Resolved Dual boot CONFIRMED for new Apricorn Velocity DUO X2!!!

[gugy]

No issues at all with the DUO atm!

- DUO X2 OSX 10.9.5 in RAID0
- Bay #1 Windows 8 Pro x64
- Bay #2 OSX 10.10 testdrive

Cheers

Hi Berend,

What SSDs do you recommend with the Velocity card?
I am looking at the Samsung EVO but I found cheaper options like Crucial or SanDisk. The price difference is not that big anyway. Just wondering which brand is most reliable and fast.
I am thinking getting the Velocity card and get two 120GB SSDs just to use with Photoshop as scratch disk and place to storage the PSD files. Thanks

 

[Dr. Stealth]

It just works....

I received my DUO yesterday and plugged in two Samsung 840s I had already installed with OS X 10.10 and Win 8.1. Then I popped it in my 5,1. I have to say, the process was so uneventful I was a little disappointed. What ? No tinkering or tweaking or process of elimination to get it to work ? That's it ? Ten minutes and all is working flawlessly? Bummer......

It just works....

 

[Dr. Stealth]

Sorry.... Dupe

 

[m4v3r1ck]

DUO X2 is excellent for RAID0 but mind your BACKUPs!

Hi Berend,

What SSDs do you recommend with the Velocity card?
I am looking at the Samsung EVO but I found cheaper options like Crucial or SanDisk. The price difference is not that big anyway. Just wondering which brand is most reliable and fast.
I am thinking getting the Velocity card and get two 120GB SSDs just to use with Photoshop as scratch disk and place to storage the PSD files. Thanks

Hi Gugy,

I never experienced with other SSD's. Just googled for reviews end went straight for the 840 EVO. Good in $/Q imo.

I have OSX 10.9.5 running in RAID0 on 2 EVO 500GB and use it for scratch too. Since installing the (beta) DUO X2 card no issues at all.

BE AWARE! If running RAID0 be sure to have a very strict back-up routine. I use a Firewire 800 iOMEGA 2x 1TB backup HDD in RAID1 for hourly, saving all old files in an archive on the HDD aswel, handy for reverting back. Using Carbon Clone Copy, so in the event of a major crash, I can simply boot from the iOMEGA and still be able to cary on!

I store any processed file (PSD or others) on my NAS and make a offsite back-up also! I don't use the RAID0 for storage! Better safe then sorry!

Good Luck with the DUO and choosing your SSD's.

----------

I received my DUO yesterday and plugged in two Samsung 840s I had already installed with OS X 10.10 and Win 8.1. Then I popped it in my 5,1. I have to say, the process was so uneventful I was a little disappointed. What ? No tinkering or tweaking or process of elimination to get it to work ? That's it ? Ten minutes and all is working flawlessly? Bummer......

It just works....

That's an OUTRAGE!!!!!

Congrats on your purchase and glad to hear it was a no-brainer install for you too!

Enjoy and keep us posted in the event something goes wrong so we can share any solution for it!

Thanks for your feedback.

Cheers

 

[gugy]

Hi Gugy,

I never experienced with other SSD's. Just googled for reviews end went straight for the 840 EVO. Good in $/Q imo.

I have OSX 10.9.5 running in RAID0 on 2 EVO 500GB and use it for scratch too. Since installing the (beta) DUO X2 card no issues at all.

BE AWARE! If running RAID0 be sure to have a very strict back-up routine. I use a Firewire 800 iOMEGA 2x 1TB backup HDD in RAID1 for hourly, saving all old files in an archive on the HDD aswel, handy for reverting back. Using Carbon Clone Copy, so in the event of a major crash, I can simply boot from the iOMEGA and still be able to cary on!

I store any processed file (PSD or others) on my NAS and make a offsite back-up also! I don't use the RAID0 for storage! Better safe then sorry!

Good Luck with the DUO and choosing your SSD's.

-

Thanks for the tip.
Yeah, I am going with the EVO250GB. I'll get two and use the RAID0.
Good idea about the back up. Right now I only have Time Machine and once a month do the Carbon Clone. I need to figure out a more robust backup plan.
I am thinking get a MacMini to do a second backup of all my computers over the network.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

Thanks for the tip.
Yeah, I am going with the EVO250GB. I'll get two and use the RAID0.
Good idea about the back up. Right now I only have Time Machine and once a month do the Carbon Clone. I need to figure out a more robust backup plan.
I am thinking get a MacMini to do a second backup of all my computers over the network.

Your most welcome! Check out Carbon Clone Copy v4, I have the paid v4.0.3-b1 (3741). I've set CCC to make a backup every hour. TM is okay, but being able to boot from CCC saved my bacon many times!

