RAID Enclosure

[OneArmedScissor]

I have had my eye on this particular enclosure to sit next to my new mac pro. Although i have had some speculation of whether or not it will be compatible with OSX. According to the model number and the original manufacturer's website, it says that the enclosure is compatible.

http://www.cfienclosure.com/8283XR.html

Now i am aware that one cannot purchase direct from this website, so i found the enclosure on another supplier's site and i am wondering if this will still be compatible with my mac pro, with regard to the fact that it says "windows only" here:

http://tecvine.com/cf8bayesrapc3.html

Im very interested in this particular enclosure, especially the price.

Thanks.

[bigbossbmb]

nope, you have to find one with a PCIe controller not the older PCI-X.

edit: looking at that second page again, it says PCI-Express in one place and PCI-X in 2... I'm a little suspicious of that.

[OneArmedScissor]

alright. Well with that said, lets say i got the stand-alone enclosure:

http://tecvine.com/cf8bayespomu1.html

what would be a good eSATA card that would make this baby work?

[supercooled]

Get it from the same site. I would get the Raid version.

[OneArmedScissor]

it says that the PCI-Express version that includes the card doesnt support OSX. Although the PCI-X version does support OSX, although the mac pro wont take that card. So if i got the stand-alone enclosure couldnt i get a native mac card that would work fine with it?

[OneArmedScissor]

so lets say i just bought this http://tecvine.com/cf8bayespomu1.html

so i would be looking for a card to work with it, what about this? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124004
or this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115041

[bigbossbmb]

neither of those support port multipliers.... those cards are one port per drive.

[OneArmedScissor]

the rocket raid says "(PM) Port Multiplier Ready" in the specs; is that not the same thing?

[Play4keeps]

Im using this they have been around some time it works great
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempo_sata_e4p.html

[OneArmedScissor]

i am stuck between these two:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/447613-REG/CalDigit_FASTA_2E_FASTA_2e_2_Port_PCI_Express.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/481960-REG/Sonnet_TSATAII_E2P_Tempo_SATA_E2P_2_Port.html

[supercooled]

Have you decided which card to get? I'm thinking of following suit but I'll take mine in black, thank you very much.

One quick query; is eSATA faster than FW800 or comparable? I have had a lot of negative feedback from USB2 and would like to avoid it.

If you need to order cables, go to monoprice.

[bigbossbmb]

i am stuck between these two:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/447613-REG/CalDigit_FASTA_2E_FASTA_2e_2_Port_PCI_Express.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/481960-REG/Sonnet_TSATAII_E2P_Tempo_SATA_E2P_2_Port.html

Yeah, missed the PM in the specs on the newegg page...

neither of these two cards do hardware RAID, just software

Caldigit is a very good company and just released a RAID card which sells for about $550. It even works with the 4 internal bays.

[BuzzLightyear]

For what it's worth, AMUG has some pretty good reviews of various RAID cards and encloures. (http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/reviews.html) Might be worth checking out if you haven't already.

[supercooled]

quick question: why did Apple Abandone PCI-x for pci-e?