MP 7,1 Promise Pegasus J2i Alternative？

[zhpenn]

Are any 3rd party parts available yet? Because really don't need that 8TB drive. and the cable and cage should not be very hard to make for companies like OWC

In Mac Pro 5,1 era is there any similar Alternative?
When about those 3rd party parts come out after the Mac Pro 5,1 release?

 

[bsbeamer]

macOS PCIe SATA SSD Adapters (MP5,1 & MP7,1)

Wiki thread for compiling a list of confirmed PCIe SATA SSD adapters for MP5,1 with macOS. They're not as fast as NVMe, but they're widely available. Should also be helpful with options for transition to MP7,1 and (should) achieve faster read/write speeds with native PCIe 3 availability for...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[flowrider]

^^^^Not helpful. The Pegasus J2i is an internal cage for two 3½" drives for the NcMP. Problem, it comes pre equipped with one 8 GB HDD. It is not a PCIe solution. I'm looking for a bare cage also.

The 5,1 cMP did not need such a device because it had the SATA drive trays,

Lou

 

[Casey P]

There doesn't appear to be any alternatives, yet. I put in the J2i and it is well designed and the cables are well thought out. Relative to the cost of the Mac Pro or the hard drives that I put into the J2i, it doesn't seem like a huge expenditure, but it really should have been included in the Mac Pro. Of course, then people would complain that Apple was wasting their money by giving them a device that would only work with antiquated HDD.

 

[Korican100]

are you saying

There doesn't appear to be any alternatives, yet. I put in the J2i and it is well designed and the cables are well thought out. Relative to the cost of the Mac Pro or the hard drives that I put into the J2i, it doesn't seem like a huge expenditure, but it really should have been included in the Mac Pro. Of course, then people would complain that Apple was wasting their money by giving them a device that would only work with antiquated HDD.

are you saying all spinning HDD's are antiquated, or the specific HDD that comes with the pegasus is antiquated compared to other spinning HDD's?

 

[bxs]

I really like my Promise Pegasus J2i. The $360 (I get a discount) I spent for it was well worth it. I needed internal storage space, I did not already have an 8TB HDD on my shelf, I added a Seagate Exos 16TB HDD in the 2nd slot in the J2i, so have some 24TB of internal storage which was my goal. These two HDD will deliver around 250 MB/s read/write when they are first used (I've tested this).... probable will slow down as they fill up.

The J2i is very well designed and installs in a jiffy without any issues.

If people don't want to spend their money on the likes of the J2i and have external storage space readily available then that is a good choice for them. If you want to have internal storage and avoid the mess of cables and power bricks then the J2i can today provide some 32 TB and of the course there's the other Promise unit that has 4x 8TB for RAID consideration if so desired.

For me, I wanted no external cables to connect to storage. If a person has access to a File Server for storage that uses 10G then it's simple to run a 10G wire to the file server or the local 10G network switch in the office to avoid unnecessary cables. With this in mind the only cables needed would be, the 10G wire, the power cord and the cords for one or more display units.

Again, the J2i is a very convenient device and its cost is quite small compared to the MP7,1's total investment.

 

[One_Stop_Storage]

Hello,

The cage was a joint engineering effort with Apple and Promise to fit specifically into that defined area, to maximize space, and optimize cooling. As of today not aware of other products that is designed to fit that specific area.

For FAQs regarding the J2i see the link below:

PROMISE Technology - Storage Solutions for IT, Cloud, Surveillance and Rich Media

 

[bsbeamer]

$380 at B&H for those without discount connections:

Promise Technology 8TB Pegasus J2i Internal Storage Enclosure for Mac Pro

Buy Promise Technology 8TB Pegasus J2i Internal Storage Enclosure for Mac Pro featuring Designed for the Mac Pro, 1 x 8TB 7200 rpm SATA 3.5" HDD, 2 x 3.5" SATA III Drive Bays, Preformatted HFS+, Custom Power and Data Cables. Review Promise Technology J2i

www.bhphotovideo.com

 

[Korican100]

I really like my Promise Pegasus J2i. The $360 (I get a discount) I spent for it was well worth it. I needed internal storage space, I did not already have an 8TB HDD on my shelf, I added a Seagate Exos 16TB HDD in the 2nd slot in the J2i, so have some 24TB of internal storage which was my goal. These two HDD will deliver around 250 MB/s read/write when they are first used (I've tested this).... probable will slow down as they fill up.

The J2i is very well designed and installs in a jiffy without any issues.

If people don't want to spend their money on the likes of the J2i and have external storage space readily available then that is a good choice for them. If you want to have internal storage and avoid the mess of cables and power bricks then the J2i can today provide some 32 TB and of the course there's the other Promise unit that has 4x 8TB for RAID consideration if so desired.

