Reddit mentions of Inateck 4 Ports PCI-E to USB 3.0 Express Card Compatible Mac Pro (Early 2008 to 2012 Late Version) KT4004

Sure!

This is all in a Fractal Design - Define R6 USB-C case. I replaced all but one fan with Noctua PWM fans so I could fully take advantage of the fan controller that comes with the case and ultimately have a very quiet box.

This was originally going to be just a NAS box using more "server-y" components (ASRack X470D4U mobo, ECC memory) but I ended up not liking the mother board so I just threw my desktop internals in here for the time being.

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 7

CPU: Intel i7 8700k

Memory: 64GB DDR4 2667MHz

In the PCI slots I have a Intel Dual Gigabyte NIC (for SR-IOV capabilities), Qnap Quad M.2 Card, refurbished LSI 9211-8i SAS card, 4 port USB 3.0 Controller (so I can hook up my Mac VM to my KVM switch box), and a Radeon RX 560 so I can pass it through to my Mac VM.

Because this is r/datahoarder, here are my drives...

I am using (2) 1TB NVMe drives for my OS drive. I am using md raid for the first two partitions /boot and /boot/efi. The third partitions are in a btrfs mirror and contain sub volumes for / and /home

I am using another (2) 1TB NVMe drives in a zfs mirror for zpool-virt which has datasets for docker and libvirt so they are on speedy drives.

I have (2) 1TB HDD that were my old pool for containers, but I don't use them anymore. Everything has been migrated to zpool-virt so these will go away as I expand my 10TB vdevs.

I have (4) 4TB drives in pair of mirrors setup as zpool0 which I use as my main storage for docker volumes, plex, time machine backups, network storage, etc.

Now that I have put in (4) 10TB drives this will become my main pool and I'll migrate things over once I put in a fifth 10TB drive later this month. I haven't decided if my ultimate goal is to have pool of (2) 5-drive raidz1 vdevs, or a single pool of 10-drives in raidz2. My current thinking is single raidz2 and then hope that raidz expansion comes soon enough that I am able to decommission my 4TB drives and replace them with 10TB ones.

I also have a 1TB NVMe that I used to passthrough to my Mac VM but don't really need to anymore now that I have my VM images on SSDs. Since I have one last remaining open NVMe slot I am planning to buy another 1TB NVMe and make them into a mirror and add them to zpool-virt. But I was also toying with the idea of putting in an Octane drive into the open slot so I could have a fast SLOG. So who really knows.

This is the USB 3.0 card I have. It's inexpensive and works great!

https://amazon.com/gp/product/B00I027GPC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

if your time is worth money, just buy another 3.0 pci card. I have the same mobo since 2011 and its worth its weight in gold but the usb 3 ports are nothing but heartache for hackintosh. Spent 25 bucks here and never looked back -- https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I027GPC/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

> USB 3.1 (a $50 card)

Haven't seen any USB 3.1 adapters yet, but bought a USB 3.0 HBA for $30.

> Any 3,1 can be flashed up to 4,1

I don't think that's correct. The 3,1 and 4,1 machines are considerably different beasts. Perhaps you are thinking of 4,1 » 5,1?

[ edit: s/is/that's/ ]

Sure! I’m on mobile, but I can update with links in a bit.

Inateck USB 3.0 PCIe Card - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I027GPC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_ZZRjNez4pYJV7 (works on Sierra on Mac Pro 3,1 despite its description)

Cateck USB 3.0 Hub w/ SD Card Reader - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019E6YVXC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apip_UOhCABRZkrNCg

eSATA PCIe card (was already installed when I bought it, but I can find the brand)

Blackmagic Intensity HDMI PCIe Card

AMD Radeon 7970 (flashed)

They don't recommend using a USB hub. You'd be better off buying an Inatek USB PCI-E expansion card. You can learn why here: https://www.oculus.com/blog/oculus-roomscale-balancing-bandwidth-on-usb/

Oculus recommends this card: https://smile.amazon.com/Inateck-Express-compatible-Version-KT4004/dp/B00I027GPC/

Here's a four port one

There's also this HCL meant specifically for Macs, but part of that is that they require no extra power.

Wow, that's a ton! This is super useful info, thank you.

Would something like this work as the USB 3 AIC?

so here's my self follow up. i tried this card:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JFR2I2C?keywords=inateck%20usb%20pcie&qid=1450042134&ref_=sr_1_6&sr=8-6

but no workee. since i had free shipping and returns i figured it was worth a shot b/c it's 11 bucks less than the same companies mac-compatible card and from what i could tell used the same controller, etc.

now i'm ordering this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I027GPC?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

as it's well reviewed by hackintosh people. if that doesn't work i'll try the high point, but i got burned by one of their RAID cards I bought years ago and I'm still bitter (and a hardhead)

Honestly, this one is easier to follow! As for USB, I'm pretty sure this is the card I'm using right now.. Sonnet also has a few PCIe products specifically designed for the Mac Pro, but they are more expensive.

