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Boot Drive - Single or 2-Drive RAID-0?

Hello,

Just to second nano, and as I said before, you can treat the SSD as a regular HD. Just remember that they're all in a 2.5in size, so to put one in a regular bay of the Mac Pro, you need a 2.5 to 3.5 adaptor.

I think they include one in the retail box, but keep that 2.5in factor in mind.

Loa
 
Yeah, I'm crossing my fingers that if I buy the Retail box version it will come with the 2.5 to 3.5" adaptor. Thanks again for all the advice! :)

I think I'm going to torture myself for a bit longer and wait until Tuesday before I place the order for the new MacPro and everything else (SSD, display, etc...)
 
Just when you all have me convinced that the Intel G2 SSD is the way to go, I then come across this thread....

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/841803/

Am I crazy to use the Intel as my boot drive for professional work (I'm charging clients when we use this computer). I am going to have Time Capsule running as a system back up. Thoughts?
 
MitchLewis said:
Just when you all have me convinced that the Intel G2 SSD is the way to go, I then come across this thread....

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/841803/

Am I crazy to use the Intel as my boot drive for professional work (I'm charging clients when we use this computer). I am going to have Time Capsule running as a system back up. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
That was with a striped set of 2x Intel SSD's. And AFAIK, it's the only instance of it. 10.6.2 has been problematic with RAID, and is a candidate for the causality.

Those that were running a single SSD (even some with mechanical RAID) were just fine. So go ahead and get the 160GB, and use the TC for backups.
 
nanofrog said:
A 2 disk stripe set is faster than a single disk, but it is NOT more reliable (it's actually less reliable).
Click to expand...

When you say it is less reliable, is this because of the nature of a striped set, that when one drive fails, the other fails as well?
 
Icaras said:
When you say it is less reliable, is this because of the nature of a striped set, that when one drive fails, the other fails as well?
Click to expand...
In a stripe set, if one drive fails (no matter how many drives are used), the data is gone (even if the other drives are still good; it's the nature of how striping works - data is split between n disks). Period. It must be restored from backups.

Simply put, RAID0 = Zero redundancy. That's the comprimise for max throughputs and capacity at the lowest cost.
 
nanofrog said:
In a stripe set, if one drive fails (no matter how many drives are used), the data is gone (even if the other drives are still good; it's the nature of how striping works - data is split between n disks). Period. It must be restored from backups.

Simply put, RAID0 = Zero redundancy. That's the comprimise for max throughputs and capacity at the lowest cost.
Click to expand...

I see. But would the good drive still be salvageable and usable? Regardless of the data loss? Would you be able to replace the faulty drive, and expect the other drive to still work? That would totally just suck if the faulty drive damaged the other drive too.
 
Icaras said:
I see. But would the good drive still be salvageable and usable? Regardless of the data loss? Would you be able to replace the faulty drive, and expect the other drive to still work? That would totally just suck if the faulty drive damaged the other drive too.
Click to expand...
Yes, the undamaged drives will still be functional. You'd replace the faulty drive, re-initialize, and restore the data. Then you're up and running again. :)
 
Maybe stripe them RAID-5? That's what we use for our external data drives for storing/editing HD video. Supposedly one of the 4 drives can go bad, and the drive just switches to RAID-0. You then replace the bad drive and the drive switches back to RAID-5. The drive will take a considerable amount of time making the switch back to RAID-5, but it will eventually be back up and running. (thank *od I haven't had this happen......yet)
 
MitchLewis said:
Maybe stripe them RAID-5? That's what we use for our external data drives for storing/editing HD video. Supposedly one of the 4 drives can go bad, and the drive just switches to RAID-0. You then replace the bad drive and the drive switches back to RAID-5. The drive will take a considerable amount of time making the switch back to RAID-5, but it will eventually be back up and running. (thank *od I haven't had this happen......yet)
Click to expand...
RAID 5 and 6 (and nested forms) are parity based, and isn't supported by Disk Utility. You'd need a 3rd party solution of some sort, and it really would need to be a proper RAID card that supports that level (has a processor and cache). There are Fake RAID cards (just a SATA card + driver support for RAID levels), but it's still software RAID, which CANNOT handle the write hole issue associated with parity based arrays (5/6/50/60).

BTW, when a drive fails in a level 5 array, it's called "Degraded". It's reconstructing the missing data off of the parity blocks on the remaining disks. This takes additional time (slower than a healthy level 5), and is in no way level 0 array operation.

Once you replace the failed drive, it then proceeds to "Rebuild", which is reconstruct ALL the data from the parity blocks and reconstruct the missing data onto the new drive (this is why it takes so long for the rebuild to occur).
 
Just to be clear, I'm not planning to do a RAID with my SSD. I'm just going to use a single SSD for my boot drive and let G-Technology take care of external RAID's. (hopefully they did a good job designing them!)
 
MitchLewis said:
Just to be clear, I'm not planning to do a RAID with my SSD. I'm just going to use a single SSD for my boot drive and let G-Technology take care of external RAID's. (hopefully they did a good job designing them!)
Click to expand...
Just don't attempt parity based arrays with G-Tech, as it's software based. As per reliability with them, I can't say for sure.
 
Their E-SPEED es Pro RAID's come pre-striped as RAID-5. They come with a PCIe card so I assume this means they are not software RAID's....right?
 
MitchLewis said:
Their E-SPEED es Pro RAID's come pre-striped as RAID-5. They come with a PCIe card so I assume this means they are not software RAID's....right?
Click to expand...
That one is designed to be used with an included hardware RAID controller (it appears to be an Areca BTW, though it's likely an OEM unit similar to one provided to Highpoint - RR4322).

But in simple terms, yes, that unit will work. :)

BTW, I'd recommend using enterprise drives. As a general rule, you want to take a look at the HDD Compatibility List for any RAID card to avoid getting drives that won't work (or work properly). SAS is picky with drives, which the included card is (I've had good luck with WD enterprise drives lately with Areca's cards).
 
Thanks for dumbing your analysis down. hehehehe

That's why we went with G-Tech drives AND the G-Tech mini-SAS PCIe card. We figured that if we had problems, G-Tech couldn't point fingers at another card manufacture.
 
MitchLewis said:
Thanks for dumbing your analysis down. hehehehe

That's why we went with G-Tech drives AND the G-Tech mini-SAS PCIe card. We figured that if we had problems, G-Tech couldn't point fingers at another card manufacture.
Click to expand...
For a business, the single point of contact can worth the additional expense. It's harder to do with storage vs. system purchases though, particularly when the storage needs are high-end (it's not impossible though).
 
Thanks for everyone's help. We ordered our Mac Pro yesterday (8-core 2.26GHz......couldn't afford the faster models) Today I'm going to order the Intel G2 and internal Pioneer blu-ray burner. I'm thinking of buying them both from OWC.

So now that we ordered our MacPro, I'm sure Apple will announce the 12-core MacPro. You guys can thank us later. :)
 
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