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New Mac Pro Hard Drive Questions

MrPDaddyHimself

MrPDaddyHimself

macrumors regular
Original poster
I'm purchasing the New Mac Pro and would love to have 4 - 1TB drives. Am I really going to save that much money by using a third party vendor? And if so, what are my best options based upon the new Mac Pro specs? Lastly, are they easy to install? Any advice is appreciated.
 
MrPDaddyHimself said:
I'm purchasing the New Mac Pro and would love to have 4 - 1TB drives. Am I really going to save that much money by using a third party vendor? And if so, what are my best options based upon the new Mac Pro specs? Lastly, are they easy to install? Any advice is appreciated.
Click to expand...

Easy to install, and yes the savings will be much worth it.
 
If you're buying four of them, the savings are huge.

Apple is charging $550 per 1TB drive, whereas newegg.com is selling various brands for anywhere between $279.99 and $329.99.
 
Thanks for the heads up. Can anyone tell me the recommended 1 TB drives to use per spec for the new Mac Pro?

And lastly, should I go ahead and purchase the Raid card from Apple?
 
the raid card is scsi if I remember correctly. there aren't scsi disks that are 1tb yet.. also I don't believe if you're using raid that you'll be able to access the raided disks from within boot camp...
 
Well the Genius at the Apple store said I would need the RAID card. The plan originally was to buy 4 1-TB drives. 0+1 Raid. So basically I would have 2 TBs mirrored. Based on what I've read, I would need the raid card to make that happen?
 
You would definitely NOT need the RAID card as Disk Utility can do a 1+0 software RAID setup that will meet almost anyone's needs. I am going to do something similar, however I think I'll just have two RAID 0 arrays and use Time Machine to keep things backed up. The problem with RAID is if you accidently delete something its gone. Also RAID 1 slows down writes so that may be a concern as well. I'll probably use the 320GB stock drive for Windows after I get some sort of mounting bracket to stuff it in the unused optical bay. I'm not sure why Apple doesn't have SATA cables in the optical bays, but its not that hard to just run another cable up the back side.
 
So the deal is you cannot have a SAS drive,without a RAID card installed as well?.....I read that on the bto list at Apple,but I want to make sure I have this right.


The new 15k SAS drives,do you think they are worth the premium,between say a WD 10k drive and the Apple bto one?
 
OK, so now I'm really confused. The Apple Guru said I would need the RAID card with my setup. Where can I find info to determine if that is the case or not? I want 4 TB for sure. I'll be using After Effects, FCP, Adobe CS3. Thanks.
 
Drives and RAID

Here is the low down. If you want SAS 15K drives you need the RAID card. The RAID will accept SAS (serial attached SCSI) or SATA drives. The "Green" 1TB drives from Western Digital are slowed down spindle to save power thus "green" these are not performance drives, just 1TB storage. If you want performance then the RAID card and SAS drives it the way to do it.
If you want bulk storage thenSATA and no RAID card, although you can increase the performance of the SATA drives with the RAID card.
The RAID card also offers protection for drive failure when setup in RAID5 mode.
You choose what you want. Apple :apple:did lower the price on the RAID card to $800. I am thinking of making that buy now.🙂
 
What performance do you want?

15k rpm SAS drives will give good sustained streaming performance (though RAID 5 is a poor choice for sustained writes - RAID 1/0 is better).

You could also consider solid state SATA for random I/O (e.g. quick startup) - this performance exceeds SAS 😎
 
MrPDaddyHimself said:
Well the Genius at the Apple store said I would need the RAID card. The plan originally was to buy 4 1-TB drives. 0+1 Raid. So basically I would have 2 TBs mirrored. Based on what I've read, I would need the raid card to make that happen?
Click to expand...

He tried to sell you hardware RAID card??

It just shows the genius tag is relative. They're probably a genius with Apple products, compared to say, my mother-in-law; but keep in mind the genius bar is retail, not research and development. To be honest, technical aptitude is probably less important a pre-requisite for Apple Store genius bar employment than is the ability to type all in lowercase, wear scarves indoors, and listen to Belle-and-Sebastian w/o gagging.
 
Barracudas make a lot of noise in my experience. They have a loudish whine and their clicking is somewhat pronounced. Nothing like a Caviar.
 
OnePumpChump said:
I've heard nothing but good concerning Seagate drives.
Click to expand...

Seagate = 5 yr warranty
Hitachi & WD = 3 yr.

great detailed comparison here:
http://www.storagereview.com/1000.sr

MrPDaddyHimself said:
OK, so now I'm really confused. The Apple Guru said I would need the RAID card with my setup. Where can I find info to determine if that is the case or not? I want 4 TB for sure. I'll be using After Effects, FCP, Adobe CS3. Thanks.
Click to expand...

A software RAID (through Disk Utility) is slower than a hardware RAID (using the Apple RAID card); it's an important distinction.

good section about RAID here:
http://www.macintouch.com/reviews/macpro/followup.html
 
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