SSD drives in Pegasus J4

[romemac2013]

4x Samsung 840 in a Pegasus J4

RAID 0:

RAID 10:

(Basically a RAID 0 of 2x SSDs for comparison)

@ alphaod, I have the same set up as you- running 4 840 Samsung SSD's in RAID 0, but only getting write speeds of 575 and read of 620...any thoughts on why I might not be pushing +750 like you?

Thanks!

----------

And thanks again for this post guys...new to the forum...big fan of this post and threads just like it...BIG THANKS to everyone who's posted here. Finally decided to take the leap and buy the setup (J4 with 4x500gb SSDs)...a little frustrated that I cant get my speeds up...especially given the $$$ I've invested.

And for those wanting to know why I want to speed- want to edit 2.5K video, and don't really want to always use Proxy files (trying to get back into editing- been a while and figured a fast external would help me bypass a little headache)...

Again, any thoughts is much appreciated!

 

[romemac2013]

Here is what I'm getting...What am I doing wrong?????

Thanks again for help you can offer...

 

[regknick]

Fusion Drive Creation J4

You might check out this thread:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1519473/

Here is a performance post I made there regarding the J4:

I received my Thunderbolt Pegasus J4 and loaded it with 4 HGST Travelstar 1TB 7200rpm 2.5" hard disk drives. It is a really nice looking unit.

I found it wouldn't even see the drives without first loading the driver. Once the driver was loaded and rebooted, I used Disk Utility to create different RAID-0 arrays and tested them with BlackMagicDesign "DiskSpeedTest" with 4GB test option. I ran the test on a single disk, and 2-disk, 3-disk, and 4-disk RAID-0 configurations. I also ran the AJA test which produced similar results.

Results:
config ....... Write / Read MB/s
1 disk ....... 115 / 129
2 disk ....... 250 / 258
3 disk ....... 345 / 375
4 disk ....... 501 / 507

I like it!


Of course, running 4 hard disks in RAID-0 ... YOU WILL WANT TO KEEP A GOOD BACKUP STRATEGY!

-howard

...


I replaced one of the hard drives with a Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD:
840Pro ....... 316 / 524


I then created a "Fusion" drive in the Pegasus J4 using the 256GB SSD and one of the 1TB hard disks. I left the other 2 hard disks as a 2TB RAID-0 for now. It all seems to work great so far, although now it is a tough decision whether to leave it as a fast 1.25TB Fusion drive ... or a not-quite-so-fast 2TB RAID-0 using two drive bays. Speed vs. Capacity!

Hey there. I've got a quick question for you. I've got a 2012 FrankenMini with a DIY 1.25TB fusion using a Crucial M5 and the internal 1TB. Works wonderfully so far.

I've recently purchased the Pegasus J4 barebones enclosure and was thinking about using 2 of the bays to create and external fusion with a Samsung 840 SSD and a WD Black 750 and then using the other 2 bays with 2 WD blacks (1 500 + 1 750) to create a backup storage partition.

My question is how easy or difficult was it to create the fusion partition in the J4? Anything in particular to be aware of or is it pretty much the same as creating the internal fusion? Sorry if this post is dredging up old memories but I'd appreciate any feedback you may have for me.

 

[hfg]

Hey there. I've got a quick question for you. I've got a 2012 FrankenMini with a DIY 1.25TB fusion using a Crucial M5 and the internal 1TB. Works wonderfully so far.

I've recently purchased the Pegasus J4 barebones enclosure and was thinking about using 2 of the bays to create and external fusion with a Samsung 840 SSD and a WD Black 750 and then using the other 2 bays with 2 WD blacks (1 500 + 1 750) to create a backup storage partition.

My question is how easy or difficult was it to create the fusion partition in the J4? Anything in particular to be aware of or is it pretty much the same as creating the internal fusion? Sorry if this post is dredging up old memories but I'd appreciate any feedback you may have for me.

Creating a "fusion" drive in the Pegasus J4 is exactly the same procedure as creating one from internal drives. The 4 Pegasus J4 drives appear as distinct drives to OS X and you manage them just like internal drives.

You may wish to verify that the WD Black drives are supported (I used HGST Travelstar 1TB 7200rpm drives with mine and they are working great).

