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ninahagen · Apr 22, 2007, 12:42 PM

Hi everyone,

About to order my mac Pro (upgrading from Quad G5), and have decided to buy some Raptors. There is a distributor here in Japan! Can anyone tell me which will be faster:

3 Raptors in a software RAID 0 array

—OR—

2 Raptors in a software RAID 0 array for the system drive + 1 Raptor for scratch

—OR—

2 Raptors in a software RAID 0 array for the scratch disc + 1 Raptor for system drive

—OR—

simply 1 Raptor for scratch disc and one for system disc.

Please note all of these will be backed up daily to a 7200 rpm high capacity storage disc.

Thanks for any help.

brokenjago · Apr 22, 2007, 01:16 PM

hm, well, I don't think that a RAID system disk is officially supported by Apple, but you can go for it if you want. However, if something weird happens, don't expect any help from your fav computer company.

For the sake of simplicity, I would go for the one Raptor each for the System and Scratch disks.

peeb · Apr 22, 2007, 01:31 PM

The speed of the high capacity storage disk is not that relevant.

OreoCookie · Apr 22, 2007, 02:09 PM

What do you mean by `backed up daily', do you just clone the drives or have you got a real backup solution in place?

Also: what will you use your system for? If you are merely concerned about raw data throughput, some large-capacity drives are just as fast as the Raptor (since they have a considerably larger data density).

brokenjago · Apr 22, 2007, 04:04 PM

He's going to be using it for intense Photoshop work.

From what I've gathered across his various threads, they're 1GB+ files with multiple layers.

art_director · Jun 6, 2007, 01:29 PM

Are you talking about the 10K Raptors? If so, can anyone confirm that they work in the Mac Pro? I ask because they don't play nice witht he logic board in G5 towers -- you need a third party card to use them in G5s. I know because I've gone down this road.

Phuncz · Jun 6, 2007, 03:03 PM

In my PC I have had 2 Raptor drives in RAID 0 and as single drives. In my experience, the 2 seperate drives made the system respond better. Why ? Because RAID 0 is for throughput only. It doesn't matter much with Raptor drives which already are quite speedy. The thing RAID 0 doesn't speed up is latency: it's the same or worse. So best use one for the system, one for the scratch.

CIA · Jun 7, 2007, 12:54 PM

Originally Posted by art_director

Are you talking about the 10K Raptors? If so, can anyone confirm that they work in the Mac Pro? I ask because they don't play nice witht he logic board in G5 towers -- you need a third party card to use them in G5s. I know because I've gone down this road.

I used 2 raptor 150 drives in a RAID 0 to boot my quad G5 for a long time. Where did you read they don't work? I've had no problems with either the 74GB and 150GB models on the internal SATA bus.

art_director · Jun 7, 2007, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by CIA

I used 2 raptor 150 drives in a RAID 0 to boot my quad G5 for a long time. Where did you read they don't work? I've had no problems with either the 74GB and 150GB models on the internal SATA bus.

I bought a 10K RPM Raptor intended for use in my Dual 2.5 G5 but it wouldn't communicate properly with the logic board. This is a known issue. I don't recall where I read it but it held true with my machine. Bought a WiebeTech SATA / eSATA card and snaked the cables around inside to make her work. Now my boot drive is ever-so-fast.

CIA · Jun 7, 2007, 01:18 PM

I guess whatever it was got fixed in the pcie machines, since like I mentioned, I've had no issues.

art_director · Jun 7, 2007, 01:22 PM

What Raptor model(s) were you using? My understanding is that the 10,000RPM drive was the only Raptor model with this issue.

Leonard · Jun 7, 2007, 01:56 PM

The 10K 150GB raptor I have in my Mac Pro is working great. A little noisy, but then I'm a geek so I like a little noise.

I've never heard of problems with 10K raptors in the PM G5s. I've heard of many people using them either in a single config or a RAID config in PM G5s.

art_director · 02:31 PM

Originally Posted by Leonard

The 10K 150GB raptor I have in my Mac Pro is working great. A little noisy, but then I'm a geek so I like a little noise.

I've never heard of problems with 10K raptors in the PM G5s. I've heard of many people using them either in a single config or a RAID config in PM G5s.

I'm considering an upgrade to a MP and am happy to hear Raptors work in that machine. Thx for the info. BTW, I went to the Apple Store and asked this very question on Monday. They could not give me a definitive answer.

Now back to 10K Raptor and Power Mac G5 compatability . . .

As I said, it's a known issue.

WD Raptor 10K 150GB product summary (Model WD1500ADFD)

art_director · Jun 7, 2007, 02:34 PM

BTW, once I got the SATA / eSATA card everything worked like a charm.

CIA · 05:18 PM

Well, I ran RAID-0 boot off the internal SATA bays using 2 Raptors 150s for a year without a glitch. Now they are in a dual bay external case (reverted to a 500GB internal single to boot off of). Since they are in the case I can't read the exact numbers, but I have 2 74GB raptors which I used as a test setup for about 3 weeks without any issues either (again, they were set as RAID 0 in the internal bays)
Those drives I do have handy..
MDL: WD740GD-00FLC0 But they don't seem to be on that list you linked too, which leaves me to believe that there aren't any issues with that model.
I also have a Sonnet e4P card driving the 2 150 Raptors, a PCIe Firewire card that sucks, and a e4i with nothing on it. --> I've been meaning to plug in my G5 Jam and hook up the 2 Raptor 74's again, but I've been lazy since I built my 1TB external RAID 0.

CIA · Jun 7, 2007, 05:20 PM

Alright, now you got my wheels turning, so I busted open the case that has my 150's in it, and yes, the model number on those is the same as the ones with "Problems" according to WD. So who knows.... All I know is they worked fine for me in my production machine as stated above. One other note, I have the first first model of quad apple shipped, ordered the day they were announced. I don't know if they revised it's hardware at all during it's (short) life before the Intel machines came out.

art_director · Jun 7, 2007, 06:29 PM

CIA, thx for the informative post. Very interesting.

My guess is they wrangled that issue by the time your machine was built.

CIA · Jun 8, 2007, 05:11 PM

Maybe, but the date "Last Modified" on the WD page you listed is more recent then the quads... so., well, who knows.

sauria · Jul 1, 2007, 12:09 AM

This was apparently not an issue on the Quads, or at least late ones. I just added one (WDC WD1500ADFD) to my week 52 2005 Quad G5. I worry a little but this thread suggests they work fine.
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/...m/371008750831

How's it running CIA?