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Internal [Bootable] RAID 0 PCIe card?

AT0MAC

AT0MAC

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 4, 2011
135
0
Copenhagen, Denmark
I am having a hard time finding the right card for my system - I want the fastest RAID controller card supporting bootable RAID0 running of PCIe 4x or 8x.

What should I get??

I already have two Intel 520 series 240gb SSDs and don´t think I get quite the full potential out of them because I only software raid them.
 
AT0MAC said:
I am having a hard time finding the right card for my system - I want the fastest RAID controller card supporting bootable RAID0 running of PCIe 4x or 8x.

What should I get??

I already have two Intel 520 series 240gb SSDs and don´t think I get quite the full potential out of them because I only software raid them.
Click to expand...

Isn't your answer HighPoint's RocketRAID?

Bootable,
Very fast,
Upgrades the internal connections to SATA 3 I believe.
SAS support,
etc.
 
Tesselator said:
Isn't your answer HighPoint's RocketRAID?

Bootable,
Very fast,
Upgrades the internal connections to SATA 3 I believe.
SAS support,
etc.
Click to expand...

If you could tell me which one then?

The only Mountain Lion compatible card I see that has SATA3 and internal ports capable of hardware assisted RAID0 is the RocketRAID 2721 ...oh no wait: "Note: Mac Pro systems do not support the RR2721's internal device port (SFF-8087)."
 
Try the Sonnet Tempo Pro SSD card. It uses PCI e 2 x4. You can mount two SSD drives in RAID. There's a thread about it here somewhere.
 
AT0MAC said:
It does not matter what machine it´s for, question is still valid - it is extraordinary hard to find a card that supports what I would like it to do.
Click to expand...

There are two ways you can search on the Highpoint Website.

1.) By System, as in Mac Pro 2010 - This doesn't mention the 2721 in it's results
2.) By OS, as in Mountain Lion - This does mention the 2721 which then goes on to mention that the Internal 8087 connector isn't supported in a Mac Pro, however will be supported by OSX Mountain Lion.

Your signature system is a Dual Core i3 with the mentioned SSD's in RAID0. This isn't a Mac Pro, so the fact that the 2721 internal connector isn't supported in a Mac Pro is it relevant? The internal connector would work in an OSX system, however not a Mac Pro

That is the only Highpoint Card that meets your requirement. Highpoint used to have much better support on OSX however when the Drivers started being included on the Distribution then support for Internal Cards like the 3520 was dropped whilst the 3522 continued to be supported as if the deal meant couldn't support cards that were not really intended for genuine Apple Computers. Got burned with this myself.

If this is for the machine in your sig, then the hackintosh community will likely have been looking at other cards that offer hardware raid internal expansion. These aren't too much use in a Mac Pro, however they are great in a Hackintosh. As such they can advise over a wider range of suitable cards.

I would however suggest that look at the Sonnettech SSD Tempo Pro, rather then the Highpoint Cards as others have suggested, which I am just about to go and pick up from Courier.
 
telequest said:
With one of these - http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempossdpro.html - mount your two SSDs on the card. Probably the fastest way to configure your SSDs in RAID 0.
Click to expand...

Yea I have seen it, "problem" is though that it relies on software RAID and not a hardware chip... I would just really like it to be hardware based.
It does though give quite a good bump specially in write speeds compared to what I have now.

Now:

i9gk.png


Link to slightly faster drive setup in RAID0 on the Sonnet:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1552592/

----------
mcnallym said:
There are two ways you can search on the Highpoint Website.

1.) By System, as in Mac Pro 2010 - This doesn't mention the 2721 in it's results
2.) By OS, as in Mountain Lion - This does mention the 2721 which then goes on to mention that the Internal 8087 connector isn't supported in a Mac Pro, however will be supported by OSX Mountain Lion.

Your signature system is a Dual Core i3 with the mentioned SSD's in RAID0. This isn't a Mac Pro, so the fact that the 2721 internal connector isn't supported in a Mac Pro is it relevant? The internal connector would work in an OSX system, however not a Mac Pro

That is the only Highpoint Card that meets your requirement. Highpoint used to have much better support on OSX however when the Drivers started being included on the Distribution then support for Internal Cards like the 3520 was dropped whilst the 3522 continued to be supported as if the deal meant couldn't support cards that were not really intended for genuine Apple Computers. Got burned with this myself.

If this is for the machine in your sig, then the hackintosh community will likely have been looking at other cards that offer hardware raid internal expansion. These aren't too much use in a Mac Pro, however they are great in a Hackintosh. As such they can advise over a wider range of suitable cards.

I would however suggest that look at the Sonnettech SSD Tempo Pro, rather then the Highpoint Cards as others have suggested, which I am just about to go and pick up from Courier.
Click to expand...

Good point(s).
My guess is that the SMBIOS from a Mac Pro 3.1 would block the 2721...
I had hoped to take the easy route and just add a card without too much pain, have been a struggle to make this thing work...
But maybe you are right, that is the price to pay for not dancing after Apples pipe and trying to re-invent the Mac in your own image.

The Sonnet Tempo Pro looks really tempting, really...!
 
AT0MAC said:
Yea I have seen it, "problem" is though that it relies on software RAID and not a hardware chip... I would just really like it to be hardware based.
It does though give quite a good bump specially in write speeds compared to what I have now.

Now:

Image

Link to slightly faster drive setup in RAID0 on the Sonnet:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1552592/

----------



Good point(s).
My guess is that the SMBIOS from a Mac Pro 3.1 would block the 2721...
I had hoped to take the easy route and just add a card without too much pain, have been a struggle to make this thing work...
But maybe you are right, that is the price to pay for not dancing after Apples pipe and trying to re-invent the Mac in your own image.

The Sonnet Tempo Pro looks really tempting, really...!
Click to expand...
It´s nice card, but also a long card. It measures 34cm, so you´ll have to remove the lower fan in your FF03 case.
 
Perhaps the the Areca ARC-1882 series of raid hba's could fit the bill? X8 PCIe, mini-SAS, Sata 6Gb and bootable in OS X.
 
Also some of the Atto cards, eg. the ExpressSAS R644, should work if you flash it. Although, booting from a raid 0 array probably won't give you that much performance boost over a single ssd.
 
I'm currently using the Areca 1213-4i which is cheaper than the 18xx series and it works fine in a hack using 10.8.0

The ATTO cards are also fantastic for mac, I've previously had a R348 although not tried it in Hackintosh.
 
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