McFiver now 100 dollars less on Amazon. amzn.to/3G2iJp3 also the issue with the Ethernet port has been fixed in OpenCore check out his video th-cam.com/video/9iIJo-izBFQ/w-d-xo.html
Can it boot Windows or Linux yet? Also did they ever give you a reason that it cannot boot windows or Linux? I am just surprised that if it can boot open-core and can boot macOS that it cant boot Linux at minimum. I would be curious to know if there is any update to that problem?
@@wyattvanloon6094 I have seen one person that had Mac OS and Windows installed on it wihtout issue, not sure why they say it doesn't support it. It could be the mac pro 7,1 sees pcie drives as external not internal but not sure about that. I will try installing windows 11 on my 7,1 on the McFiver to see if is doable sometime soon because I have windows 11 on the internal sata bay on a SSD, would rather have it on a NVMe.
Very cool, I saw this in the store and tried to see if sonnet would hand out review units (I didn’t care if I got to keep it) but never heard back. Glad someone got it and finally reviewed it.
I called them and they gave me a discount, 60 bucks off. Still an expensive card seeing you don't get the 10GbE to use in a 5,1 but that being said I only have Gigabit Fios and no 10GbE router etc. I wonder if the opencore folks could get the 10GbE to work in Monterey as it works in Windows 11.
@@MacSoundSolutionsvery cool and good of them to do that. Not surprising that the performance is on par with the apple silicon. The I/O on them seems kinda ho-hum from my experience. If sonnet really was smart they’d donate one to the OCLP guys as it’d be the ultimate final upgrade as a Mac Pro could retire as a server with its 6 SATA ports and 10 gig enet.
2:35 I do this with my boot card as my 580 cant rest properly on the first 16x slot. I have a sonnet usb c card, so i might look into this. Good vid as always!
i love this card. i can't believe i have 10Gb ethernet in a 15 year old machine. Wish apple supported RAID for a boot drive, but that's a tiny nitpick that isn't sonnet's fault. Every 5,1 owner needs this!
I just keeping coming for how you talk: like you are my friend and sharing some exclusive content or ... like wifey is sleeping and you dare not to wake her up 😁 great content again thanks a lot
I currently dual boot Catalina and Ventura using OpenCore because the USB 3.0 hub I use for my keyboard, mouse and iLok gets around the USB bug with 5,1 systems in Ventura. I could keep my current Predator PCIe card as the Catalina boot drive and put Ventura on a lower end NVMe with 3500Mb/s speeds like a Western Digital one I've seen that's only £89 for a 2TB. When I move to Apple silicon I can get an inexpensive single slot 8x PCIe 3.0 expansion like the OWC Helios, get around 2,700Mb/s read/write out of the NVMe in either case and still have a spare slot on the card for a second NVMe at a later date. However, the card is £368 and I could get a Lycom DT-130 for my AHCI card for £124, use the other NVMe/AHCI slot on that for the £89 WD NVMe, buy a Sonnet Allegro 4xUSB-C PCIe for £179 and still end up using the same number of PCIe slots in my Mac Pro for little more than just the card alone. If I ditch the whole USB-C idea, it's even cheaper.
That is a nice card ! Hope the 10Gbps can be fixed. Currently, I don’t think I would really need it. The x2 perf improvement on the ssd is nice, but 1.5gbps was already fine for me. Same for the usb speeds. But that do solve the problem of not having enough PCI slots . I was wondering what is the impact on the GPU to be on a 4x slot? On work-related applications does it matters ?
Mine is in the second 16x slots but the GPU in a 4x slot will drop the performance but for regular web surfing and office type work it would most likely be fine.
hey on pc cards run fine at x8 than the x16 stated requires . no notable difference on vega 64 cards . using windows pci express iii on i9 problem with i9 is it cant run all its slots hackmac anyway..
no not really, I use the NVMe for video editing mostly, audio works fine off external drives or internal sata SSD which only gets 250MBs read and write. I don't do sessions with tons of tracks. I guess if you use a lot of samples, loops etc then the NVMe speed would be helpful. The McFiver is pricey and you can just put a 20 dollar Nvmes card in the mac pro pcie slot 3 or 4 and get 1500MBs read write. I do like the USB C ports and the fact it only takes up one slot to do three jobs. I may build a NAS down the road for video editing so the 10GbE comes in handy for that.
Thanks, great video!! The McFiver is sold out because of Mac Gyver. Actually I am using a Lycom DT-130 Dual PCIe card in the 2nd slot, 2500 MB/s write and 2800 MB/s read. May be I should switch it to the 1st slot...?
hey lance! i´ve a little solution to free up one pcie slot. when I did the airport/bt update on my 5,1 I just widen a hole of the cheesgrater in the lower bottom corner, while the cage of the cpu tray was out anyway. so I could put my bt antenna there and do some macgyver ducktape action to permanentky fix the bt cable to the bottom. Opens one Pcie slot and also no more mangling around with the cable over the gpu. If your looking for a solution to boot win 11 from an nvme: I mentioned to you in your installing Win 11 video, that I´ve a Highpoint SSD7101A 4x M2. RAID, which (to my surprise back then) can dual boot win 11. nvme speed with the highpoint is similar to the Sonnet, but its a pretty long card, why I put it into slot 3 to avoid heat problems right over the gpu. cheers!
My antenna is not the issue, its the graphics card in either the 16x slot 1 or stot 2 goes over the next slot, I could go with the slower speeds and put the McFiver back in slot 3 or 4 but that would defeat it's purpose. My Windows 11 install is on a SSD in bay 2 and it's so darn perky and I only use it for occasional games. I like the way the cards are now as they have space to breath. I don't really need more slots at the moment anyway, might sell my Titan Ridge to help pay for the McFiver.
I know you have since changed your configuration, but have your ever considered moving the GPU to slot 2 so that it opens up the other x16 slot? If you are going to eat into the space of another PCI slot shouldn't it be a x4?
