Given the quote of a $6000 computer. There target audience is the Mac Pro owner. So why not make it more compelling?
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Other World Computing Building Pricey 3.5" 2TB SSD for Desktop Workstations
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If you're that one person in the world who uses a workstation with his head stuck in the enclosure instead of looking at the screen, yes
I've always wondered why there was no 3.5" SSD until now. More space would mean more room for organized circuits and heat dispersion. It seemed self-explanatory that higher-voltage high-performance and capacity SSDs would be possible in the traditional desktop drive format, yet no one made one until now!
Even better: external with Thunderbolt (2 for daisy-chain) and USB 3 to boot Mac. That is full SSD for the ultimate performance and high price.
But also as hybrid Fusion Drive external Mac booting ones using the highest possible capacities for Desktop and Mobile HD.
But also as hybrid Fusion Drive external Mac booting ones using the highest possible capacities for Desktop and Mobile HD.
The price is scary but you've got to admit it's pretty cool. Let the early adopters take the hit for now, I'll stick with my fast RAID.
1.) You guys are all speaking some sort of alien language to me.
2.) I don't know what an SSD does--I know what it stands for, but that's about it.
3.) What I DO know is that I sent my Mac Mini to OWC a couple of years ago. They gutted it, shoved some other stuff in, added a bunch of other bells & whistles and sent it back. I can't tell you what I CAN'T do with this monster. They've made me a customer for LIFE.
2.) I don't know what an SSD does--I know what it stands for, but that's about it.
3.) What I DO know is that I sent my Mac Mini to OWC a couple of years ago. They gutted it, shoved some other stuff in, added a bunch of other bells & whistles and sent it back. I can't tell you what I CAN'T do with this monster. They've made me a customer for LIFE.
OWC Blue, luckily it goes inside the computer!
looks like a Lego Brick minus the pimples.one could always use a Newertech voyager and have it on display, at least no one will nick it!
Probably looks better in the flesh but if its made of aluminium it would have been better the natural colour.
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And this would have matched up well with ZFS. Is apple still doing anything to replace the file system with ZFS or a similar? The rumor was they abandoned it a couple years ago due to licensing issues.
If people want this drive let them have it.
I was far more interested in the PCI cards that hosted 2-4 2.5" drives. Whether the card was smart or required software RAID.
I think a decent PCI drive host card that can be seated in an "adapter" that can use USB 3 and Tbolt would be a neat trick. There already are some PCI cards that can host 2.5" drives and its a shame it hasn't advance much further other than still be expensive.
I was far more interested in the PCI cards that hosted 2-4 2.5" drives. Whether the card was smart or required software RAID.
I think a decent PCI drive host card that can be seated in an "adapter" that can use USB 3 and Tbolt would be a neat trick. There already are some PCI cards that can host 2.5" drives and its a shame it hasn't advance much further other than still be expensive.
Okay.
But this is at least two of those. If it's not one solid "brick" of memory, then it's going to have a controller, plus the chassis and OWC's name on it ...
I still don't think you're looking at anything under $1,500.
And is that other 1TB SSD shipping yet?
The entire idea of places a large FLAS storage ion the end of a SATA interface is just a "stop gap" measure. From a design stand point it is a silly waste of expensive FLASH/
The best way is to put the FLASH directly on the PCIe bus with no SATA. But then you can't sell it to people with existing Mac Pros. The non-optimal design s just for marketing to owners of existing computers
The best way to go is to write a block storage driver for FLASH that is directly attached to the bus. It might look and work more like a high end video card and have higher bandwidth then a disk interface would allow.
Notice how Apple is NOT using flash that is pushed into the form factor of a disk. You only need to do that if selling into the after market. The disk-like form factor only adds weight, bulk and cost.
To those who wantto use this in a NAS: "What's the point?" the NAS' speed in limited by the Ethernet cable which for many of use in "only" 1000 bits per second. You can already build a NAS that hits this limit using just low speed disk drives.
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There is no point in building a fast NAS with FLASH, not until your install 10G ethernet to the desktop and even with 10G you can still do that with disks if you buy enough of them. Flash does make a nice cache. It can hold pending writes or read aheads
The best way is to put the FLASH directly on the PCIe bus with no SATA. But then you can't sell it to people with existing Mac Pros. The non-optimal design s just for marketing to owners of existing computers
The best way to go is to write a block storage driver for FLASH that is directly attached to the bus. It might look and work more like a high end video card and have higher bandwidth then a disk interface would allow.
Notice how Apple is NOT using flash that is pushed into the form factor of a disk. You only need to do that if selling into the after market. The disk-like form factor only adds weight, bulk and cost.
To those who wantto use this in a NAS: "What's the point?" the NAS' speed in limited by the Ethernet cable which for many of use in "only" 1000 bits per second. You can already build a NAS that hits this limit using just low speed disk drives.
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There is no point in building a fast NAS with FLASH, not until your install 10G ethernet to the desktop and even with 10G you can still do that with disks if you buy enough of them. Flash does make a nice cache. It can hold pending writes or read aheads
Chris, a pci-e card does make sense whether it is directly on the card or as I stated above, a card that hosts 2-4 2.5" drives (perhaps another interface than SATA). Either the card goes into a Mac Pro or an external case to TBOLT. I find that the entire TBOLT exercise has been a tremendous waste of people's monies as it really is not accessible to the masses at the current pricing. In some sense, Apple did screw its fan base by pushing TBOLT before USB 3 and now we see a new USB 3 that is reasonably faster than the present incarnation. I just hope they are less costly than TBOLT and hopefully beat SATA out.
Sounds like it might cost under $1,500 then...
Sure hope it does RAID 0 for increased speed - with 4 drives, we're at 2 GB/sec !!!
Sure hope it does RAID 0 for increased speed - with 4 drives, we're at 2 GB/sec !!!
Neither thunderbolt nor usb3.0 gives better performance than sata in real world use. The drives inside these enclosures are almost always sata based so it has to have the signal converted anyways. SATA and eSATA drives give much better real world performance and have the added benefit of having no limitations on being use for boot drives and needing special drivers.
SATA 3 has a 6 GBit/s transfer rate, if the cable supports this speed. That meansArsTechnica said:
((6 GBit/s / 8) / 100) * 80 = 600000000 Byte/s = 600 MByte/s
8 = Bits in one Byte
SATA uses 8/10 bit encoding = 8 bits data in a 10 bit symbol.
Others here @macrumors tested 1 TB (software) RAID 0 configurations (2x512 GB Samsung 830 or 840 Pro, IIRC) and got transfer rates of 1 GByte/s. I'm sure the next generation of Samsung SSDs (850 Pro?) supports speeds higher than SATA 3, which means you need either
a) a new computer, which supports the new interface, or
b) a card for your computer, which supports the new interface.
I'm using one of the OWC Accelsior PCI-e drives in my Mac Pro - crazy fast - gotta love a company like OWC pushing things forward for Mac users. The Viper will be pricey based on both its capacity and the small production numbers. Definitely fits the bill for folks pushing maxed out desktop systems.