SATA III 4x PCI-E cards?

[Concorde Rules]

Going to be getting two SSDs now, so I need a controller card and I might aswell go SATA III at the same time to max out the Samsung 830 SSD I'm getting.

I've found this: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/highp...hdd-controller

But no idea if it works with OS X, it seems the RocketRAID version (nearly twice as much) has basic native drivers but I can't find anywhere the chipset used in the cheaper Rocket (non RAID) version.

Is anyone running a 4x PCI-E SATA III card?

(No posts about getting a 1x card, I don't see the point in upgrading to something that can't handle two SSDs at full chat!)

Cheers!

[All Taken]

Originally Posted by Concorde Rules

Going to be getting two SSDs now, so I need a controller card and I might aswell go SATA III at the same time to max out the Samsung 830 SSD I'm getting.

I've found this: http://www.scan.co.uk/products/highp...hdd-controller

But no idea if it works with OS X, it seems the RocketRAID version (nearly twice as much) has basic native drivers but I can't find anywhere the chipset used in the cheaper Rocket (non RAID) version.

Is anyone running a 4x PCI-E SATA III card?

(No posts about getting a 1x card, I don't see the point in upgrading to something that can't handle two SSDs at full chat!)

Cheers!

£55.82 inc delivery from https://www.systo.co.uk/highpoint-hi...ocket640l.html or £64.91 delivered from scan.

I got impatient waiting on a reply to this thread so googled a little and came back with this:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/231-review...raid-640l.html

It works with 10.8 much like its bigger brother. It's the perfect budget SATA 6 RAID 0 Card for the Mac Pro. Thanks op. Will be using 2 Samsung 830's in Raid 0. Any advice on power source and sata extension/redirection?

EDIT:

'We would like to point out a couple of things here at the end of the review. First of all, keep in mind that if you're using SSD's with the RocketRAID 640L you won't get TRIM support, so make sure you pick drives with good garbage collection that doesn't rely on TRIM. Secondly, the RocketRAID 640L isn't officially supported for use with OS X by HighPoint, but the card is the standard SATA sibling to the RocketRAID 644 Lite which is being sold as a four port eSATA solution for Mac Pros and the two cards share the same controller and driver."

The Rocket640L (Non hardware raid version) has been used in 10.8 by this user and he reports no issues:

"jzhang19 - October 26th, 2012, 12:15 PM
I got Rocket 640L, not RocketRAID 640L. Mountain Lion shows it as Hardware RAID device. I use 2x250GB WD hard drives to create RAID 0 (500GB). install Mountain Lion directly on Raid 0 volume. and boot directly from it wirhout any problem. I did not see any SCSI drives. only one RAID 0 volume in profiler. really happy with it."

[flatfoot]

Originally Posted by All Taken

£55.82 inc delivery from https://www.systo.co.uk/highpoint-hi...ocket640l.html or £64.91 delivered from scan.

I got impatient waiting on a reply to this thread so googled a little and came back with this:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/231-review...raid-640l.html

It works with 10.8 much like its bigger brother. It's the perfect budget SATA 6 RAID 0 Card for the Mac Pro. Thanks op. Will be using 2 Samsung 830's in Raid 0. Any advice on power source and sata extension/redirection?

EDIT:

'We would like to point out a couple of things here at the end of the review. First of all, keep in mind that if you're using SSD's with the RocketRAID 640L you won't get TRIM support, so make sure you pick drives with good garbage collection that doesn't rely on TRIM. Secondly, the RocketRAID 640L isn't officially supported for use with OS X by HighPoint, but the card is the standard SATA sibling to the RocketRAID 644 Lite which is being sold as a four port eSATA solution for Mac Pros and the two cards share the same controller and driver."

The Rocket640L (Non hardware raid version) has been used in 10.8 by this user and he reports no issues:

"jzhang19 - October 26th, 2012, 12:15 PM
I got Rocket 640L, not RocketRAID 640L. Mountain Lion shows it as Hardware RAID device. I use 2x250GB WD hard drives to create RAID 0 (500GB). install Mountain Lion directly on Raid 0 volume. and boot directly from it wirhout any problem. I did not see any SCSI drives. only one RAID 0 volume in profiler. really happy with it."

