What do you use your internal drive bays for?

[m4v3r1ck]

Interesting post - there are some good ideas in here. I am going to try and get a Calgigit which will free up a pci-e slot for another SSD. I currently have a sata card in one slot and a USB 3 card in another.

Thank you for your kind remark.

To not wasting a PCIe slot for both an USB 3.0 AND eSATA card, I indeed choose for the Caldigit. Since I've installed it I have had ZERO issues with it. Highly recommended.

NOTE: Some of us have the previous Caldigit FASTA-6GU3-Pro USB3 and eSATA3 Card. So please check the website to be sure the new pro version has the same specs for booting from eSATA and or your needs-and-liking.

Cheers

 

[Mr Ski 73]

Thank you for your kind remark.

To not wasting a PCIe slot for both an USB 3.0 AND eSATA card, I indeed choose for the Caldigit. Since I've installed it I have had ZERO issues with it. Highly recommended.

NOTE: Some of us have the previous Caldigit FASTA-6GU3-Pro USB3 and eSATA3 Card. So please check the website to be sure the new pro version has the same specs for booting from eSATA and or your needs-and-liking.

Cheers

Thanks for the reply. I have just managed to get hold of the non pro version which I am having to return as it will not work. Do you know of any other cards

 

[m4v3r1ck]

Thanks for the reply. I have just managed to get hold of the non pro version which I am having to return as it will not work. Do you know of any other cards

1. What was not working on the non-pro version that are essential to you?
2. Sure there may be other cards, but I simply went for the best build state-of-the-art card available ATT. I suggest you get the Caldigit FASTA-6GU3-Pro USB3 and eSATA3 Card. It's pricey but a no-brainer in install and use!

Cheers

 

[pastrychef]

I believe the Caldigit FASTA-6GU3-Pro has been discontinued. They have a new "Plus" model that's USB 3.1 and eSATA available for pre-order. Hopefully, this card will work without having to install any drivers.

 

[m4v3r1ck]

I believe the Caldigit FASTA-6GU3-Pro has been discontinued. They have a new "Plus" model that's USB 3.1 and eSATA available for pre-order. Hopefully, this card will work without having to install any drivers.

Wow, wasn't mentioned on their website AFAIR, so thanks for that and the heads-up for the new PLUS-version!

Cheers

 

[pastrychef]

NewerTech has their NewerTech MAXPower PCIe 2-port USB 3 + 2-port eSATA 6G Host Adapter that includes USB 3 and SATA 3. But they specifically state that sleep is not recommended with this card and that was a deal killer for me...

 

[Synchro3]

Bay 1: Crucial M4 SSD for Windows 7 Pro
Bay 2: Crucial M4 SSD for Windows 10
Bay 3: 2 TB WD green spinner for data (2 partitions, NTFS and Mac OS Extended)
Bay 4: Nothing, only taking power from SATA for two internal SSD's connected to Caldigit FASTA-6GU3 Pro

Upper optical drive: Lite-On DVD writer (region free)
Lower optical drive: LG HL-DT Blu-Ray drive

Slot 1: EVGA GTX 770
Slot 2: Sintech card with Apple SSUBX 1 TB (working @ 5.0 GT/s)
Slot 3: Caldigit FASTA-6GU3 (nothing connected at the moment, obsolete)
Slot 4: Caldigit FASTA-6GU3 Pro with 4 drives: two internal SATA SSD's: 2 TB Samsung 850 Pro SSD for Mountain Lion and 500 GB Samsung 830 SSD for VMware, external SSD and HDD via Firmtek MiniSwap/ES: Crucial M500 SSD for El Capitan, Apple 2.5' HDD for Snow Leopard.

 

[firedownunder]

See Sig.

 

[maximage77]

725 MB/sec max.

Cool, thanks Thessman. Not sure if that is a real word 725 or theoretical, but with 2 drives on the internal connectors, two on the Caldigit USB/SATA card and one on the Apricorns additional connector, I'm getting 790MB real world from 5 striped HDs.

Still have to sit down and see if there is any benefits from any other configs, i.e., 3 on the internal bays, 2 on the CalDigit to minimise interfaces, or what. May be more processing overheads one way or another, who knows. I know it will be minimal difference in reality but if you have the options may as well run it the best way.

 

[Baunkjaer]

120GB Kingston V300 and 1TB WD Black.

 

[ActionableMango]

Every single person in this thread should go to:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/mac-pro.html

And leave a comment similar to "bring back drive bays".

Also, I found it interesting that there's a question about how many PCI slots you use.

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In any case, here is my response:

1 SuperDrive
2 BD Drive
3 SSD OS X 10.10
4 SSD Win10
5 HDD HFS+ storage for OS X
6 HDD ExFAT storage for OS X and Windows

 

[raymanster]

Optical bay 1: Standard DVD drive
Optical bay 2: Sandisk SSD Plus 120 GB - no data on here at the moment

Bay 1: Sandisk SSD Plus 480 GB - Mac OS 10.11.5, my boot drive
Bay 2: Seagate Barracuda 250 GB - Windows 10 (an old drive I hope to replace with an SSD soon).
Bay 3: WD Green 2 TB - DataHD holding VMs, docs, photos, music
Bay 4: WD Green 2 TB - Partitioned; 500 GB which holds a clone (SuperDuper) of OS X, 1.5 TB for Time machine