What do you use for time machine?

[hindmost]

I recently purchased a Mid-2013 MacBook Air that has the new 802.11ac internet technology so I bit the bullet and bought a new Time Capsule. This serves the nine internet using gadgets in my home Wi-Fi network and, of course, has a 2 TB hard drive to save my Time Machine files from the various machines.

Flawless, easy to set up and a real joy to use.

 

[Ravich]

They are but by what would be called minor manufacturers that can be hit and miss for a retailer to stock some will some won't. OS compatibility is determined by the chipset controlling the hardware and the operating systems support for that chipset. Since OS X support is even lower on a manufacturers support list than even Linux it seems, most times you can pretty much be confident in that if it works on a Mac it will work in them unless it is an OS specific device. Like the Griffen FireWave that I use for my surround sound not a hope in hell of it working in Linux or Windows.

Edit: Left out yes it should work in Windows as that was stated in the ad where I bought it.

So it's a similar concept to purchasing RAM and just hoping that it works in my mac, as opposed to getting it from OWC and knowing that it will?


Also, the product you linked says PCI-e x4. My understanding is that PCI-e x4 bandwidth is 800 MBps, so in theory that leaves about 400 MBps per SSD on that configuration, whereas SATA2 would just give me about 300 MBps per drive.

In practice, some of the bandwidth for the PCI-e card can be distributed differently depending on whether each SSD is maxing out its bandwidth, but am I correctly understanding that I'm essentially upgrading from 300 MBps to 400 MBps per SSD?

 

[MacUser2525]

So it's a similar concept to purchasing RAM and just hoping that it works in my mac, as opposed to getting it from OWC and knowing that it will?

Sort of ram is ram if it meets the specification it should just work don't matter where it comes from. Now that is the theory of it most times it holds true but like anything the real world can change that.

Also, the product you linked says PCI-e x4. My understanding is that PCI-e x4 bandwidth is 800 MBps, so in theory that leaves about 400 MBps per SSD on that configuration, whereas SATA2 would just give me about 300 MBps per drive.

In practice, some of the bandwidth for the PCI-e card can be distributed differently depending on whether each SSD is maxing out its bandwidth, but am I correctly understanding that I'm essentially upgrading from 300 MBps to 400 MBps per SSD?

Again that is the theory likely never to be seen in the real world of SSDs. It depends on the size of the SSD you buy, larger sized seems to get best speeds from manufacturer, controller used/OS support of that controller, how full it is .. all kinds of variables to take into account. But most likely your never going to see that maximum but it will be faster than any mechanical drive you can use.

 

[Ravich]

Thanks for the answers. I feel better informed now.



Regarding SSDs in practice, I was under the impression that read speeds being attained at this point in time can reach 500 MBps or higher, so I figured 2 of those at full load would max out PCI-e x4. Anyway, what matters to me is that it is faster than SATA2, which it does seem to be, right?

Thanks again.

 

[MacUser2525]

Thanks for the answers. I feel better informed now.



Regarding SSDs in practice, I was under the impression that read speeds being attained at this point in time can reach 500 MBps or higher, so I figured 2 of those at full load would max out PCI-e x4. Anyway, what matters to me is that it is faster than SATA2, which it does seem to be, right?

Thanks again.

Your welcome and yes definitely faster than SATA2 even with the few extra seconds these boards seem to take at boot to be recognized as opposed to the internal drives. You will notice/see the difference booting from one especially application start up time once in the desktop.

 

[Ravich]

I'm just going to be streaming audio from them for sample libraries, so booting isnt an issue. I already boot from a small SSD in one of my internal HDD bays.

 

[MacUser2525]

I'm just going to be streaming audio from them for sample libraries, so booting isnt an issue. I already boot from a small SSD in one of my internal HDD bays.

This would be good for that idea much faster than mechanical drive virtually no seek time to find the files.

Edit: The read speed on these SSD drive is usually much faster than write so that fits perfecty with what you want to do with it.

 

[gnasher729]

I use a Drobo served on the network. It's not the fastest, but I care about the redundancy and flexibility more.

I have known people who had their complete Drobo die. Redundancy and flexibility, all gone. The primitive solution is two external drives, and Time Machine set up to alternate between both drives.

 

[goMac]

I have known people who had their complete Drobo die. Redundancy and flexibility, all gone. The primitive solution is two external drives, and Time Machine set up to alternate between both drives.

Sure, in the case someone broke in and stole my Drobo I'd lose all my data, and I accept that. In the case of Drobo failure, I'd just treat it like enclosure failure. Get a new Drobo enclosure, but the drives back in, and all my data is there and I'm back in business.

I do have offsite backups for critically important stuff. The Drobo is just present to reduce overall downtime by restoring all my computers back to their original condition in case one of them has a failure.

 

[rGiskard]

Thanks for the answers. I feel better informed now.



Regarding SSDs in practice, I was under the impression that read speeds being attained at this point in time can reach 500 MBps or higher, so I figured 2 of those at full load would max out PCI-e x4. Anyway, what matters to me is that it is faster than SATA2, which it does seem to be, right?

Thanks again.

It's the SATA III controller that's the bottleneck on the lower cost PCIe cards. Most use the Marvell 88SE9230 which is IIRC limited to around 800 MBps with two SSDs. You'll need an Areca or ATTO to get any faster, which for most people isn't worth it. They occasionally show up on ebay so you might get a good price there. Then you need an SAS breakout cable long enough to reach the ODD bays, and some way to draw power (easy if you're handy with a soldering iron, otherwise it requires expensive, hard to find SATA power adapters.

Keep in mind that the Marvell 88SE9230 Highpoint Rocket 640L will need a firmware update to work with Mavericks. You can contact Highpoint for the update or use the attached file (edit: uploaded file doesn't show up, just PM me if you need it). Boot from a Live DOS CD to run it. You'll need drive mounts for the ODD bay and SATA power adapters with this card.

Another option is the Apricorn Velocity Solo x2. It has a SATA connector for a second drive but no power or bracket for a second drive, a rather inexplicable design choice. Easier and faster to add two Apricorn VSx2 cards, which gives you speeds in excess of 1 GB/s

The ebay card on this thread looks tempting but what if a new OS X version breaks it? Is that ebay seller going to release a validated firmware update? Sticking with a branded card is a safer bet.