I wonder if Opencore Legacy Patcher may inject the right stuff to make the Ethernet to work on tat card pretty much a deal breaker that it doesn't ... Doug Law just did a swap of Martin's Config opencore for the Macpro .. I'll need to try it myself one of these days
It’s an issue with the Mac Pro 5,1 it works with newer macs, I doubt it will get fixed and don’t think OCLP will change anything as far as the McFiver goes.
I’m not holding my breath, although it would sure be nice. In the mean time I will run the McFiver for NVME boot + USB 3, and a Sonnet Twin 10GbE for my home network. If the McFiver 10GbE ever DOES work on the 5,1 it will just be bonus and I can throw another card in there.
@@MacSoundSolutions I have an Asus 10GbE router and QNAP 10GbE switch. I also use a Mac Studio M1 Ultra day to day, so I want that network speed if I'm mounting volumes between the Studio and the 5,1. I also have Fios 2Gbit Internet. So if I don't have 10GbE on the Mac Pro 5,1 it really defeats the purpose of keeping it around. And I'm still committed to justifying it's existence in my workflow. It's one of the reasons I've also stayed on Big Sur. I don't want to deal with the risk of Monterey breaking 10GbE altogether beyond 12.2.1.
Maybe opencore can get the 10gig ethernet card to work oneday. even for older macs new is good if u know u are going to upgrade the "mothership" being MacPro5,1 to a 7,1 or if u decide to use a windows or maybe the External Pcie case ]. i did notice some speed difference with a mid ethernet to usb 3.1 adapter by anker 2.5gig. But still amazing that u can get a 4Slot Nvme adapter for the 5,1 ill defo look into it even if i get an 7,1 one day or another computer like Windows.
The one thing you mentioned here, that I haven't played with yet, is using the NVME in slot 1. I've got my RX580 in slot 1. If I did this swap, to get my NVME faster than 1500, would it slow down my GPU? Have you done any testing? right now, I can run everything at full ultra, and no lag.
Yes slot 1 and 2 are both 16x slots my McFiver gets 2800 read write, my rx6800xt the same in slot 1 or 2 so it’s in slot 2. If you use opencore and Monterey the 10GbE works whatch my second video on this.
@@fleonard4 your using a Mac Pro 5,1? Sometimes a PRAM reset is needed for new hardware or if you moved the card from a slower slot to a faster. If you’re running open core doing a pram reset can ubless the opencore install. Maybe it’s the NVMe you’re using. It won’t hurt to switch it into slot 1 and see what happens without doing the pram reset.
@@MacSoundSolutions that's good to know I have been looking at that card and wasn't sure if it was still viable glad to see it's working (sans ethernet) on a 5,1 are you using the x16 or x4 lane? I'm wondering if my video card will be in the way....
@@MacSoundSolutions yes I watched it I saw you moved stuff around just wasn't sure if the card was a loaner for review but since you are still using it wasn't sure if the video card heat was an issue and it had to be moved to a different slot.... love your video's keep it up!
@@jhillestad I have the McFiver in slot 1 to get the best speeds around 2700 read write with single NVMe, I have GPU in slot 2 and I squeezed in a small usb 3 card in slot 4.
ج I own a Mac Pro 5.1 and did openCore legacy 0.5.3 and added titan ridge. But when I connect Apollo twin, I don't have the keyboard and the mouse doesn't work with Bluetooth.
You mean bluetooth stops working when the Titan ridge is installed? I upgraded my BT Wi-Fi card and use Martin Lo’s Opencore package works great. My Titan ridge does work but I don’t like the whole boot reboot to get thunderbolt working so I took it out. My interface is a Midas M32r, USB 2 but no latency when monitoring input off the board.
@@MacSoundSolutions Yes, that's what I mean٠٠٠٠Using Titan Ridge Apollo using Universal Audio And it's FireWire...and I added a Thunderbolt2 card so I can run it on a mac pro 5.1 because the computer doesn't recognize FireWire. i don't know why. Did you face this problem sir? Does FireWire work on your OpenCore
Do you achieve approximately same speeds with either one of the NVMes? I use 970 EvoPlus in both slots (not RAIDed). One achieves similar results as you showed. The other one just approximately 650MB/s. Measured with Black Magic Speed Test.
yes get the same speeds on both, not raided, second one gets 2600 write and 2823 read as first I picked the wrong ssd as it has a similar name and only got sata 2 speeds, then I realized I picked the wrong drive.
HI not sure i follow, your first test speed giving 1500 megs .. was it because you plug into a pcie-2.0 x4 slot ? or into a Pci-e 3.0 4x slot ?? thanks for precision.
Saw your reply to a video of Morgonaut asking about the 10Gbe network of the McFiver and she was so rude to you and the others that also asked her about it. What a b**ch honestly. You were so professional in the way you asked the question and she was defensive and all of the place. She even replied to the other dude like "not my problem", and called another user stupid. No wonder her channel hasn't grown at all over the past years. Doesn't know how to speak to people. Anyway, I hope you and the community find a way to get the 10 Gbe network working. More power to you and your channel! :)
Yes she is very defensive and her disclaimer is under all her sponsored links, why doesn’t she just say it” I couldn’t get the Ethernet working, instead she says “I don’t have time” I’m not a millionaire etc really silly, she put 16 terabytes in the card has a Mac Pro 7,1 not cheap stuff. She is just trying to get people to buy the MacFiver so she makes some cash from her links. Not helpful to the Mac Pro 5,1 community to not be upfront about it, it’s not a cheap card.
If you turn on file sharing and have auto login turned off it should boot without the graphics card and be able to use it as a server. But it might depend on the OS installed, I have seen a few people use their old MP 1.0 as a file server without a GPU
I think I will update at some time in the future. @Lance: At the moment, do you have any idea why my Mac Pro only finds one NVME on my PCIE card? It is an ASUS Hyper M,2 X16. I remember that this issue was reported in a video I watched about these Mac Pro upgrades but can't remember which video it was and can't find it anymore.
