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esata/sata raid card

S

superfula

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 17, 2002
319
2
I've been looking around for a card that can do RAID 5 with esata ports and at least three internal sata ports. My goal is to RAID three internal drives with a couple external. So far all I have found is a card that has two and two. Has anyone come across such a card? If not, I'm open to other suggestions.

I'm using a current setup to house my movies and music, but it will soon max out what I have. RAID 5 and a couple esata ports will give me the flexibility to add drives down the road
 
What kind of mac? Mac Pro?

the only one that does internal drives in the Mac Pro is Apple's card, which is totally overpriced.

I'd advise having the whole thing outside the case.
 
slughead said:
What kind of mac? Mac Pro?

the only one that does internal drives in the Mac Pro is Apple's card, which is totally overpriced.

I'd advise having the whole thing outside the case.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's a Mac Pro.

I've found several cards that have sata ports for internal drives and several for esata, but it's rare to find cards with both.

I thought about all outside the case, but I'd rather not blow another $400 just for external cases. If that's my only choice, I don't know if it's worth it to me.
 
Why not just RAID all the internal drives? You can also mount an internal drive in the second DVD bay if you need to, for a total of 5 internal drives. Then buy a second card for eSATA with external drives if you need additional space? I only suggest this because you make it sound as if you won't be using all of the internal drives in the RAID, and I can't think of a reason to mix internal and external unless you want >5 drives in the RAID.
 
Thanks for the help. It's appreciated.

hayduke said:
Why not just RAID all the internal drives? You can also mount an internal drive in the second DVD bay if you need to, for a total of 5 internal drives. Then buy a second card for eSATA with external drives if you need additional space? I only suggest this because you make it sound as if you won't be using all of the internal drives in the RAID, and I can't think of a reason to mix internal and external unless you want >5 drives in the RAID.
Click to expand...

I am not only looking for a solution that works now, but something that is expandable, thus the internal/external thought. Perhaps I could start with an internal solution like you mention and add the second card later on for a second (external) set of drives. I was hoping to have all drives under one 'array', but that may not be possible unless I buy a pricey CalDigit raid card.

The boot drive would not be part of the RAID, but by adding one (or two) extra internals, that would be quite enough to last awhile. I've seen products that allow you to house up to 8 internal drives....6 with an optical drive.
 
superfula said:
I am not only looking for a solution that works now, but something that is expandable, thus the internal/external thought. Perhaps I could start with an internal solution like you mention and add the second card later on for a second (external) set of drives. I was hoping to have all drives under one 'array', but that may not be possible unless I buy a pricey CalDigit raid card.

The boot drive would not be part of the RAID, but by adding one (or two) extra internals, that would be quite enough to last awhile. I've seen products that allow you to house up to 8 internal drives....6 with an optical drive.
Click to expand...

Here's one that does 4 internal and 12 external:
http://www.caldigit.com/RAIDCard/raidcard_index.html
It's supposed to be out soon and sounds good. I'll wait for some reviews first.
 
IIRC the OSX RAID software will do RAID 1 and RAID 0 but not RAID 5

When looking for a card, you have to distinguish between those that offer eSATA /SATA ports, and those that actually support RAID in hardware.

The Caldigit card has been rumored for a long time, IDK if a working card is actually shipping yet - they have missed many announced dates.

The HighPoint RocketRAID cards are another possibility
 
330toSRT8 said:
There's another thread on the topic and it doesn't sound promising:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/497859/
Click to expand...

Yikes, thanks for that. The $500+ price-tag curbed my interest as well.

CanadaRAM said:
IIRC the OSX RAID software will do RAID 1 and RAID 0 but not RAID 5

When looking for a card, you have to distinguish between those that offer eSATA /SATA ports, and those that actually support RAID in hardware.

The Caldigit card has been rumored for a long time, IDK if a working card is actually shipping yet - they have missed many announced dates.

The HighPoint RocketRAID cards are another possibility
Click to expand...

I've had to dig around for the specs on some nice cards, only to find they only do RAID 0 or 1.

I'll check out the HighPoint cards, thanks.
 
The problem I think you'll find is that if you disconnect all the internal drives, you'll have a hard time booting. Also, I don't think you have the option of only having 3/4 of the internal HDs on the 3rd party controller--it's all or nothing. Take a look at the service manual.

Remember: MOST MAC PRO HD CONTROLLERS ARE NOT BOOTABLE.

I found a max upgrades adapter that allows you to divert any controller into the Mac pro internal drives (choose the appropriate one):
http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=332
$90

Okay, so now all you have to do is find a bootable card. Well here's the one I found:

http://www.hptmac.com/US/product.php?_index=43
$470

It does 0, 1, 5, 6, and 50. Overkill but it's bootable, which is hard to find.

You can run 1 miniSAS to an external enclosure, and fold one back into the case through an empty PCIe slot, to your max upgrades adapter, to the internal drives.. it'll look like hell but it'll work

There may be other bootable cards out there, but the only ones I've seen are the Rocketraid 3522 and the Apple card.

It's expensive to do what you're doing, but it'll still be less than what you get with Apple's RAID, plus you can do more hard drives.
 
Oh, if you do end up replacing all the internal mac drives, realize that the hidden SATA ports on the mac pro DO boot (*** OS X ONLY ***).

So you could have another hard drive in the optical bay as your boot drive.
 
Hi Slughead:

Have you found any other cards that may fit the bill?

I've been looking for a hybrid RAID5 that is bootable, and can be used with Boot Camp.

So far, I've come up with the following cards:

ATTO ExpressSAS R348 (can operate 8 drives, selectable) $810
Areca ARC-1680 series (multiple configs) also pricey
CalDigitRAID card (plenty available in other threads) $550
RocketRAID 3540 (4 drives internal, 16 drives total) $unknown
RocketRAID 3520 (8 drives internal) $430
RocketRAID 3510 (4 drives internal) $310

Some of them fall short somewhere, others I don't have as much info as I would like. The Boot Camp issue is proving a real challenge.

Thanks.
 
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