External Thunderbolt with 4 bays needed

[musio]

Is there anything out there for a good price? I need more than 8TB.
Tossing up if i should use a USB 3.0 instead which are really cheap

[Chris5488]

Promise Pegasus R4

Link to Apple store: http://store.apple.com/us/product/H5...tb-raid-system

You can buy an empty one and fill it yourself with the drives you need.
It's the only Thunderbolt device I could find. Others are USB3.0.

However, it's a lot cheaper to buy a NAS and connect it to your gigabit-network using ethernet-cables while your computer is also connected to your network using ethernet-cables. It'll be blazing fast too.

[MCAsan]

LaCie 4kbig quadra. I use LaCie 2big 6tb thunderbolt running as 3tb raid 1 mirrored.

[musio]

MC, that's USB 2.0 and I need more than 8tb.

Chris, thanks for checking but the Pegasus looks expensive. It's a shame g raid don't do a 4 bay TB/USB 3 unit.

Didn't want a NAS on the network at all. Hoping for a DAS. Maybe a drobo

[chambord]

Originally Posted by musio

MC, that's USB 2.0 and I need more than 8tb.

Chris, thanks for checking but the Pegasus looks expensive. It's a shame g raid don't do a 4 bay TB/USB 3 unit.

Didn't want a NAS on the network at all. Hoping for a DAS. Maybe a drobo

Have a look at Datoptic.

http://www.datoptic.com/data-storage...subsystem.html

Their stuff actually gets really good reviews, and it's all hardware. Very nice. And extremely well priced.

[MCAsan]

MC, that's USB 2.0 and I need more than 8tb.

LaCie 4big Quadra USB 3.0
4-Bay RAID | USB 3.0 | FireWire 800
Built for Pros. Performance and Security for All.
USB 3.0 Speed: Up to 245MB/s
Multi-interface for PC/Mac compatibility
RAID 5 and hot-swap for speed with security
Aluminum enclosure and quiet operation
Capacity : 8TB or 12TB


http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10601

[jmcgeejr]

Originally Posted by musio

Is there anything out there for a good price? I need more than 8TB.
Tossing up if i should use a USB 3.0 instead which are really cheap

Not to sound like a dick but did anyone read the part about GOOD PRICE, so far the only recommendations I have seen are around $800USD and more. I must be in the wrong tax bracket if that's what you guys consider a good price

[JesterJJZ]

Originally Posted by jmcgeejr

Not to sound like a dick but did anyone read the part about GOOD PRICE, so far the only recommendations I have seen are around $800USD and more. I must be in the wrong tax bracket if that's what you guys consider a good price

TB/eSATA/USB3 for $800 is a steal...

Not to counter-dick, but you do realize you still need to fill whatever bay you get with decent hard drives right? Those are going to cost you three times that. You really shouldn't be using standard drives in a RAID5. WD RE drives or Hitachi Ultrastars is what you are looking at.

[chambord]

Originally Posted by jmcgeejr

Not to sound like a dick but did anyone read the part about GOOD PRICE, so far the only recommendations I have seen are around $800USD and more. I must be in the wrong tax bracket if that's what you guys consider a good price

I agree that it sounds very expensive, but I Agree with Jester. $800 for TB/USB3/eSATA with a built in RAID controller is awesome. When it comes to big data storage, you do have to pay to play. I've been looking into this for over a year, and have gone back and forth with buying a pre-built solution versus building a NAS, and for me I really want a DAS like this, and I want something rock solid. I'm also paranoid, so when I build mine I'm going to have to double up. So I'm looking at

$850 enclosure
5 x $200 (at least) HD's
Total = $1850

Then double that, for double storage = $3700. Ouch. But that would give redundant 15 - 20 Tb storage.

[g4cube]

Originally Posted by jmcgeejr

Not to sound like a dick but did anyone read the part about GOOD PRICE, so far the only recommendations I have seen are around $800USD and more. I must be in the wrong tax bracket if that's what you guys consider a good price

Define good price, and more people may be able to help guide you to a solution.

Check out ebay for used large capacity drives, and then ask yourself why such a large drive is being offered at a lower price than a new drive.

there are deals to be had for 1TB, 2TB, and 3TB bare drives, but 4TB drives are still a premium. Have seen new 3TB for $140 and 4TB for $280.

Time to move into that higher tax bracket to get what you want.

[flynz4]

Originally Posted by JesterJJZ

TB/eSATA/USB3 for $800 is a steal...

