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Best use of 4 HDD slots in a MacPro?

C

CoffeeMonkey

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 23, 2003
108
0
One of the main reasons that I decided upon a MacPro rather than an iMac is the number and the accessibility of the 4 drive slots.

With the machine scheduled to arrive in the next few days I've been thinking about how to best utilize this capacity, and I've narrowed it down to two possible options:

Drive 1: System and Applications
Drive 2: Home directory
Drive 3: Mirror of home directory
Drive 4: windows disc

or

Drive 1 & 2: striped
Drive 3 & 4: mirror of disc 1-2

The most disc intensive stuff I'll be doing is editing/processing home movies and some photo editing in Aperture.

Anyone have any opinions or advice?
 
I have:

1&2 - 500 GB striped - OS, docs, etc.
3 - 1 TB Time Machine for 1/2
4 - 250GB scratch disc.

Once I start running out of HD space I'll get another 1TB and probably do 2 1.5 TB stripes with main and Time Machine, getting rid of the 250.

Between your two configs I'd probably do the 2nd one as the 1st one doesn't really buy you anything. I'd do Time Machine though instead of a mirror. If it's a true mirror then deleting stuff on your main will mirror the delete anyway and you haven't saved yourself any trouble.
 
I have a preference for RAID.

Depending on the speed/capacity requirements, you have a few options.
1. RAID 10 four identical drives. Won't work with Windows, so you'd need a separate drive for that. The empty optical bay is rather handy. ;)
2. Stripe up to 3 drives, use the 4th for a backup drive. Again, a separate disk for windows.
3. Stripe all 4, and place a backup drive in the empty optical bay. A second disk for windows would also fit. Depending on the specific model of MP, you might need a SATA card. External is also possible for backup, but internal is cleaner. Slightly less expensive as well.

Please note, that all of the above RAID setups are software RAID via OS X. It saves money over a hardware solution, but windows can't be used on it (can't read the partition tables).

Hope this helps. :)
 
Here is how mine is setup right now:

Bay 1: 640 GB split into
100 GB Windows
480 GB Scratch space (and backup OS X install)
15 GB FAT32 partition for passing files to and from Bootcamp
Bay 2 and Bay 4: 750GB mirrored OS, apps and data
Bay 3: 1.5TB Time Machine drive

When the price comes down on SSD I'll add one to the second CD bay for OS/apps.
 
My setup:

Drive 1----OSX, Documents, Home and misc stuff.
Drive 2----Porn.
Drive 3----Porn.
Drive 4----Porn.
External drive, Time Machine backing up my porn.
 
CoffeeMonkey said:
Drive 1: System and Applications
Drive 2: Home directory
Drive 3: Mirror of home directory
Drive 4: windows disc
Click to expand...

Of the two presented, this is your best option I believe. Sounds like you bought the MP due to its form factor, rather than need for out-right speed.

Keep it simple.

Perhaps look at adding in some SSDs down the road, (i.e when they're actually affordable/value per GB), for a performance boost.
 
Bay 1: 320GB \_______RAID 0 OSX/Apps/Scratch
Bay 2: 320GB /
Bay 3: 640GB -- Home Folder & Documents
Bay 4: (empty)

I would probably put a drive in there for windows when i reinstall, but am unsure what i'm going to put in there atm. I would LOVE an SSD, however, that's a bit out of my price range atm...

Who knows, this thread may give me some ideas ;)
 
mirrored raid

my setup:

250x2 mirrored - system
500x2 mirrored - storage
650x1 - protools drive only because protools does not support raids

eventually will be:

500x2 mirrored - system
1tbx2 mirrored - storage
650x1 - protools
 
I like your first option more I'm similar in respect bay 1 is a system/application drive and bay 2 is my user directory, however until I can consolidate it i have a further storage drive in bay 3 then windows in bay 4...and time machine over fire wire 800 to a caddy.
 
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