RAID on 09 Mac Pro without apple RAID card

[IainH]

Just wondering how one would go about doing an internal RAID on a Mac Pro without spending $1400 on apples RAID card.

I know theres a function within Disk Utility, but isn that purely a software raid...so a bootcamp partition wouldnt be able to see it?

In the PC world...you just buy a PCI raid card, connect your HDDs, press button and recieve bacon. It doesnt appear to work this nicely in the Mac world though.

 

[xsoniccrackersx]

Check this thread.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/665276/

Currently the options are:

Get Apple Raid Card
or
Go External

3rd Parties as we know right know will not work in the 09's do to a change in the motherboard. Ask Nanofrog, he knows whats up.

 

[IainH]

$1400 just to get raid? **** that.

External is where it gets confusing for me...itd either be a FW800 raid, which is bad, cause it would max out at like 100mb/s which is pointless for RAID0, or eSata, which means buying an eSata card (which I have a thread about already).

What I dont see is why you can buy eSata cards which have raid controllers ON them - why would you buy like 2 or 4 external HDDs and RAID them...isnt the idea to buy a RAID enclosure, have it do its thing internally, then just send the data back to the tower?

 

[wetrix]

There are also internal solutions that use 2 2.5" drives inside a 3.5" enclosure.

http://www.transintl.com/store/category.cfm?Category=2746

Edit: Doh not compatible with Mac Pro 09

 

[xsoniccrackersx]

I know, its ridiculous right? It ruined all my plans. I guess Apple wised up and wasn't selling enough of their cards and decided to limit people to just theirs for now at least...Sigh, I can't wait either, I don't know what I will do.

 

[wetrix]

RAID is always a bit of a sore spot on Mac Pros. Everybody wants it, but few are happy that they have to pay so much for such a poor hardware solution.

 

[IainH]

Wow....thats.....utterly lame.

Im glad Im not doing pro video, or I'd be pissed, but Im still having to playback long image sequences in compositions.

Is it at all using OSX's "internal" raid system, or is it unstable and unreadable outside osx?

The money it costs to buy the raid card...you can buy a good esata card, a bunch of HDDs and an external enclosure.

How do apple plan to sell more units of the card if all theyre doing is making the choice simple for users for how to raid - go third party

 

[k2director]

HOw does Apple's RAID card cost $1400? Isn't it more like $700?

Also, the reason third party cards won't work on the Mac Pro 09 edition is because the raid card needs to control the drives right off the motherboard, instead of requiring cables to be connected to the internal drives. Apple's new RAID card works with this new approach, and third party cards don't because they were designed for an earlier, less elegant system. But that doesn't mean third party manufacturers can't update their card offerings to support the new Mac Pro's architecture. I know CalDigit is looking into that right now...

 

[IainH]

Im in Australia - our upgrades cost double that of yours.

Eg. You pay $300 for a 1TB from Apple, we pay $600 (not that anyone would EVER buy HDDs from Apple)