Sounds nice! I still wouldn't use the card's RAID functionality but configure the RAID 0 via Disk Utility. This way, if the HighPoint card dies, you can replace it with any other card. (In case the HighPoint card isn't available.)

[All Taken]

The card being talked about is the rocket 640l which is a non-raid card just sata 3 and software raid 0 and 1.

[All Taken]

UPDATE: After some more research this card is being marketed as a PCIe 4x card. Whilst it is true that it is built for a 4x slot, it is not true that it has 4x bandwidth.

The Marvel chip being used on the 640L is limited to 2x bandwidth making real world throughput around 1Gbps.

Real world testing has shown that 2 agility 3 SSDs in raid 0 deliver around 700Mbps read speeds. Thats not bad but not brilliant either.

My question now would be, is there a faster SATA 6 card available with support for OSX 10.8?

Highpoint seem to be pissing off quite a few customers who have purchased this product under the premise it's 4x, even their own website says it's a 4x card, technically it is in design but not in lanes.

[Concorde Rules]

Originally Posted by All Taken

UPDATE: After some more research this card is being marketed as a PCIe 4x card. Whilst it is true that it is built for a 4x slot, it is not true that it has 4x bandwidth.

The Marvel chip being used on the 640L is limited to 2x bandwidth making real world throughput around 1Gbps.

Real world testing has shown that 2 agility 3 SSDs in raid 0 deliver around 700Mbps read speeds. Thats not bad but not brilliant either.

My question now would be, is there a faster SATA 6 card available with support for OSX 10.8?

Highpoint seem to be pissing off quite a few customers who have purchased this product under the premise it's 4x, even their own website says it's a 4x card, technically it is in design but not in lanes.

What Marvel chip is it?

Does the RocketRAID version actually give full 4x bandwidth?

[xav8tor]

Originally Posted by All Taken

UPDATE:
Highpoint seem to be pissing off quite a few customers who have purchased this product under the premise it's 4x, even their own website says it's a 4x card, technically it is in design but not in lanes.

HighPoint is pissing off customers for a lot more reasons than that. They claim to have so many Mac products, but when you upgrade your OS, watch out! I'm still waiting on their 10.8 driver for the dual USB 3 card, promised months ago. To find that out, I had to send multiple emails to China and/or Taiwan, and repeatedly call their small USA sales office. Unless they make a 180 deg. turn in customer service and support, avoid them like the plague. Either buy from another vendor or do without.

[All Taken]

I went for this in the end, looks to be just the ticket. Can even add another SSD via the onboard SATA port and raid. http://www.expansys.com/apricorn-vel...gb-2-5-235130/

[Concorde Rules]

That doesn't really help, it still is only 2x across two drives. I need a proper 4x solution...

[All Taken]

Originally Posted by Concorde Rules

That doesn't really help, it still is only 2x across two drives. I need a proper 4x solution...

True, but buying two of either the Rocket640l or Velocity X2 could solve your problems?

Only other option I see is to use an expensive RAID card from Areca or similar.

[Concorde Rules]

Originally Posted by All Taken

True, but buying two of either the Rocket640l or Velocity X2 could solve your problems?

Only other option I see is to use an expensive RAID card from Areca or similar.

Well, I have been looking at reviews and am thinking of buying the Rocket 640L.

It will allow me to max out one decent SSD. I'll plug my backup disk into it too leaving me with a free drive bay by putting the 3.5" disk in the lower bay.

[All Taken]

Originally Posted by Concorde Rules

Well, I have been looking at reviews and am thinking of buying the Rocket 640L.

It will allow me to max out one decent SSD. I'll plug my backup disk into it too leaving me with a free drive bay by putting the 3.5" disk in the lower bay.

Keep in mind that it is not bootable.

[Concorde Rules]

Originally Posted by All Taken

Keep in mind that it is not bootable.

According to others it is. Otherwise, it is back to the drawing board.