Any problems suggestions with this HDD setup

[dubaimac]

Tens of posts on HDD setup, just looking for some confirmation that this will be fine for me.

Octo 2.26 Nehalem

Bay 1 - Intel 80GB M SSD with Max upgrades sled & heatsink 2009
Bay 2 - Stock 640 GB for bootcamp and Fusion
Bay 3 - WD Caviar Black 1TB
Bay 4 - WD Caviar Black 1TB

I may consider the maxupgrades optical Bay kit for two 2.5 disks later on, this comes with a sata pci card for the superdrive.

I have both a Drobo with 4TB and a HP EX485 with 8TB for other data, time machine etc.

I have 1.6TB of iTunes currently on a Lacie Drive, I want to move this inside the Pro, am I right in thinking a RAID 0 on the WD drives would give me a fast "larger" drive, of about 1900GB, is this seen as a single drive?

Thanks in advance

[nanofrog]

Originally Posted by dubaimac

Tens of posts on HDD setup, just looking for some confirmation that this will be fine for me.

Octo 2.26 Nehalem

Bay 1 - Intel 80GB M SSD with Max upgrades sled & heatsink 2009
Bay 2 - Stock 640 GB for bootcamp and Fusion
Bay 3 - WD Caviar Black 1TB
Bay 4 - WD Caviar Black 1TB

I may consider the maxupgrades optical Bay kit for two 2.5 disks later on, this comes with a sata pci card for the superdrive.

I have both a Drobo with 4TB and a HP EX485 with 8TB for other data, time machine etc.

I have 1.6TB of iTunes currently on a Lacie Drive, I want to move this inside the Pro, am I right in thinking a RAID 0 on the WD drives would give me a fast "larger" drive, of about 1900GB, is this seen as a single drive?

Thanks in advance

You don't actually have to use Boot Camp on the 640GB, as you don't need the partition utility at all when using a separate disk. You just have to install the AHCI drivers during the Windows installation, then follow it with the Boot Camp disk to install the needed drivers.

Striping the 1TB's would be seen as a single volume. Given the fact you've already got a backup system in hand, you'd be fine.

[gugucom]

I would consider two 64 GB Supertalent SSDs. They write faster than the Intel and in RAID 0 will be considerably faster. As compensation you could use a two TB WD instead of the 2x1TB. Onother option would be running the Windows drive from the second ODD-SATA and located in the second optical drive bay. Then the RAID 0 with two WD 1TB can be done as proposed.

[nanofrog]

Originally Posted by gugucom

I would consider two 64 GB Supertalent SSDs. They write faster than the Intel and in RAID 0 will be considerably faster. As compensation you could use a two TB WD instead of the 2x1TB.

A good idea, but how would that work out cost wise?

(I've not kept up with the SuperTalent gear).

[gugucom]

it would probably be 50 bucks more but you would get 50% more capacity and a much faster SSD even before RAID.

[dubaimac]

Originally Posted by gugucom

I would consider two 64 GB Supertalent SSDs. They write faster than the Intel and in RAID 0 will be considerably faster. As compensation you could use a two TB WD instead of the 2x1TB. Onother option would be running the Windows drive from the second ODD-SATA and located in the second optical drive bay. Then the RAID 0 with two WD 1TB can be done as proposed.

Thanks for the suggestion, I heard that Windows is very slow running from anything but Bay 1 or 2, I saw it here on the forums, I will take a look at the super talent SSD's, Pro Caddy have got a 3.5" kit for the optical bay.

[dubaimac]

Originally Posted by nanofrog

You don't actually have to use Boot Camp on the 640GB, as you don't need the partition utility at all when using a separate disk. You just have to install the AHCI drivers during the Windows installation, then follow it with the Boot Camp disk to install the needed drivers.

Striping the 1TB's would be seen as a single volume. Given the fact you've already got a backup system in hand, you'd be fine.

I've done a search on these AHCI drivers, I'm not sure where to find them, are they on the Vista or Leopard disk? Intel has some on their website, but I have no idea what to get for a 2009 Mac Pro. Thanks for the advice.

