Good luck, and keep us posted. Especially on the final parts ordered.I ordered the tower today, I'm excited
I should be here middle of next week at latest.
The other components I will order tonight / tomorrow, I'm already late for work. With any luck I will get everything together and running before classes start on the 12th....
UltraNEO is correct, it maintains the cache data if power is lost. It's not perfect though, because if the file being written is larger than the cache, you still get a corrupted write.
Yes it does, but not all cards are limited to 256MB. Some have up to 4GB.
Neither is perfect, and ultimately, can't solve absolutely every possiblity even when used together, but to me, a UPS is really a mandatory item, as it solves far more problems than a BBU (battery backup). Ideally, you should combine the two, but it's up to the individual to decide. Usually budget related.
Areca falls into this category. ATTO Tech lists a battery backup as an option, but doesn't actually offer it. I've never found one anyway, and Atto doesn't sell them either. (They do sell their other products directly, so I saw this as a hint).
This is usually how capacity is increased in an existing array. It's easy, and no down time, but the rebuilds may take longer than starting from scratch (you won't have to re-initialize in this case once all the drives are upgraded).
Backups are needed, and in some cases, if the need to upgraded capacity is extremely dire, can allow you to upgrade all the drives at once, initialize, then restore the data from the backup to the new array. Also handy if a major problem occurs, whether changing out for larger drives or not. Backups are notably cheaper than data recovery. 
That's with any of them, not just Apple.
Good to hear you're getting started.
Whew... You lucked into avoiding that one.
That memory would work quite nicely.
It wasn't meant as a disparaging comment in the least.
I didn't know the details of you RAID knowledge, and I see it as a separate skill-set than Tech Support. I've met people who knew an incredible amount on the workings of computers and could fix about anything, but had never had access to RAID, and didn't know the details.
As for Mac compatibility, I had to do the research to discover what works. Of the items I've listed, I like the offerings by Areca. In my experience, they are very fast, offer features I need or would prefer to have, and are priced (street) well for the money.
No problem.
I came from a PC/Unix (non Mac) background with RAID, and had to do the research. I don't know anyone who just knows through osmosis.
Separation has a few advantages.
1. If there's a problem with the OS, it won't affect the array. It's far easier to fix the OS on a separate drive than loose the array. Super important IMO.
2. You get faster boot times. Initialization, particularly with larger arrays, takes longer than the time a separate drive can load the OS. Say 45sec with a modest HDD vs. 1 min 15sec or so for 4 drives. Additional drives increases the time a little.
For me, the first reason is enough on its own. A HDD for the OS is far cheaper than data recovery. It's also the reason I really prefer to have the PT backup feature. Last I checked, 12 drives is ~ low $40kUSD.
A good backup system is put into perspective when compared to this figure as well.
I wouldn't go with the 1.5TB drives. Too many issues with that particular drive, and I personally prefer enterprise units for RAID. I've seen too many consumer units self destruct in ~2 months or so. Not good.
Drive quality seems to be suffering lately, from what I've seen. Just check out various forums about issues, especially with firmware and DOA rates.
Sorry, I missed this one.
Given your previous posts, I presume your machine doesn't use the 800MHz variant, so that memory will work.
Given your previous posts, I presume your machine doesn't use the 800MHz variant, so that memory will work.
Maybe that will teach me not to post while eating on my lunch break.