So I couldn't do the Rufus Windows 11 install to the second NVME drive on the MCFiver and boot Windows natively via the boot picker that OpenCore offers?
No Sonnet says the card can’t boot Windows not sure why, even with a Mac Pro 7,1 they say it’s not supported be worth a try though if you have one installed already.
@@MacSoundSolutions yeah I'm going to give it a try this weekend with a 2nd nvme on the McFiver card and see if it will work with the OpenCore boot drive selection. If that doesn't work, I'll just throw the SSD in an OWC card I have and deal with a x4 slot for Windows. I'll update here with my results.
@@MacSoundSolutions It works and can boot Windows 11 from the boot selector! The trick was to remove all of the drives except my SATA2 SSD in bay 1 that hosts my OpenCore EFI loader. Then I threw the NVME I was installing Windows 11 on into the McFiver all by itself. After I got Windows 11 Pro installed, I was able to reinstall my 2 spinning hard drives and my Monterey NVME drive back to the McFiver. I ended up not using Rufus, but just did a registry bypass of the TPM and Secure Boot. Thanks for the tip on the McFiver--what a great card!
Do you have a NVMe installed? If so you may need to do a pram reset if the card is not showing up, check in the system profiler under pcie. Also what version of Mac OS are you using? But once a drive is installed it should show up in disk utility.
Hi Abdullah, I don’t use OCLP I use Martin Lo’s Opencore package specifically put together for the 5,1 Mac Pro. I have no idea how the Titan ridge works with OCLP but as far as Bluetooth and wifi go did you install the post patches after install.
Hello sir thank you for replying….. I have no idea about post corrections… but I’ll change to Martin lo I have almost the same parts as you…. If possible sir can I know where to find an explanation Martin Lo’s
@@abdullahalmamri2987 Search Martin Lo here on TH-cam he has videos, I also show you in my video on the Titan ridge how to edit the config.plist Martins files can be found in the Mac rumors forum I also have links to them in my video description in my updating opencore video his latest version is 0.8.8 you should go with that one.
your showing ruffly 2700 mp/s with a 970 via thunderbolt chassis, is that one 970 on the mafiver or are the two 970s in raid on the card ? so can you get the speeds with one ssd or do you need to have two installed on the mc fiver card
There is only 1 NVME installed on the McFiver with Mac OS on it you cant boot Mac OS off a raide 0 anymore. You get almost 3000 mbs if The McFiver is in 16x slot 1 or 2.
@@MacSoundSolutions I am on a Mac Studio m1 looking to get the sonnet echo iii chassis with sonnet 2x4 nvme pci card. Looking to get around 2800 via thunderbolt with one nvme drive in the pci card. If that’s possible?
It says it is on Sonnet's site, the only issue could be the Ethernet port. As long as you are using the current OCLP it should work. I am not able to test it myself as I am on Monterey 12.7.1 and don't use OCLP
@@MacSoundSolutions Allright, thank you for the information. I will definitely purchase this and especially for the addition of 10 g with fast USB-C port. That saves a lot of space in the Mac pro
Hello sorry if I bother you, I would like to upgrade only the network card of my macpro 5.1, do you think this is compatible Sonnet Solo10G Network adapter PCIe 3.0 x4 low profile 10Gb Ethernet G10E-1X-E3 thanks for your attention Tiziano
The one thing I hate with the m1 and me me Macs is... If your non upgradeable internal ssd ever fails, you will not be able to boot from an external drives either. Meaning your $$ computer is BRICKED!!! I have heard this from multiple sources, can someone confirm ?
M1-based Mac relies on its internal SSD to allow external drives to boot. If the internal SSD has failed or been entirely erased-it contains several hidden volumes-you can no longer boot from an otherwise valid volume on an external drive.
@@MacSoundSolutions I must ask why would apple do such thing for expensive machines. If they do sell a dozen me mac pro to a company for $$$ and then a couple years later the main internal ssd fails all that money its gone bye bye. I am sure all of the great engineers can fix that but i am starting to think that's exactly what they wanted from the start. Even ssds can fail although quite rare its still no reason to lock out external drives especially when the internal one can not be replaced. This should give anyone considering a $2000 or higher mac great pause if they plan on keeping it past wArranty.
@@MacSoundSolutions it's so weird.. this card could be the last game changer for so many users, who are still working on MP 5,1's. The card is working on Monterey, but without 10GBe, it doesn't make sense.
@@clemensfischer FROM SONNET TECH SUPPORT Regrettably, the McFiver PCIe card is not compatible for use on the Mac Pro 5,1. See our tech specs here. We have seen that the USB and M.2 items can work, but the Ethernet will not consistently function within a Mac Pro 5,1. Also, when using third-party boot loaders like OpenCore, be aware that while these may allow you to load more recent operating systems like macOS Monterrey, they may not change the firmware of the Mac Pro, which is officially limited by Apple. Apple only supports up to macOS 10.14.6 on the Mac Pro 5,1 with a Metal capable graphics card. For 10GbE capability with your Mac Pro 5,1, we would instead recommend our Solo10G, or our Presto 10GbE PCIe cards here. The Solo10G card are plug-and-play compatible on macOS 10.13.6 and above, and the Presto cards are compatible from macOS 10.8.5 and above with driver installation. Let us know if any of this helps to clarify. Thank you for your time.
@@MacSoundSolutions weird, isn't it? Solo10G is working (in my case I have 2 MP 5,1 running Big Sur with the Solo10G) but they did not manage to get the McFiver GBe ports working.
I know you can't BOOT to Windows with the card, but do the USB-C ports work in Windows? They do on my Allegro USB-C 4-Port PCIe Card, but I was thinking of getting rid of that and my Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe Card in favor of this single McFiver card to free up some room. BTW, little tip: I was able to keep a 2.5 wide AMD RX 6900 XT in my first slot and put the Sonnet card in the second slot... I got a short "Riser card" for the Video Card to push it out away from the mother board, and a Riser ribbon for the sonnet drive. This gives you enough room to bend the slot 2 riser cable around the video card in slot 1 and locate the Sonnet M.2 elsewhere in the case. I just stand the sonnet card upright in the case near the door next to the end of the video card, LOL.
