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NEW TODAY: Mac Pro Hardware RAID BTO option!

999 ....Damn I would happily pay $500 to enable the onboard RAID controller, still it's a lot cheaper than a fibre-channel card and an xraid. it all depends on how much you guys need RAID performance. For a lot of folks a software raid is gonna cut it. But if you moving a lot of HD and above res video, then you know why this is useful.

In terms of performance. If it can sustain 300 mb/s then it is LIGHTYEARS ahead of your software raid solution and more than twice what I have seen anything eSATA do. Frankly SATA is crap for high performance but it is cheap.
 
ChrisA said:
This is really the lowest price way to buy this level of performance. How else can you get it for $1K? Ok you can buy a cheep PC, install BSD UNIX on it then implement RAID there and then connect it to your Mac Pro. But connect it by what? Gigabit Eithernet is 4X to slow.
Click to expand...

I bought this Norco 4629 for $190
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/norco/4629/

It hooks to 4 drives without port multipliers, but it can do up to TWENTY with PM's.

A RAID 10 with 20 drives or a RAID 0 with 10 drives can do 453/404 R/W.

So that's $800 I save. If you did it with 500GB drives ($100 each), that's 8 more hard drives I could add simply for the cost difference between the two.

The only advantages the Apple card has:
1) Bootable (norco is not)*
2) uses existing drive bays (norco is external)**
3) S.M.A.R.T. works in OS X (norco does not)*
4) RAID-5 & 6 (norco doesn't)

* No card I know of other than Apple's does these things due to some weird thing Apple has done to the Mac Pro to mess it up.

** No other card does this, which is pretty cool

Now the Norco's advantages:
1) Works in Windows (Apple's doesn't)
2) Works with Port Multipliers to add up to 20 drives (Apple's does 4 max)
3) Less than 1/4 the cost ($190 no tax vs $999 plus tax)
4) Can be added aftermarket (Apple's is BTO option only)

Keep in mind, the Norco is the CHEAPEST 4 drive card I could find and it does so much more. There are other cards out there that do RAID 5 & 6.

For the record, this is the first 4 drive card for the mac pro I've seen made by any vendor that costs more than $400.

So when you say $1,000 is a good deal, you really say it not knowing of any other options out there.
 
My Software RAID Rocks!

aneks said:
In terms of performance. If it can sustain 300 mb/s then it is LIGHTYEARS ahead of your software raid solution and more than twice what I have seen anything eSATA do. Frankly SATA is crap for high performance but it is cheap.
Click to expand...

I have an 8-core Mac Pro with 2 striped 150GB Raptors as boot and 3 striped 750GB WD Caviars (WD7500AAKS). The Raptors do 163/158 MB/s W/R and the Caviars 270/274. One Caviar does 97 MB/s, so it scales quite nicely, and one more Caviar should get 350-360 MB/s. I don't really see a need for this card except the battery backup, and a $100-200 UPS would probably cover that nicely.

David
 
GregD said:
Seriously you would think they would add the possibility of a new pro graphics card a year later... but no.. a RAID card... very useful im sure apple :)

Is the new ATI iMac gcard better than the current Mac Pro ones?
Click to expand...

Still waiting for a GeForce 8800 GTX....

But the new ATi HD 2600 Pro card is far worse than the X1900 XT.
The 2600 is quite similar to the old 1600.... :rolleyes:
 
MacsRgr8 said:
Still waiting for a GeForce 8800 GTX....

But the new ATi HD 2600 Pro card is far worse than the X1900 XT.
The 2600 is quite similar to the old 1600.... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Click the link in my signature and tell Apple how you really feel. At best, they actually do something about it. At worst, someone gets pissed because his/her inbox is full.
 
Wild-Bill said:
Click the link in my signature and tell Apple how you really feel. At best, they actually do something about it. At worst, someone gets pissed because his/her inbox is full.
Click to expand...

Good idea.
Will do that.

EDIT: and done.
I was so kind to give Apple the Radeon 2900 XT option too :p
 
miniConvert said:
Hmm, I could really use hardware RAID in one of my boxes. If this does become available as an individual purchase, and the retro-fit isn't too difficult, I'd be very very tempted.
Click to expand...

Anyone have any idea how this is fitted?
IIRC the HD's are fitted right on the motherboard, so there's no room to re-route the S-ATA cables to the RAID card like it was done in the Xserve G5.
 
