(RAID) Two quick Q and new product -- CALDIGIT RAID CARD

[phildog33]

Hey everyone,

Ive been waiting to buy the Apple raid card for a while now.
Ive always wanted Raid 5 with 5 drives or more and the apple card only letting me do four internal....


1) How is this Caldigit card
http://www.caldigit.com/RAIDCard/

Looks really cool.. Its the same as Apples (battery backup, cache, good specs) but then lets you use external drives as well.. up to 16 of them.. perfect

2a) Whats the best way to utilize that extra bay under the optical drive? I dont need another DVD burner.... Is it worth it to change HD1 with a 10,000 rpm drive.. lower capacity for much better performance?

2b) Related to above.. ON the apple raid card or the caldigit.. can one of the extra sata ports with cable ( HD located under the optical drive)... be utilized in the RAID setup... Or do HDs have to be hard plugged into the MB?


Im using now all Hitachi 1TB drives and just straight SATA. Speed is good and space is good. I know Raid 5 will double my speed... but that 10,000 rpm 160gb boot drive.. is it worth it???

P


Im using all Hitachi 1tB drives connected just SATA now

[phildog33]

after resesarching, it seems that the caldigit does everything the Apple card does but its cheaper and adds ext ports

p

[sirris101]

Features and price-wise, I too am excited about the CalDigit card. Unfortunately, it's not for sale yet.

I call CalDigit and they said soon. I also asked if it would work natively in Mac OS X. The guy said yes and I asked how. I seemed to gather that it would use the same drivers as the Apple card, but have the added benefit of also working in Windows.

For me, this was a clear win for CalDigit vs. the Apple card. CalDigit gives you Windows and Mac support, external ports for about half the price.

[Virtuoso]

ON the apple raid card or the caldigit.. can one of the extra sata ports with cable ( HD located under the optical drive)... be utilized in the RAID setup...

No - one of the CalDigit guys confirmed in a post on CreativeCow (http://forums.creativecow.net/forum/caldigit) that it won't use the extra motherboard ports. They expect to be shipping them in a couple of weeks. I'll be getting one as soon as they're available.

[Mastershredder]

Does anyone know the estimated cost?

[Jonny427]

Well if they say half the cost of the apple raid card, then i'm guessing $400. However, if you plan on running 5 SCSI drives, i dont think you'll care so so much over 1-200 bucks :p

[Pressure]

That is indeed very promising! :)

Looking forward to seeing the first review.

[Sharky1337]

Features and price-wise, I too am excited about the CalDigit card. Unfortunately, it's not for sale yet.

I call CalDigit and they said soon. I also asked if it would work natively in Mac OS X. The guy said yes and I asked how. I seemed to gather that it would use the same drivers as the Apple card, but have the added benefit of also working in Windows.

For me, this was a clear win for CalDigit vs. the Apple card. CalDigit gives you Windows and Mac support, external ports for about half the price.

Did they say it would just work in Mac OS X, or is it like the Apple Raid card where you can actually boot from the Raid card's internal drives?

[phildog33]

adorama is selling them now.. for $520

[Qjuu]

I'd be interested in knowing if this raid card has the same sleep issues as Apple's raid card! I've called Apple's tech hotline and got an affirmation: Mac Pro won't sleep with Apples raid card! Any information about the Caldigit card about this subject?

And, will it be sold in europe?? Did't found any hint about that.

[sirris101]

Did they say it would just work in Mac OS X, or is it like the Apple Raid card where you can actually boot from the Raid card's internal drives?

I'm not entirely sure, but they guy the phone seemed to lead me to believe that it work for a boot drive in Mac OS.

I want to be clear on pricing: my half off guess was just an estimation. Whatever the final price will be, it will be less than the Apple RAID card.

[phildog33]

Its being sold now.. check here

http://www.adorama.com/CDN760600.html?searchinfo=caldigit&item_no=19

[toke lahti]

Can OsX be booted from external disks with this card and does it support s.m.a.r.t. from those external disks?

[jb60606]

I don't own this card yet, but I'm sold on it. I've even heard great things about their lower-end SATA cards (great speed, above all).

And look at it this way -- with the HDs in an external enclosure, there's less heat inside your Mac Pro.

[Rick Here]

I don't own this card yet, but I'm sold on it. I've even heard great things about their lower-end SATA cards (great speed, above all).

And look at it this way -- with the HDs in an external enclosure, there's less heat inside your Mac Pro.

Beware - The Cal Digit card
Note: Does not currently work in an 8-Core machine. CalDigit is working on a fix...
http://www.powermax.com/parts/code/PM_ST_CC

Does anyone know what the battery backup option costs?
I bet it is a few hundred dollars.
This is absolutely needed for RAID5 operation. Without the battery you are exposed to data loss.

[phildog33]

wow.. thanks for pointing out before we all purchased them.. lets wait then

[phildog33]

just ps. i called them today and its delayed another month

now shipping in June

Phillip

[Play4keeps]

wow.. thanks for pointing out before we all purchased them.. lets wait then

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempo_sata_e4p.html

[brand]

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempo_sata_e4p.html

That card is not even a comparison to the Caldigit card.

[nanofrog]

I've been having difficulties finding the right RAID card myself.

The CalDigit card looks to be a decent card. It will boot in OS X, Windows Vista, and Linux.

The site indicates one small caveat though. A separate boot drive is required when using Boot Camp. This is a problem for me, but may be the only choice in the end.

Sonnet cards cannot be booted off of. Driver support only. Other than that, they work well.

The other possibility I've located, is Areca's ARC-1680 or ARC-1212 or 1222 series cards. These will also boot, but currently they are having problems with Boot Camp and haven't yet figured it out according to an e-mail I just received.

If anyone knows of any other possible cards, please list them.

