Developer machine RAID recommendations

Just thought I'd let you know that SuperDuper is now at version 2.5 which is Leopard compatible

 

Similar needs and setup, different approach

hey bill,

Your post caught my eye becaue I have a similar working environment: Adobe CS3, photo editing, some video editing, running WAMP servers, web development, etc. I am getting ready to purchase the same machine, though without the RAID card.

First things first, stuff it full of RAM. I am going for 8GB start (get third-party, save tons of $$$) and will upgrade to 16GB not long after.

I weighed the option for the RAID card carefully, but after reading posts and having discussions with people knowledgable on the subject, I opted against it. Personally, I think its probably overkill for a RAID 0 setup, and is geared more for CPU-intensive RAID 5 or 6 setups. Plus, it can only be used on the 4 internal drives.

I initially was considering a similar disk configuration as you - 2 WD 150 Raptors in RAID 0 for boot and 2 150 Raptors for in RAID 0 for scratch. I think many would agree a boot drive stripe will reap small performance benefits, plus double your risk of failure. So I opted against that setup as well.

Instead, I am going with 2 500 Seagate 7200.11 - 1 for the OS and the other for User data. Both of these drives will have an outer partition of just 100GB to increase speed and each will backup to the remaining space on the respective drives. This method will increase speed but also not "waste" disk space and create an easy to implement backup strategy for OS and User data.

The other 2 internal drives will be a pair of 150GB Raptors in a RAID 0 stripe for scratch only. Self-explanatory I think, speed here is king.

For my main storage and working drive, I am going with the Sonnet E4P SATA controller card with a 5-Bay Firmtek SeriTek enclosure. This will contain a 3 drive RAID 0 stripe (probably 500 GB Seagate 7200.11's) for a working volume. A 1TB drive in slot 4 for backup of the working volume and still an extra bay in the enclosure, possibly for a RAID 1 mirror if integrity is really important. I too was considering the Lycom and Burly enclosures like yourself and think those will serve the purpose equally as well.

I'd be interested to hear what you decide to go with or any comments you might have.

Cheers!

 

Hi bill,

I too was looking at the Areca card because of it is true hardware RAID and it looks great, but also fairy pricy. Perhaps down the line for me.

Just out of curiosity, why would you rather not use software RAID? I have been considering the pro and cons between hardware and software RAID and would be interested to get your take.

16GB of memory is key to performance I think and the Seagate ES drives are probably a good option too. I think the 7200.11 are a little cheaper which is why I opted for those.

I'm more curious on how you to plan to utilize the internal Apple RAID card with the 4 drive bays. I would assume you would likely setup all 4 drives in a RAID 5 or RAID 0 array, though I know you mentioned you weren't sure yet. If that were the case and there's no external storage, what would your backup plan be?

You'll probably get good speed with the 4 internal bays on hardware RAID, but I'm not sure it's an ideal situation. In that case, your OS, User, scratch and data would all be on the same RAID volume, which means the drive heads would be all over the place. Rather, I think if you separate your OS, User, scratch and data onto separate channels (separate physical drives) you'll actually get better performance because the OS can access those channels simultaneously. And, if for example, you use 500GB drives for OS, User and scratch, but create say a 100GB partition, that partition will exist on the outer edge of the drive platter and will increase the speed of the disk.

In my case, I will use the 4 internal bays only for OS, User and scratch and all working data and backups will be on an external enclosure connected via a SATA PCIe card, and perhaps an Areca card down the line. And, yes, I'll probably keep a FW800 drive as a bootable backup of OS and User as another fail safe.

Hope your new MP arrives quickly! I'm pulling the trigger in the next few days.


cheers,
michael

 

hi ya'll,
forgive me my ignorance but i just looked up ARECA product page and nowhere does it say that any of their products are compatible with os x environment. don't these products require some os x drivers? are some generic drivers build into os x so that this type of product does not require anything else?

i just got my macpro 2.8 8 core and i'm very happy with it, but i'm trying to move my external storage that i had on my g5 connected through a firmtek card to my new machine and am looking for a GOOD, RELIABLE and FAST sata controller for my macpro. any recommendations would be very much appreciated.
cheers,
a.
p.s. it'd be nice if i could make that controller work with win xp that i just set up on bootcap as well.