used (more on the web about how to get a those).

[rosindabow]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Just use the heat sink on on the 990 Pro, that way you are not having to lever them off and not risking causing

So, I have 4 OWC cards with four 2TB Samsung 990 Pro NVMEs. They clock at 6500+ MB/s. Amazing!!!
I have put all my sample libraries on these and I still ran short of room. My Spitfire sample libraries alone take up almost 2TB.

So, for the moment, I have at least gotten things going. My next question is when that Sonnet comes out, can I take one card and install that into the x16 slots? And if so, how many nvmes do you think it can handle and how large can I go?
Btw, it's taking me days to consolidate and transfer all my files. But it needed to be done.
And one other thing, what do you think about an external thunderbolt case with a large NVME in that? For instance: https://glyphtech.com/products/atom-...39293454352458 It is quite expensive for the 8TB but it is said to run at 2800 MB/s which is way fast enough. Or this one: https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3TBV4T08/ Both are costly options ... thoughts on these?

Thanks again!

[A1]

Originally Posted by rosindabow

So, I have 4 OWC cards with four 2TB Samsung 990 Pro NVMEs. They clock at 6500+ MB/s. Amazing!!!
I have put all my sample libraries on these and I still ran short of room. My Spitfire sample libraries alone take up almost 2TB.

So, for the moment, I have at least gotten things going. My next question is when that Sonnet comes out, can I take one card and install that into the x16 slots? And if so, how many nvmes do you think it can handle and how large can I go?
Btw, it's taking me days to consolidate and transfer all my files. But it needed to be done.
And one other thing, what do you think about an external thunderbolt case with a large NVME in that? For instance: https://glyphtech.com/products/atom-...39293454352458 It is quite expensive for the 8TB but it is said to run at 2800 MB/s which is way fast enough. Or this one: https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3TBV4T08/ Both are costly options ... thoughts on these?

Thanks again!

Congrats on the new MacPro 2023 switch. Smart move as you don’t have to deal with slow external TB devices, dongles and the headache of trying to make everything work. Honestly, well worth the extra few thousand dollars.

Regarding TB storage solutions for your sample library:
Why not just get one of the new 8TB NVNe drives and pop it onto one of your OWC PCIe adapters and have it internally?
I honestly think it defeats the purpose of having the new MacPro and still dealing with TB devices for your sample libraries.
However, still use your Samsungs as your daily work drives.

I know Darryl is not a fan of some of these newer high capacity NVMe drives but honestly I don’t think they will be problematic for sample and sound libraries only (as long as you have backups saved onto cheaper external drives).
Faster load times without the TB bottleneck and external devices to deal with.

Sabrent 8TB Rocket 4 PLUS NVMe PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 Internal SSD
OWC 8TB Aura Ultra IV PCIe 4.0 M.2 Internal SSD

As a side note, I’m not a fan of buying drives from Amazon. Stores like B&H usually have similar prices, customer service backup and a good return policy.

[JFreak]

I for one welcome higher capacity SSD blades. Finally!

Only problem, bus powered fanless enclosures are not as fast as needed, so for max performance you still need internal PCIe card and it is much cheaper to run 4x2TB than 1x8TB.

I have 8TB SSD as a storage drive, but Darryl has a point in performance.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by rosindabow

And one other thing, what do you think about an external thunderbolt case with a large NVME in that? For instance: https://glyphtech.com/products/atom-...39293454352458 It is quite expensive for the 8TB but it is said to run at 2800 MB/s which is way fast enough. Or this one: https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3TBV4T08/ Both are costly options ... thoughts on these?

Huh? You've spent ~$10k to get a capable Mac Pro that supports multiple x 4 lane x PCIe 4 M.2 cards, why would you hook up slow Thunderbolt 3 drive (i.e. 4 lane x PCIe 3 total for the whole drive)? The main market for those Atom drives is all portable media use, and Glyph knows that, just look at their marketing.

Get the new Sonnet card and try it out. I expect it would scale well, but try it at half capacity (i.e. full bandwidth use... which I doubt you'll be able to push it to). And put it on the least used side of the PCIe slot configuration in the Mac Pro. You are the pioneer here, nobody else knows more. So be willing to try stuff out carefully, keep measuring stuff etc.

[rosindabow]

Okay - I'm waiting on the Sonnett. They said July 28. I do have the other PCIe slots filled with those 4 NVMe Samsungs that are amazing. I'm hoping that I will be able to stick the Sonnett into the 16x16 slot and put a couple of large NVMe drives in it.
I'll keep you posted.
Thanks.

[danyg]

I just did this for a single ext 4T drive:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV9EDKc5zpk

It works as expected. (my screenshot)