2010 Mac Pro RAID Card

[ScottishCaptain]

Greetings to all.

I have a quick question regarding the Mac Pro 2010 compatible RAID Card (yes, the official unit from Apple).

Does this unit exhibit the same issues with stability that the previous generation had?

As I recall, the previous iPass enabled cards seemed to have a lot of issues with array configurations and rebuilding degraded arrays. I would like to know if these issues have generally been resolved with the iPass-less 2010 card (black PCB, not blue). I haven't read anything regarding the new cards, so I would assume they all work fine and run stable- but I'd just like to confirm this before I grab one for my 2010 MP.

Because I've posted this question elsewhere (and my original question remains unanswered)- I should probably clarify that I'm *not* looking to purchase a Highpoint card, or any other RAID card for that fact. Cost is NOT an issue and I do NOT care that the card is 800$. I am also NOT concerned with the fact that other RAID cards *might* perform better then the official Apple unit.

What I *DO* care about is having the RAID configuration utility (however crappy it may be) built into the OS, and not having to scramble around for RAID drivers and dealing with web-based user interfaces.

So, please, don't reply with "But you can get a Highpoint for cheaper!" or "That RAID card is slow, you could get XYZ for less anyways", or even "You don't need that, just use software RAID".

I have my reasons for wanting the Apple card. I simply want to know if the 2010 version resolves the issues with stability that the older generations seemed to have (since I've read about a lot of problems on the blue PCB RAID card, but not a single thing about the black PCB unit in a 2010 MP).

I apologize if that sounds like a rant in advance- I'm just a bit tired of people telling me what I should buy when my original question has nothing to do with seeking alternatives.

Cheers.
-SC

 

[sharkymac]

I've been running the 2nd generation Apple RAID card 24/7 for almost 7 months now and all I can say that it works great. Setup was very easy. During leopard installation I used Apple's raid utility to configure raid 5 with four WD 2TB RE4 drives and installed OS on that volume. It took almost 20 hours to finish building my raid array but when it was done no problems at all so far. After three months of working the battery reconditioned itself but it didn't affect productivity (there is an option to turn this feature on/off). I cannot compare the 2nd gen card with the previous one since I've never used it but I can compare it with Calldigit raid card which I used for two years. And here are my conclusions. Apple's RAID is
1. Much easier to configure. You can install os directly to raid volume.
2. Faster
3. No headaches with drivers and OS updates (this was probably the main reason why I got Apple's card)
I know many guys on this forum consider apple card junk, but i'm happy with it.

 

[nanofrog]

Yes, it still has the same problems, as it's still the same model that was released with the 2009 systems, which is based on the previous units (eliminated the MiniSAS connector <aka iPass> and uses PCB traces to move the data to/from the HDD bays).

There are other card makers out there, one in particular, that might be suitable given your concerns, which is ATTO Technologies (boots OS X once flashed, if you will run the OS on it). Worth a look if you're interested.

Otherwise, get the Apple card, and cross your fingers... Up to you.