Multimedia said:
Tuesday September 25 Paris Apple Expo Keynote.
Click to expand...

abrooks said:
Apple haven't held a Keynote at Paris since 2004, what makes you think they're going to start again?
Click to expand...

Agreed, even if they did have a Keynote, its too soon. This RAID card is a pretty big option change, (considering they macpro SATA ports are rewired to work with it, hence BTO only) they wouldn't release it just for a 4-6 week stint of machines.

Well, the good thing is, the more time before the next update, the bigger and badder said update will be. (New case, blu-ray, new chips, etc)
 
eSATA can get close...

CalDigit sells a variety of eSATA Raid solutions which will support 230mb/s transfer rates, sufficient for uncompressed HD, and certainly fine for ProRes 422 HQ High Def. video.

But a 2.5TB Caldigit box is about $3000 from New Egg which is more than the $1000 interface with three internal 750GB drives, and with the CalDigit, you don't have a battery backup for the cache, so you'll need a UPS of some sort.

Ed

aneks said:
999 ....Damn I would happily pay $500 to enable the onboard RAID controller, still it's a lot cheaper than a fibre-channel card and an xraid. it all depends on how much you guys need RAID performance. For a lot of folks a software raid is gonna cut it. But if you moving a lot of HD and above res video, then you know why this is useful.

In terms of performance. If it can sustain 300 mb/s then it is LIGHTYEARS ahead of your software raid solution and more than twice what I have seen anything eSATA do. Frankly SATA is crap for high performance but it is cheap.
Click to expand...
 
Areca recently released a high performance option that is significantly less. I am not sure if they are bootable though.

But at 999, this better have some nice features on it other then an apple logo. IMO, completely overpriced.
 
Paris Apple Expo Is Timed For iPhone Europe & Leopard Release Date

abrooks said:
Apple haven't held a Keynote at Paris since 2004, what makes you think they're going to start again?
Click to expand...
It's the week after the Intel Developer Conference in San Francisco and a month before they release OS X Leopard. Plus that's perfect timing to launch iPhone Europe as well. And yes they have. Just not Steve Jobs.
 
Multimedia said:
I can't tell which one you mean on the Areca website. Please?
Click to expand...

Areca ARC-1231ML
http://www.areca.com.tw/products/pcie341.htm

- 12 ports
- RAID levels 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 10 or JBOD support
- PCIe 8x
- online RAID capacity expansion
- RAID level migration
- hot swap
- global online spare
- automatic failed drive rebuilding and background RAID rebuilding

(not bootable, but neither is any other 3rd party RAID for mac pro)

$860

It's reviewed here (scroll past norco):
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/norco/1240/

card.jpg


Apple is t3h sux0r.
 
Has ANYONE seen ANY posts ANYWHERE asking Apple for a new RAID card for the Mac Pro? I mean, what were they thinking?!?!

I have yet to see posts on any forums where people are saying "Yay, thanks Apple. Just what I wanted!".

I think they are completely out of touch with their customers.
 
If The Apple Is Bootable And Can Support 12 Drives Then It's Worth $1k

Thanks for the pics and links slughead. And thanks to the fantastic team at the Arizona Mac Users Group and Art Whalem in particular for covering this very important part of the puzzle for us.

Does the Apple card support 12 drives like the one above? 'Cause the fact that it lets you boot from the RAID might make that worth it right?

As far as needing the card goes Wild-Bill, for Apple Pro Res 422 we do need such a card and external RAID enclosure(s). So yes this is a very must have card and external drive enclosure. Combined with the 12 drive rack mount enclosure for only $640 for the Norco DS-1240 12 Bay Infiniband Multilane SATA HD Storage Array plus $860 for the Areca ARC-1231ML PCIe card this is a very good deal for only $1,500. And this is just what I want with my 8 core Mac Pro.

"Yay, thanks Apple for leading us to Norco Technologies Inc in Santa Fe Springs CA and Areca in Taiwan and Fremont CA. Just what I wanted!"

Call it post #1 Wild-Bill :p

But the more I think about it, booting from the RAID is not really very important.
 
Wild-Bill said:
Has ANYONE seen ANY posts ANYWHERE asking Apple for a new RAID card for the Mac Pro? I mean, what were they thinking?!?!

I have yet to see posts on any forums where people are saying "Yay, thanks Apple. Just what I wanted!".

I think they are completely out of touch with their customers.
Click to expand...

Actually RAID cards are extremely important for the type of people the Mac Pro is aimed at.
 
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