PCI express hard drive question

[gsloan]

No drivers are required for the Sonnet Tempo Pro. It is fully OS X bootable in RAID-0 or configured as standalone SSDs.

Note: I and others here have been unable to boot Windows from this card.

I've got Windows booting fine off of the Syba. Thanks for the correction though.

 

[gsloan]

Hey, so what do you mean by that exactly? I have a Velocity X2 currently with 2 SSD's off it using the OSX Software RAID0 and then another SSD off the internal controller that I use for Bootcamp. Like you I *hate* how much longer the boot process takes with the X2 card in there but I have my OSX RAID0 partitition set as the default and it'll boot into it every time without holding down option. (for me, I do that to go the other direction into Windows) Do you have your Bootcamp partition set as the boot default or something or are you saying there's something about this card where you have to choose manually from the option menu to boot the OSX partition on it?

I'm saying that from the Boot Camp Utility, it will see 4 "Mac OS X" drives - Since I was running SW RAID-0. Selecting ANY of them in Windows as the boot volume then restarting would result in restarting...in Windows. I'd have to hold down option after shutting down Windows and manually select one of the SW RAID-0 members.

I've since gone ahead and set HW RAID-0 back up. It's actually a hair slower with peak transfer speeds vs. Software RAID-0 (and more in-line with but still faster than the Accelsior, which is using HW RAID-0), but has the added bonus of letting me boot to/from either OS without requiring me to sit there and hold option.

Hope this helps!

 

[hfg]

I've got Windows booting fine off of the Syba. Thanks for the correction though.

Do you have both OS X and Windows installed and booting from the Syba card at the same time? That would be ideal to have a single PCIe card with both operating systems on it.

I was trying to create dual boot system with a large 512GB SSD and a small 256GB SSD, partitioning the large one into 2 equal partitions. I then used 256GB from each SSD to create a RAID-0 OS X drive, and used the remaining 256GB on the large SSD for Windows. This worked fine on the Mac Pro drive backplane, but I was unable to get it to work on the PCIe bus with either the Sonnet card, or using 2 of the Velocity Solo x2 cards (OS X was fine, Windows failed to boot). Perhaps it would work on the Syba card?

 

[gsloan]

Do you have both OS X and Windows installed and booting from the Syba card at the same time? That would be ideal to have a single PCIe card with both operating systems on it.

Yes. I have a HW RAID-0 (though SW works too) with 2 Samsung 840 Pros for OS X, and a Sandisk Extreme 240 mounted in the lower 5.25" bay with a cable run to it with Win7 on it.

I was trying to create dual boot system with a large 512GB SSD and a small 256GB SSD, partitioning the large one into 2 equal partitions. I then used 256GB from each SSD to create a RAID-0 OS X drive, and used the remaining 256GB on the large SSD for Windows. This worked fine on the Mac Pro drive backplane, but I was unable to get it to work on the PCIe bus with either the Sonnet card, or using 2 of the Velocity Solo x2 cards (OS X was fine, Windows failed to boot). Perhaps it would work on the Syba card?

Not sure...I'm using full drives/volumes. Never tried RAIDing individual partitions and separating OSes.

With the HW RAID-0 setup, the system sees 2 SSDs as one physical device and the Sandisk as a single disk. I installed Windows on the Sandisk when it was on the internal backplane and just moved it onto the Syba/5.25" bay. With OS X installed on the Samsung/Syba RAID-0, I can go back and forth using the "Startup Disk" Preference tool and the Boot Camp Tool. And I get my recovery partition.

The other cool thing is, if I /really/ wanted to run another HW RAID-0 on the Syba for Windows, it could be done by installing Boot Camp to a HDD or whatnot in the spare drive bay, then using WinClone 4 to image that disk onto the second HW RAID-0 on the Syba for Windows use. A couple hoops to jump through, but it works!

 

[matthewtoney]

I'm saying that from the Boot Camp Utility, it will see 4 "Mac OS X" drives - Since I was running SW RAID-0. Selecting ANY of them in Windows as the boot volume then restarting would result in restarting...in Windows. I'd have to hold down option after shutting down Windows and manually select one of the SW RAID-0 members.

I've since gone ahead and set HW RAID-0 back up. It's actually a hair slower with peak transfer speeds vs. Software RAID-0 (and more in-line with but still faster than the Accelsior, which is using HW RAID-0), but has the added bonus of letting me boot to/from either OS without requiring me to sit there and hold option.

Hope this helps!

Ok you've convinced me - the thing is so cheap its certainly worth trying. Just ordered one off Amazon.

 

[sindresl]

Hope I'm not hijacking the thread here, but I think it's at least kind of relevant

I'm on the fence here trying to decide between what option to choose. What I'd really like to do is to purchase an Areca ARC-1882LP raid hba and that way have one internal and one external mini-SAS connector for future-proofing my machine (At some time in the future I want to build a DAS running raid 5). This is however more expensive than I feel comfortable with at the moment, and I'm instead considering the Tempo ssd pro and the Syba card.

