Cheap(er) Raid Solution?

[gregharmon]

I'm wanting to setup a simple raid of two drives in RAID 0, for performance purposes.

I don't want to spend $600 for Apple's RAID card, are there any other cheaper solutions that work with 10.6?

I've looked around a bit on my own but can't find much.

Thanks in advance

 

[gabicava83]

Software RAID ?

I'm wanting to setup a simple raid of two drives in RAID 0, for performance purposes.

I don't want to spend $600 for Apple's RAID card, are there any other cheaper solutions that work with 10.6?

I've looked around a bit on my own but can't find much.

Thanks in advance

 

[gregharmon]

I'll look into that, thanks!

 

[baddj]

Have a look at this page there are some PCIe Raid Controllers,

http://eshop.macsales.com/Search/Se...94966899+6963&Ntt=Hard+Drive+Controller+Cards

 

[gabicava83]

Depends what you need to do really.

Hardware RAID is nice, but can be quite expensive.

Most people are ok with software RAID.

What you trying to achieve, just increase in performance?

Sounds good

 

[gregharmon]

Yeah, I'm going to go with software RAID, thanks so much!

 

[gabicava83]

There, a £400 + saving

Enjoy..........

I will be doing a RAID0 on the OS for my Mac Pro when I decide which one to get with two SSD's.

Excellent stuff

 

[UltraNEO*]

Software RAID ?

+1

SoftRAID is ideal for most users, it'll offer a definite speed boost. Obviously, it won't be as quick as using Apple's RaidCard but then again, Apple's card is also the slowest of all the cards on the market and one of the most troublesome units.

Simply put, for the money you can something much faster and better, should you decide to go the hardware route. Bare in mind softRaid only supports types 1 or 0 / 1+0

 

[sammyman]

What raid card are people using here for their mac pros? If you could get a 25% discount on the raid card, would it be worth it then? Or are there still better and cheaper alternatives?

Most people are ok with software raid... who is the raid card for????

 

[gabicava83]

Thanks

I spoke to Apple support the other day and they confirm that you can do Raid 5 from the software RAID, I queried the guy and said that it can be done and it's documented.

No idea.

But yes, HW raid is much quicker, however, for most, SW is more than adequate

SSD drive's in a software RAID would be quicker than standard 7200RM drives in a HW raid, apparently.

Again, it's cost vs performance.

What ever you do, will be good

+1

SoftRAID is ideal for most users, it'll offer a definite speed boost. Obviously, it won't be as quick as using Apple's RaidCard but then again, Apple's card is also the slowest of all the cards on the market and one of the most troublesome units.

Simply put, for the money you can something much faster and better, should you decide to go the hardware route. Bare in mind softRaid only supports types 1 or 0 / 1+0

 

[nanofrog]

What raid card are people using here for their mac pros? If you could get a 25% discount on the raid card, would it be worth it then? Or are there still better and cheaper alternatives?

Most people are ok with software raid... who is the raid card for????

Disk Utility is only good for 0/1/10, so if you want to run any form of parity (5/6) or nested parity (50/60), you must run a RAID card that supports the level/s you intend to run.

Another reason, is throughput. The ICH has a throughput limitation of ~660MB/s, and the Apple RAID Pro is an expensive, slow piece of junk (avoid it like the proverbial plague).

For example, those that want to run multiple SSD's in a stripe set would need to use a 6.0Gb/s RAID card in order to keep from throttling (and they don't scale as expected on the ICH either). This works, as the bandwidth is transferred over the PCIe lanes rather than the DMI connection between the ICH (what contains the SATA ports in the system).

There's other advantages to running a proper RAID card as well, mostly in regards to Online Expansion (can add capacity without data loss) and Recovery options (usually associated with redundant levels, and it's more robust than what's possible under software implementations).

I spoke to Apple support the other day and they confirm that you can do Raid 5 from the software RAID, I queried the guy and said that it can be done and it's documented.

Either there was a misunderstanding, or the person that told you this was an idiot.

Their Apple RAID Pro supports RAID 5, but it's a piece of junk, and there's better solutions out there (i.e. Areca or ATTO's products; they're even cheaper for a 4 port card that can do more).

But Disk Utility cannot run RAID 5. Another piece of software such as SoftRAID (does support RAID 5), or the drivers that ship with a Fake RAID controller (nothing but a SATA card, and the RAID functions are software based; by far the most common way to find this), but it's not advisable.

The reason is, software RAID is not capable of handling the write hole issue associated with parity based arrays. Even when running a UPS, as it requires a hardware solution (involves NVRAM that the system or simple SATA card does not have). You can look up the RAID 5 wiki, as it has a definition of what the write hole is.