A Raptor in the Quad?

[PowerMike G5]

Hey hey,

I've been thinking about the type of harddrive setup I'd like for my Quad. What do you guys suggest:

1) a 10,000 RPM Raptor in the 1st bay and a 500GB Hitachi Drive in the 2nd

2) 2 500GB Hitachi Drives, one in each bay

I like the idea of 1TB of storage as I do a lot of video work, but I also like having the fastest setup I can afford. Would going with option 1 give me a good enough speed difference over option 2? Any suggestions of yours would be great!

Thanks.

 

[PCMacUser]

Hey hey,

I've been thinking about the type of harddrive setup I'd like for my Quad. What do you guys suggest:

1) a 10,000 RPM Raptor in the 1st bay and a 500GB Hitachi Drive in the 2nd

2) 2 500GB Hitachi Drives, one in each bay

I like the idea of 1TB of storage as I do a lot of video work, but I also like having the fastest setup I can afford. Would going with option 1 give me a good enough speed difference over option 2? Any suggestions of yours would be great!

Thanks.

I'd go with 2x Raptors running on hardware RAID0 for the OS, and the 500Gb as a data drive...

 

[feakbeak]

I'd go with 2x Raptors running on hardware RAID0 for the OS, and the 500Gb as a data drive...

No can do... at least not internally. Those huge PowerMac cases only have two hard drive bays. I hope the MacIntel PowerMacs have more drive bays.

As for the original question I would get a faster drive for the OS and applications and keep your data on a second, large-capacity drive. As for RAID0, the performance gains offered vary depending on what tasks you are doing. If you are reading and writing large files from and to the disk it will help you out a bit. However, you have to consider the effort involved in configuring these disks and if either drive fails you lose the data on both drives.

 

[FocusAndEarnIt]

I'd go for a 10,000RPM drive for the main disk and get the biggest HD you can get (internally) for data.

 

[PCMacUser]

No can do... at least not internally. Those huge PowerMac cases only have two hard drive bays.

<Stunned silence> Wow, I had no idea about that That's really bad!

 

[ipacmm]

<Stunned silence> Wow, I had no idea about that That's really bad!

But, you can buy G5 Jam and add 2 more hard drive to your G5 so you will have a total of 4 HD's.

http://www.drbott.com/prod/db.lasso?QuickSearch=G5+Jam

http://www.drbott.com/prod/db.lasso?code=3686-GJCA

 

[Danksi]

<Stunned silence> Wow, I had no idea about that That's really bad!

All that space looks nice inside though

 

[p0intblank]

Go for the Maxtor drive option. Insane speeds = insane computing

 

[Josh396]

But, you can buy G5 Jam and add 2 more hard drive to your G5 so you will have a total of 4 HD's.

http://www.drbott.com/prod/db.lasso?QuickSearch=G5+Jam

http://www.drbott.com/prod/db.lasso?code=3686-GJCA

Never seen those. They're pretty neat.

 

[PowerMike G5]

Go for the Maxtor drive option. Insane speeds = insane computing

Any specific drives you have in mind?

The Newegg sale on the Raptor is going to end in 30 minutes from now. I think I'm going to pull the trigger

Thanks all!

 

[PowerMike G5]

Wait, I still have an hour and a half.

Should I get it? Should I get it?

Any other suggestions? This Quad is becoming a heavy investment

 

[PowerMike G5]

Or should I ask ...

What would be the fastest single boot drive for the Quad (using the SATA interface)? Would it be the Raptor? I'm hearing good things about these Maxtor drives with 16MB cache. How does one of those compare?

 

[tekmoe]

i have the wd raptor 74gb in my dual-core right now. the 160gb that came with my powermac is being used as the storage drive. i have my itunes folder stored onto the 160gb as well as all my video clips. the only thing the raptor is being used for is iphoto and apps. it blazes!!!

 

[JRM PowerPod]

I'd just hurry up and order the thing i have a similar specced machine on order and it aint shipping till 29/12.

Go with the Raptor and the 500GB, buy external storage if required latoer on. Coz the speed is the most important thing at the moment

 

[PowerMike G5]

Thanks all for the advice.

I just bought the Raptor from Newegg.

So now my new system is spec'd as follows:

PowerMac Quad Core 2.5 G5
4.5GB DDR2 SDRAM
10,000RPM RAPTOR HD 74GB - Boot Drive
7200RPM Hitachi 500GB 16MB cache - Storage Drive
Nvidia 6600 256MB graphics card
Dual-Layer Superdrive
Apple 30" HD Cinema Display

I am hoping that Apple releases a version of the Nvidia 7800 GT Ultra 512MB, otherwise, I'll just buy the 7800 GT when it comes out. Any other suggestions on what I can upgrade to make this thing the fastest it can be? I think I upgraded mostly everything already

 

[iBlue]

and here i thought you were talking about the ATV (Yamaha Raptor) it's a delightful quad

good suggestions already here so i just wanted to add that little bit

 

[aquajet]

I'd go with 2x Raptors running on hardware RAID0 for the OS, and the 500Gb as a data drive...

