What RAID levels do you need, how much storage do you need and what type of workloads are you running - random I/O or sequential?
Raid level 1, 4 tbs would be fine. Will be using it for video editing and backup.
Like others have said OWC make good kit. If you only want the two drives in RAID 1 then this would probably do you https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB2U3MED0GB/
I've tried 3 different units (The original Drobo, the mini and the 5D). The performance of the 5D over thunderbolt was okay (dire under USB3), but on all of them the noise levels were unacceptable.
As most everyone has recommended this product, do any of you know if it is compatible with High Sierra? Got a different brand that the manufacturer admitted won't be visible to the new macOS.
Have two internal 4GB drives that I would drop into the enclosure, so don't need one that comes with drives.
Any other suggestions are welcome.
[running this on a 2012 Mac Pro]
The OWC duel enclosure works fine with high Sierra.
I have use this inclosure for several years without any issues.
The enclosure is a hardware based raid with a little rotary switch on the back to pick the raid mode (Independent, Concatenated, Striped, Mirrored)
It does come with some unnecessary software that I never bothered to load.
Appreciate the info. Helps a lot.
Since this all came about since the main system is a completely maxed out 2012 Mac Pro and the Apple RAID Card can only handle up to 2.2GB, would another option be to simply use Disk Utility and implement Apple's software RAID? Configuration would be RAID 1. Wondering if the performance hit would be negligible.
All advice welcome. This "project" has been driving me crazy.
Before I switched from FireWire to Thunderbolt a while back I use a OWC FireWire 4 disk raid array that worked well.
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/M3QX2KIT0GB
Not sure if this sort of thing is what you’re looking for but it’s the best I can offer.
Yup. Looked at that one as well as the 2 bay version. As long as there is USB 3.0/3.1 (sadly faster than FireWire), I'm good.
Wondering if you (or anyone) can assist with the answer to my Apple software RAID question above. THAT would be the determining factor.
Appreciate it!
I use disk utilitie’s RAID 1 capability to mirror the two internal SSDs in a Mac Mini server (mid 2011) 2GHz i7 running 10.12.4 Sierra. I have not seen a reduced performance and believe the read performance is better than a single drive.
I use the system for a media server and home control server.
The home control system has no performance issues.
iTunes and Photos, on the other hand, runs like a dog. But then I have learned not to expect too much from iTunes.
I mentioned FireWire earlier because it appeared that system you described didn’t have USB 3 capability. As long as the drive interface is fast it has been my experience the disk utilities RAID system works well.