Spoke with OWC and will likely return my Accelsior and buy the Sonnet Tempo SSD Pro and stick 2 x Samsing SSD 840 PRO 512GB drives in it.
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OWC Accelsior 960GB SSD PCI - Thoughts
- Thread starter scottrichardson
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Might be just bad luck. I was having corruption issues and OWC replaced mine. The replacement seemed faster than the original, somehow...
Turns out I just needed to install this driver to end the corruption problems. It's been smooth sailing ever since. OS X loads in literally 2 seconds, and apps launch in 1 bounce.
Turns out I just needed to install this driver to end the corruption problems. It's been smooth sailing ever since. OS X loads in literally 2 seconds, and apps launch in 1 bounce.
If you're a bit sly, you can get a 512GB M4 Crucial for ~$300, two for $600 and Velocity Solo X2 for $99, for a total of $700. A few short cables to route the Auxiliary port from the Velo and power to the drive bay for 1TB of SSD space. Or two Velocity Solo X2's and RAID0 to get over 1000MB/sec for read.
Not an answer to your question, but very interesting link you provided, THANKS!
Any knowledge if it can boot and run Windows 8 Professionel x64 with BootCamp 5.0 with 4.0 Apple support drivers? Now I have a bootable BC HDD in bay-1. Would be great option!!!
Currently awaiting delivery of the Tempo SSD Pro card, and 2 x Samsung SSD 840 Pro 512GB drives.
I did some research on the Marvell RAID controllers on both the Accelsior and the Tempo and it appears by all accounts that the controller on the Tempo is substantially better, most notably in the 4K read/write which is what our most daily tasks are (OS, Apps etc).
In lieu of this information, it will be interesting to see how the new drives in RAID 0 perform. I'll run a bunch of disk tests so I can compare to the Accelsior, which I tested pretty much fresh out of the box. I still have a week before I need to send back the Accelsior so I will be able to do a direct comparison and I will post my results.
To be fair on the OWC device... I have been using it with no issues for 4 days now. It feels like an SSD by all accounts, which is a good thing. I have not done a lot yet that taxes it, but I still feel its a little more sluggish in small reads than my plain 2G SSD on the backplane.
Scott
I did some research on the Marvell RAID controllers on both the Accelsior and the Tempo and it appears by all accounts that the controller on the Tempo is substantially better, most notably in the 4K read/write which is what our most daily tasks are (OS, Apps etc).
In lieu of this information, it will be interesting to see how the new drives in RAID 0 perform. I'll run a bunch of disk tests so I can compare to the Accelsior, which I tested pretty much fresh out of the box. I still have a week before I need to send back the Accelsior so I will be able to do a direct comparison and I will post my results.
To be fair on the OWC device... I have been using it with no issues for 4 days now. It feels like an SSD by all accounts, which is a good thing. I have not done a lot yet that taxes it, but I still feel its a little more sluggish in small reads than my plain 2G SSD on the backplane.
Scott
Did your research gave an answer to my boot question? Goodluck with the benchmarks, love to see your outcomes!!!! Cheers
Not an answer to your question, but very interesting link you provided, THANKS!
Any knowledge if it can boot and run Windows 8 Professionel x64 with BootCamp 5.0 with 4.0 Apple support drivers? Now I have a bootable BC HDD in bay-1. Would be great option!!!
I know it can boot windows on a windows machine, and it can boot OSX on a Mac. I just don't know about booting Windows on a Mac. Contact their support guys??
Are you sure that it can boot OSX? I ask because I got a response from that support OWC:"I am very sorry but Sonnet Technologies Tempo SSD 6Gb/s SATA PCIe is not bootable. The only way that this drive can be used as a bootable drive would be from attached drives under Microsoft Windows 7, and Mac OS X over Thunderbolt. I am very sorry about the confusion on this product."
I referred to them as owc also sells Sonnet Temp SSD.
But on sonnet site I read the following information: "Booting in OS X requires card with serial number starting with "B". Firmware updater for "A" serial number boards available soon."
Thanks.