For me, I wanted no external cables to connect to storage. If a person has access to a File Server for storage that uses 10G then it's simple to run a 10G wire to the file server or the local 10G network switch in the office to avoid unnecessary cables. With this in mind the only cables needed would be, the 10G wire, the power cord and the cords for one or more display units.

Again, the J2i is a very convenient device and its cost is quite small compared to the MP7,1's total investment.

what are you using as backup?

 

[ZombiePhysicist]

I got one. I'm annoyed I had to get a stupid 8TB drive when the current large capacity drives are 16TB. It's just a stupid throw away. The bracket is ok at best. I think it's overly bulky, and not particularly great for ventilation/cooling.

My hope is folks 3d scan this, and improve it, and we can 3D print way better brackets. The space we have in there could easily hold 4-5 u.2 drives for example. That could be a LOT of very modern NVMe u.2 SSD storage space eg see here for example:

Mac Pro support for NVMe U2 Micron 9300 Pro 15.36TB U.2 Drive SSD?

Ok so I got the drive. I got a bracket and it all seems to fit in decently tidy. Some pics: So I have the Pegasus J2i in there. Swapped the useless 8TB for a 16TB spinner. I got a 3.5" to 2.5" bracket. One note, the screws in the J2i that hold larger drives, are too big for both the 2.5"/3.5"...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Slash-2CPU]

Someone here already posted a 3D file for making a cage. Around $100 to have a .com place print it and ship it to you.

 

[Casey P]

are you saying

are you saying all spinning HDD's are antiquated, or the specific HDD that comes with the pegasus is antiquated compared to other spinning HDD's?

I'm saying that people who don't need large amounts of storage inside are going to be using flash storage instead of a spinning drive and would be tearing the J2i out of the Mac Pro in order to make room for some other device.

 

[Virtuoso]

I just got the new Sonnet Fusion RAID card today - it takes 2 SATA SSDs and can do RAID0/1/Span & JBOD. No need for a cage or cables - the drives mount onto the PCIe card. I stuck in 2x 2TB Samsung 860 EVO SSDs, set it to RAID0 and it's benchmarking at 943MB/s write and 1029MB/s read.

It's a cost effective way of using some drives that I had in a Blackmagic Multidock and getting the most out of them - I might get a second one!

Fusion Dual 2.5-inch SSD RAID (with hardware RAID controller and 10Gbps USB-C port • Add your own SSDs)

Dual 2.5-inch SSD PCIe 3.0 card with hardware RAID controller, plus 10Gbps USB-C port. Add your own SSDs.

www.sonnetstore.com

 

[bxs]

what are you using as backup?

So here's my current setup...

Internal Storage (My total internal storage amounts to 30TB at this time)

1. Apple's boot 1TB SSD - This holds the macOS and user home folders.
2. Sonnet PCIe x16 card holding a 2TB and 3x 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus blades. The 2TB is split into 2x 1TB, and one of these 1TB pieces is formatted as APFS and holds a CCC clone of the Apple's internal 1TB boot SSD. This leaves 4x 1TB that I use Disk Utility to RAID-0 providing 4TB of high-speed data transfer that I've measured to be 7.5 to 8.5 GBytes/sec.
3. Promise Pegasus 2Ji with 1x 8TB and 1x 16TB HDDs.
   1. I use the 8TB HDD for "User Data" that is shared between two people; my son and me. I setup two folders on this 8TB HDD and protect them with permissions so that my son and me have security/protection from each other. This 8TB is HFS+ formatted.
   2. I use the 16TB HDD as follows; I partition it to be 1x 8TB, 1x 4TB and 1x 4TB.
      1. The 8TB is a backup for the 8TB "User Data" mentioned above.
      2. One of the 4TB partitions is used for backing up the Sonnet/Samsung 4TB RAID-0.
      3. The remaining 4TB partition is used for Time Machine backups for the internal Apple 1TB boot SSD. I do not have Time Machine configured to automatically backup every 1 hour. Instead I execute Time Machine backups periodically when required. When Time Machine backs up it will create a snapshot file on the internal Apple 1TB SSD and this can from experience consume too much space for my liking, although Apple claims the snapshots will be thinned out if free space falls below some threshold that I think is 10% free space remaining.
4. I use CrashPlan/Code42 to selectively backup important data to the Code42's offsite servers. This runs either manually or runs quietly in the background.
5. I have several Promise Pegasus R4, R6 and R8 (some TB1, some TB2 and one TB3). These are used for archiving Project data and allows the MP7,1's internal storage to be thinned at times after a Project finishes.

Backups are important as most people will agree. Periodically during idle times (who has idle time these days ?) I will test restores from these backups to ensure they work.

