Been running this config for about a month and a half and it's been flawless to say the least. Still can't believe how snappy and immediate everything feels.
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2 x Intel SSD as boot volume (RAID0) configuration for March 2009 Mac Pro?
- Thread starter hubiedubie
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Been running this config for about a month and a half and it's been flawless to say the least. Still can't believe how snappy and immediate everything feels.
See my posts further back on how I setup my software raid in Disk Utility. I certainly wouldn't get the 'lesser quality drive (OCZ?)'. They suffer from some serious stutter problems and would end up turning your machine into loads of spinning beachball of death pauses while it processes some of the transfers.
In my opinion I'd say you either bite the bullet with the Intel X25-M drives or don't bother.
Uh oh. Do you know this for sure? Sounds strange. I am waiting for a new mini and a X25 SSD to arrive soon. Was this only for the Mac Pro or can boot camp never be used with the X25?
Mac Pro - Intel X25 SSD's
Guys
Bootcamp cannot be used with a raid array in the prior Mac Pro's (I don't know about the 2009 yet - I hope it does work!). This is true of any raid array - using hard drives or SSD's (with the exception of the Caldigit Raid Card).
Tests done on the OCZ Vertex series show that the Intel Drive is still king of the hill, mainly because of IOPS.
Also - the Intel drive is not $500! You can easily find it for $363....
Aaron
Guys
Bootcamp cannot be used with a raid array in the prior Mac Pro's (I don't know about the 2009 yet - I hope it does work!). This is true of any raid array - using hard drives or SSD's (with the exception of the Caldigit Raid Card).
Tests done on the OCZ Vertex series show that the Intel Drive is still king of the hill, mainly because of IOPS.
Also - the Intel drive is not $500! You can easily find it for $363....
Aaron
I can't find the article on how you achieved bootable software raid0.
But the great google tells me to install the new drives along with my original boot drive.. Boot up off the original drive, create the software raid using disk utility on the two new disks..
Then shutdown, remove the original boot drive, boot dvd and install the os on the new raid0 drive.
Did I miss anything?
Can it be that simple?
-Mike
But the great google tells me to install the new drives along with my original boot drive.. Boot up off the original drive, create the software raid using disk utility on the two new disks..
Then shutdown, remove the original boot drive, boot dvd and install the os on the new raid0 drive.
Did I miss anything?
Can it be that simple?
-Mike
If it's the software RAID built into OS X, then Yes.
If you're going with a hardware RAID solution, it's possible. Specifics vary, but so long as the card supports OS X, there's a way. Some models will even BOOT OS X from the array. Others would require a separate boot drive, at least on the OS X side of things, if running a multi OS system.
It's done the same way I got bootable software RAID 1.
I took my Mac Pro, removed the 320GB drive that came with it and installed the drives two 750GB drives I want to make into a RAID 1 array and boot from. I booted from the Leopard DVD that came with my Mac Pro and setup the two 750GB drives to be Mac OS Extended (Journaled) using Disk Utility. I then made them into a RAID 1 array using Disk Utility. Then I installed the ODS onto the new RAID 1 array.
Restarted the computer when it was all done and it booted from my RAID 1 array.
There are other ways to do it, but that is how I did it.
S-
I hear you, but SSDs are not only untested, they are extremely expensive, have way too little space, and still don't have an advantage in terms of write speeds.
Add controllers, and you are in for even more expenses and compatibilty headaches as well.
Access time ? Do some heavy batch processing of large image files and work on some other huge files at the same time, all on a single HDD/Raid0 array.
If you can fit all that on SSD, that is
.Access time will be the least of your problems.
Right now, it seems like SSD is for the boot time junkies only.
I love guinea pigs, though.
I hear you, but SSDs are not only untested, they are extremely expensive, have way too little space, and still don't have an advantage in terms of write speeds.
Add controllers, and you are in for even more expenses and compatibilty headaches as well.
Access time ? Do some heavy batch processing of large image files and work on some other huge files at the same time, all on a single HDD/Raid0 array.
If you can fit all that on SSD, that is
Access time will be the least of your problems.
Right now, it seems like SSD is for the boot time junkies only.
I love guinea pigs, though.
I haven't seen any reports of people running SSD's who wish they had stuck with magnetic storage.
A decent RAID controller will give you 256MB or more of write-back-cache which means the controller can write the data back to the disk when it has cycles and free up the OS to move on without waiting for the committed write operation to complete. This alone, even with a magnetic HD, offers a huge performance boost, with or without RAID. Add the latest MLC SSD's in RAID0 (ideally stripped across 4 physical disks) and you are rocking. Backup to magnetic if you don't trust it. It's not like swallowing the red or blue pill here... it's just storage!
I've been running a single X25-M 80GB as my boot drive for a week and am damn impressed. Launching apps and booting is almost instantaneous so I'd debate whether a RAID 0 configuration is even worth it (outside of a server setting).