Good luck...

-howard

 

[regknick]

Pushing Pegasus

Creating a "fusion" drive in the Pegasus J4 is exactly the same procedure as creating one from internal drives. The 4 Pegasus J4 drives appear as distinct drives to OS X and you manage them just like internal drives.

You may wish to verify that the WD Black drives are supported (I used HGST Travelstar 1TB 7200rpm drives with mine and they are working great).

Good luck...

-howard

Cheers Howard. Sadly, it appears that none of the drives I've got in hand are "supported" by Promise. Fortunately, I'm a sucker for punishment. I had similar concerns when putting together my Peg R4. Thankfully, I got lucky. I put some monster drives in that weren't on their list of "approved" and it's been running perfectly for a year now. Knock on wood. I'll test the waters with the J4 and hope to have similar success. Thanks again.

 

[hfg]

Cheers Howard. Sadly, it appears that none of the drives I've got in hand are "supported" by Promise. Fortunately, I'm a sucker for punishment. I had similar concerns when putting together my Peg R4. Thankfully, I got lucky. I put some monster drives in that weren't on their list of "approved" and it's been running perfectly for a year now. Knock on wood. I'll test the waters with the J4 and hope to have similar success. Thanks again.

Yeah, if you already have the drives ... try them. I don't think the HGST drives are on the list either, nor are the SSDs I have used in mine. I suspect most drives will work fine.

 

[regknick]

it's alive

ya gotta love that j4! quick and quiet. external fusion built and running. it will be interesting to see how it performs. striped the other 2 blacks into a single tb. now das frawnkenmini lives! buzzing along nicely.

perhaps promise will take note of the wd blacks and samsung evo and consider adding them to their test beds. begin holding breath here. promise not to exhale here. and then give up now b'cos you know better.

thnx again for the reassuring words, howard. much appreciated.

 

[hfg]

ya gotta love that j4! quick and quiet. external fusion built and running. it will be interesting to see how it performs. striped the other 2 blacks into a single tb. now das frawnkenmini lives! buzzing along nicely.

perhaps promise will take note of the wd blacks and samsung evo and consider adding them to their test beds. begin holding breath here. promise not to exhale here. and then give up now b'cos you know better.

thnx again for the reassuring words, howard. much appreciated.

That's great ...

Glad you got it running with your existing drives.

-howard

 

[meddinstudios]

Anyone try this with 4 of these?

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Solid...8&qid=1380656300&sr=8-1&keywords=fusion+drive

I feel hybrid drives may bump things slightly deeper into the 500's read/write. Also, any 1.5TB users?

 

[halfapie]

Sorry to revive an old thread, but why can't I load the J4 with 4 drives and run it in RAID 10?

The website says that I can only do RAID 0 (4-way stripping?) and RAID 1 (4 way mirroring?). It says that I can do RAID 10 if I get TWO J4 units.

Thanks for any answers!

 

[alphaod]

@ alphaod, I have the same set up as you- running 4 840 Samsung SSD's in RAID 0, but only getting write speeds of 575 and read of 620...any thoughts on why I might not be pushing +750 like you?

Thanks!

Missed this question...

Sorry, I have no idea.

Sorry to revive an old thread, but why can't I load the J4 with 4 drives and run it in RAID 10?

The website says that I can only do RAID 0 (4-way stripping?) and RAID 1 (4 way mirroring?). It says that I can do RAID 10 if I get TWO J4 units.

Thanks for any answers!

You can (see my post above).

You need to create two separate RAID 1 (mirrors), and then join in to for two RAID 0 (stripes of two RAID 1s); all done in Disk Utility.

 

[halfapie]

You need to create two separate RAID 1 (mirrors), and then join in to for two RAID 0 (stripes of two RAID 1s); all done in Disk Utility.

AWESOME thanks for this answer!

 

[Caviar]

Hi, I have question about the Pegasus J4.

Is it possible to install just one SSD and leave the other 3 docks open?
The reason is, I can't afford to buy everything all at once atm.
So I was thinking of buying a J4 and one SSD first.
Then add SSDs one by one when I can.

