Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe Card (Silent)
Please click the arrow next to the category to expand or collapse:
Driver (0)
Firmware (0)
Manual (1)
IDDownload TitleDownload LinkPost Date
1101 Sonnet M.2 4x4 PCIe Card (Silent) Quick Start Guide [English]Oct-24-24
 
FAQ (11)
IDArticle TitlePost Date
976 In a Mac Pro, the SSDs are seen as external drives, how do I prevent accidental ejects?Feb-14-23
1069 How do I configure RAID under Windows 10?Feb-14-23
1070 Option-boot doesn't function when a bootable Mac OS is installed on an M.2 4x4 PCIe CardMay-22-20
1073 How do I configure RAID under macOS?Feb-14-23
Create a disk set using Disk Utility on macOS

1. You can create a Redundant Array of Independent SSDs (RAID) set to optimize storage performance, or increase reliability in case of a SSD failure. You can also create a set that concatenates smaller SSDs to act as one larger SSD.

2. In the Disk Utility app on your Mac, choose File Menu -> RAID Assistant.

3. Select a Set type:
• Striped (RAID 0) Set: A striped RAID set can speed up access to your data. You can't create a RAID set on a startup SSD; you must start up your computer from a single SSD.

• Mirrored (RAID 1) Set: Protect your data against hardware failure with a mirrored RAID set. When you create a mirrored RAID set, your data is written to multiple SSDs so the information is stored redundantly. You can't create a RAID set on a startup SSD; you must start up your computer from a single SSD.

• Concatenated Set: Increase storage space with a concatenated SSD set. If you need one large SSD, but you have several smaller SSDs, you can create a concatenated SSD set to use as one large SSD.

4. Select the checkboxes of the SSDs you want to include in the set.

5. For each SSD, click the pop-up menu in the Role column and choose "RAID slice" or "Spare" to designate the disk as a standard member or spare in the set, then click Next.

6. Enter a name for the RAID set in the RAID Name field.

7. Click the Format pop-up menu, then choose a volume format that you want for all the disks in the set. (See File system formats available in Disk Utility.)

8. Click the "Chunk size" pop-up menu, then choose a disk chunk size that you want used for all the disks.

When you create a striped set, chunks of data from the same file are distributed across the SSDs. Ideally, you want data distributed across SSDs evenly and at an optimum size so that it can be efficiently accessed. If you want high data throughput from your set, choose a smaller chunk size so that data is spread across the drives and one drive can be accessing data while another is seeking the next chunk. With mirrored disk sets, choose a chunk size that matches the data you are accessing. For example, when working with video files, your Mac is accessing large chunks of data, whereas when using a database of many small records, your disks may be accessing smaller chunks of information.

9. If you are creating a mirrored RAID set, select the "Automatically rebuild" checkbox to allow the set to be automatically rebuilt when member disks are reconnected.

10. Click Create.

11. Click Done.
 
1077 Programming SSDs to 4k Block Size for Compatibility With macOS 10.13.6Feb-08-23
1082 I would like to use double-sided SSDs. How can I do this?Jul-04-20
Here is an guideline for users with some technical skills. Sonnet does not support this modification, but if you are up for it, here you go. Read the complete instructions before starting.

The thermal pad on the M.2 4x4 is pre-installed for single-sided SSDs. If you would like to use double-sided SSDs, you need to make a modification to the cooling system.

1. Remove the thermal pad pre-attached to the PCIe card. (Do not remove the thermal pad pre-attached to the heat sink!)
2. Get some thermal tape that is 20mm wide x 0.25mm thick. This is available on Amazon.
3. Cut four 70mm strips of tape, peel off the bottom covers from the tape, and stick a strip of tape under each M.2 position. This is the correct thickness for the two FLASH memory chips on the back end of the M.2 stick.
4. Peel off the top covers from the tape.
5. Cut four 30mm strips of tape, peel of the bottom covers from the tape, and stick a strip of tape under each M.2 position near the connector end. Two strips stacked is the correct thickness for the SRAM memory chip on the front end the M.2 stick.
6. Peel off the top covers from the tape.
7. Install the SSDs in their sockets and screw them down.

***Warning, the SSDs will be difficult to remove once stuck to the tape.***
If you need to remove and replace the SSDs, remove the SSD from the thermal tape carefully.
 
1087 Can I install macOS 10.15 (Catalina) on a Mac Pro 5,1 using the M.2 4x4 card?May-22-20
You can install Catalina on one SSD on a Sonnet M.2 4x4 card using the instructions outlined in this guide.
 
1122 Thunderbolt 3 NVMe volumes may experience a stop error under Windows 10 version 20H2Feb-14-23
1125 Can I start with one SSD and add more later?Dec-29-20
1136 How can I use my new SSD volume to hold my user folder on macOS?Feb-14-23
1183 The Write performance of my SSD is very slow under Windows.Feb-14-23