[ninahagen]

I have been a hi-fi enthusiast for over 30 years. At the beginning, I used speakers and amplifiers as they came, but slowly came to learn about bi & tri-amping (stereo amps driving both channels of specified bands of the frequency range horizontally through an external crossover…L+R bass) and bi-wiring (stereo amps driving dual peg speakers vertically, one channel bass, one channel treble to lower to current load, thus allowing more amperage to withstand impedence swings caused big bass). So, I have an old love of optimizing the division of electronic tasks and distribution of power.

Enter the new Mac Pro with 4 hard drive bays, 3rd party 10k rpm drives, and numerous RAID configurations stage left! Feels familiar (transposition from my hi-fi experience), but a little daunting. With hi-fi, you could listen before buying…just go to a local dealer and demos galore. I don’t know of a single Mac dealer who has maxed out Pros on display.

So, I have been working my tech friends and this forum to get a bead on just how to get blazing speed. I want break the sound barrier in my studio, no kidding. Most folks love the 150GB 10k rpm WD Raptors. Assuming 600GB total HD space would be enough, which is the best way to configure these for speed? As discrete drives or in RAID configuration? In fact what are all the possible RAID configurations? What are the drawbacks and advantages of each option? Will I need an external box for RAID hardware?

Thanks,
John

[mduell]

There are a lot of RAID configurations possible, but only a few that are practical with 4 disks: 0, 1, 0+1, and 5

RAID 0: Maximum performance, maximum capacity, no redundancy (so keep good backups)
RAID 1: Maximum redundancy, same capacity as a single drive, same performance as a single drive
RAID 0+1: A mix of performance, capacity, and redundancy
RAID 5: Another mix of performance, capacity, and redundancy
Between 0+1 and 5, 0+1 gives better performance but less capacity.

I'd go with RAID 0 and make regular backups. You can put all the Raptors internally and do software RAID in OS X.

I'd grab an external 750GB FW/USB drive for backups.

Newegg has the 150G Raptors for $210 each and a 750G Seagate for $255 + enclosures for $25-65.

[Aelfinn]

The ICY Dock may be a bit pricey but it looks like a pretty nice enclosure.