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Mooner's HackPro (Gigabyte Z68MX-UD2H-B3 in Mac Pro case)

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mooner said:
Hi Jeff-

I'm not sure what you think I can do about it. They've got a crappy website, what can I say??

The page I referenced is for this product (which is what I used):


P/N Part Description
SZ-DCMSAS-R14X
MaxConnect SAS/SATA Link for PCI Express Controller with MiniSAS to 4x SATA Cable
MaxConnect SAS/SATA Link
MiniSAS to 4x SATA Cable

No worries about the website, not in our control :lol:

Thanks for the link! I think I might just get a different RAID card or something...

Jeffinslaw
 
Jeffinslaw said:
I think I might just get a different RAID card or something...

Jeffinslaw


Jeff -- which RAID card do you have and what are you trying to do??
 
mooner said:
Jeff -- which RAID card do you have and what are you trying to do?

I got the RocketRAID 620 by HighPoint and I was just trying to figure out a way to attach more than two drives to it but I think I'll just leave it as is. Currently running W7 until I get my case done modding then I'll work on getting Lion, actually by the time I'm done, Mountain Lion will be out, to work on it. Going to be interesting since I'm using an i7 3820.

Jeffinslaw
 
Jeffinslaw said:
I got the RocketRAID 620 by HighPoint and I was just trying to figure out a way to attach more than two drives to it but I think I'll just leave it as is. Currently running W7 until I get my case done modding then I'll work on getting Lion, actually by the time I'm done, Mountain Lion will be out, to work on it. Going to be interesting since I'm using an i7 3820.

Jeffinslaw

How many drives are you planning to connect? If you're trying to enable all 4 Mac Pro drive sleds, this card is probably not the way to go.

I'm guessing that you are looking for a PORT MULTIPLIER – not a SAS cable... Your RocketRAID 620 only has 2 SATA ports -- but it will support 5:1 port multipliers on each port (for a total of 10 supported drives). The Apple cable in your Mac Pro case is NOT a port multiplier cable... It is a SAS to SATA breakout cable -- there are actually 4 channels of full-speed SAS/SATA in that cable.

So, IF ** BIG IF ** you wanted to use this card with the internal Mac Pro drive sleds, you would need to first get a port multiplier (1 SATA-in to 4 or 5 SATA-PM-out). The port multiplier is never just a cable -- it will require a small circuit board. Then, you would use the same hydra cable that I used to connect the 4 SATA-PM-out ports to the SAS barrel. Then connect the Apple SAS/SATA breakout cable to the other end of the barrel. This would be an even bigger mess than what is inside my machine...

Alternatively, you could skip the port multiplier, but then you could only connect 2 drives to your card.

Let me know if that makes sense...

In my build, I used the SATA RAID ports on my motherboard (and turned off the RAID functionality in the BIOS). So each one of my drives mounts individually to the MacOS.

Hope that helps.

EDIT: I almost neglected the simple option -- of course, you could delete the Apple hot-swap cable all together... Simple SATA right-angle connectors on the back of the drives would work fine too. Still an issue if you want all 4 drives working...
 
mooner said:
How many drives are you planning to connect? If you're trying to enable all 4 Mac Pro drive sleds, this card is probably not the way to go.

I'm guessing that you are looking for a PORT MULTIPLIER – not a SAS cable... Your RocketRAID 620 only has 2 SATA ports -- but it will support 5:1 port multipliers on each port (for a total of 10 supported drives). The Apple cable in your Mac Pro case is NOT a port multiplier cable... It is a SAS to SATA breakout cable -- there are actually 4 channels of full-speed SAS/SATA in that cable.

So, IF ** BIG IF ** you wanted to use this card with the internal Mac Pro drive sleds, you would need to first get a port multiplier (1 SATA-in to 4 or 5 SATA-PM-out). The port multiplier is never just a cable -- it will require a small circuit board. Then, you would use the same hydra cable that I used to connect the 4 SATA-PM-out ports to the SAS barrel. Then connect the Apple SAS/SATA breakout cable to the other end of the barrel. This would be an even bigger mess than what is inside my machine...

Alternatively, you could skip the port multiplier, but then you could only connect 2 drives to your card.

Let me know if that makes sense...

In my build, I used the SATA RAID ports on my motherboard (and turned off the RAID functionality in the BIOS). So each one of my drives mounts individually to the MacOS.

Hope that helps.

EDIT: I almost neglected the simple option -- of course, you could delete the Apple hot-swap cable all together... Simple SATA right-angle connectors on the back of the drives would work fine too. Still an issue if you want all 4 drives working...

I'm actually working on a G5 mod but what is this port multiplier you're talking about? I want to support 4 drives from my RAID card. I'll just use the software RAID option in OS X.

Jeffinslaw
 
Jeffinslaw said:
I'm actually working on a G5 mod but what is this port multiplier you're talking about? I want to support 4 drives from my RAID card. I'll just use the software RAID option in OS X.

Jeffinslaw

Take a look here:

http://www.sata-io.org/technology/port_multipliers.asp

Your HighPoint 620 only has 2 SATA ports... The only way you can connect more than 2 drives will be to use a port multiplier...
 
Link Broken

Mine came together... Cable and "SAS barrel" adapter.

Is this what you ordered??

maxupgrades.com: maxupgrades.com

I am interested to in buying this adapter, but it seems that the link is broken. Has anyone found the new location of the product on their site. If you would pass the link along it would be greatly appreciated.
 
Mooner,

Just like everyone else here I'm really impressed with your work on the Mac Pro. I have gotten most of my pieces and am looking to starting soldering soon. One question I have is with regards to the power for the SATA harness. I noticed that you and a number of others spliced in the standard 4 pin molex plugs, but you mention that mouser sells the micro fit 3.0 molex plugs and suggest using those. How would I do that? I assume that the original apple plug is one of these smaller plugs. How do I use the micro fit from mouser to connect the harness to my PSU?
 
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