I can live with the "slow" write speed because write speed is still slightly faster than the WD6400AAKS I was previously using. Also, since this drive is purely for OS + Apps it's only read speed that I really care about. It's not often that I'll be writing large files to it. The OCZ Vertex looks very promising... just a bit out of my budget. I got the X25-M when it was $349 on Amazon at the beginning of this month (it has since increased by $30).
I can live with the "slow" write speed because write speed is still slightly faster than the WD6400AAKS I was previously using. Also, since this drive is purely for OS + Apps it's only read speed that I really care about. It's not often that I'll be writing large files to it. The OCZ Vertex looks very promising... just a bit out of my budget. I got the X25-M when it was $349 on Amazon at the beginning of this month (it has since increased by $30).
Do you run Windows under Boot camp with your X25-M? Someone stated that it was not possible with the X25-M, would like to find out if that was true.
I don't, but I also heard the same thing. When I do install boot camp it probably won't be to the X25-M... I don't need to boot into Windows enough to justify taking up precious and limited X25-M space
I searched, but found nothing on this. Could you provide a link that describes the problem? Is this true of other SSD's and boot camp?
Thanks.
That's Mac users you get those reports from ?
Tell me, what controller working in 10.5.7 and Snow Leopard would that be; also, what are the costs for such a setup, say a 300-500GB Raid0 using SSDs, hardware Raid card, adapters and such.
Finally, are there any real life benchmarks comparing this to a 'traditional' setup with dedicated system/(raided-->) data/scratch disks - on a Mac ?
Long- or even mid-term experience (no Windows PCs, different animal) ?
Didn't think so .
That's Mac users you get those reports from ?
Tell me, what controller working in 10.5.7 and Snow Leopard would that be; also, what are the costs for such a setup, say a 300-500GB Raid0 using SSDs, hardware Raid card, adapters and such.
Finally, are there any real life benchmarks comparing this to a 'traditional' setup with dedicated system/(raided-->) data/scratch disks - on a Mac ?
Long- or even mid-term experience (no Windows PCs, different animal) ?
Didn't think so .
LOL... one day you'll be running SSD's... I guarantee it and you won't be unhappy.
Yo. Bare Feats Dude here...
If you want to mount a single 2.5" drive inside the Mac Pro sled slot, MaxUpgrades makes a special sled that I've used to mount "bare" Velociraptors (which are really 2.5" drives when the ice pak is removed). I've also used it to mount a single SSD. Here's the link:
http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_id=180
I used a pair of the above sleds to mount dual Intel X25-E SSDs this past week. I got over 500MB/s sustained READ in a RAID 0 set. And the small random transfers were "off the hook."
If you want to mount two 2.5" drives in a single sled slot, TransIntl makes the ProDrive. I've used it with dual 7K HDD notebook drives and with dual SSDs and works great. It supports HW RAID 0 and RAID 1. However, since it uses port-multiplication to share one port with two drives, the maximum transfer speed for any pair is about 220MB/s. Here is the link:
http://www.transintl.com/store/category.cfm?Category=2746&RequestTimeOut=500
If you want to mount a single 2.5" drive inside the Mac Pro sled slot, MaxUpgrades makes a special sled that I've used to mount "bare" Velociraptors (which are really 2.5" drives when the ice pak is removed). I've also used it to mount a single SSD. Here's the link:
http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_id=180
I used a pair of the above sleds to mount dual Intel X25-E SSDs this past week. I got over 500MB/s sustained READ in a RAID 0 set. And the small random transfers were "off the hook."
If you want to mount two 2.5" drives in a single sled slot, TransIntl makes the ProDrive. I've used it with dual 7K HDD notebook drives and with dual SSDs and works great. It supports HW RAID 0 and RAID 1. However, since it uses port-multiplication to share one port with two drives, the maximum transfer speed for any pair is about 220MB/s. Here is the link:
http://www.transintl.com/store/category.cfm?Category=2746&RequestTimeOut=500
Thanks Barefeats. Ordered 2 of these now. Do you know if the performance improvement is linear as you add drives in a RAID0 stripe?
Also is there any need to go above 500MB/s read speed for normal usage (light video editing, audio editing)?
Would it have noticeable benefits for general system performance?
Also is there any need to go above 500MB/s read speed for normal usage (light video editing, audio editing)?
Would it have noticeable benefits for general system performance?
I have an Areca 4 port SATA RAID card I'm hoping to repurpose into a 2009 Mac Pro with two or more SSD's. I guess using the sleds is out of the question since the SATA connectors are on the logic board and I need to somehow connect the drives to the Areca instead.
Does anyone know how the SATA signals are rerouted to the Apple RAID card in the event you buy that option?
Huh? I assume before you buy the RAID card, the traces for the SATA connectors run to the IO Hub (Intel ICH10 chipset). With the RAID card option, do you flip a switch (manually or automatically) to redirect these data paths to the RAID card? If so, does the RAID card have some kind of special connector on it to get these traces onto the card?