Specking out a new Mac Pro, I could use some advice Raid card / configuration

[NightSailor]

Apple Raid

I'd definitely avoid Apple's own RAID card (unless you need SAS drives) as it's slow, problematic and limited to the internal four drives only. Thus there's no external expandability plus it's expensive! The only advantage I see it has is the ability to boot the system allowing you to install a fresh copy of the OS on there without too much hassle. Third-party solutions are coming...

So what is the maximum throughput of the Apple RAID Card. I see the Areca Tech cards max out at 841MB/s.

My goal is 800MBps, but I don't have a need for more than four drives at present. I'm thinking about four Samsung 256GB SSD drives in RAID 0. And another one for a boot disk, with software RAID for backup, in an external enclosure.

To date, I haven't seen any data on the Apple RAID Card. What are the specs on it. Who has used it? What first hand information is there?

I don't think the cost is out of line at $700 for this--it is comparable to other solutions, and it comes with Apples support--which I'm very impressed with.

I am not opposed to other vendors, I just want a valid comparison.

 

[nanofrog]

So what is the maximum throughput of the Apple RAID Card. I see the Areca Tech cards max out at 841MB/s.

My goal is 800MBps, but I don't have a need for more than four drives at present. I'm thinking about four Samsung 256GB SSD drives in RAID 0. And another one for a boot disk, with software RAID for backup, in an external enclosure.

To date, I haven't seen any data on the Apple RAID Card. What are the specs on it. Who has used it? What first hand information is there?

I don't think the cost is out of line at $700 for this--it is comparable to other solutions, and it comes with Apples support--which I'm very impressed with.

I am not opposed to other vendors, I just want a valid comparison.

Search the forum. It's there, as I know I've seen it somewhere.

IIRC, the Apple RAID card hits the wall @ ~350 -400 MB/s. It's expensive for this, has problems (battery in particular), and won't support any other OS.

For the same $$, you can get a 3rd party solution, such as Areca's offerings, that have better speed, and features. Including boot support for multiple OS's, depending on the specific model.

At 4 drives, you won't hit 800 MB/s using mechanical HDD's. It's impossible ATM, as none of them can sustain over 200MB/s. SSD's will be the only possible way to do this (Intel's X-25 series SSD's can), but at very small capacities.

What exactly are you trying to accomplish?