If I find I need more internal storage I can opt for the larger Promise Pegasus unit that holds 4x HDDs. If using 16TB HDD this would allow for another 64TB of internal storage).

I hope that helps you understand my data backup strategy I have.

 

[Korican100]

So here's my current setup...

Internal Storage (My total internal storage amounts to 30TB at this time)

1. Apple's boot 1TB SSD - This holds the macOS and user home folders.
2. Sonnet PCIe x16 card holding a 2TB and 3x 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus blades. The 2TB is split into 2x 1TB, and one of these 1TB pieces is formatted as APFS and holds a CCC clone of the Apple's internal 1TB boot SSD. This leaves 4x 1TB that I use Disk Utility to RAID-0 providing 4TB of high-speed data transfer that I've measured to be 7.5 to 8.5 GBytes/sec.
3. Promise Pegasus 2Ji with 1x 8TB and 1x 16TB HDDs.
   1. I use the 8TB HDD for "User Data" that is shared between two people; my son and me. I setup two folders on this 8TB HDD and protect them with permissions so that my son and me have security/protection from each other. This 8TB is HFS+ formatted.
   2. I use the 16TB HDD as follows; I partition it to be 1x 8TB, 1x 4TB and 1x 4TB.
      1. The 8TB is a backup for the 8TB "User Data" mentioned above.
      2. One of the 4TB partitions is used for backing up the Sonnet/Samsung 4TB RAID-0.
      3. The remaining 4TB partition is used for Time Machine backups for the internal Apple 1TB boot SSD. I do not have Time Machine configured to automatically backup every 1 hour. Instead I execute Time Machine backups periodically when required. When Time Machine backs up it will create a snapshot file on the internal Apple 1TB SSD and this conform experience consume too much space for my liking, although Apple claims the snapshots will be thinned out if free space falls below some threshold.
4. I use CrashPlan/Code42 to selectively backup important data to the Code42's offsite servers. This runs either manually or runs quietly in the background.
5. I have several Promise Pegasus R4, R6 and R8 (some TB1, some TB2 and one TB3). These are used for archiving Project data and allows the MP7,1's internal storage to be thinned at times after a Project finishes.

Backups are important as most people will agree. Periodically during idle times (who has idle time these days ?) I will test restores from these backups to ensure they work.

If I find I need more internal storage I can opt for the larger Promise Pegasus unit that holds 4x HDDs. If using 16TB HDD this would allow for another 64TB of internal storage).

I hope that helps you understand my data backup strategy I have.

I have a 4tb OWC accessior. And also the Pegasus with two 8tb HDDs. I love the idea of partitioning the large drives to back up the smaller ones. Thank you for sharing!

 

[zhpenn]

Got the J2i today, and put IronWolf Pro 16TB + 14TB for daily work files backup
then put the stock Toshiba 8TB in my Drobo 5C for the other backup task.

btw, are these cables are proprietary from apple? otherwise, I think it is easy to 3D print the cage and screws and buy cables

 

[theluggage]

I'm saying that people who don't need large amounts of storage inside are going to be using flash storage instead of a spinning drive and would be tearing the J2i out of the Mac Pro in order to make room for some other device.

Translation: Apple's policy means anybody who wants to make "some other device" will have to create their own equivalent of the J2i frame and proprietary power connector (assuming Apple haven't managed to torture a patent out of it) rather than (say) designing it to fit in the sort of standard 3.5" bay with SATA or PCIe power that every other PCIe tower computer in the universe manages to provide as standard.

All people are asking is for the mounting bracket and power cable to be included - or even sold on their own for a reasonable price (...but then Apple thinks $400 is a reasonable price for a set of Ikea wheels) without being forced to buy 8TB of spinning rust.

Still, Apple seem to have the cash to include machined aluminium PCIe slot covers, what looks like about $100 worth of over-engineered packaging and a fantastically over-engineered sculptured dust intake.

 

[tozzo]

One of my old 8TB external Seagate drives was dismounting due to a loose connection (don't ask) so I wanted to rip out the housing and place it in my Pro. For some reason missed the Pegasus when it came out in December... It did the trick and it was mad easy to install. I was curious if it is ok to take off the black tape on the cables...? They can't really go in that slot made for them if wrapped up. No one seems to use that little slot I have noticed in the pics online, so I must not be the only one who does not want to jam it in there...

The good thing about this unit is that you can add SSD later if you want with an adapter. I do like the idea of the PCI card with the two SSDs... I missed that too, and got a single ssd pci holder from OWC.

 

[flowrider]

Go to the 5:00 min mark:

Lou

 

[TrevorR90]

Got the J2i today, and put IronWolf Pro 16TB + 14TB for daily work files backup
then put the stock Toshiba 8TB in my Drobo 5C for the other backup task.