@@Kevin_MK7RSR yes the ports work in windows. How is the 6900XT performance and which one do you have? I was able to fit a USB 3 card is slot 4 next to the 6800xt which is good for low power usb 3 things like card readers which gives me 4 ports. I have seen some folks for using risers, thanks for posting.
@@MacSoundSolutions Good to know, thanks! 👍🏻 The AMD RX 6900 XT (Reference card) performs great in both Mac and Windows 11! I’m getting really high FPS for gaming. I had to get a Razer Core X to put the card in and flash it to work in Monterey using a windows laptop that had Thunderbolt 3 (You may have done a video on that? 😂)
What’s cool is I’m able to use all 4 ports the way I have it set up ❤️. The McFiver card seems like a more elegant solution that would free up air flow though. But I don’t think it will work after all with the 2.5 card because I would need to store it internally like my Sonnet M.2, so you couldn’t get to the plugs in the back if the card 😕
Did a quick video overview. The Sonnet card fits upright just under the blue drive trays which allows me to close it up with the side panel : th-cam.com/users/shortsmoYCNG9LGuI?feature=share
They really should have waited for the correct chips. Makes this card completely worthless for the 5,1, which is funny, since it's even named that way on the silkscreen.
this damn card is 300 dolars who can buy it for 100 dolars of mac huh i got 3 mac pro 5.1 for 100 dolars and you expect me to pay 300 for this card no way
Damn dude ...no one is forcing you to buy it? I agree it is pricey. Some folks need the card slots for other cards for whatever work they do, this 3 in one opens up PCIe slots, just depends on your workflow and ones needs. Most folks don't need 10GbE so this card def wont make sense for them. Great deal getting three 5,1 for 100 bucks though.
@@MacSoundSolutions its not prizy its over prized dude and yes noone is forcing me to buy it but can you imagine this im writing you from turkey minimum god damn wage is 300 dolars here ok give me 300 dolars i will give you 2 mac pro 5.1 one is single other is dual cpu with 32 gb ram and 500 ssd 10k turkish lira i will give both ah sory this card is 11k in my counrtey so thats why im angry cus card is good but wtf dude pc itself is 300
@@hesapyildirim yes I hear you, I got mine for $240 discounted from Sonnet for making a video on it. It will be usable for a long time when I upgrade to a new computer. But no need to as my 5,1 is running great. I also put a rx6800xt in mine which is worth about five Mac pros 😂 at todays price.
@@MacSoundSolutions i had mine for 100 dolars for 3 of it and i have watched your videosu and i upgradeed mine 3 of it and solved their problems and for you information im blind my vision is zero i have done those operations without seeing it my wife done some of them i helped but damn this card is more expensive than my vega 56 one of my mac was perfect with vega 56 64 ram 500 nvme ssd 4 tb disk but my country is expensive dude i sold that for 12000 tl and 100 dolar is 2700 tl damn this country
McFiver now 100 dollars less on Amazon. amzn.to/3G2iJp3 also the issue with the Ethernet port has been fixed in OpenCore check out his video th-cam.com/video/9iIJo-izBFQ/w-d-xo.html
Are you able to pin this comment - it should be up the top.
Can it boot Windows or Linux yet? Also did they ever give you a reason that it cannot boot windows or Linux? I am just surprised that if it can boot open-core and can boot macOS that it cant boot Linux at minimum. I would be curious to know if there is any update to that problem?
@@wyattvanloon6094 I have seen one person that had Mac OS and Windows installed on it wihtout issue, not sure why they say it doesn't support it. It could be the mac pro 7,1 sees pcie drives as external not internal but not sure about that. I will try installing windows 11 on my 7,1 on the McFiver to see if is doable sometime soon because I have windows 11 on the internal sata bay on a SSD, would rather have it on a NVMe.
I was really excited at first and then...reality set in. Great info. Thanks
There is a fix! check out my latest video Sonnet McFiver 10GbE FIXED!
th-cam.com/video/9iIJo-izBFQ/w-d-xo.html
@@MacSoundSolutions Thanks! Great news
Very cool, I saw this in the store and tried to see if sonnet would hand out review units (I didn’t care if I got to keep it) but never heard back. Glad someone got it and finally reviewed it.
I called them and they gave me a discount, 60 bucks off. Still an expensive card seeing you don't get the 10GbE to use in a 5,1 but that being said I only have Gigabit Fios and no 10GbE router etc. I wonder if the opencore folks could get the 10GbE to work in Monterey as it works in Windows 11.
@@MacSoundSolutionsvery cool and good of them to do that. Not surprising that the performance is on par with the apple silicon. The I/O on them seems kinda ho-hum from my experience.
If sonnet really was smart they’d donate one to the OCLP guys as it’d be the ultimate final upgrade as a Mac Pro could retire as a server with its 6 SATA ports and 10 gig enet.
Any update if the OCLP has fixed the 10gbe port issue or are they or anybody else is currently working on fixing the issue?
@@d.harris790I was wondering the same thing
2:35
I do this with my boot card as my 580 cant rest properly on the first 16x slot. I have a sonnet usb c card, so i might look into this. Good vid as always!
Absolutely loved this video, cheers
i love this card. i can't believe i have 10Gb ethernet in a 15 year old machine. Wish apple supported RAID for a boot drive, but that's a tiny nitpick that isn't sonnet's fault. Every 5,1 owner needs this!
Ah MacGyver... It was so cool.
