Nanofrog, thanks for your typically excellent critique 🙂 I'm giving your reply careful consideration! -- Julian
RAID isn't a simple thing to deal with in reality, and it's a lot of information to digest.
😉
So... I'm wondering if there is a way to put 2 SSDs in the empty optical bay? I could be reading this wrong, but the links posted above by Giuly appear to only work on G5? I called OWC and was informed that while the physical space allows for 2 SSDs in one optical bay there is only one connection in there.
Physically, it's doable.
But the ports between the two systems are different. So getting them attached to the ICH would be impossible in that location without an adapter offered by MaxUpgrades (also need a mounting system of some sort). There are other options that would be cheaper, such as pull the optical disk in ODD bay 1 (one SSD per optical bay for the cables), use HDD bays with an adapter, or use a separate controller (inexpensive unit per se, but this can get pricey too; unit I'm thinking of would be $130).
Of these, the HDD bay + adapter (
here; one per bay) would be the most effective IMO. Probably the cheapest too.
SSD's don't make heat like mechanical disks can, so it's nothing to worry about.
remember 3 SSD you are throttled !
so that means you wont be using your other SATA internal for anything more than two unless you do not mind the hit ?
As the 40GB units are generating about 175MB/s sustained, it would be OK to run a pair for scratch, and a separate SSD for OS/applications (leaves ~310MB/s on the ICH, and a single SATA 3.0Gb/s port tops out at 270 - 275MB/s anyway, which is fine for the model being considered).
I would say put 2 off your internal connections ? maybe one off your extra SATA in the optical and one on a icy dock sled inside and then depends on your other internals ?
There'd still be a need for 2x Icy Dock adapters (2x SSD's in the HDD bays, one in the empty optical bay) to get them installed for the lowest cost (all 3x units on the ICH).
OR I think I figured out my new setup ?
1 off your extra optical this will be your boot SSD
4 discs in raid 1/0 or 1+0 🙂 inside for safe BU and fast enough if I need to work off I can this will be 3TB discs so 6 TB working space
then a card in slot 3 and 4 that will have two SSD for scratch one off each since the card will hit 500 as the two drives might exceed that ? not sure going to have to test
This will work, as you're willing to put the funds into such large capacity disks and accept the trade-off in usable capacity.
I presume the RAID card is handling your primary data....
😉 😛
you could do a raid card though like me but still do the scratch off external sata card you can run the cables up inside to your optical and just use a Y to get more power to them
Let's wait and see what happens, as it may be more effective to run backups externally (JBOD, hardware RAID box via FW or even eSATA,...).
But the newertech card + pair of single disk enclosures would suffice for the scratch stripe set without getting crazy in terms of cost I think (figuring card + 2x eSATA enclosures would be under $100).
two cards one SSD off each card and one BU box off each card ! my BU never runs when I am in PS ? so they wont be battling for bandwidth
we shall see 🙂
You don't need to do this.
😀 One card will suffice (500MB/s capable, and the pair will only generate ~350MB/s, assuming you're sticking with the 40GB units from OWC).
the only other thing is take out your optical and put it on a FW case ?
USB is better, as it would work for any OS (Windows has dropped FW support all together). May not matter now, but could in the long term (i.e. decide to install a Windows installation at a later date). Bandwidth wise, USB 2.0 is fine for optical disks.
