Pegasus Promise R4 with SSD

[windgineer]

I have recently purchased a Pegasus Promise R4 with SSD replacements for the 1TB Hitachi HDs installed by the OEM. The SSDs are 160GB, SATA II (3Gbps), Intel 320 Series. I read on another mac site, I think it was "NuFunk" or something, that they recommended only using 6Gbps SSDs if you were going to try placing SSDs in the Pegasus Promise. They also said there are problems in general with the SSDs working with the Pegasus Promise. I would like to know if anyone has tried this already what their results were. I will report mine once I am up and running.

I am using the RAID to support storage on a Mac Mini I am peicing together. Interestingly, I will be replacing the 2011 Mac Mini's two 500GB HDs with one Intel 520 Series (6Gbps) 250GB SSD and one Intel 510 Series (6Gbps) 120GB SSD. I will also be installing 16GB of Corsair (Mac specific) RAM. I may discuss the outcome of the Mac Mini in a separate post, as I gather it belongs their by organization.

If anyone has tried using SSDs in Pegasus Promise, I would like to know how successful it was. Thanks.

 

[jayhawk11]

Yes, you should run SATAIII (6Gbps) SSD's in the Pegasus if you're going to run SSD's at all. Otherwise you're going to run out of bandwidth for your drives to send data well before you run out of bandwidth over Thunderbolt.

More importantly, why are you mixing and matching drives? Seems like you're playing with fire.

 

[windgineer]

Mixing and Matching SSDs with Mac Mini and Pegasus Promise R4

I do not mean to say I am mixing any of the drives in the Pegasus Promise R4. All of those are 120GB Intel 320 Series (3Gbps).
The Mac Mini already has one 250GB Intel 520 Series and will have an additional 120GB Intel 510 Series. Both are 6Gbps.
I hear you on the risk I am taking; and I also recognize that my SSDs become the bottleneck in my RAID drives. However, I do not believe the original Hitachi hard drives would have been any faster.
My aim with this post was to ask anyone else trying to do something similar what their results were. Thanks for responding though. It's nice that someone has given some input. I echo your Rock and Chalk of the Jayhawk.

 

[jayhawk11]

I do not mean to say I am mixing any of the drives in the Pegasus Promise R4. All of those are 120GB Intel 320 Series (3Gbps).
The Mac Mini already has one 250GB Intel 520 Series and will have an additional 120GB Intel 510 Series. Both are 6Gbps.
I hear you on the risk I am taking; and I also recognize that my SSDs become the bottleneck in my RAID drives. However, I do not believe the original Hitachi hard drives would have been any faster.
My aim with this post was to ask anyone else trying to do something similar what their results were. Thanks for responding though. It's nice that someone has given some input. I echo your Rock and Chalk of the Jayhawk.

I was more concerned about having two different models of SSD inside your Mac. If you're looking to go RAID0, I'd try to match.

Anyway, the only stuff I can find about running SSD's in a Pegasus is here:

Barefeats: Thunderbolt RAID vs SAS RAID

here:

Barefeats: Thunderbolt Enclosures Compared

and, of course, Anandtech's review:

Anandtech - Promise Pegasus R6 & Mac Thunderbolt Review

Not sure how much this helps, but it's better than nothing.