P.S. CalDigit is currently accepting phone orders as well. (5/5/08 anyway ).

[mgsarch]

The CalDigit card is still unavailable, I was just told June release date. This is pushed back from their claim of an April release date.

If the card matches their claims (which exceed the Apple Raid card) why can't they manage a release? There is hype surrounding this card on many forums yet no one has even seen one. I'm starting to become very skeptical of CalDigit and I'm worried my own enthusiasm was just some viral part of this hype mechanism.

I'm going to go with the Highpoint, I'm looking for a good price and the card is out in the wild and working. Do I really want the first batch of a brand new card that can't seem to make deadlines without any apparent reason?

[funckdren]

phildog33:

You may know this already - your initial post was a little unclear - but here's an option for utilizing your extra optical bay, freeing up all four internal bays to run the CalDigit RAID card.

http://www.transintl.com/store/category.cfm?Category=2704&RequestTimeOut=500

[Fuji2008]

I've been having difficulties finding the right RAID card myself.

The CalDigit card looks to be a decent card. It will boot in OS X, Windows Vista, and Linux.

The site indicates one small caveat though. A separate boot drive is required when using Boot Camp. This is a problem for me, but may be the only choice in the end.

Sonnet cards cannot be booted off of. Driver support only. Other than that, they work well.

The other possibility I've located, is Areca's ARC-1680 or ARC-1212 or 1222 series cards. These will also boot, but currently they are having problems with Boot Camp and haven't yet figured it out according to an e-mail I just received.

If anyone knows of any other possible cards, please list them.

P.S. CalDigit is currently accepting phone orders as well. (5/5/08 anyway ).

I am on the same boat. And I believe I am going to get ARC-1680 rather than waiting for caldigit. Now, I saw this FAQ post in ARECA's page.
http://faq.areca.com.tw/modules/smartfaq/faq.php?faqid=353
And I assume it is probably you that asked this question :-)
Have you got any more information as to "a problem" with bootcamp?
What is exactly the problem they are having?
Is there any chance that the recent EFI firmware update solves the issue?

Well, the issue with bootcamp may not be a correct way to phrase the situation. Maybe they are having an issue with CSM in Apple's EFI.
Anyway, I would really like to get their update. Please ping them to get us more info!

[nanofrog]

I am on the same boat. And I believe I am going to get ARC-1680 rather than waiting for caldigit. Now, I saw this FAQ post in ARECA's page.
http://faq.areca.com.tw/modules/smartfaq/faq.php?faqid=353
And I assume it is probably you that asked this question :-)
Have you got any more information as to "a problem" with bootcamp?
What is exactly the problem they are having?
Is there any chance that the recent EFI firmware update solves the issue?

Well, the issue with bootcamp may not be a correct way to phrase the situation. Maybe they are having an issue with CSM in Apple's EFI.
Anyway, I would really like to get their update. Please ping them to get us more info!


Yes, that would have been my question. (I sent it as an e-mail). I've also contacted them on the ARC-1222 about the same issue. The response as expected, was the same.

The details weren't given. They only stated that at this time, it will not work with Boot Camp. This is a deal breaker for me. I have software that just isn't available for a Mac, and need the ability to use Boot Camp. (The program is a resource hog on its own, and would be compounded in Fusion/Parallels). Though I'll still try it! :p

My original post was on 5/11/2008, so I wanted to give them ample time to solve the problem. (Keeping fingers crossed).

The CalDigit card will work, but there are limitations. An OS drive must be used, and attached as a JBOD, leaving only three available internal drives for RAID. According to a person I spoke with, I could, and would likely use the original SFF-8087 connector on the logic board to attach the OS drive, one for a blu ray (replace the stock Super Drive), and two for eSATA. You cannot boot the OS from the RAID itself with this one, if you are so inclined.

At this point, another month is no big deal. I've already put off buying anything because of all this mess. (Switching sucks! :eek:) I think I will wait until Jan 2009 for the MacPro update. Enough time should pass at that point for the RAID vendors to sort out the bugs. :)

[dollystereo]

High Point Technologies have nice cards to, they are axtremely fast and reliable.

[nanofrog]

High Point Technologies have nice cards to, they are axtremely fast and reliable.

Depends on what you need.

For now, the RocketRAID 2640x4 is the only SAS/SATA II controller they build. It doesn't compare directly with the ARC-1680, ARC-1222, or CalDigit RAID card.

No built in cache
No battery option
No RAID level 50, 6, 60
No EFI support (Only BIOS support listed on website)
No external ports (future expansion/ increase RAID array)

For me, these are needed.

From what I could tell on other models, they tend to also lack cache and battery specs as well, at a minimum.

Again, the listed differences may or may not mean anything, depending on what someone needs. Or expect to need in the near future.

Hope this helps.

[nanofrog]

High Point Technologies have nice cards to, they are axtremely fast and reliable.

Hi dollystereo:

I just got a reply from High Point.

________________________________
Dear Dave, thank you for your interest in our RocketRAID 3000 series controller for your Mac Pro. There's good news and bad in regards your questions.

1) Yes, Mac OS X is bootable to RAID Array attached to the RR3000 series controllers. You can boot Mac OS X to any supported RAID level (0,13,5,6,10, 50 and JBOD)

2) Boot camp does not work with our RocketRAID controller. Since the Mac Pro needs a firmware update to support booting to Mac OS X, this means booting to Boot Camp partition is not possible. I won't bore you with the details but the booting to Mac OS X requires EFI firmware and Boot Camp requires a non-EFI firmware on our controller to boot to Windows.

Regards

HighPoint Support
_________________________

Number 2 is a problem for me, and others that have posted in other threads.
Other than the Boot Camp issues, the RocketRAID series offers a good value for some.

Thanks,
Nanofrog.