Or does the J4 not work unless you have SSDs or HDDs installed in all 4 slots?

Thanks in advance.

 

[hfg]

Hi, I have question about the Pegasus J4.

Is it possible to install just one SSD and leave the other 3 docks open?
The reason is, I can't afford to buy everything all at once atm.
So I was thinking of buying a J4 and one SSD first.
Then add SSDs one by one when I can.

Or does the J4 not work unless you have SSDs or HDDs installed in all 4 slots?

Thanks in advance.

Yes, you can add disks 1 at a time as desired. The disks appear as 4 separate disks to OS X, and you can use them individually, or use DiskUtility to combine them as a RAID 0, 1, 10, or concatenate 2 or more into a larger volume. You can even build a Fusion drive using 2 or more of the disks in the J4.

Using 4 fast 1TB hard disks in RAID-0, you can achieve SSD speeds with 4TB capacity!
Always keep a good backup strategy no matter what configuration you system is, especially with RAID-0.

NOTE: Due to the driver requirement, at this time you cannot boot from the J4. Also, it is not Windows compatible.



-howard

 

[propower]

NOTE: Due to the driver requirement, at this time you cannot boot from the J4.
-howard

The reason I never bought this one :-(

 

[hfg]

The reason I never bought this one :-(

I boot from my internal iMac SSD ... so this hasn't been an issue for me, and my Pegasus J4 is working great ... fast, cool, and quiet.

Promise Technology claims that booting will be in the next firmware release, but that they are busy working on Thunderbolt storage for the new Mac Pro at the moment. We shall see ...

-howard

 

[Caviar]

Yes, you can add disks 1 at a time as desired. The disks appear as 4 separate disks to OS X, and you can use them individually, or use DiskUtility to combine them as a RAID 0, 1, 10, or concatenate 2 or more into a larger volume. You can even build a Fusion drive using 2 or more of the disks in the J4.

Using 4 fast 1TB hard disks in RAID-0, you can achieve SSD speeds with 4TB capacity!
Always keep a good backup strategy no matter what configuration you system is, especially with RAID-0.

NOTE: Due to the driver requirement, at this time you cannot boot from the J4. Also, it is not Windows compatible.



-howard

Thank you so much for the reply

Looks like I'm going to get one!
My usage is for playing back huge sample libraries so I needed a drive which has fast read speed that i could connect via Thunderbolt port and was looking for a case that I could put a SSD in.

Thanks again!

 

[VikDev]

In a way I had high hopes for the J4 in that it accepted high density SSD but, stopping at 240-300GB compatibility seems a little strange to me. The performance is just right IMHO. Hopefully its a software thing and not the controllers.

There IS reason why compatibility list stops at low capacity SSDs!
The problem is that high capacity SSDs have much higher power consumption
and J4 was designed for low powered devices only. So it is problem with enclosure.
I want to share my bad experience with J4 enclosure and Crucial M500 960GB drives. I know they are not in J4 compatibility list but decided to risk anyway, because i heard some people used them in J4. My bad!
I inserted 4 of them in Pegasus J4 and started to have nothing but problems. For example, i can create RAID0 with all 4 drives in Disk Utility, but during performance tests (eg. Black Magic Disk Speed Test) I get file write errors and in console i observe underrun errors in kernel log.
Swapping drives and enclosures does not help: I actually have two J4 enclosures and eight M500 960GB drives - the problem persists in any combination.
It also happens on different OS X versions and different Mac computers with latest drivers and firmware.
I contacted Promise support and they told me Crucial M500 drives are NOT compatible with J4 because of high power consumption, so they will never work reliably. I ended up having 2 drives in 1st enclosure (RAID1) and 3 drives in 2nd enclosure (RAID0) in an attempt not to exceed their limited power suppy design.
Another thing i noticed - if you put even two M500 960GB drives and one of them is in bay 1 then you cannot even create RAID with Disk Utility! You immediately get underrun error. Any other combination of bays does work (eg. 2 and 3). And this happens on both my enclosures, so it is not faulty enclosure, but rather some faulty hardware design and more strict power requirements in bay 1.
I asked Promise support: so what is the maximum power consumption allowed for drives inside J4? They plainly refused to answer this question, because they do not want to disclose this information.
Hope this information helps people planning to buy J4 and populate it with high capacity SSDs: you better be sure your drive is in their compatibility list!