My research has gotten me pointed at this:

http://www.amazon.com/Ports-Inateck-PCI-E-Expansion-Version/dp/B00I027GPC

It appears quite affordable, 4 port, no extra power, should work without drivers on mac side and fine under bootcamp... seems like a solid option. Anyone have any opinions on this or any other cards?


Alternatively http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GRGCV2G/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687722&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00I027GPC&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0G5YNS92XRZZA2KJ0YE3#Ask seems functional for people, but there's less feedback and twice the cost so...

A USB installer for High Sierra is asking you for a firmware update? Honestly I am not sure what might be wrong there, I would start googling for anything similar. Dumb question: have you plugged the mac pro into ethernet so it can download the update?

Google results:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/10-13-6-installer-wont-let-me-do-firmware-update.2127317/

Its really odd given that you were already running High Sierra. Make sure you aren't using the new file format on the boot drive, that might help.


>If there are no bootscreens then how are we supposed to upgrade the damn thing to Mojave? I thought that we could start the upgrade process with the GT120 and then proceed afterwards with a Metal card.

Yes, thats the rub with Mojave. You'll only get boot screens with a card that is both metal enabled and a mac edition card. Here is the list. Otherwise you can do the update with any other metal enabled GPU but you'll have to do it blind and you'll never have bootscreens again. This is why sticking to High Sierra is a safer option.


Also: This is the USB 3.0 card I have. I had some troubles with it on Windows 10 but manually installed a driver and it seems to be fine now.

Not too much to tell!

How to make a Fusion drive.

AC Wireless / BT 4.0 Upgrade

USB3 card

That's about it! I grabbed the maximum amount of RAM from decommissioned servers at work, and loaded it up with hard drives.

Yeah, at least an SSD is worth it, and maybe some other things. You just need to make sure you're getting the right things so you don't spend too much and they fit in the machine. It can handle Adobe CS apps and it's more cost effective than repairing your MBP or getting a new one.

SSD: get a more current blade style SSD with M.2 port at any capacity. This form factor because you could use this for something else a few years down the road. And it's PCIe, so max speed and faster than on SATA. 128 GB is enough for macOS and the apps, or a bigger one you can/want to afford.
Then an adapter like this: https://www.amazon.com/Lycom-DT-120-PCIe-Adapter-Support/dp/B00MYCQP38
The adapter piggybacks the SSD and you hook it up to one of the PCIe slots. There are 4 slots numbered from bottom to top, the GPU will be in the bottom one (Slot 1), use Slot 2 for the SSD, it's faster than Slots 3 and 4 at the top.

RAM: I'd say 16 gigs is enough for this machine. For very large Photoshop files 32 gigs might be helpful, but only marginally. Mac Pros are picky when it comes to RAM, here's some info: http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_pro/faq/mac-pro-early-2008-how-to-install-ram-backwards-compatible-with-older-memory.html
https://support.apple.com/HT205043

CPU: one of the CPUs in the Wiki link above. But I wouldn't do it. Could add more performance but you need the know how and tools to flash the Mac Pro firmware, otherwise the machine wouldn't recognize the new CPU.

GPU: another potential minefield: http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/frequently-asked-questions-about-nvidia-pc-non-efi-graphics-cards.1440150/
Requires flashing of the GPU as well so they work and you never know if it's surviving an update to macOS.
But Apple officially sold the ATI Radeon HD 5770 and 5780 as upgrade kits for the Mac Pros. These are officially supported. Funny enough Googling these cards I mostly see hits about the older Mac Pros. Saw this link: http://www.apple.com/shop/question/answers/readonly/will-early-2008-mac-pro-owners-be-able-to-use-the-ati-radeon-hd-5770/QDDDH2T2JF44XHHAD
Now finding a 5770 or 5780 on eBay is definitely worth it, will add a substantial amount of performance.
Or any other card that's officially Mac compatible, like the GeForce GTX 950 or 960 and Nvidia's web drivers (install drivers before adding the card!).

I/O: something to consider, adding USB 3.0 is worth it. This card is officially Mac Pro compatible: https://www.amazon.com/Ports-Inateck-PCI-E-Expansion-Version/dp/B00I027GPC/

Btw, here's a patch to get Sierra onto the machine: http://dosdude1.com/sierrapatch.html