[gugucom]

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Filt...stems&lang=eng

Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager is what you need.

[Zerozal]

Originally Posted by dubaimac

Thanks for the suggestion, I heard that Windows is very slow running from anything but Bay 1 or 2, I saw it here on the forums, ...

I haven't heard that. Do you have a link to the thread where it was discussed? I have Windows 7 Bootcamped off my stock 640GB drive which is in bay 4 and it runs great.

[dubaimac]

This is where I read it, I haven't followed it through though

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...ght=slow+bay+3

[nanofrog]

Originally Posted by gugucom

it would probably be 50 bucks more but you would get 50% more capacity and a much faster SSD even before RAID.

I wasn't sure the additional $$$ for the pair vs. a single fast SSD (i.e. Intel's X-25's).

I agree the stripe is a better way to go, assuming it's within budget, and SSD's are acceptable for the intended usage. Nice for boot. Not so much for servers that don't get shut off, and likely need the increased capacity/$ of mechanical drives.

Originally Posted by dubaimac

I've done a search on these AHCI drivers, I'm not sure where to find them, are they on the Vista or Leopard disk? Intel has some on their website, but I have no idea what to get for a 2009 Mac Pro. Thanks for the advice.

They have to be downloaded off Intel's site, and then extracted (file is .exe) to be used during the initial installation of Windows.

Rather easy if you have access to a PC or other means for Windows. Not on a Mac system only, I'm afraid.

I've done the extraction for another user though, and you can download it here if you wish (it's free, so it's rather slow).

[dubaimac]

Originally Posted by gugucom

I would consider two 64 GB Supertalent SSDs. They write faster than the Intel and in RAID 0 will be considerably faster. As compensation you could use a two TB WD instead of the 2x1TB. Onother option would be running the Windows drive from the second ODD-SATA and located in the second optical drive bay. Then the RAID 0 with two WD 1TB can be done as proposed.

Do you mean these ones, they look great value, just read their white paper on the Mac Pro as well

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820609393

[VirtualRain]

There are rumors circulating that Intel's new 34nm gen-2 MLC SSD's are immanent and may be priced 25-30% lower than the existing x25-M.

You may want to hold off for a bit and see what comes of it. I suspect they will once again set the bar for SSD performance.

[nanofrog]

Originally Posted by VirtualRain

There are rumors circulating that Intel's new 34nm gen-2 MLC SSD's are immanent and may be priced 25-30% lower than the existing x25-M.

You may want to hold off for a bit and see what comes of it. I suspect they will once again set the bar for SSD performance.

From what I recall seeing, they're already late.

[gugucom]

Originally Posted by dubaimac

Do you mean these ones, they look great value, just read their white paper on the Mac Pro as well

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820609393

Yes, thats what I was thinking off. What surprised me is the speed hit those drives take when you put them in RAID0. I found out that you have to set stripe size to 128 k or more to get speed.

[dubaimac]

Thanks for all of the advice, I have my 2 x gen 2 Intel 80 GB SSD's somewhere over the atlantic at the moment, I have 5 1TB caviar Black's on their way now, 2 for the mac, another 3 for my sans digital enclosure for my mediasmart server, the mac pro is being picked up tomorrow, I went for the quad, as for me it will be SSD's and ram that make the difference, just waiting for my second GT120 to arrive so I can get it all hooked up.

So the final setup will be

Bay1-80GB G2 SSD raid 0
Bay2-80GB G2 SSD raid 0
(using icydock drive adaptors)
----------------------------------

Bay3-1TB caviar black raid 0
Bay4-1TB caviar black raid 0

OPT. Bay-noiseblocker swing and stock 640GB for windows

4x2GB OWC memory kit - 8GB

[gugucom]

Very nice. If I would decide again I would also go for that SSD RAID. The Intel 2nd Gen are a bit bigger and pricier, but they are also faster in small Block writes than the Supertalent SSDs.