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Apple's new raid card

lostngone

lostngone

macrumors 65816
Original poster
I half heartily did a search for the answer on MR and Google but couldn't find the answer.

Does any one know who makes the new raid cards that are in the Mac Pros?
 
lostngone said:
I half heartily did a search for the answer on MR and Google but couldn't find the answer.

Does any one know who makes the new raid cards that are in the Mac Pros?
Click to expand...
LSI 😱 😛

It appears to be a modified version of the MegaRAID SAS 8408e. 😉
 
Didn't know Apple revised the Apple RAIDcard for it's new MP...
I'm curious, What's the difference? Better? no more Battery issues??

Anyone??

Bahhh, can't imagine the Apple counterpart be any good when compared to third-party parts from RAID specialists.
 
UltraNEO* said:
Didn't know Apple revised the Apple RAIDcard for it's new MP...
I'm curious, What's the difference? Better? no more Battery issues??

Anyone??

Bahhh, can't imagine the Apple counterpart be any good when compared to third-party parts from RAID specialists.
Click to expand...

Well, at the very least they eliminated the cabling since the '09s use sleds. Third-party raid cards are kind of a pain now if you are building an internal array.
 
cmaier said:
Well, at the very least they eliminated the cabling since the '09s use sleds. Third-party raid cards are kind of a pain now if you are building an internal array.
Click to expand...

Internal RAIDs with third party RAID vendors are not possible currently. Until the third party vendors build cards with the SAS/SATA lanes in the PCI-e connector one can only use the Apple RAID card in the MP '09.
I see that there is still a 4-6 week wait on the new RAID card when ordering a MP'09.
Why is it that the RAID card image on the MP configuration page of the :apple:Apple store is upside-down? The graphics card image is at least right side up although at a 45 deg angle.
 
cmaier said:
The '09 sleds don't use cables. You plug directly into the board when you slide the sled in. Like a NAS.
Click to expand...

cables? My 2006 MP sleds have no cables. They seem to plug directly into the board when you slide the sled in. There's another design out there?


.
 
cmaier said:
The '09 sleds don't use cables. You plug directly into the board when you slide the sled in. Like a NAS.
Click to expand...

By cable, do you mean the iPass cable that's connected to the backplane of the HD sleds, where the HD connects?
Umm.. better yet, why don't you post a image - everyone has a cell phone those days with a semi-decent camera!!
 
Now that I think about it I think he means that the HDD receptors (connectors) in the '09 machines are soldered directly onto the MB. Whereas in previous machines there's a harness slash brace or something the receptors are attached to. And probably there's cables running along the back side of that brace - although without disassembly you couldn't tell - I mean just by looking.

Is that right?



EDIT: Yeah, here, this shows it (and I guess that's what he means?):
 

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Tesselator said:
Now that I think about it I think he means that the HDD receptors (connectors) in the '09 machines are soldered directly onto the MB. Whereas in previous machines there's a harness slash brace or something the receptors are attached to. And probably there's cables running along the back side of that brace - although without disassembly you couldn't tell - I mean just by looking.

Is that right?



EDIT: Yeah, here, this shows it (and I guess that's what he means?):
Click to expand...

Sorry for the lack of clarity - I was on the road and typing via iphone.

But, yeah, that's what I mean. The '09 raid card communicates with the hard drives over the bus, instead of cables.
 
Rick Here said:
I don't think so. If that were true then why doesn't Apple have windows driver?
This is not a IOP333 processor or LSI MegaRAID. Look elsewhere....
Click to expand...
LSI uses PPC as well, and are likely using the following:
  • LSISAS1078 RAID on Chip (ROC)
  • 500MHz power-PC

It's a custom version for Apple. Best guess, LSI made the card, and Apple wrote the drivers (OS X only) and EFI firmware for it.

Rick Here said:
Internal RAIDs with third party RAID vendors are not possible currently. Until the third party vendors build cards with the SAS/SATA lanes in the PCI-e connector one can only use the Apple RAID card in the MP '09.
I see that there is still a 4-6 week wait on the new RAID card when ordering a MP'09.
Click to expand...
It's not absolutely impossible, if you remove the optical drive(s), and use the bays for HDD's. Not that easy, and perhaps not desired either. 😉

External is still quite possible, but it always costs more than an internal system. 🙄 🙁
Tesselator said:
cables? My 2006 MP sleds have no cables. They seem to plug directly into the board when you slide the sled in. There's another design out there?
Click to expand...
Yes it does. 😉 It uses an SFF-8482 backplane connector (SATA + power) mounted to two aluminum tabs in the back of the HDD bay.

The '09's are different though. No more cables and iPass (SFF-8087) connectors on the logic board. Now they use traces from slot 4 to HDD ports on the board.
 
nanofrog said:
The '09's are different though. No more cables and iPass (SFF-8087) connectors on the logic board. Now they use traces from slot 4 to HDD ports on the board.
Click to expand...

Great!! That sounds like a right pain in the ass for users upgrading their MP's from previous generations.
 
UltraNEO* said:
Great!! That sounds like a right pain in the ass for users upgrading their MP's from previous generations.
Click to expand...
Yup. 🙄 🙁 It cleans up the internals a bit, and makes it harder for 3rd party vendors to compete with internal solutions. It's a great technical solution, but is harder on end users's wallets IMO. 😉
 
Well, if somebody felt really strongly, I'm sure that some DIY magic could potentially make a sled that mounts the drives with the SATA ports facing outward to connect to an internal card (instead of inward to connect to the mobo).

Or hey - maybe PCI-E lanes for internal RAID is "the next big thing"🙄
 
Dr.Pants said:
Well, if somebody felt really strongly, I'm sure that some DIY magic could potentially make a sled that mounts the drives with the SATA ports facing outward to connect to an internal card (instead of inward to connect to the mobo).
Click to expand...
From a post in the forum, the depth is deeper on the '09 HDD sleds. Perhaps a shorter one could be made to accommodate a cable connector and still fit. 😉
Dr.Pants said:
Or hey - maybe PCI-E lanes for internal RAID is "the next big thing"🙄
Click to expand...
I really hope not (other manufacturers). Rather difficult to do unless a slot is essentially a dedicated location (such as the '09 MP), and in some cases, multiple cards are used. It would end up in a layout nightmare if multiple slots were capable. It's not like there isn't enough traces to deal with already. 😛
 
Another stupid question

With the new card can you mix and match SAS and SATA disks?

Can I have 2 SAS and 2 SATA running at the same time?
 
Has anybody received the new RAID card?

I see on the Apple store that it takes 4-6 weeks extra when ordering a Mac Pro with the new RAID card. Has anyone received one and tested it yet?
Is anyone buying this?
 
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