Perhaps you could also figure out how to make an offsite backup for little expenses. I pay euro 7,26@month (for unlimited offsite backup).

In case of any unforeseen disaster @home or @theoffice your data is 'save' in the cloud!

 

[Pending]

Hi Pending,

I still owed you an answer to the boot up times:

OSX 10.9.5 in RAID0: button to desktop = ~45s.

Please bear in mind that I have a lot of USB/Firewire peripherals connected and the 4 internal bays occupied, and three PCIe slots are occupied as well.

Cheers

Thanks for that.

 

[gugy]

Your most welcome! Check out Carbon Clone Copy v4, I have the paid v4.0.3-b1 (3741). I've set CCC to make a backup every hour. TM is okay, but being able to boot from CCC saved my bacon many times!

Perhaps you could also figure out how to make an offsite backup for little expenses. I pay euro 7,26@month (for unlimited offsite backup).

In case of any unforeseen disaster @home or @theoffice your data is 'save' in the cloud!

Yeah, I heard about the offsite backups. I'll check it out. Better safe than sorry.
Thanks!

 

[UncleSchnitty]

^^^^What issue would that be? I have two Solo x2s. I've never had any issue betting from a drive on either of my Solo cards and booting from the my other internal or external drives.

Lou

I ordered a solo last year for my MacPro 3,1 and it had some issues with getting it to initially boot to the ssd on the card so I pulled all the bays out and got it to boot from the solo but then when I tried to use bootchamp to switch to my windows 8 drive it didn't pick it up until I put the ssd back into the regular bays. I ended up returning it. Its quite possible I had a bad card or some weird driver issue but if people are saying it works fine its worth giving the x2 a shot.

No issues at all with the DUO atm!

- DUO X2 OSX 10.9.5 in RAID0
- Bay #1 Windows 8 Pro x64
- Bay #2 OSX 10.10 testdrive

Cheers

Awesome thanks, Ill definitely pick one up and give it a go.

 

[hfg]

I ordered a solo last year for my MacPro 3,1 and it had some issues with getting it to initially boot to the ssd on the card so I pulled all the bays out and got it to boot from the solo but then when I tried to use bootchamp to switch to my windows 8 drive it didn't pick it up until I put the ssd back into the regular bays. I ended up returning it. Its quite possible I had a bad card or some weird driver issue but if people are saying it works fine its worth giving the x2 a shot.


Awesome thanks, Ill definitely pick one up and give it a go.

I did have some problems with the Solo x2 back a year or so which seemed to be conflicts with other SATA controllers in my system ... they just wouldn't play well together! As my system evolved, I updated cards and eventually the x2 cards started working for me again. They currently were working fine until I swapped them for a single DUO x2 card which also works fine with my other cards including the Sonnet Tempo Pro and CalDigit FASTA-6GU3 Pro card.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

I ordered a solo last year for my MacPro 3,1 and it had some issues with getting it to initially boot to the ssd on the card so I pulled all the bays out and got it to boot from the solo but then when I tried to use bootchamp to switch to my windows 8 drive it didn't pick it up until I put the ssd back into the regular bays. I ended up returning it. Its quite possible I had a bad card or some weird driver issue but if people are saying it works fine its worth giving the x2 a shot.

Same here with my MP 3.1. Went back putting Win8 in bay #1 and using the SOLO X2 for OSX 10.9.5 with two SSDs in RAID0. Gave me some spaghetti in my MACs internal bowl, but it worked.

Awesome thanks, Ill definitely pick one up and give it a go.

YWM!, you'll find this a great upgrade... plug-and-play (oops windows mind)

Cheers

 

[ssls6]

I picked up a duo x2 and placed in my Samsung evo 500GB OS X boot drive and and v300a 240GB windows 7 drive. Booted right up and I tested the OS X drive speed to be 470MB/s write and 490MB/s read.

I used my 3rd PCIE slot since the 2nd slot caused the DUO X2 to partially obscure my GTX680 fan.

I plan to get two Samsung 256GB drives for Raid 0....can I continue to use my third slot or do I need to use 1 or 2?

 

[ssls6]

I picked up a duo x2 and placed in my Samsung evo 500GB OS X boot drive and and v300a 240GB windows 7 drive. Booted right up and I tested the OS X drive speed to be 470MB/s write and 490MB/s read.

I used my 3rd PCIE slot since the 2nd slot caused the DUO X2 to partially obscure my GTX680 fan.

I plan to get two Samsung 256GB drives for Raid 0....can I continue to use my third slot or do I need to use 1 or 2?

GRrr windows 7 won't boot. It will enter recovery but the built in repair startup doesn't fix it.

 

[hfg]

GRrr windows 7 won't boot. It will enter recovery but the built in repair startup doesn't fix it.