I just keeping coming for how you talk: like you are my friend and sharing some exclusive content or ... like wifey is sleeping and you dare not to wake her up 😁 great content again thanks a lot
Me video posting later today lots of me talking 😂
I currently dual boot Catalina and Ventura using OpenCore because the USB 3.0 hub I use for my keyboard, mouse and iLok gets around the USB bug with 5,1 systems in Ventura. I could keep my current Predator PCIe card as the Catalina boot drive and put Ventura on a lower end NVMe with 3500Mb/s speeds like a Western Digital one I've seen that's only £89 for a 2TB. When I move to Apple silicon I can get an inexpensive single slot 8x PCIe 3.0 expansion like the OWC Helios, get around 2,700Mb/s read/write out of the NVMe in either case and still have a spare slot on the card for a second NVMe at a later date. However, the card is £368 and I could get a Lycom DT-130 for my AHCI card for £124, use the other NVMe/AHCI slot on that for the £89 WD NVMe, buy a Sonnet Allegro 4xUSB-C PCIe for £179 and still end up using the same number of PCIe slots in my Mac Pro for little more than just the card alone. If I ditch the whole USB-C idea, it's even cheaper.
Thanks for the cool review. I thought this card was working in a 5.1 but without the ethernet, its useless. Thanks
That is a nice card ! Hope the 10Gbps can be fixed. Currently, I don’t think I would really need it. The x2 perf improvement on the ssd is nice, but 1.5gbps was already fine for me. Same for the usb speeds. But that do solve the problem of not having enough PCI slots .
I was wondering what is the impact on the GPU to be on a 4x slot? On work-related applications does it matters ?
Mine is in the second 16x slots but the GPU in a 4x slot will drop the performance but for regular web surfing and office type work it would most likely be fine.
hey on pc cards run fine at x8 than the x16 stated requires . no notable difference on vega 64 cards . using windows pci express iii on i9 problem with i9 is it cant run all its slots hackmac anyway..
@@acidtechno Yeah, but the MacPro has PCIe gen 2, so it is like being on 4x
@@pierrelebreton7634 yup , but its not as bad in practice esp 300£ + gpu , vs £5000 for a macpro 7,1
Mac Sound you should buy this product, I use it on both of my Mac Pro 5,1. I wondering do you use both Ethernet ports on Mac Pro 5,1
What product?
hi lance like your vids did you find using the macfiver gave you a big improvement in speed in protools with sessions and plugins with a NVME!
no not really, I use the NVMe for video editing mostly, audio works fine off external drives or internal sata SSD which only gets 250MBs read and write. I don't do sessions with tons of tracks. I guess if you use a lot of samples, loops etc then the NVMe speed would be helpful. The McFiver is pricey and you can just put a 20 dollar Nvmes card in the mac pro pcie slot 3 or 4 and get 1500MBs read write. I do like the USB C ports and the fact it only takes up one slot to do three jobs. I may build a NAS down the road for video editing so the 10GbE comes in handy for that.
Thanks, great video!! The McFiver is sold out because of Mac Gyver. Actually I am using a Lycom DT-130 Dual PCIe card in the 2nd slot, 2500 MB/s write and 2800 MB/s read. May be I should switch it to the 1st slot...?
That won’t change the speeds your getting slots 1 and 2 are 16x both are the same.
hey lance! i´ve a little solution to free up one pcie slot. when I did the airport/bt update on my 5,1 I just widen a hole of the cheesgrater in the lower bottom corner, while the cage of the cpu tray was out anyway. so I could put my bt antenna there and do some macgyver ducktape action to permanentky fix the bt cable to the bottom. Opens one Pcie slot and also no more mangling around with the cable over the gpu.
If your looking for a solution to boot win 11 from an nvme: I mentioned to you in your installing Win 11 video, that I´ve a Highpoint SSD7101A 4x M2. RAID, which (to my surprise back then) can dual boot win 11. nvme speed with the highpoint is similar to the Sonnet, but its a pretty long card, why I put it into slot 3 to avoid heat problems right over the gpu.
cheers!
My antenna is not the issue, its the graphics card in either the 16x slot 1 or stot 2 goes over the next slot, I could go with the slower speeds and put the McFiver back in slot 3 or 4 but that would defeat it's purpose. My Windows 11 install is on a SSD in bay 2 and it's so darn perky and I only use it for occasional games. I like the way the cards are now as they have space to breath. I don't really need more slots at the moment anyway, might sell my Titan Ridge to help pay for the McFiver.
I know you have since changed your configuration, but have your ever considered moving the GPU to slot 2 so that it opens up the other x16 slot? If you are going to eat into the space of another PCI slot shouldn't it be a x4?
I did that, GPU is in 2 and McFiver in slot 1.
I wonder if Opencore Legacy Patcher may inject the right stuff to make the Ethernet to work on tat card pretty much a deal breaker that it doesn't
... Doug Law just did a swap of Martin's Config opencore for the Macpro .. I'll need to try it myself one of these days
It’s an issue with the Mac Pro 5,1 it works with newer macs, I doubt it will get fixed and don’t think OCLP will change anything as far as the McFiver goes.
I’m not holding my breath, although it would sure be nice. In the mean time I will run the McFiver for NVME boot + USB 3, and a Sonnet Twin 10GbE for my home network. If the McFiver 10GbE ever DOES work on the 5,1 it will just be bonus and I can throw another card in there.
@@jdmarlow1919 what do you mainly use the 10GbE for?
@@MacSoundSolutions I have an Asus 10GbE router and QNAP 10GbE switch. I also use a Mac Studio M1 Ultra day to day, so I want that network speed if I'm mounting volumes between the Studio and the 5,1. I also have Fios 2Gbit Internet. So if I don't have 10GbE on the Mac Pro 5,1 it really defeats the purpose of keeping it around. And I'm still committed to justifying it's existence in my workflow. It's one of the reasons I've also stayed on Big Sur. I don't want to deal with the risk of Monterey breaking 10GbE altogether beyond 12.2.1.
Maybe opencore can get the 10gig ethernet card to work oneday.
even for older macs new is good if u know u are going to upgrade the "mothership" being MacPro5,1 to a 7,1 or if u decide to use a windows or maybe the External Pcie case ].
i did notice some speed difference with a mid ethernet to usb 3.1 adapter by anker 2.5gig.
But still amazing that u can get a 4Slot Nvme adapter for the 5,1 ill defo look into it even if i get an 7,1 one day or another computer like Windows.
