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G4 SATA PCI expansion

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g4orce

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 14, 2011
6
0
Hi all from a newbie!

I am planning to retire my G4 Gigabit Ethernet (upgraded to 450mhzX2, 1.62gb Ram) and turn it into a massive network attached backup box for archiving all my data. I would like to put 8x2TB drives in it, running as 2 arrays of 4x2TB in mirrored RAID, so I have two 8TB arrays running mirrored for redundancy. To achieve this I plan to use two PCI SATAx4 cards; one for each array. The cards I am planning to use are these:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SATA-Raid-PCI-X-64-bits-Card-4x-Internal-Ports-Mac-/280505725778?pt=UK_Computing_Apple_Mac_Accessories&hash=item414f71b352

Will this work? Can I have an OSX controlled RAID scenario where 4 2TB drives are joined together on each card to make two 8TB volumes, then mirror one card's array to the other?

I'm running 10.4.11 by the way.

Any advice would be much appreciated. I think this could be a cheaper and more accessible alternative to an off the shelf massive NAS. And it would be mac :p :apple:

Thanks

Marcus
 
C

chrismacguy

macrumors 68000
Feb 13, 2009
1,979
2
United Kingdom
g4orce said:
Hi all from a newbie!

I am planning to retire my G4 Gigabit Ethernet (upgraded to 450mhzX2, 1.62gb Ram) and turn it into a massive network attached backup box for archiving all my data. I would like to put 8x2TB drives in it, running as 2 arrays of 4x2TB in mirrored RAID, so I have two 8TB arrays running mirrored for redundancy. To achieve this I plan to use two PCI SATAx4 cards; one for each array. The cards I am planning to use are these:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SATA-Raid-PCI-X-64-bits-Card-4x-Internal-Ports-Mac-/280505725778?pt=UK_Computing_Apple_Mac_Accessories&hash=item414f71b352

Will this work? Can I have an OSX controlled RAID scenario where 4 2TB drives are joined together on each card to make two 8TB volumes, then mirror one card's array to the other?

I'm running 10.4.11 by the way.

Any advice would be much appreciated. I think this could be a cheaper and more accessible alternative to an off the shelf massive NAS. And it would be mac :p :apple:

Thanks

Marcus
Click to expand...

1How are you going to mount the HDs? The G4 Graphite case has at most room for 4 drives - possibly 6 if you scrap the optical drive and zip drive - how are you going to fit 8 in?? - Also, make sure the PCI cards have Mac (10.4.11) drivers etc, or they may not work at all.
 
G

g4orce

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 14, 2011
6
0
I'll squeeze 8 in there - I'll probably have to tuck a few in on their sides. If not, 6 would be ok. Is it technically possible though, with OSX's RAID software, to make an array mirroring two PCI SATA cards full of drives?
 
OrangeSVTguy

OrangeSVTguy

macrumors 601
Sep 16, 2007
4,127
69
Northeastern Ohio
The card said it supports 10.3 and above so in theory it should work. I'd remove the ODD and zip drive cage. There was room for 4 on the bottom and then you can place the other 4 in place of the ODD and zip drive by making your own shelf for them. I'd also recommend adding more cooling fans to the system and cutting out more of the case to increase airflow.
 
C

chrismacguy

macrumors 68000
Feb 13, 2009
1,979
2
United Kingdom
OrangeSVTguy said:
The card said it supports 10.3 and above so in theory it should work. I'd remove the ODD and zip drive cage. There was room for 4 on the bottom and then you can place the other 4 in place of the ODD and zip drive by making your own shelf for them. I'd also recommend adding more cooling fans to the system and cutting out more of the case to increase airflow.
Click to expand...
Also, you might want to replace the PSU with a more powerful version (simply as I doubt the stock one will power 8 drives happilly)
 
G

g4orce

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 14, 2011
6
0
Is it possible to get a high power aftermarket PSU for the G4 Gig Ethernet? Can I use a PSU from a later Mac?
 
C

chrismacguy

macrumors 68000
Feb 13, 2009
1,979
2
United Kingdom
g4orce said:
Is it possible to get a high power aftermarket PSU for the G4 Gig Ethernet? Can I use a PSU from a later Mac?
Click to expand...

If the PSU fits the case, and you can splice a wire (as it might need the 20-pin connector) it should work ok - The original PSU may ofc work, so Id try that first (assuming it even has enough plugs to power 8 HDs) - just dont upgrade the CPU or Video Card to anything above stock and it probably would pull thru.
 
reebzor

reebzor

macrumors 6502a
Jul 18, 2008
869
1
Philadelphia, PA
You can mod a regular ATX PSU to work in G4's

Just a suggestion: What might be easier would be to buy an 8-Bay external JBOD enclosure for the disks and connect that to your G4 with an eSATA card. Something like this. That exact one might not work because the card is PCIe and you would need a PCI card, but you get the idea
 
G

g4orce

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 14, 2011
6
0
CPU is already upgraded to dual 450s and video card is upgraded to Radeon 9000... The inbuilt PSU should be the 338W and 8x 2TB drives would draw about 65W max plus a bit for the SATA cards. I don't think the Mac itself (minus the RAID setup) will pull more than 200W so I think it should be ok - close, but ok.

Still not sure if it will work with the RAID setup though...
 
G

g4orce

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 14, 2011
6
0
@reebzor - That looks like a good plan. I didn't realise it was possible to have an 8bay running through two e-SATAs. I'll look into that. Thanks.
 
C

chrismacguy

macrumors 68000
Feb 13, 2009
1,979
2
United Kingdom
g4orce said:
CPU is already upgraded to dual 450s and video card is upgraded to Radeon 9000... The inbuilt PSU should be the 338W and 8x 2TB drives would draw about 65W max plus a bit for the SATA cards. I don't think the Mac itself (minus the RAID setup) will pull more than 200W so I think it should be ok - close, but ok.

Still not sure if it will work with the RAID setup though...
Click to expand...

Well the maximum power draw of the Stock Dual G4/450 System with 3 drives and upgraded graphics was about 338W, which is what the PSU is rated for. With the extra HDs your just pushing the tolerance (if you never run the CPU at over 60% load you should be fine)
 
G

g4orce

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 14, 2011
6
0
Eeek, looks like I'm better off with an external dedicated solution. Shame but I guess otherwise everyone would be using their old G4s as NAS. Thanks for all the help :) much appreciated.
 
C

chrismacguy

macrumors 68000
Feb 13, 2009
1,979
2
United Kingdom
g4orce said:
Eeek, looks like I'm better off with an external dedicated solution. Shame but I guess otherwise everyone would be using their old G4s as NAS. Thanks for all the help :) much appreciated.
Click to expand...

Oh some of us are using G4s as a NAS, just either more than 1 (as in my case) or a different model (again as in my case). I have a G4/450 with 2HDs in it for data archiving - (Dual 120s as supported by Apple from the factory) (A, and a G4/Dual 867 with 4HDs in it for Photo and Video storage (This is literally my latest addition, and again matches factory specs, and is purely to give me enough space for all my Final Cut Pro files and to get them off my Pro onto a permanent-ish home).
 
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