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Clever Gadget for Mac Pros
http://www.x404.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7722		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  jonbwfc [ Wed Apr 14, 2010 10:02 am ]
Post subject:  Clever Gadget for Mac Pros
Standard 3.5" Mac pro 'caddy' that actually fits two 2.5" drives that you can use in a RAID 0 or 1 pair.

Clicky
Author:  forquare1 [ Wed Apr 14, 2010 10:13 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Clever Gadget for Mac Pros
Very nice idea
Author:  timark_uk [ Wed Apr 14, 2010 10:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Clever Gadget for Mac Pros
That is a really cool solution for getting more drives inside a Mac Pro.

Mark
Author:  paulzolo [ Wed Apr 14, 2010 10:56 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Clever Gadget for Mac Pros
I like that idea, but aren’t 2.5" drives more prone to failure?
Author:  forquare1 [ Wed Apr 14, 2010 11:07 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Clever Gadget for Mac Pros
paulzolo wrote:
I like that idea, but aren’t 2.5" drives more prone to failure?


Not that I know of. Some rational behind your statement might be that 2.5" drives are used in laptops, and laptops are often abused more than the normal desktops?
Author:  saspro [ Wed Apr 14, 2010 11:19 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Clever Gadget for Mac Pros
paulzolo wrote:
I like that idea, but aren’t 2.5" drives more prone to failure?


Most enterprise level servers use 2.5" sas drives now
Author:  timark_uk [ Wed Apr 14, 2010 11:21 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Clever Gadget for Mac Pros
saspro wrote:
Most enterprise level servers use 2.5" sas drives now
That's true actually. All the servers that we've got recently have all had 2.5" drives in them.

Mark
Author:  paulzolo [ Wed Apr 14, 2010 3:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Clever Gadget for Mac Pros
timark_uk wrote:
saspro wrote:
Most enterprise level servers use 2.5" sas drives now
That's true actually. All the servers that we've got recently have all had 2.5" drives in them.

Mark


That’s interesting then - I have two slots left in my MacPro. I suddenly feel that I can have another 4 drives inside if I want it. I like the RAID idea - my plan is to buy two high capacity drives and raid them for more data integrity/backup.
Author:  davrosG5 [ Thu Apr 15, 2010 6:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Clever Gadget for Mac Pros
Can you actually buy these in the UK.
Stardom don't appear to have a UK distributor.
Author:  big_D [ Thu Apr 15, 2010 7:34 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Clever Gadget for Mac Pros
My concerns with the device are:

Heat : You are putting 2 2.5" drives in a tight enclosure designed for a 3.5" drive. They will generate a fair amount of heat, especially if you buy fast drives (7200rpm).

Price/Capacity: 2.5" drives are generally lower capacity and much more expensive than their 3.5" cousins. 2 500GB 7200rpm drives + enclosure will probably cost more than a 2TB 3.5" drive...

Striping: I'd rather be able to RAID the drives than just stripe them - although I suppose you could put 4 drives in 2 bays and make a software RAID 1 out of them. I suppose you always have TimeMachine to keep the data backed up, in case the stripe gets corrupted.
Author:  jonbwfc [ Thu Apr 15, 2010 11:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Clever Gadget for Mac Pros
big_D wrote:
Striping: I'd rather be able to RAID the drives than just stripe them - although I suppose you could put 4 drives in 2 bays and make a software RAID 1 out of them. I suppose you always have TimeMachine to keep the data backed up, in case the stripe gets corrupted.

There seem to be two models of the caddy, one of which does RAID 0 and one of which does RAID 1. That was my initial idea actually - I'd like to have a resilient drive for my home directory without having to use an external array or use software RAID. I know you can buy a RAID card for the Mac pros but IIRC they're actually quite expensive.

The heat issue did also occur to me actually. If you're using mirroring, the cost is kind of evens - you've got 2 2.5" drives and this, or 2 3.5" drives and either a RAID controller or an external array to put them in.
Author:  davrosG5 [ Thu Apr 15, 2010 3:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Clever Gadget for Mac Pros
Presumable heat wouldn't be as much of an issue if you used SSD's.
Sticking any serious performance drives (10 or 15k ones) would probably not be a terribly good idea though.
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