The one thing you mentioned here, that I haven't played with yet, is using the NVME in slot 1. I've got my RX580 in slot 1. If I did this swap, to get my NVME faster than 1500, would it slow down my GPU? Have you done any testing? right now, I can run everything at full ultra, and no lag.
Yes slot 1 and 2 are both 16x slots my McFiver gets 2800 read write, my rx6800xt the same in slot 1 or 2 so it’s in slot 2. If you use opencore and Monterey the 10GbE works whatch my second video on this.
@@MacSoundSolutions I've got my NVME in the slot right next to my RX580, and I only get 1500 R/W, so it must be the card.
@@fleonard4 your using a Mac Pro 5,1? Sometimes a PRAM reset is needed for new hardware or if you moved the card from a slower slot to a faster. If you’re running open core doing a pram reset can ubless the opencore install. Maybe it’s the NVMe you’re using. It won’t hurt to switch it into slot 1 and see what happens without doing the pram reset.
On Sonnet's web site they do not list the mac 5,1 as compatible at all....
That’s because of the 10GbE but the card works for storage and USB C I’ve been using it for several months.
@@MacSoundSolutions that's good to know I have been looking at that card and wasn't sure if it was still viable glad to see it's working (sans ethernet) on a 5,1 are you using the x16 or x4 lane? I'm wondering if my video card will be in the way....
@@jhillestad did you watch the whole video? Stay tuned just got word there may be a fix for the Ethernet.
@@MacSoundSolutions yes I watched it I saw you moved stuff around just wasn't sure if the card was a loaner for review but since you are still using it wasn't sure if the video card heat was an issue and it had to be moved to a different slot.... love your video's keep it up!
@@jhillestad I have the McFiver in slot 1 to get the best speeds around 2700 read write with single NVMe, I have GPU in slot 2 and I squeezed in a small usb 3 card in slot 4.
hello, sorry I have a 4.1 updated to 5.1, the network card works thanks Tiziano
ج I own a Mac Pro 5.1 and did openCore legacy 0.5.3 and added titan ridge. But when I connect Apollo twin, I don't have the keyboard and the mouse doesn't work with Bluetooth.
You mean bluetooth stops working when the Titan ridge is installed? I upgraded my BT Wi-Fi card and use Martin Lo’s Opencore package works great. My Titan ridge does work but I don’t like the whole boot reboot to get thunderbolt working so I took it out. My interface is a Midas M32r, USB 2 but no latency when monitoring input off the board.
@@MacSoundSolutions Yes, that's what I mean٠٠٠٠Using Titan Ridge Apollo using Universal Audio
And it's FireWire...and I added a Thunderbolt2 card so I can run it on a mac pro 5.1 because the computer doesn't recognize FireWire. i don't know why. Did you face this problem sir? Does FireWire work on your OpenCore
Does the sonnet echo thunderbolt allow you to bring thunderbolt in into the Mac Pro for add thunderbolt connections to the Mac Pro five, one
No the only thunderbolt card that works with the Mac Pro 5,2 is a flashed Titan Ridge I have a video on it.
A flashed Titan Ridge, will it allow me to use a thunderbolt audio interface?
@@TheDrumhead54 Yes but it does but it's a bit quirky watch my video on it.
Ok will do! Thanks
Do you achieve approximately same speeds with either one of the NVMes?
I use 970 EvoPlus in both slots (not RAIDed). One achieves similar results as you showed. The other one just approximately 650MB/s.
Measured with Black Magic Speed Test.
yes get the same speeds on both, not raided, second one gets 2600 write and 2823 read as first I picked the wrong ssd as it has a similar name and only got sata 2 speeds, then I realized I picked the wrong drive.
HI not sure i follow, your first test speed giving 1500 megs .. was it because you plug into a pcie-2.0 x4 slot ? or into a Pci-e 3.0 4x slot ?? thanks for precision.
yes at first it was in the pcie-2.0 x4 slot then moved to the 16x slot, also a pram reset was needed.
hi Lance can you boot with the McFiver and just 1 8TB NVME Mac 5,1 Mac Pro thanks
I have one 2 terabyte as my boot drive, the other slot is empty. Should be fine.
Try the Radeon RX480 8gb in the reference model. Works and everything is so much cooler.
hi lance can you boot from the Mcfiver thanks
Yes I have Monterey on mine
thanks@@MacSoundSolutions
hi lance will that Mcfiver work with OS X Mojave
Sonnet says Mac OS 12 or later, but it might work with opencore, but have not tried it myself.
@@MacSoundSolutions thanks
Saw your reply to a video of Morgonaut asking about the 10Gbe network of the McFiver and she was so rude to you and the others that also asked her about it. What a b**ch honestly. You were so professional in the way you asked the question and she was defensive and all of the place. She even replied to the other dude like "not my problem", and called another user stupid. No wonder her channel hasn't grown at all over the past years. Doesn't know how to speak to people. Anyway, I hope you and the community find a way to get the 10 Gbe network working. More power to you and your channel! :)
Yes she is very defensive and her disclaimer is under all her sponsored links, why doesn’t she just say it” I couldn’t get the Ethernet working, instead she says “I don’t have time” I’m not a millionaire etc really silly, she put 16 terabytes in the card has a Mac Pro 7,1 not cheap stuff. She is just trying to get people to buy the MacFiver so she makes some cash from her links. Not helpful to the Mac Pro 5,1 community to not be upfront about it, it’s not a cheap card.
Will a 5,1 fully boot without a GPU in it?
If you turn on file sharing and have auto login turned off it should boot without the graphics card and be able to use it as a server. But it might depend on the OS installed, I have seen a few people use their old MP 1.0 as a file server without a GPU
@@MacSoundSolutions Cool. Do you know what OS they used?
how did the previous nvme pcie card run? im thinking of getting one of those since theyre cheap and i only need 1 ssd
It was fine, 1500 MBs max speed and can be placed in slot 3 or 4. Get one with a heat sync
I think I will update at some time in the future. @Lance: At the moment, do you have any idea why my Mac Pro only finds one NVME on my PCIE card? It is an ASUS Hyper M,2 X16. I remember that this issue was reported in a video I watched about these Mac Pro upgrades but can't remember which video it was and can't find it anymore.