Using a striped RAID for a boot volume is usually discouraged. The speed increase would be minimal for that type of setup, and the probability of data loss increases because you've got data on two mechanisms without redundancy.

 

[pionata]

<Stunned silence> Wow, I had no idea about that That's really bad!

Well, having more than 2-3 inernal disk anyway is NOT good for power consumption, and result in instability - powersurge (Like instant reset) in pcs.

Thats a mac, so the last thing you want is for it to crash.

I would wait a bit, i think some TB drives have been announced.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

I'd get the 74GB Raptor for a boot drive and then a large 7200RPM drive of your choice for a second drive. I'd avoid RAID 0 as well.

 

[PCMacUser]

Using a striped RAID for a boot volume is usually discouraged. The speed increase would be minimal for that type of setup, and the probability of data loss increases because you've got data on two mechanisms without redundancy.

Yeah, that's why it's used as the boot volume rather than the data volume. The probability of data errors increases, but in 3 years of using RAID 0 on my desktop PC I'd never experienced anything of the sort. And I'm not sure what you mean by a minimal speed increase - on most hardware RAID 0 setups it increases hard drive performance by 190%-200%... that's fast!

RAID 0 is a solid system these days, when used sensibly. There's been millions of PC user guinea pigs testing it out over the years, so the Mac community hasn't had to!

 

[mikaelrules]

I used to have a Raptor as a boot drive on my Power Mac (MDD Dual 1.25Ghz). It was fast, however I found 74GB too small for my tastes as a boot drive. My Raptor now is installed in my PC which I really only use for games. My Power Mac now has a 500GB Hitachi Drive as the boot disk and a 400GB and 120GB hard drive in the other drive bays. I plan to move both the 500GB and 400GB hard drives into my Quad when I get it.

All in all, it all depends on your needs. If 74GB is enough for you as a boot drive, then by all means, go for the raptor.

I'd avoid RAID 0 because of a greater chance of loosing data.

 

[MovieCutter]

I woulda skipped the raptor entirely. If you have Final Cut Studio...that's about 30-40 GB of space right there, on top of other apps, muisc, movies, pictures, documents, etc. I don't see how a little bit shorter boot time and maybe some access time beats 400GB more space...it just doesn't seem practical...and kinda dumb. I think it's akin to the PC Gamer geeks who want 400 fps in their Quake 4 games. I edit uncompressed 10-bit video (about 60GB/hr) and my internal drive is a stock SATA with an external RAID for the video files themselves...I've never had a speed problem. Explain?

 

[Bear]

I used to have a Raptor as a boot drive on my Power Mac (MDD Dual 1.25Ghz). It was fast, however I found 74GB too small for my tastes as a boot drive. My Raptor now is installed in my PC which I really only use for games. My Power Mac now has a 500GB Hitachi Drive as the boot disk and a 400GB and 120GB hard drive in the other drive bays. I plan to move both the 500GB and 400GB hard drives into my Quad when I get it.
...

Are the 500GB and 400GB drives SATA? if not they won't work in the Quad.

 

[ANIM8R]

Hey all,

I've got a Raptor on the way for my new Quad and was wondering if someone(s) could answer some quick questions. This is my first Mac so I want to make sure I don't completely kill it.

I want to make the Raptor my boot, and the 250GB in it completely blank for new media. Currently Mac OSX is on the 250.

I have a general idea of what needs to get done but I'm still curious about a couple of points. I'm afraid of missing a step. I'd like to avoid cloning because ideally I'd like a fresh Mac OSX on the Raptor.

My questions are:

1. Do I insert the Raptor, boot into Mac OSX from the 250 and zero it out to make sure all is well first?

2. I'm assuming then I insert the Mac OSX install disc and restart while holding "C" to go into the CD boot. After that, I can install Mac OSX onto the new Raptor, correct? (CD mode was suggested by a local Mac genius...)

3. Finally: I can then assign the Raptor as the "Startup" drive. Correct?

4. After that is all said and done, and the Raptor boots with Mac OSX on it, do I delete the 250GB information from within the CD mode Disk Utility or can I do it while booted from the Raptor in Disk Utility? I'm a little hazy on that.

Thanks for any help in advance. I really appreciate any info!!

P.S. - I've done some extensive searching to find a guide for this, but my apologies in advance if I missed a previous thread or link!

 

[link92]

1. Boot up from CD and format the Raptor as Mac OS Extendend (Journalised)

2. Install

...