View attachment 892977


btw, are these cables are proprietary from apple? otherwise, I think it is easy to 3D print the cage and screws and buy cables

One of the cables are proprietary. The one closest to the rear.

 

[fuchsdh]

Go to the 5:00 min mark:

Lou

That poor computer has suffered more than any Mac Pro 2019 thus far

Does make me wonder if you could put some soft lights in the PCIe bays and shine it through the front though. Would probably look more subtle than what he had going on.

 

[flowrider]

^^^^My Aorus RX5700XT has RGB lighting. If I peer through the grill I can see the lights.

Lou

 

[buss69]

So here's my current setup...

Internal Storage (My total internal storage amounts to 30TB at this time)

1. Apple's boot 1TB SSD - This holds the macOS and user home folders.
2. Sonnet PCIe x16 card holding a 2TB and 3x 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus blades. The 2TB is split into 2x 1TB, and one of these 1TB pieces is formatted as APFS and holds a CCC clone of the Apple's internal 1TB boot SSD. This leaves 4x 1TB that I use Disk Utility to RAID-0 providing 4TB of high-speed data transfer that I've measured to be 7.5 to 8.5 GBytes/sec.
3. Promise Pegasus 2Ji with 1x 8TB and 1x 16TB HDDs.
   1. I use the 8TB HDD for "User Data" that is shared between two people; my son and me. I setup two folders on this 8TB HDD and protect them with permissions so that my son and me have security/protection from each other. This 8TB is HFS+ formatted.
   2. I use the 16TB HDD as follows; I partition it to be 1x 8TB, 1x 4TB and 1x 4TB.
      1. The 8TB is a backup for the 8TB "User Data" mentioned above.
      2. One of the 4TB partitions is used for backing up the Sonnet/Samsung 4TB RAID-0.
      3. The remaining 4TB partition is used for Time Machine backups for the internal Apple 1TB boot SSD. I do not have Time Machine configured to automatically backup every 1 hour. Instead I execute Time Machine backups periodically when required. When Time Machine backs up it will create a snapshot file on the internal Apple 1TB SSD and this can from experience consume too much space for my liking, although Apple claims the snapshots will be thinned out if free space falls below some threshold that I think is 10% free space remaining.
4. I use CrashPlan/Code42 to selectively backup important data to the Code42's offsite servers. This runs either manually or runs quietly in the background.
5. I have several Promise Pegasus R4, R6 and R8 (some TB1, some TB2 and one TB3). These are used for archiving Project data and allows the MP7,1's internal storage to be thinned at times after a Project finishes.

Backups are important as most people will agree. Periodically during idle times (who has idle time these days ?) I will test restores from these backups to ensure they work.

If I find I need more internal storage I can opt for the larger Promise Pegasus unit that holds 4x HDDs. If using 16TB HDD this would allow for another 64TB of internal storage).

I hope that helps you understand my data backup strategy I have.

Thank you, found this very useful and inspired me to join the forum, cheers.
[automerge]1588322264[/automerge]

Someone here already posted a 3D file for making a cage. Around $100 to have a .com place print it and ship it to you.

Hi, do you happen to know what this link is called, I'm interested in having a cage printed, cheers.

 

[Stephen.R]

It's kind of surprising they don't sell a disk-less version. For someone using a heap of other PCIe slots, being able to put a couple of 2-4TB SATA SSD's in that space could be quite beneficial.

 

[yurc]

Are any 3rd party parts available yet? Because really don't need that 8TB drive. and the cable and cage should not be very hard to make for companies like OWC

In Mac Pro 5,1 era is there any similar Alternative?
When about those 3rd party parts come out after the Mac Pro 5,1 release?

Hi, do you happen to know what this link is called, I'm interested in having a cage printed, cheers.

DIY solution available. I suggest to read entire post from beginning.

That Pegasus J2i Cage - Internal HDD Mounting

Alright, well, the 4xSSD cage and 2x3.5" are done. The STL files are here https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4067905 From a printing service like MakeXYZ.com, The SSD cage is $85.90 to print and ship. Not bad when competing against $400. I haven't printed the 3.5" cage so do so at your own...

forums.macrumors.com

Template

2019 Mac Pro Drive Cage by bwinter88

This is an alternative drive cage to the Promise Pegasus J2i accessory meant to be mounted in the 2019 Mac Pro. There are two cage designs; one to hold 2 spinners, and one to hold 4 SSDs (in the event you have a PCI card to connect additional drives)The power connector for internal drives in the...

www.thingiverse.com

It also sad, why anything related with 7,1 it would expensive like crazy? Power cables, drive cages (not mentioned wheels) which is basically accessories must cost a fortune, even for fraction of market.