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(Dual Raid in New Macbook Pro) Anyone done it?

P

phildog33

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 1, 2006
109
0
Either with EFI 1.7 or the old 1.6 firmware... has anyone done a Dual internal Raid0 using regular hard drives or SSDs?

I just got the 3.06ghz macbook pro , put 8gb of ram inside.. and want to run a dual Raid 0 inside... either with my 500gb stock plus another HDD.. or dual Raid0 using SSDx2 -- using an optibay or something similar

has anyone done it on a new macbook pro they are selling now?

thanks for helping
p
 
do a search couple of people on the forums have done it.

If you want performance, I highly suggest a SSD as a boot up disk and a large capacity HDD as backup
 
Its been reported here that a few folks have done it. If you're looking for speed, then a SSD RAID 0 setup would be the way to go. If you can afford to lose the optical drive.
 
can you help me out with a link -- all i find is older macbook pros that have done it... not one of the laptops that are selling right now in the mac store
thank you guys
p
 
phildog33 said:
can you help me out with a link -- all i find is older macbook pros that have done it... not one of the laptops that are selling right now in the mac store
thank you guys
p
Click to expand...

refine your search...

anyway, it's possible to do it on the newest ones. just take out the optical drive and get something called opti-bay:)
 
thanks sneakz.
he is using a 17" 2.93
do you know if there is a difference with 15" models.. and 3.06ghz

i remember reading that the 17" werent crippled like the 15"s were
p

i cant find anyone thats done this with a 15"
 
I the 15" with (2) Patriot Torqx 256GB SSD's in RAID 0. Works fine and the speed is incredible.
 
dsa.. which 15" do you have and is it with EFI firmware 1.7?

also.. do you recommend two ssd in raid0 --is the speed for writing really double than just one?

p
 
I have the newest 15" with 2.8ghz processor, and yes, its running EFI 1.7. If you can afford it, I would for sure recommend RAID 0 with two SSD's.

Where I am not sure the write speed is exactly double, its for sure a lot faster. I would seriously consider the Patriot Torqx SSD's (not the Warp series), they are not quite as expensive as the Intel's and almost as fast.

Additionally, I just purchased a few 30GB OCZ Vertex SSD's for my desktop and have been really impressed with their performance as well. Hope this helps.
 
I've read that a raid array takes time to initialise during booting, so you don't gain any speed increase over one ssd in raid 0.

I (and no-one else imo) should care about this... what I am interested in is if the read speeds are doubled or thereabouts during normal use? Of course you are limited by firmware problems of EFI 1.7, or the limitation of the bus to 1.5Gbps in EFI 1.6, but does it still kick way more ass than one?!

I remember reading about the problems in EFI 1.7 with the later MBP (except the 17") but can anyone remember what the problem was? I can't seem to find the discussion.

Hurry up Apple and fix the stupid problems with your firmware. I really want 2 Intel ssd's.
 
so the consensus is One SSD is enough? no need for dual raid 0 ?
if i can get the read and write speed to double.. then i think its worth it

just worried that it wont actually register the dual SSD, because other ppl have had problems initializing SnowLeopard with raid0 and EFI 1.7

p
 
If it is your first SSD, I would try one first. I got a single Corsair P128 and I do not see a need to stripe for what I do.

That said, I did order a drive bay for the optical drive, but I think it will be for more storage/backup.

Running around with an MBA for a year has made me realize that I do not need an optical drive... I just wish there was an option to put an extra battery in there.
 
Just letting everyone know.. that I did do it.. with the 15" 3.06 and 2x intel 160gb g2 inside.. this is with EFI 1.7 -- i am in Software Raid0 and Snow Leopard

Before i was getting 80 write/ 200 read
Now AJA Kona is saying 130 write/ 400 read
phenomenal

and here is the report from Xbench

Sequential 236.74
Uncached Write 279.66 171.71 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 238.67 135.04 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 132.62 38.81 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 628.87 316.07 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Random 920.59
Uncached Write 1164.17 123.24 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 482.55 154.48 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1474.65 10.45 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 1359.43 252.25 MB/sec [256K blocks]
 
I'd be wary about raid 0 with only two drives. You only need lose one drive and thats the lot gone!

Ideally you need 4 so you can strip for speed, and mirror incase one stuffs up! Ofc 4 drives in a mbp aint gonna happen ;-)

Time machine would be a must if you go ahead with it ;-)
 
Agreed with pwatson. RAID 0 is a risky move, you need to have a solid backup solution in place.

Personally for me, the risk is not > the reward.
 
im alright, i backup everynight to a raid 5 server ... and the speed is incredible

i just did raid0 using 2x intel 80gbs as boot in my macpro also
p
 
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