Not to counter-dick, but you do realize you still need to fill whatever bay you get with decent hard drives right? Those are going to cost you three times that. You really shouldn't be using standard drives in a RAID5. WD RE drives or Hitachi Ultrastars is what you are looking at.

Agree... you really should have enterprise drives for RAID. They have better command queueing depth and other features that can prevent issues.

My Pegasus R4 comes with four 2TB Hitachi Ultrastars. They also warn against using non-enterprise drives... and have a published drive compatibility list.

/Jim

[Joseph Farrugia]

To the thread starter:

As has already been pointed out "enterprise drives" are recommended.
If you can live with cycling/rotating individual drives, the Seagate GoFlex Desk Thunderbolt adapter is great & has a secondary TB pass through.
It also works great with 3.5" & 2.5" bare drives (not necessarily enterprise grade) as well as SSDs, which you can cycle/rotate on a regular basis, using CCC/SuperDuper as well as TM.

Hope this helps,
JF

[Mr. Retrofire]

Originally Posted by JesterJJZ

You really shouldn't be using standard drives in a RAID5. WD RE drives or Hitachi Ultrastars is what you are looking at.

Or WD Red.

[chambord]

Lacie just released this. 5 x TB storage.

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10607

It's actually pretty damn well priced!

edit: bah, that sucks. No raid 5. FAIL!

[Tanax]

Originally Posted by chambord

Lacie just released this. 5 x TB storage.

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10607

It's actually pretty damn well priced!

edit: bah, that sucks. No raid 5. FAIL!

Wow, with user-servicable disks! Too bad it can't be ordered "empty". Otherwise I'd probably jump on that one! Stylish, elegant, seems very good and easy to upgrade!

A shame it doesn't have RAID 5 but RAID 1 is pretty good too, although you lose more storage.

[JesterJJZ]

Originally Posted by Mr. Retrofire

Or WD Red.

Not if you're looking for performance. those RED drives like like server grade Green drives. Variable spindle speed rotation isn't something you want in a high performance RAID.

[chambord]

Originally Posted by Tanax

Wow, with user-servicable disks! Too bad it can't be ordered "empty". Otherwise I'd probably jump on that one! Stylish, elegant, seems very good and easy to upgrade!

A shame it doesn't have RAID 5 but RAID 1 is pretty good too, although you lose more storage.

How would RAID1 work with 5 drives though?

[Tanax]

Originally Posted by chambord

How would RAID1 work with 5 drives though?

On the product page they list the different RAID configurations, you can view them on the link that was posted in this thread!

[chambord]

Originally Posted by Tanax

On the product page they list the different RAID configurations, you can view them on the link that was posted in this thread!

Ahhh. Thank you, I went to the product page and viewed the configs. That makes sense, I hadn't considered using multiple smaller configs. I think I'd still opt for the Datoptic thunderbolt RAID015 unit posted earlier in this thread.

**** man, the lack of USB3 just kills me on my macs. To get comparable speeds it's such a big upgrade to go to thunderbolt that it just adds hundreds and hudnreds to the price. That datoptic unit is $200 more expensive in thunderbolt, so if I got two of them, it's $400 extra. For that I may as well upgrade my Mac mini server to a new unit w/ USB3 and sell the old one. I'd probably come out ahead that way.

[musio]

Shame you can't buy it empty!

[jmcgeejr]

Originally Posted by musio

Shame you can't buy it empty!

If you could buy it empty for $500 I would drop the cash on it.

[g4cube]

Originally Posted by musio

Shame you can't buy it empty!

Not really much of a premium. Sell the drives you don't want on ebay, then stuff with you own drives.

Or wait for the typical reseller discounts when it ships in volume.

Compare to the price of an empty j4 or drobo.

[TigerClaw27]

Originally Posted by g4cube

...
Compare to the price of an empty j4 or drobo.

What is the price for an empty j4? I haven't been able to find it anywhere.

[qamaro]

Originally Posted by TigerClaw27

What is the price for an empty j4? I haven't been able to find it anywhere.

Promise J4 (empty) on Amazon

[hfg]

Originally Posted by Chris5488

Promise Pegasus R4

Link to Apple store: http://store.apple.com/us/product/H5...tb-raid-system

You can buy an empty one and fill it yourself with the drives you need.
It's the only Thunderbolt device I could find. Others are USB3.0.

However, it's a lot cheaper to buy a NAS and connect it to your gigabit-network using ethernet-cables while your computer is also connected to your network using ethernet-cables. It'll be blazing fast too.

Where can an empty Pegasus R4 be purchased?

I have a Drobo full of drives I would like to transfer to a R4.