Did you boot Windows from that SSD while mounted on a backplane SATA slot while the Duo card was installed at the same time? This allows Windows to load the proper driver for the card chipset. You can then replace the Windows SSD on the card and hopefully it will boot fine.

Good luck ...

 

[ssls6]

Did you boot Windows from that SSD while mounted on a backplane SATA slot while the Duo card was installed at the same time? This allows Windows to load the proper driver for the card chipset. You can then replace the Windows SSD on the card and hopefully it will boot fine.

Good luck ...

I didn't....good input I will try that.

 

[choreo]

If I install this Duo Card with two 840 EVO SSDs, do I HAVE TO configure them as Raid 0 - or can I have one as a boot drive and the other as a dedicated Scratch Disk?

 

[ssls6]

If I install this Duo Card with two 840 EVO SSDs, do I HAVE TO configure them as Raid 0 - or can I have one as a boot drive and the other as a dedicated Scratch Disk?

You don't "have to" have raid 0. I'm using it as just two independent drives now. I plan to go to raid 0 at some point but not now.

 

[analog guy]

^^^^What issue would that be? I have two Solo x2s. I've never had any issue betting from a drive on either of my Solo cards and booting from the my other internal or external drives.

Lou

Sorry--Tempo Pro SSD (2 of them) in a Sonnet Express III-D enclosure via TB2 to a nMP. One of of the Tempo Pros has two Samsung 840 Evos (2x1TB) in RAID0; the other has a small 840 Pro and a 2TB W20 RED NAS.

To the earlier poster, the Tempo Pro can handle the drives in a software RAID or as separate drives.

 

[hfg]

If I install this Duo Card with two 840 EVO SSDs, do I HAVE TO configure them as Raid 0 - or can I have one as a boot drive and the other as a dedicated Scratch Disk?

As delivered by default, the DUO x2 card has both drives in the independent JBOD mode. You can use them separately, or use Disk Utility to make a software RAID 0 or 1 with a pair of matched drives. This card can also be put into a hardware RAID mode, but that requires a "bios PC" in order to switch the modes. Hopefully, they will come out with a OS X utility app which can be used to switch modes on this card.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

As delivered by default, the DUO x2 card has both drives in the independent JBOD mode. You can use them separately, or use Disk Utility to make a software RAID 0 or 1 with a pair of matched drives. This card can also be put into a hardware RAID mode, but that requires a "bios PC" in order to switch the modes. Hopefully, they will come out with a OS X utility app which can be used to switch modes on this card.

Thanks Howard for your excellent insights, knowledge and feedback about the DUO X2 in this thread!

Much appriciated and nice to read useful additional info's for all users, including myself! ;-)

Cheers

 

[m4v3r1ck]

I'll be soon testing 2x DUOx2 with 4 SSD in many different OS/data configs. I'll keep you posted as soon it arrives and done testing.

And as for the in-depth info's from @hfg (Howard) I will be testing the hardware RAID on both the DUOx2 too. Stay tuned!

Any configuration requests to test?

 

[m4v3r1ck]

Hi Berend,
Just received my Velocity and two 250gb EVO's. I will install it tomorrow on my MP 5,1. Any tips? Can I achieve RAID o setting it up using disk utility. I am only using Mac OS, no Windows.

Congrats on your purchase!

Yes, you can mount the SSDs on the DUOx2 and RAID0 them with Software Raid using Disk Utility. (clean) Install your OS or restore backup to it and you're set to go. Fasten your seat-belts first!

Cheers...

 

[gugy]

Congrats on your purchase!

Yes, you can mount the SSDs on the DUOx2 and RAID0 them with Software Raid using Disk Utility. (clean) Install your OS or restore backup to it and you're set to go. Fasten your seat-belts first!

Cheers...

OK great. I thought the process was easy. How can I check the speed of the drives? Is there a software for this?
Also, should I partition the drives and have one with the system folder and another to hold working files and Photoshop scratch disk?

Thanks for your help!

 

[m4v3r1ck]

Dual boot CONFIRMED for new Apricorn Velocity DUO X2!!!

OK great. I thought the process was easy. How can I check the speed of the drives? Is there a software for this?

Blackmagic Disk Speed Test or AJA System Test

Also, should I partition the drives and have one with the system folder and another to hold working files and Photoshop scratch disk?

I configured a 1 partiton RIAD0 so 2 SSDS become one. Just install OS X and your applications and create any folder you want for working/scratch files.

Thanks for your help!

YMW! Enjoy!

 

[gugy]

Blackmagic Disk Speed Test or AJA System Test



I configured a 1 partiton RIAD0 so 2 SSDS become one. Just install OS X and your applications and create any folder you want for working/scratch files.



YMW! Enjoy!

Thanks again!