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PCI based SSD storage


frankiee
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So, what's the current situation with PCI based SSD storage and Hackintoshes:

 

Will it work as a boot drive for OS X? Can I use such a drive also for dualbooting windows?

 

Just looking at the Revo Drive X3 and think it would be really really nice to have such a beast working in my upcoming Hackintosh ;)

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Hey Rampagedev,

 

I already decided to go without RAID on the SSDs, also saw reviews where the advantage of a RAID SSD setup is really huuuge in synthetical benchmarks, but not so huge in real life performance. But still got some remaining question about storage, though, see also my other post: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/292284-need-cpu-chipset-advice-for-building-a-hackproworkstation/page-3?do=findComment&comment=1956039

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A PCIe flash SSD is just a hardwired RAID SSD. Thats all they really are. From my real world tests a RAID of 2 SSD's is great after that you get little gains due to poor Application programing (other then some apps like ones from BlackMagic for example).

 

If you do go the PCIe SSD get the one from OWC. Works great under mac and a lot more stable then the POS that the Revo drive is. 

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  • 9 months later...

Is there any update to this? I really want to install an OWC PCI-E on a Socket 2011 hackintosh. Please advise if this will work. Thanks!

 

Not too many people seem to have done this. I assume it will work for the most part, but what might be the most critical part is actual booting. Why don't you just try and report your findings here?

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Not too many people seem to have done this. I assume it will work for the most part, but what might be the most critical part is actual booting. Why don't you just try and report your findings here?

 

I  think not wanting to waste the money if it does not work could be a factor holding him/her back on the idea. That said the generic two port pci-e add in card that I have based on a Marvell chipset controller boots just fine under OS X like it was claimed to do, in a Hack as it did in the Mac Pro it was in before, I would think an OWC one would as well.

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I  think not wanting to waste the money if it does not work could be a factor holding him/her back on the idea. That said the generic two port pci-e add in card that I have based on a Marvell chipset controller boots just fine under OS X like it was claimed to do, in a Hack as it did in the Mac Pro it was in before, I would think an OWC one would as well.

 

Well, if there is no former experience, I think the only choice is to try or to leave it. "Jumping into the cold water" (can you say that in english?) is not something you can entirely avoid with hackintoshes, especially if you want to push things farther. And I am sure other people would be interested in this too, but someone has to stand up and try or we will never know ;)

 

Maybe he can actually talk with OWC, explain them the situation and ask if they can return the device if it doesn't work. I think also OWC would be interested if their devices work in a hack, too (at least I would). So the only thing he would loose is some of his time. But again, if  time is _that_ valuable and s.o. do not like to invest some of it, I'd say: stay away and buy a Mac. Seriously! (and no offence intended)

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Well, if there is no former experience, I think the only choice is to try or to leave it. "Jumping into the cold water" (can you say that in english?) is not something you can entirely avoid with hackintoshes, especially if you want to push things farther. And I am sure other people would be interested in this too, but someone has to stand up and try or we will never know ;)

 

Maybe he can actually talk with OWC, explain them the situation and ask if they can return the device if it doesn't work. I think also OWC would be interested if their devices work in a hack, too (at least I would). So the only thing he would loose is some of his time. But again, if  time is _that_ valuable and s.o. do not like to invest some of it, I'd say: stay away and buy a Mac. Seriously! (and no offence intended)

 

In English it would be more along the line of "jumping in to test the water" but close enough to the idea. It should just work contrary to what Apple likes you to think there is no magic fairy dust in their machines they are just a normal PC now. Although one with technical measures taken to make sure you are as locked into their world as much as is possible, if it boots in a Mac it will boot in a hack.

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PCIe SSDs like M.2 are great and amazing speeds. I use 2 of the Samsung XP941 512GB SSDs in Raid0 and get just over 2GB/s transfer speeds. Boots OSX just fine using Clover.

 

The OWC drives do work as they are Mac/PC compatible but they r slow when it comes too PCIe SSDs. Your lucky if you get 720MB/s from one. I have one in my Mac Pro and tested it in my hack just fine.

 

When looking for a 'compatible' PCIe SSD just make sure its fully AHCI compatible as most are not. The ASUS RaidR Express is another one that is pretty good and hack friendly, also fully UEFI compliant which is rare for PCIe SSDs. not the fastest of SSDs as its only about 820MB/s but cheap compared to others.

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  • 5 weeks later...

I just got a Samsung xp941 installed in the M.2 port on a Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H, it works as secondary drive but I have not been able to boot from it.

 

Have you guys been able to boot from a PCIe drive? For me the main problem seems to be that I need to enable Raid to boot and that does not work on Mac OS X.

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  • 2 months later...

PCIe SSDs like M.2 are great and amazing speeds. I use 2 of the Samsung XP941 512GB SSDs in Raid0 and get just over 2GB/s transfer speeds. Boots OSX just fine using Clover.

 

The OWC drives do work as they are Mac/PC compatible but they r slow when it comes too PCIe SSDs. Your lucky if you get 720MB/s from one. I have one in my Mac Pro and tested it in my hack just fine.

 

When looking for a 'compatible' PCIe SSD just make sure its fully AHCI compatible as most are not. The ASUS RaidR Express is another one that is pretty good and hack friendly, also fully UEFI compliant which is rare for PCIe SSDs. not the fastest of SSDs as its only about 820MB/s but cheap compared to others.

Can you explain how to boot m.2 using clover?

 

I´m in a x79 Mobo with a Samsung/Apple 1Tb SSD w/ PCIe Adapter

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