2012 27" iMac SATA options?

DrJack6 said:

I asked Apple and they said "We don't release that information."

I know the 2011 has 2 SATA III ports and 1 SATA II port.

What are the SATA options in the new 2012?

Really want to upgrade because the GTX card but I won't get it if I can't put my 2 OWC SSDs in SATA III RAID....

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I chat with the tech at DATOptic via Online chat. He said DATOptic will release a TBolt to 4x eSATA 6Gb/s module very soon
It is in final state

one SATA III connector for the HDD models and onboard flash card for SSD Storage.
Will have to use Thunderbolt devices

FireWire2 said:

I chat with the tech at DATOptic via Online chat. He said DATOptic will release a TBolt to 4x eSATA 6Gb/s module very soon
It is in final state

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Awesome News! This info is hard to come by...
I just finally got my two 5-bay burly's connected via USB3 internal port multiplier card upgrade. Almost dropped $1000 on TB to PCI-X chassis and eSATA Card. Almost bought the WD my book TB duo just to get drives hooked up and get back to work. I am not super excited about the USB3 interface yet - can't Hot Swap Drives, AND if you have a drive acting up, it can make all of the drives in the enclosure act strange. Did the tech say if this will support Port Multiplier??? That's the million dollar question. And how much???

Aqueous said:

Awesome News! This info is hard to come by...
I just finally got my two 5-bay burly's connected via USB3 internal port multiplier card upgrade. Almost dropped $1000 on TB to PCI-X chassis and eSATA Card. Almost bought the WD my book TB duo just to get drives hooked up and get back to work. I am not super excited about the USB3 interface yet - can't Hot Swap Drives, AND if you have a drive acting up, it can make all of the drives in the enclosure act strange. Did the tech say if this will support Port Multiplier??? That's the million dollar question. And how much???

Click to expand...

Base on the tech told me

- Four eSATA 6Gb/s
- Support ONE Port Multiplier connection ???! <-- Dont understand why
- Support HW RAID 0, 1, 10 on direct connect
- No driver install on OS X

Don't know the price yet! I would guess about 300 - 400's range
Hard to believe what he said
When it release then I believe it

FireWire2 said:

Base on the tech told me

- Four eSATA 6Gb/s
- Support ONE Port Multiplier connection ???! <-- Dont understand why
- Support HW RAID 0, 1, 10 on direct connect
- No driver install on OS X

Don't know the price yet! I would guess about 300 - 400's range
Hard to believe what he said
When it release then I believe it

Click to expand...

Hhmmmm, very interesting... I hope it supports Port Multiplier!! I thought the Sonnet TB to PCI-E adapter would work out, even at 3Gbs but it will only attach 2 individual drives, so scrapped that idea. Just a matter of time I guess. Thanks for the info!

Aqueous said:

Hhmmmm, very interesting... I hope it supports Port Multiplier!! I thought the Sonnet TB to PCI-E adapter would work out, even at 3Gbs but it will only attach 2 individual drives, so scrapped that idea. Just a matter of time I guess. Thanks for the info!

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Would the Promise Technology "Pegasus J4" do what you want to do?

Thunderbolt enclosure to 4 SATA-III 2.5" drives with individual drive access.

hfg said:

Would the Promise Technology "Pegasus J4" do what you want to do?

Thunderbolt enclosure to 4 SATA-III 2.5" drives with individual drive access.

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Sadly, no. I already have 36 3.5" drives mounted in Trays for the Burly. Thought about going for a Trayless 3.5" TB Enclosure, but you pay mostly for RAID which I don't want, just JBOD. If I were starting fresh though, I would be all over the Pegasus J4! Especially with all the 2.5" SSD's coming out and price drops on the horizon.

My dream setup is 4 2.5 bays, Hardware Raid with BBU, SATA III, RAID 0,1,5,10 ... connected via Thunderbolt

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Aqueous said:

Sadly, no. I already have 36 3.5" drives mounted in Trays for the Burly. Thought about going for a Trayless 3.5" TB Enclosure, but you pay mostly for RAID which I don't want, just JBOD. If I were starting fresh though, I would be all over the Pegasus J4! Especially with all the 2.5" SSD's coming out and price drops on the horizon.

Click to expand...

The J4 is ok, but it's just a software RAID setup via Disk Utility - so basically, its a SAS expander

itsamacthing said:

My dream setup is 4 2.5 bays, Hardware Raid with BBU, SATA III, RAID 0,1,5,10 ... connected via Thunderbolt

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The J4 is ok, but it's just a software RAID setup via Disk Utility - so basically, its a SAS expander

Click to expand...

The Pegasus J4 is working well for me due to its configuration flexibility.

My main OS environment is on the internal 768GB SSD in the iMac which boots both OS X and Windows.

I configured the Thunderbolt Pegasus J4 with a 1.25TB Fusion drive for archive stuff, iTunes, etc. using a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro and 1TB hard disk. The other 2 drive bays each have a 1TB hard disk in 2TB RAID-0 for fast DAS Time Machine backup (supplemented with a large NAS TM backup as well).

Aqueous said:

Hhmmmm, very interesting... I hope it supports Port Multiplier!! I thought the Sonnet TB to PCI-E adapter would work out, even at 3Gbs but it will only attach 2 individual drives, so scrapped that idea. Just a matter of time I guess. Thanks for the info!