 

[hfg]

Thank you VikDev for that additional information regarding the J4.
You have traveled where none have gone before!

It appears that the power supply issue may be "total power" for the box rather than individual drive position power? I have run into the power issues with Crucial M4 512GB SSDs being corrupted in a bus-powered Seagate GoFlex Thunderbolt adapter (twice ... with different adapters and SSDs) which works fine with 1TB hard disks. Apparently these large SSDs draw more power than we realize, and are possibly more sensitive to power supply noise/fluctuation than are rotating hard disk drives. The Thunderbolt port is only rated for 600ma., which may include power for the in-cable line drivers.

My J4 has 4 HGST 7200rpm 1TB hard disks inside, but these new designs may be lower power than previous high performance drives which were power hogs. They sure run quiet and cool in the J4.

Too bad though ... 8TB of fast thunderbolt SSD would have been pretty nice ...



-howard

 

[VikDev]

It appears that the power supply issue may be "total power" for the box rather than individual drive position power?

Seems so.
It does not explain though why RAID is not working with one of the drives in bay 1 (even with 2 drives in total).
Anyway, three Crucial M500 960GB drives work fine for me in bays 2,3,4.
Maybe some time in future, when newer less power hungry SSDs will arrive, it will be ok to populate all 4 bays. At least I hope so.

 

[hfg]

Seems so.
It does not explain though why RAID is not working with one of the drives in bay 1 (even with 2 drives in total).
Anyway, three Crucial M500 960GB drives work fine for me in bays 2,3,4.
Maybe some time in future, when newer less power hungry SSDs will arrive, it will be ok to populate all 4 bays. At least I hope so.

That is pretty strange about bay-1. I have my disks configured as a pair of 2-disk RAID-0 arrays in mine. I have also used it as a Fusion drive with a 256GB SSD in bay 1 joined with a 1TB HD in bay 2, and the other 2 bays as RAID-0 with 1TB hard disks. That worked fine as well.

Since any joined configuration is performed in OS X, the actual drive bay used doesn't matter ... but what is unique about bay-1


-howard

 

[analog guy]

There IS reason why compatibility list stops at low capacity SSDs!
The problem is that high capacity SSDs have much higher power consumption
and J4 was designed for low powered devices only. So it is problem with enclosure.
I want to share my bad experience with J4 enclosure and Crucial M500 960GB drives. I know they are not in J4 compatibility list but decided to risk anyway, because i heard some people used them in J4. My bad!=

thanks for posting!

i have a j4 sitting here in the box and i was planning to open and test it on monday (with multiple samsung 840 EVO 1TB drives).

i was going to test the performance as i am also evaluating a sonnet echo express III-D + Tempo Pro SSD PCIe. i have an order in for a Pegasus2 diskless box, but that won't be here for 2-3 weeks.

i've been trying to figure out what will offer the best (least expensive option that is fast/quiet/reliable/small). the echo express + tempo pro is fast and relatively quiet (it does have 3 fans) but is expensive and is not so small.

the pegasus2 is cheaper, but i don't know how quiet it is.

the j4 is small and sounds like it is fairly fast (not as fast as the pegasus2 or sonnet, though?)--but also a no-go if it can't handle 1TB SSDs.

hm.

 

[propower]

I was considering trying a J4 but this thread is making me happy to stick with the BM Multidock - takes any drive I throw at it without a fuss...

 

[Boomhowler]

thanks for posting!

i have a j4 sitting here in the box and i was planning to open and test it on monday (with multiple samsung 840 EVO 1TB drives).

Did this work fine? The EVOs seem to have very low power consumption as far as I've seen in reviews..

 

[meddinstudios]

Curious as well. Couldn't we create a 4TB raid with 3 1TB 7200rpm drives (travelstars are $75/ea currently) and 1 1TB SSD with the SSD in bay 2,3 or 4? I think we'd see 600+ MB/s with that Hybrid configuration while staying within power restrictions. That combo shows much better savings vs 4 1TB SSD's.