External sata on mac pro

[damado]

I'm thinking of getting one of these but I'm not sure if I can get the sata version for the mac pro. They also sell the case only for both 2 and 4 drive versions..I'd like to get the 2 drive sata.

Here's a review.

Does anyone know if the mac pro's two extra sata connectors work or if I can plug this into the last normal HD slot?

I'd use a pass through like this

I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this. I have an HTPC that records movies and shows off cable and would like to be able to move it back and forth for editing etc.

 

[mistafreeze]

wow, that looks pretty slick! I wish it wasnt 400 for the case though YIKES. least the 2 for 175 isnt soo bad.

i currently use http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817155215
they eat up usb 2.0 slots but are cheap and fast. and stack nicely and they have no fans so no noise.

you can get them in different colors (gray and black I have 2 and white on white i have 2)

and contrary to some reviews, i use these daily, I have 2 I carry back and forth to work, my only complaint is the power cord is non-standard meaning you need to bring this powercord.

i have had no problems with any of mine, and I have used these for over a year, i got several other people running these now, as its a quick painless way to backup, I rarely burn anything any more, as its cheaper to buy a 300 gig HD and another case, than burn off that much data


edit- it seems your most likely interested in the raid features of this device--i thought it was just an external HD holder. If you find a way for the sata to work please share, I may buy one after seeing that review. newegg has 400gb hd's for less than 150. or 500's for around 200.

 

[damado]

yeah the raid would be nice since I'd be moving 300+ gigs worth of files each time. I'm just trying to figure out now if it's possible to hot swap from a PC to the mac pro and back.

 

[iMeowbot]

Does anyone know if the mac pro's two extra sata connectors work or if I can plug this into the last normal HD slot?

At least one other poster has had trouble getting the extra SATA ports working the way you have in mind.

 

[mistafreeze]

you will also need to have your capture program split the files out in 1gb segments, that way you can use a fat partition on the external sata's, and be able to work back and forth between windows/mac

 

[THX1139]

I don't understand why you need that with a Macpro. Since the Macpro has 4 drive bays, why don't you just setup your raid on two of those? Then you could save your money and buy a large external firewire 800 storage drive instead. The drives are so easy (and cheap) to take out of the Macpro that you could essentially swap multiple drives per project if you have a lot of files and need the space. This would allow you to keep your raid clear.

The only user that I could see benefitting from that external raid is a Laptop or iMac user.

 

[bradc]

I can chime in. Today my 2tb SATA miniG from http://www.transintl.com came. I also bought two of these http://www.transintl.com/store/category.cfm?Category=2642&RequestTimeOut=500 . They are PCI-E to SATA cards. However, my Mac Pro isn't detecting the cards or something. The cards are PCI-E, would there be any reason they wouldn't work with the Pro ?

 

[damado]

I'm not sure, could be a driver issue?

Citation se2xp a SATA II PCI-e 2 external port host adapter features high speed SATA II connection at 3 Gbps bandwidth allows users to connect two external SATA II devices to the PCI Express-based PowerMac G5 computers.

The mac pro is so new there's hardly any support for it yet.

I was also thinking about the PCI-E card route, but I haven't seen any compatible ones yet.

I'm almost tempted to go NAS since macs and PCs seem to both be able to read eachother across the network.

*sigh* I can't figure out what to do.

Are there drivers for those specific PCI-E cards on the windows side? Maybe you could at least use them in windows until universal drivers come out.

 

[bradc]

Hmmm, I'm thinking it must be a driver issue too. I'll give them a ring on Tuesday.

 

[Macinposh]

I'm almost tempted to go NAS since macs and PCs seem to both be able to read eachother across the network.

Contemplating going NAS my self too,was thinking about maybe this?
What other brands are recommended (im not that familiar with the NAS world...) ?

Gonna connect it via Gbit to macpro, so what kind of speeds can I expect?
Comparable to FW400 or 800? Quarter of eSata?

 

[jdwl]

Silicon Image have released intel mac drivers for their PCI-E sata controller (the 3132) - reports I have read say they work fine.

 

[macenforcer]

Keep in mind that SATA and eSATA are completely different. You can't hook up an external sata drive to an internal SATA port. It won't work. I tried.