I read the drive compatibility list and it does not list anything beyond 256GB, but have any of you tried to load one up with a 500GB SSD? Howard??
I read the drive compatibility list and it does not list anything beyond 256GB, but have any of you tried to load one up with a 500GB SSD? Howard??
I read the drive compatibility list and it does not list anything beyond 256GB, but have any of you tried to load one up with a 500GB SSD? Howard??
I take the "compatibility list" to indicate the drives Promise Technology has actually bought and tested and does not indicate that drives not on the list won't work! Since large SSD drives are expensive, they may not have wanted to devote the resources (time and money) to test them.
Keep in mind, it is just a simple SATA-III interface and Thunderbolt interface.
I think the driver issue is with the Thunderbolt interface. I don't know how other Thunderbolt enclosures support this, unless they use a chip that Apple supports natively in the EFI, so that the driver is available at boot before the external data starts loading.
I am still pretty impressed with the Pegasus J4 here ...
-howard
Guys, I too really like the J4... just needs a little more work, I hope! I'll definitely buy another. It was even quiet!!Since Thunderbolt is (basically) a PCI express extension cable, this method should also work for the J4 - if correctly implemented. I requested support from Promise about the lack of boot capability of the J4 in connection with the MacMini (Late 2012) I am testing. They stated that the J4 is bootable and I should complain to Apple. When I told them I wasn't sure if Apple alone was to blame (mentioning the EFI boot rom), they promised to look at the boot problem again.
Me too. It would just be really nice if I could put the boot drive in the J4, too. This way, I could use a spare MacMini as a "cold standby" and if one of my MacMini server breaks down due to a hardware failure, I could change over the J4 Thunderbolt cable to the spare and be up and running again in an instant.
The only potential technical issue that I could imagine is the higher power consumption of 512 GB drives (e.g. the Samsung 830 uses up to 6W of power). This was a problem with the Seagate adapter, but the J4 has a well-dimensioned power supply...
As of this moment I am testing a J4 with two Samsung 830 (512GB) SSDs and two 1 TB rotating drives, and I will hook up another one with a quartet of 830 (512GB) SSDs tomorrow to see how it fares.
Sequential speeds between the MacMini and one Samsung 830 in the J4 are up to 350MB/sec for writing and 524MB/sec for reading (>32MB Transfer size).
I will later try and fill the drive and do an integrity test.
Actually, it is a SAS controller which is also compatible with SATA-III. Check the System Profiler: the attached drives are listed in the SAS section, not SATA. This could be somewhat problematic since I don't know if the OS (and other tools) have access to S.M.A.R.T. information and to the fact if a LUN is an SSD or a rotational drive (and adjust themselves accordingly).
Actually, an EFI boot driver can be embedded in the controller firmware, which is how a MacPro boots from drives attached to a supported SAS PCI express host bus adapter. After all, the "E" in "Firmware Interface" is supposed to mean "Extensible"...
Since Thunderbolt is (basically) a PCI express extension cable, this method should also work for the J4 - if correctly implemented. I requested support from Promise about the lack of boot capability of the J4 in connection with the MacMini (Late 2012) I am testing. They stated that the J4 is bootable and I should complain to Apple. When I told them I wasn't sure if Apple alone was to blame (mentioning the EFI boot rom), they promised to look at the boot problem again.
Me too. It would just be really nice if I could put the boot drive in the J4, too. This way, I could use a spare MacMini as a "cold standby" and if one of my MacMini server breaks down due to a hardware failure, I could change over the J4 Thunderbolt cable to the spare and be up and running again in an instant.
The only potential technical issue that I could imagine is the higher power consumption of 512 GB drives (e.g. the Samsung 830 uses up to 6W of power). This was a problem with the Seagate adapter, but the J4 has a well-dimensioned power supply...
As of this moment I am testing a J4 with two Samsung 830 (512GB) SSDs and two 1 TB rotating drives, and I will hook up another one with a quartet of 830 (512GB) SSDs tomorrow to see how it fares.
Sequential speeds between the MacMini and one Samsung 830 in the J4 are up to 350MB/sec for writing and 524MB/sec for reading (>32MB Transfer size).
I will later try and fill the drive and do an integrity test.
So you are successfully using a 512GB SSD in the J4? The 840 Pro uses 1W of power http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147194
Sounds like Promise should test this and make it official so they can open that market
Guys, I too really like the J4... just needs a little more work, I hope! I'll definitely buy another. It was even quiet!!
I don't know if you all caught this, but my MacBookPro could work fine with the J4 on boot, even with a Samsung 840 256Mb SSD in it. I posted TESTING for it. The J4 did NOT boot with the new late 2012 iMac; holding the option key didn't work, and the Sammy SSD didn't show up. Once booted, it showed on the desktop.
I'm using a Backup Plus Desktop adapter, which shows up and works everywhere, Mac and Win7.
Just sayin...
Les