Velocity Solo X2 -Raid0 results..very interesting

[Msbeezy]

Okay so I've been following some threads on possibly speeding up my 4.1
I already run 2 Intel M160G2GC no trim in raid0 in 2 sleds so when I ran across this new pci option it tweaked my interest..

Today I received my 2 - velocity solo x2 cards...yes I'm trying 2 rather than teathering two drives off one...and don't know if that would work regardless with the MP (no power option)

I also picked up two new Samsung 830 256.

Did the install and cloned my o/s. I used xbench and results are as follows
drive type.............samsung.......................intel
drive test................859.64....................330.76

sequential...............603.82....................291.22
uncached write......1394.45/856.17......230.45/141.49.....4Kblks
write......1072.82/607.00......282.45/159.93.....256blks
read.......231.01/67.61..........211.96/62.03.......4k
read......1546.79/777.40.......877.01/440.78......256

random.....................1492.60...................382.71
uncached write.......1462.09/154.78.......360.18/38.18.......4kblks
write.......982.21/314.44.........150.80/48.28.......256
read........2795.22/19.81.........2751.60/19.50.....4
read........1608.05/298.38.......1468.92/272.57...256

I'm not reading anything final into this yet but looks positive..

 

[All Taken]

I was going to do this but then I realised I would be buying two 2x cards to run two SSD's

The two cards have the port space for 4 SSD's but the bandwidth is limited with them being PCI-E 2x only.

After a lot of research I decided on the Highpoint 2720SGL that is a native HBA under OSX 10.8 and is capable of raid 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 single-disk and JBOD.

The best bit? It's an 8x card. Two mini sas to sata cables plugged in and I can run 8 SSD's in RAID 0 at 3500MB/s +

It really is an excellent card given it's price - it costs less than 2 velocity x2's and has the capacity for 8 drives. I simply ran one breakout cable to the optical bay and given the size of 2.5" SSD's, well you get the idea.

Whilst i'm sure many are happy with the Velocity X2 it's more expensive than the Rocketraid 2720 and has only 2x capacity! 8x plus native support (bootable) made this card a winner. If you can return the cards i'd highly recommend you do. P.S you can use the second optical bay power with a SATA power multiplier for 8 SSD's.

 

[Loa]

Hello,

If you have the time, I'd really like to see benchmarks while using the same card for 2 drives. In 2009+ Mac Pros (not sure in earlier), the top 2 PCIe slots share the same bandwidth, so I'm not sure that using two cards in those slots will yield a performance advantage...

Loa

 

[Msbeezy]

I was going to do this but then I realised I would be buying two 4x cards to run two SSD's

The two cards have the port space for 4 SSD's but the banwidth is limited with them being PCI-E 2x only.

After a lot of research I decided on the Highpoint 2720SGL that is a native HBA under OSX 10.8 and is capable of raid 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 single-disk and JBOD.

The best bit? It's an 8x card. Two mini sas to sata cables plugged in and I can run 8 SSD's in RAID 0 at 3500MB/s +

It really is an excellent card given it's price - it costs less than 2 velocity x2's and has the capacity for 8 drives. I simply ran one breakout cable to the optical bay and given the size of 2.5" SSD's, well you get the idea.

Whilst i'm sure many are happy with the Velocity X2 it's more expensive than the Rocketraid 2720 and has only 2x capacity! 8x plus native support (bootable) made this card a winner. If you can return the cards i'd highly recommend you do. P.S you can use the second optical bay power with a SATA power multiplier for 8 SSD's.

Interesting info..I'll look into it but my optical bays are full

----------

Hello,

If you have the time, I'd really like to see benchmarks while using the same card for 2 drives. In 2009+ Mac Pros (not sure in earlier), the top 2 PCIe slots share the same bandwidth, so I'm not sure that using two cards in those slots will yield a performance advantage...

Loa

I don't have cables for such a connection at this point and not sure where I'd get power from...all sources are tapped unless I'd get a splitter...
I have them installed in lanes 2/4...as I also have an esata card installed

 

[wildgiles]

The 2x SAS card is really the way to go for mac pro. It really opens up the possibilities and brings the mac pro up to 2013. Would be really neat if there was a way to transform one the optical bay doors into a swappable 2'5 drive bay slot.

 

[All Taken]

The 2x SAS card is really the way to go for mac pro. It really opens up the possibilities and brings the mac pro up to 2013. Would be really neat if there was a way to transform one the optical bay doors into a swappable 2'5 drive bay slot.

2x bandwidth on a SAS capable card?!? That's nonsense! It could have a controller on board capable of RAIDing a couple of SSD's at Sata 3 but would be bottlenecked instantly by the 2x bandwidth.

4x at a minimum is really the way to go and brings the Mac Pro up to 2010

2x

 

[pyzon]

deleted

 

[VirtualRain]

I was going to do this but then I realised I would be buying two 2x cards to run two SSD's

The two cards have the port space for 4 SSD's but the bandwidth is limited with them being PCI-E 2x only.

After a lot of research I decided on the Highpoint 2720SGL that is a native HBA under OSX 10.8 and is capable of raid 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 single-disk and JBOD.

The best bit? It's an 8x card. Two mini sas to sata cables plugged in and I can run 8 SSD's in RAID 0 at 3500MB/s +

It really is an excellent card given it's price - it costs less than 2 velocity x2's and has the capacity for 8 drives. I simply ran one breakout cable to the optical bay and given the size of 2.5" SSD's, well you get the idea.

Whilst i'm sure many are happy with the Velocity X2 it's more expensive than the Rocketraid 2720 and has only 2x capacity! 8x plus native support (bootable) made this card a winner. If you can return the cards i'd highly recommend you do. P.S you can use the second optical bay power with a SATA power multiplier for 8 SSD's.

I'm interested in this. Bootable in OS X? Any issues with sleep or resume? Thanks!

 

[wildgiles]

I was referring to the Highpoint 2720SGL that has 2 SAS outs and is 8X bandwidth.

After using an Imac with a thunderbolt pegasus drive for the past couple of days, I don't feel there is any excuse for the pro tower not to have thunderbolt ports.

 

[All Taken]

I was referring to the Highpoint 2720SGL that has 2 SAS outs and is 8X bandwidth.

After using an Imac with a thunderbolt pegasus drive for the past couple of days, I don't feel there is any excuse for the pro tower not to have thunderbolt ports.

Ah I see. Thunderbolt is more of a mobile productivity benefit in my eyes, PCI-E on the Mac Pro line can offer far greater bandwidth with the right I/O.

 

[Loa]

, I don't feel there is any excuse for the pro tower not to have thunderbolt ports.

Well, think about it: there is a huge hurdle for TB on Mac Pros: TB has to transport video. Where do you put your Tb port? On the GPU? If so, you need to route all the other busses (usb, fw, sata...) through the GPU, which is impractical.

If you don't put it on the GPU, you then need to route the video from the GPU back in through the PCIe slot and out through the TB port.

There isn't a simple solution to that problem: it's not an accident that the MP is the last Mac to get TB, as it's the only one with a discrete GPU. It's certainly possible, but it's not simple and requires a lot of thought and good, future-proof design.

Loa