Click to expand...

I'm sure it supports PM, but don't know why only ONE PM, the guy could not explain...

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I order the eBOX-TeSU from DATOptic
It seems to be the best cost
It will be here next week, I will throw my media library into RAID5 with 5x 4TB
and serve it around the house

Will report back.

hfg said:

The Pegasus J4 is working well for me due to its configuration flexibility.

My main OS environment is on the internal 768GB SSD in the iMac which boots both OS X and Windows.

I configured the Thunderbolt Pegasus J4 with a 1.25TB Fusion drive for archive stuff, iTunes, etc. using a 256GB Samsung 840 Pro and 1TB hard disk. The other 2 drive bays each have a 1TB hard disk in 2TB RAID-0 for fast DAS Time Machine backup (supplemented with a large NAS TM backup as well).

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H, I'm confident your system runs great .. Always enjoy reading your posts. I'm sorta bummed about the specs on the 3tb fusion drive in the sense it should have had a bigger flash portion. But I could not justify the cost of 768 when I could install 1tb sad via TB. I'm thinking about looking for a 256 Apple flash drive on ebay or something to replace the 128... IF I'm not happy with the performance.

itsamacthing said:

H, I'm confident your system runs great .. Always enjoy reading your posts. I'm sorta bummed about the specs on the 3tb fusion drive in the sense it should have had a bigger flash portion. But I could not justify the cost of 768 when I could install 1tb sad via TB. I'm thinking about looking for a 256 Apple flash drive on ebay or something to replace the 128... IF I'm not happy with the performance.

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Yeah ... I think 128GB is too small too, 256GB would have been a better ratio and provided more SSD benefit for more ambitious users. That would be great if you can locate a 256GB from someone upgrading.

Good luck ...

I am not too keen on some suggestions about building a Fusion drive with an internal-drive and an external-drive due to the possibility of Thunderbolt disconnect and the havoc it would cause. However, I see no problem with a dual drive Thunderbolt enclosure and building a Fusion drive in that with a larger SSD and 3TB hard disk ... no chance of a disconnect between the drives as they are both in the same box. My Fusion drive in the J4 seems to be running fine externally.

hfg said:

Yeah ... I think 128GB is too small too, 256GB would have been a better ratio and provided more SSD benefit for more ambitious users. That would be great if you can locate a 256GB from someone upgrading.

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Wondering if the iMac uses the same blade as the retina MBP. Either way, OWC will have an upgrade soon. I have a ton of storage (NAS, 2 USB 3 external, and I can roll a storage VM on my Vsphere beast), so I'm not starved for storage. I'm gonna try to change my order on Monday, if its too late Ill stick it out with the fusion. Worried the 768 model imac won't have a second Sata port, what do yo see if your system report?

itsamacthing said:

Wondering if the iMac uses the same blade as the retina MBP. Either way, OWC will have an upgrade soon. I have a ton of storage (NAS, 2 USB 3 external, and I can roll a storage VM on my Vsphere beast), so I'm not starved for storage. I'm gonna try to change my order on Monday, if its too late Ill stick it out with the fusion. Worried the 768 model imac won't have a second Sata port, what do yo see if your system report?

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The posts I have seen seem to think the blade SSD is the same one as used in the rMBP. I think there is something to that effect over on the OWC website as well, as they sell upgrade blade SSDs and I am sure would like to offer a kit for the iMac with SSD, tools, and resealing tape.

The second SATA-III port is there, however I would bet that the SATA/Power cable is not there on models with the 768GB SSD (no hard disk option). I have been looking around for one with no luck so far (part# 923-0312) as I would like to add another internal SSD drive. I want to have the cable in hand before I even think about opening the iMac. I'm sure eventually that cable will be available, R.OG's teardown thread here has some pictures of it and it appears to be standard SATA on both ends, but the Power cable is standard on one end, but a non-standard straight-line pinfield on the other.

Here is a service guide which shows an exploded parts diagram towards the end:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/118836055/2012iMac


-howard

Sorry. Your thread "Title" pretty much sums up the posts in this thread. I don't think your question was posed clearly enough with regard to internal storage. You specifically mention TB and SATA and 2012 iMac so...

DrJack6 said:

I asked Apple and they said "We don't release that information."

I know the 2011 has 2 SATA III ports and 1 SATA II port.

What are the SATA options in the new 2012?

Really want to upgrade because the GTX card but I won't get it if I can't put my 2 OWC SSDs in SATA III RAID....

Click to expand...

OK ...

You can't install your 2 OWC SSD 2.5" form-factor drives in the 27" 2012 iMac to run as RAID.

There are 2 SATA-III controllers in the 2012 iMac ... one is connected to a "blade type" connector for a SSD, the other is connected to a standard SATA-III power/data cable and plugs into the 3.5" hard drive if ordered with one. If you open the iMac case, you can replace the hard drive with one of your OWC 2.5" SSD drives using suitable mounting hardware.

Off topic: you can, however, run your 2 OWC SSDs as RAID-0 externally in a Thunderbolt enclosure such as a LaCie LBD or Pegasus J4. And you don't have to slice the iMac open to do so.