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I confirmed it with Sonnet support - with either a Rev B card, or a Rev A Card with a firmware update, it will boot natively in OSX.
I have asked them if the firmware is available yet. My card should arrive on Monday (Sunday for you in USA). I will test as soon as it arrives as I have a fresh CCC copy of my entire drive ready to re-image onto the new raid.
I have asked them if the firmware is available yet. My card should arrive on Monday (Sunday for you in USA). I will test as soon as it arrives as I have a fresh CCC copy of my entire drive ready to re-image onto the new raid.
I'm anxious for the results as well. I had excluded this and gone with the dual Velocity Solo X2's because of the boot issue.
I'll hop to this if it works out well.
Edit: I confirmed with the manufacturer that there is no inherent RAID functionality on this card, so the 2 SSDs will simply appear as 2 drives to OSX.
I'll hop to this if it works out well.
Edit: I confirmed with the manufacturer that there is no inherent RAID functionality on this card, so the 2 SSDs will simply appear as 2 drives to OSX.
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That's disappointing. For $300 you would think it would have it's own controller. What then makes the -SSD Pro twice the price of the -SSD, 2x the plastic and an extra SATA connection?
I'm still very interested in scottrichardson's write up next week, as there are currently zero reviews of these Tempo cards online. I had gone with 2x 512GB M4s on the backplane as my other options at the time were either too expensive (Accelsior), too futzy (Apricorn, either routing cables/mounting second drive for one card or using up two slots) or non-bootable (others, and Tempo SSD until recently). If I can find some good user feedback on the Tempo (or god forbid, some actual reviews in the tech press) it'll be a nice upgrade option moving forward.
Yesterday, I also talked to tech support and they told me the same thing. I hope next week I will get my card and test it.
Quickly. Card is here. Samsung drives should have arrived today or tomorrow.
Will post notes shortly after running it
Note: mine is a rev b card. Ordered from owc.
Will post notes shortly after running it
Note: mine is a rev b card. Ordered from owc.
Both versions have a high bandwidth SATA controller. But even doing SATA switching at non blocking speeds is not mainstream.
The other factor (unless I missed something) is that these boards don't have external power connectors for the drives. They appear to be routing and conditioning power from the PCI-e slot to the drive(s).
The one disk card is $149. The gap is basically a doubling of price for the 2nd drive. In part because the 2nd drive plate is detachable. They also work in Thunderbolt enclosures so have hot-plug capable drivers. The support/warrantee costs and configuration certification processes are likely different from a "chop shop" generic eSATA card. Part of it that you can slide one of these and a RED rocket card into their 2 PCI-e slot Thunderbolt enclosure.
In short, there is more there than just a RAID controller. I'm sure there are some healthy margins here to generate a decent ROI for the investment they put into it.
And I wasn't thinking about how flexible the card is. Thought about it after I posted... so was I suggesting it should be more like $250 instead of $300? I was whining over 50 bucks?
Thanks, deconstruct60. You made a lot of great points.
Scott, did you request a rev b card from OWC or just get lucky? Looking forward to seeing your results.
Well, during a tech support live chat about my concerns over the Accelsior, I mentioned I was going to order a Tempo SSD Pro, and desired a rev B. But at the time they said they really couldn't check the S/N. So I guessed I lucked out
I use 2 x Velocity X2 with an intel 520 on each (boot/app drive) and I'm stoked with performance...$170 ($30 rebate on one not so long ago). I don't need the slots for anything else currently, couldn't get the two on one setup as a boot drive for some reason.
Can you use OS X Disk Util to run both X2's as a RAID 0 stripe and have just one volume? That way it could be a boot drive?
That is what I have setup after wasting a lot of time trying to use the 2nd port on one of the velocity cards. both intel ssd are 120gb in raid 0. 240gb boot/ app drive.
My results are bottom of this thread
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1516013/
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Yeah solid performance there for sure - faster than the Accelsior across the board barring one of you 4K results.
HOPE my Samsung's arrive tomorrow so I can test. Otherwise Im going to miss my RMA window to return the Accelsior.