👍
So I couldn't do the Rufus Windows 11 install to the second NVME drive on the MCFiver and boot Windows natively via the boot picker that OpenCore offers?
No Sonnet says the card can’t boot Windows not sure why, even with a Mac Pro 7,1 they say it’s not supported be worth a try though if you have one installed already.
@@MacSoundSolutions yeah I'm going to give it a try this weekend with a 2nd nvme on the McFiver card and see if it will work with the OpenCore boot drive selection. If that doesn't work, I'll just throw the SSD in an OWC card I have and deal with a x4 slot for Windows. I'll update here with my results.
@@travr1131 cool yeah let me know how it works out, Windows 11 boots really fast off Sata 2, but maybe games would load quicker off a NVMe etc.
@@MacSoundSolutions It works and can boot Windows 11 from the boot selector! The trick was to remove all of the drives except my SATA2 SSD in bay 1 that hosts my OpenCore EFI loader. Then I threw the NVME I was installing Windows 11 on into the McFiver all by itself. After I got Windows 11 Pro installed, I was able to reinstall my 2 spinning hard drives and my Monterey NVME drive back to the McFiver.
I ended up not using Rufus, but just did a registry bypass of the TPM and Secure Boot. Thanks for the tip on the McFiver--what a great card!
@@travr1131 Awesome I will have to make a update post on this thanks so much for keeping me posted.
I seen it in your other video and was like of I'll get it for my pc and Mac Pro 7,1 when I get working I'll order 2......... There 500 euro each
Is this card “Plug-play” for Win-11 and OSX ?
Yes but I think there is a driver for windows can;t remember. But the 10GbE does not work in Mac OS but it does in Windows.
Once I have the McFiver inserted into the PCIE slot of my 2009 5,1 Mac Pro and the computer booted up, how do I get Disk Utility to recognize it?
Do you have a NVMe installed? If so you may need to do a pram reset if the card is not showing up, check in the system profiler under pcie. Also what version of Mac OS are you using? But once a drive is installed it should show up in disk utility.
Hello, I have a 4.1 updated to 5.1. I was wondering if the network card will still work with the 5.1… can you help me with that? Thank you!
yes as long as you install Martin Lo's Opencore 0.9.4 package and Monterey 10.6.8. mine is a 4,1 turned 5,1 as well.
@@MacSoundSolutions grazie
edited my last post
Hello sir.. Can I contact you?
Hi Abdullah, I don’t use OCLP I use Martin Lo’s Opencore package specifically put together for the 5,1 Mac Pro. I have no idea how the Titan ridge works with OCLP but as far as Bluetooth and wifi go did you install the post patches after install.
Hello sir thank you for replying….. I have no idea about post corrections… but I’ll change to Martin lo I have almost the same parts as you…. If possible sir can I know where to find an explanation Martin Lo’s
@@abdullahalmamri2987 Search Martin Lo here on TH-cam he has videos, I also show you in my video on the Titan ridge how to edit the config.plist Martins files can be found in the Mac rumors forum I also have links to them in my video description in my updating opencore video his latest version is 0.8.8 you should go with that one.
Thank you very much for the help sir.
your showing ruffly 2700 mp/s with a 970 via thunderbolt chassis, is that one 970 on the mafiver or are the two 970s in raid on the card ? so can you get the speeds with one ssd or do you need to have two installed on the mc fiver card
There is only 1 NVME installed on the McFiver with Mac OS on it you cant boot Mac OS off a raide 0 anymore. You get almost 3000 mbs if The McFiver is in 16x slot 1 or 2.
But in a Thunderbolt chassis connected to a Mac Pro 5,1 with a Titan ridge card you most likely will get 1500MBs
@@MacSoundSolutions I am on a Mac Studio m1 looking to get the sonnet echo iii chassis with sonnet 2x4 nvme pci card. Looking to get around 2800 via thunderbolt with one nvme drive in the pci card. If that’s possible?
@@Adept216 that is the max speed thunderbolt 3 and 4 can do so I would guess it will be a little lower depending on the drives you buy.
@@MacSoundSolutions I’d be happy to get at least 2000mbs r/w with one dive if anybody can with one drive
Hello, My Mac pro 4.1 works on Sonoma 14.1 with Opencore 1.2.1. Sonnet mcfiver compatible with the Sonoma software?
It says it is on Sonnet's site, the only issue could be the Ethernet port. As long as you are using the current OCLP it should work. I am not able to test it myself as I am on Monterey 12.7.1 and don't use OCLP
@@MacSoundSolutions Sonnet McFiver uses the slot where the GPU is located. What about the heat of the NVMe drive?
@@Pritty-boy not a problem there is a big gap between the mcfiver and the GPU, slot 1 McFiver slot 2 GPU
@@MacSoundSolutions Allright, thank you for the information. I will definitely purchase this and especially for the addition of 10 g with fast USB-C port. That saves a lot of space in the Mac pro
👍
sweet tech is 5,1 happay
Very
Hello sorry if I bother you, I would like to upgrade only the network card of my macpro 5.1, do you think this is compatible Sonnet Solo10G Network adapter PCIe 3.0 x4 low profile 10Gb Ethernet G10E-1X-E3 thanks for your attention Tiziano
Yes sonnet have single slot 10GbE only cards that work with the Mac Pro 5,1.
The one thing I hate with the m1 and me me Macs is...
If your non upgradeable internal ssd ever fails, you will not be able to boot from an external drives either.
Meaning your $$ computer is BRICKED!!!
I have heard this from multiple sources, can someone confirm ?
M1-based Mac relies on its internal SSD to allow external drives to boot. If the internal SSD has failed or been entirely erased-it contains several hidden volumes-you can no longer boot from an otherwise valid volume on an external drive.