I have a Mac Pro 4,1 running Snow Leopard off of one Samsung 830 128GB SSD, and my user folder located on another 830 256GB SSD, both connected to sata 2 on the backplane. In addition I have two Seagate barracuda 2TB HDD's in a raid 0. The 256GB ssd contain my user/home folder including my Aperture library, and the raid 0 HDD's contain my Aperture library's referenced files. I also want to add a 4TB HDD for time-machine backup, but at the moment there's no room for it.

I have no plans of running the SSD's in any form of raid at this moment, and that's why I'm thinking that the Syba might be fine? I doubt I'll se any real limitations in the x2 speed in the Syba as long as I won't be reading/writing to both SSD's at one time. What do you guys think? Am I fine with the Syba until i can afford to splurge on a real raid card?

In advance, thanks!

 

[gsloan]

What do you guys think? Am I fine with the Syba until i can afford to splurge on a real raid card?

In advance, thanks!

Sure, it won't bottleneck on any one SSD...just on two fast ones. But that's still just for sequential. The other benefits of faster random access and all will still be there.

 

[chris.k]

My hats of to gsloan for the great Tidbit on the Syba card - What a great find!

I too have been looking to go PCI-E/Sata-III for an SSD Drive in my MP4,1 rather than the "leave the SSD disk lying around on the end of a SATA-II connector" route via the 2nd ODD Bay.

Just snagged one myself for a slightly higher price (thanks Australia, why is everything 1.5x the price down here?!), but still an excellent deal even if only PCI-E 2.0 x2 lane speeds - still faster than SATA-II.

I have a Samsung 840's already installed in a less-than-optimal-setup via ODD with a second one on the way to pair up into this card. I'll get SATA-III speeds and reclaim the flimsy-method via the optical drive bay.

Thanks again for the great suggestion. +1 Karma.

- CK.

 

[subsonix]

Awesome looking device if it lives up to specs.

And just $42.

Imagine the TB version would be a touch more and involve a few cables and boxes strewn about.

Oh, the price of progress.

Pegasus J2 would be the closest equivalent to my knowledge, it includes the drives and doesn't eat up the adjacent Thunderbolt port.

 

[gsloan]

Thanks again for the great suggestion. +1 Karma.

- CK.

You're welcome.

The great thing about the card is if you can run cables from the Optical Bay to the card. I've got my Windows Sandisk Extreme still mounted there with a cable running to the card. And there's still a free port.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008L5Y4OO/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1is what I used to mount the SSD in the 5.25" bay. It converts a 5.25" bay to a quad 2.5" bay. Only using one of the bays for now...but who knows. I may decide to shove another SSD in there and use the last port on the Syba. I ran two of the 3M cables below...

I wholly recommend these cables for doing the run...it's like they were made for it: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008B96YQQ/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1 - 3M's High Routability Internal SATA cable. Didn't even bother removing the power cable protector to do the run. It was that easy...easier than running the molex, to be sure.

 

[willgreene99]

You're welcome.

The great thing about the card is if you can run cables from the Optical Bay to the card. I've got my Windows Sandisk Extreme still mounted there with a cable running to the card. And there's still a free port.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008L5Y4OO/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1is what I used to mount the SSD in the 5.25" bay. It converts a 5.25" bay to a quad 2.5" bay. Only using one of the bays for now...but who knows. I may decide to shove another SSD in there and use the last port on the Syba. I ran two of the 3M cables below...

I wholly recommend these cables for doing the run...it's like they were made for it: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008B96YQQ/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1 - 3M's High Routability Internal SATA cable. Didn't even bother removing the power cable protector to do the run. It was that easy...easier than running the molex, to be sure.

So with this I can add four 2.5" ssd's to it and mount it in the lower optical drive bay?

What power cables or sata cables are needed?

Very interesting as it gives me more options to add another raid set without using my PCI slots.

 

[gsloan]

So with this I can add four 2.5" ssd's to it and mount it in the lower optical drive bay?

What power cables or sata cables are needed?

Very interesting as it gives me more options to add another raid set without using my PCI slots.

Well. The bay converter just lets you physically mount 4 2.5" devices in the lower optical bay. You'll need to get power splitters and run SATA cables to a card in the PCI slot. It just means that if you really wanted to, you could pick up one of these - http://www.amazon.com/Syba-HyperDuo...&qid=1374207180&sr=8-1&keywords=syba+SATA+III and a couple SATA power splitters (omitting the internal optical drive), and run 4 of those 3M cables to only use 1 PCIe slot and zero internal drive slots to have 4 SSDs mounted cleanly.
Unless you already have a card with free SATA ports.