USB is an industry standard for connecting computers and other devices. Many Mac computers have USB-A ports (sometimes referred to as USB 3 ports), which look like this: USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 Gen 1 can transfer data up to 5 Gbps, and USB 3.1 Gen 2 can transfer data up to 10 Gbps.
If you have a Mac Pro and want to take advantage of USB 3.0 speeds, don't fret. HighPoint gives your system USB 3.0 compatibility with the, a PCI Express card with four USB 3.0 ports. The RocketU works with most USB 3.0 drives available and gives a speed boost to USB 2.0 drives. To evaluate the card, we used a Mac Pro with a 2.66GHz quad core Xeon processor, 3GB of RAM, and an internal Hitachi hard drive with 640GB of storage capacity. We installed the RocketU into an empty PCI Express x16 slot, but you can also plug it into an x4 slot. After inserting the card into the Mac Pro, powering up the machine, and installing the drivers, the card was ready to go. The best thing about the card is that it functions with all sorts of external hard drive brands.
Other USB 3.0 cards we’ve looked at were made to operate with drives from specific companies, severely limiting what you could work with. We tried eight different USB 3.0 drives, ranging from portable and desktop hard drives to solid state drives (SSDs), and all of them mounted and were available for use on our Mac Pro. To check for speed, we tested the drives through the USB 2.0 ports on the Mac Pro for a baseline result, and then performed the same tests using the RocketU. The drives that we tested saw a dramatic boost in performance when switching from USB 2.0 on the Mac Pro to the RocketU’s USB 3.0. The Western Digital 500GB ( ) wrote a 2GB folder at 29.8MBps and a 2GB file at 30.7MBps through USB 2.0.
When attached to a RocketU USB 3.0 port, it wrote the 2GB folder at 59.7MBps and 2GB file at 65.4MBps. We saw an even bigger boost when we tested the LaCie 500GB ( ); it recorded speeds of 30.2MBps and 32.9MBps in our 2GB folder and 2GB file write tests, respectively. When connected to the RocketU, the Rikiki posted speeds of 73.1MBps and 84.0MBps in our 2GB folder and 2GB file write tests.
Solid state drives really took off when connected to the RocketU, tripling their performance when using USB 2.0. The ioSafe ( ) gathered scores of 90.4MBps and 106.8MBps in our 2GB folder and 2GB file write tests, respectively. The 128GB posted a rate of 110.2MBps in the 2GB folder write test and 107.2MBps in the 2GB file write test. USB 2.0 drives when connected to the RocketU also got a bit of a speed boost, especially when writing files.
The 500GB saw its 2GB folder write speeds increase from 30.4MBps to 37.1MBps. The 1TB ( ) saw its write speed jump from 32.0MBps to 41.7MBps. Both drives posted rates over 40MBps in the AJA write tests. How does FireWire 800 compare to USB 3.0? To find out, we tested the RocketU with the, which has both USB 3.0 and FireWire 800 ports.
In our 2GB folder write test, the USB 3.0 rate was 84.2MBps, while the FireWire 800 rate was 71.6MBps. Transferring a 2GB file from the d2 Quadra was much faster via USB 3.0, with a rate of 103.5MBps compared to 82.4MBps connected to FireWire 800. The AJA test revealed an increased speed gap between the connections, showing the d2 Quadra could write data at 70.3MBps when using FireWire 800, but could go as high as 109.5MBps via USB 3.0. The RocketU beat LaCie’s in all but one test. The d2 Quadra was faster when connected to the RocketU than to the LaCie card. The drive reached 81.4MBps in the 2GB file test when linked to the LaCie card, then zoomed to 103.5MBps when connected to the RocketU.
That’s impressive, considering the LaCie card was designed to work best with LaCie’s USB 3.0 drives. The RocketU also lets you set up a set of external drives as a RAID array. We created a RAID by connecting two drives to the RocketU and firing up Safari—you configure the array through a Web browser on your Mac.
After going through the setup, we created a RAID 0 array that worked really well. The main drawback is that a RAID array created this way will work only with the RocketU card; you can’t connect the drives to the USB 2.0 ports on a Mac and still have an array. There’s no real advantage to creating an array with the card, except that you get USB 3.0 speeds and can make RAID 5 and 10 arrays with the card, which you can’t do with OS X’s tools.
Macworld’s buying advice The RocketU Quad USB 3.0 PCI-E Card works with most USB 3.0 drives (it’s incompatible with Seagate drives with 3TB or higher capacity) and gives your USB 2.0 drives a nice pick up in transfer speeds. Sure, it isn’t Thunderbolt, but considering the availability of USB 3.0 drives on the market, this card would be a great investment for a Mac Pro owner.
On April 4, 2014 in USB 3.0 was added to the 2013 Mac Pro. For the rest of us, who are still rocking the older gear, adding a dedicated USB 3.0 card isn’t something Apple want to offer. There are a few of dedicated USB 3.0 cards for the Mac Pro, such as. at an eye watering £137. the at £120 (ouch!).
or the Inateck KT4004 at about $26 (but only available in the USA as far as i can tell). However, other Inateck USB 3.0 cards are also available in the UK, and although the cards over here do require an external power supply, they are easy to fit and better still, they are based on the FL1100 FRESCO Logic chip. This is the same device used in Apple’s new Mac Pro machines so no drivers are required for Mountain Lion or Mavericks – it just works™ – it’s the cheapest way to add USB 3 to a Mac pro I have found. Inateck KTU3FR-4P USB 3.0 Expansion Card showing the FL1100 Chip The bits you will need to add USB 3 to a Mac Pro for under 25 quid. – a whopping £18.99 from Amazon. – £5.