@@MacSoundSolutions I must ask why would apple do such thing for expensive machines.
If they do sell a dozen me mac pro to a company for $$$ and then a couple years later the main internal ssd fails all that money its gone bye bye.
I am sure all of the great engineers can fix that but i am starting to think that's exactly what they wanted from the start.
Even ssds can fail although quite rare its still no reason to lock out external drives especially when the internal one can not be replaced.
This should give anyone considering a $2000 or higher mac great pause if they plan on keeping it past wArranty.
After a really bad experience with their Echo 15+ dock: No more stuff from Sonnet for me.
Is there anybody out there, who managed to get the 10GBe port on this card working on a MP 5,1? Would appreciate it very much :-) Thank you!
Not that I am aware but let me know if you find a fix
@@MacSoundSolutions it's so weird.. this card could be the last game changer for so many users, who are still working on MP 5,1's. The card is working on Monterey, but without 10GBe, it doesn't make sense.
@@clemensfischer FROM SONNET TECH SUPPORT
Regrettably, the McFiver PCIe card is not compatible for use on the Mac Pro 5,1. See our tech specs here.
We have seen that the USB and M.2 items can work, but the Ethernet will not consistently function within a Mac Pro 5,1.
Also, when using third-party boot loaders like OpenCore, be aware that while these may allow you to load more recent operating systems like macOS Monterrey, they may not change the firmware of the Mac Pro, which is officially limited by Apple.
Apple only supports up to macOS 10.14.6 on the Mac Pro 5,1 with a Metal capable graphics card.
For 10GbE capability with your Mac Pro 5,1, we would instead recommend our Solo10G, or our Presto 10GbE PCIe cards here.
The Solo10G card are plug-and-play compatible on macOS 10.13.6 and above, and the Presto cards are compatible from macOS 10.8.5 and above with driver installation.
Let us know if any of this helps to clarify.
Thank you for your time.
Thanks a lot!
@@MacSoundSolutions weird, isn't it? Solo10G is working (in my case I have 2 MP 5,1 running Big Sur with the Solo10G) but they did not manage to get the McFiver GBe ports working.
The 10GbE has a fix, I installed it into opencore today and it works! Sonnet McFiver 10GbE FIXED!
th-cam.com/video/9iIJo-izBFQ/w-d-xo.html
I know you can't BOOT to Windows with the card, but do the USB-C ports work in Windows? They do on my Allegro USB-C 4-Port PCIe Card, but I was thinking of getting rid of that and my Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe Card in favor of this single McFiver card to free up some room. BTW, little tip: I was able to keep a 2.5 wide AMD RX 6900 XT in my first slot and put the Sonnet card in the second slot... I got a short "Riser card" for the Video Card to push it out away from the mother board, and a Riser ribbon for the sonnet drive. This gives you enough room to bend the slot 2 riser cable around the video card in slot 1 and locate the Sonnet M.2 elsewhere in the case. I just stand the sonnet card upright in the case near the door next to the end of the video card, LOL.
@@Kevin_MK7RSR yes the ports work in windows. How is the 6900XT performance and which one do you have? I was able to fit a USB 3 card is slot 4 next to the 6800xt which is good for low power usb 3 things like card readers which gives me 4 ports. I have seen some folks for using risers, thanks for posting.
@@MacSoundSolutions Good to know, thanks! 👍🏻
The AMD RX 6900 XT (Reference card) performs great in both Mac and Windows 11! I’m getting really high FPS for gaming. I had to get a Razer Core X to put the card in and flash it to work in Monterey using a windows laptop that had Thunderbolt 3 (You may have done a video on that? 😂)
What’s cool is I’m able to use all 4 ports the way I have it set up ❤️. The McFiver card seems like a more elegant solution that would free up air flow though. But I don’t think it will work after all with the 2.5 card because I would need to store it internally like my Sonnet M.2, so you couldn’t get to the plugs in the back if the card 😕
Did a quick video overview. The Sonnet card fits upright just under the blue drive trays which allows me to close it up with the side panel :
th-cam.com/users/shortsmoYCNG9LGuI?feature=share
They really should have waited for the correct chips. Makes this card completely worthless for the 5,1, which is funny, since it's even named that way on the silkscreen.
Opencore has fixed the issue see my later video on it.
I won’t worry about this ridiculously priced $500 AUD card I’ll stick with my Chinese $35 dollar nvme card
this damn card is 300 dolars who can buy it for 100 dolars of mac huh i got 3 mac pro 5.1 for 100 dolars and you expect me to pay 300 for this card no way
Damn dude ...no one is forcing you to buy it? I agree it is pricey. Some folks need the card slots for other cards for whatever work they do, this 3 in one opens up PCIe slots, just depends on your workflow and ones needs. Most folks don't need 10GbE so this card def wont make sense for them. Great deal getting three 5,1 for 100 bucks though.
@@MacSoundSolutions its not prizy its over prized dude and yes noone is forcing me to buy it but can you imagine this im writing you from turkey minimum god damn wage is 300 dolars here ok give me 300 dolars i will give you 2 mac pro 5.1 one is single other is dual cpu with 32 gb ram and 500 ssd 10k turkish lira i will give both ah sory this card is 11k in my counrtey so thats why im angry cus card is good but wtf dude pc itself is 300
@@hesapyildirim yes I hear you, I got mine for $240 discounted from Sonnet for making a video on it. It will be usable for a long time when I upgrade to a new computer. But no need to as my 5,1 is running great. I also put a rx6800xt in mine which is worth about five Mac pros 😂 at todays price.
@@MacSoundSolutions i had mine for 100 dolars for 3 of it and i have watched your videosu and i upgradeed mine 3 of it and solved their problems and for you information im blind my vision is zero i have done those operations without seeing it my wife done some of them i helped but damn this card is more expensive than my vega 56 one of my mac was perfect with vega 56 64 ram 500 nvme ssd 4 tb disk but my country is expensive dude i sold that for 12000 tl and 100 dolar is 2700 tl damn this country