Dremmel or a file (only minor surgery required) Step 1 – Prepare the power lead Getting power to the board requires a 15pin SATA feed. This is based on the standard power connector used by SATA disks.
A simple 12 inch (which is plenty if you are going to pick up the power from the drive bay nearest the back of the machine) lead should suffice. The drive bays have a combined SATA power and data connector as they are intended, obviously, for hard disks. In order to get the extension lead to plug in we need to do a little surgery. Enter the Dremmel – or a file. Modify the SATA power lead being careful not to damage the connector itself. As shown above just trim away the shoulder from one end of the male connector.
This will not prevent a proper and secure location of the connection, because there is still the shoulder at the other end, and the tiny lip/key on the other end of the connection edge itself. Once you have doctored the lead correctly, and removed any debris. Step 2 – Fit the male end into the drive bay SATA power socket Take the side panel off the Mac using the lever at the back. Pull out the drive caddy for the fourth drive bay (I’m assuming your aren’t already using it, otherwise you will have to work out how to get power from the CD/DVD drive with molex adaptors). Now take the extension lead male end (the one you just modified) and plug it into the hard drive bay power feed. Make sure you have the remaining large shoulder/locator on the outside of the connector (the yellow wire) and the orange one on the innermost side. It should fit snug and secure.
Leave the other end dangling for now. The card fitted and almost ready to go That’s it – now just secure the expansion cards by refitting the expansion slot cover securing plate you removed at the start of Step 3. Replace your side panel, and close the lever on the back of the machine, and that’s it – well done – you should be ready to go! Step 4 – Testing all is well Boot this baby up! There are no drivers to install, so the boot process should be as normal.
Log in, and click on the Apple logo at the top left of the screen and choose About This Mac. Click the More Info button to open a window showing you your basic system information. Click on the System Report button. Hi, thanks for this, I have an early 2008 Mac Pro which I’m looking to upgrade a bit, and as my new external hard drives have USB 3.0 ports I was looking to add that connectivity.
Can I ask, why do I need to get the additional cable when the Inatek seems to come with cables? Also can I power 2 of these using the SATA power from a hard drive bay? Any other upgrades you can suggest for this model would be much appreciated. Perhaps an SSD for the OS before I upgrade to Mavericks?
New graphics card. BTW I’m not a techie but just trying to get most out of my existing kit. Steve, your a star!! I ordered the card and lead from Amazon UK using your links and they came in two days, lead first. I doctored the lead as per your instructions and fitted it, but when the card arrived the following day it had two leads included. One of the old 4 way molex drive connector to two SATA sockets.
The other lead was similar to the one I bought except that it was a two way one. Handy spares. Very quick to do the whole job and worked first time.
I can now use my LaCie Thunderbolt/USB 3.0 drive as an Aperture database that can be used on the macPro and also my Macbook Air. Thank’s again. Hello Everyone FYI it’s hard (but possible) to use a couple of long SATA power cables and to run them through the case into the drive-bay area (where there is a spare SATA slot, unless you are running two disk-drives), I had to use a scalpel to trim some excess plastic off the side of my cable though to get it to fit through a small gap at the front left of the case. This is good if you want all of your 4 drive bays to be free. There are some USB3 cards that do not require to be powered by a SATA power cable, notably this one from Inateck I’d be interested to know if there is any speed difference between a powered USB3 card or not. I suspect that if you are using external drives that are themselves powered then there is no difference in speed, so this is something you might want to consider. Also, what I think is really worth mentioning is that USB3 seems to drastically impair the bluetooth signal This seems to depend on the wiring of whatever device you are lugging in to the UB3 ports, and how well shielded it is, but personally I found that my bluetooth apple magic mouse was unusable when using my LaCie 2big drive through USB3.
If you are using a wired mouse and keyboard then no need to worry really But I really value the magic mouse The bluetooth (and Wifi) has never been great on the aluminium Mac Pro’s and my remedy for this was to buy an external bluetooth adapter. I purchased the Iogear bluetooth 4.0 USB micro adapter and I have this attached to a long USB extension (so the USB bluetooth adapter is placed as close to my mouse and keyboard as possible) that is plugged into one of the Mac Pro’s USB2 ports. This is the bluetooth adapter This bluetooth adapter uses the Broadcom BCM20702 chipset, so is supported by Mac OSX (so, no drivers are needed) Note that to make the bluetooth adapter ‘live’ you have to tell your Mac to use a different bluetooth device by signing up as an Apple developer (no worries about this), downloading Hardware IO tools, and then installing the Bluetooth Explorer app. In this app you can then go to ‘HCI Controller Selector’ and then select the ‘Broadcom’ bluetooth rather than the Apple bluetooth. The app states that it will not remember these preferences, but this isn’t true – it remembers and uses the USB bluetooth adapter from then on.
Note that you have to pair your bluetooth devices with the new USB bluetooth adapter before they start working. Sadly fitting a USB bluetooth4.0 adapter does not suddenly allow new features like Continuity and Handoff.
For these features you need a WiFi AC card such as the one MacVidCards sells. Personally I have no interest in using Handoff and Continuity, but I do think the USB bluetooth 4.0 solution is a really worthwhile solution.