RAID '0' in my G5 Dual 2.7 PowerMac.... Basics help please

Thanks for this.

I was thinking this was the case. Again, your help's sure appreciated. I'm getting all fired up about doing this upgrade work on my computer. With the Nehalem chip MacPro's delayed into next year as they seem to be, I'm happily giving my wonderful G5 some upgrade attention. Finally get the ram maxed out too. But now, you've triggered my mind to another question about RAID 0 in my computer....

Is there a speed advantage to be gained in a two drive RAID 0 setup in a G5 like mine by connecting it through a PCI card or are things set up optimally as is with two matched drives in the two bays set up on RAID 0?

JimQ

hey Japamac! Now we're having fun! And I've taken the dive and placed an order with the good people at OWC.

I bounced around in my thinking yesterday in this 'upgrading my wonderful G5 2.7ghz (complete with the cutest little radiator in it's water cooling system!) between 'go for it bigtime' or 'wait a minute JQ. Don't get so complex. Just do this simplest thing and get a pair of hard drives plugged into the two established and ready-to-RAID drive bays'. It been a journey and, now, with your inspiring words, I'm back to the 'go for it bigtime' approach.

On a cost basis, it's incredible how much our dollars can buy these days. I hit a total basket yesterday that was just shy of $800. Placing the 'just go simple' order cost half that. I'm going to re-look at my order and juice it up. What i have ordered are two of the Western Digital 640 gig hard drives. I was going to pull the 250 gig drive that's in here now and put in the two WD 640's. Then set them up on RAID 0. Now I'm thinking I should buy two more and this Firmtek card.

The speed jump differences I've seen in reviews between a two drive and a four drive RAID 0 setup are substantial. My primary work involves two programs. My business, Treeline Woodworks Ltd., is a cabinet making and millwork shop. We mostly do commercial jobs. Not a lot of residential. Office furniture. Reception desks. Boardroom furniture. Workstations. Home offices. That kind of stuff. We're five people; four on the shop floor and one, me, working in the office full-time. Most everything we make here, I design. I do my design and drawing work in an excellent 3D cad program called Vectorworks, http://www.nemetschek.net/ ,ma. When needed, I export my cad files into an awesome rendering program called Artlantis Studio, http://www.artlantis.com . In there, I mostly create photo-realistic presentation images for my clients. I also occasionally do l panoramas, rotatable VR objects and animations of the project. Both programs are power hungry. My files are typically in the 80 to 100 megabyte size. Computational power is what these programs want. The faster bits and bytes and can be moved around, the better. I know I will love it when a new Nehalem MacPro replaces this G5 but, in the meantime, this computer is awesome.

I put that paragraph of info in to give you an idea of the foundation I stand on in my computer work. With my Macs, over the past eighteen years or so, I always buy the most powerful model Apple's got at the time. I've been very happy with this G5. Now, back to upgrade land....


So, you've inspired me to make some additions to order with OWC. Your guidance here is bang on. And, lo and behold, darned if I don't have another question....

Now, I'm doing a four drive RAID 0. I'll buy two more WD 640's and the Firmtek card. Is it better to have all four drives inside the computer cabinet? The ability to 'hot swap' is not going to be an issue for me for a pile more years. Four 640gig drives will give me 2.5 terabytes total storage! That's tons! (sure do love the growth into big capacity that's happened over little more than the past year.) So, 'hot swap' ability will not be a need.

All that said, is it better to have all four as internal drives? Or is it, speed-wise, basically equal if two drives are in the internal bays and two are in an external case? Connecting all, of course, with eSata ports...

Geez, that's the only question I have! I guess we're getting close to having this 'JQ Upgrades His G5 PowerMac' process complete and ready to turn into functioning reality!

Look forward to hearing from you and, always, thanks tons for your help. It's really appreciated!

JimQ

Oops, one more question: Should I replace my Radeon X800 XT with the X1900 Mac G5 Edition or some other video card that's significantly faster?

hey Japa,

Took the day off yesterday. Back here peacefully today as it's Canada Day today. Stat holidays are always excellent days to work in the office!

I'm feeling rather out of breath after reading your letter! And with the Hatter's letter bouncing in my mind now too, it's all just a wee bit of a lot. I had a feeling, in looking into creating a better, faster and higher capacity hard drive system, that I was at the base of a large mountain. Interestingly, it remains today as it did two days ago and now with way more excellent information and educated guidance, either I climb to the top of this mountain and get into the awesome valley on the other side OR I go part way up for now, get things to a point that is improved to my G5's current status quo but is not at the final solution. Yet. Go simple. Spend less. OR go all the way. Spend more. Get way more.

I'll have to think about it. And follow up on the links and directions you two have so kindly given me. I need to go through enough of a RAID self-education process so as to be comfortably in command of just what the options all mean. I have to do this in order to make the right choices. Big in the 'if I go all the way' option is, in that it would cost quite a bit in total, cross-compatibility so that the bulk of my RAID system can move forward into my Nehalem Pro when that day comes. I guess there's a certain level of 'impossible to totally know' in this due to there being no way of totally knowing just what Apple's scheming for us for the next Mac Pro beyond just the chips. Time will tell but, for sure, if I spend bigger bucks now on my RAID system, I'll want to be able to move it into my next computer.

Tons to figure out. I am, now, in a bit of a 'chicken or egg', 'cart or horse' situation as I did, on the same day as I came here and asked for help, place an order with OWC. That order was based on my simpler understanding of RAID and, in the order, I'd made the 'go simple for now' choice. What I have whisking it's way to me from them as I type are two WD 640 gig Caviar drives, a lovely Sonnet 'three Firewire 800 + two USB 2.0' port PCI Express card, and four 1 gig rams to get my G5 from it's current 5 gigs of ram up to it's max 8 gigs. (have four 1 gig rams plus two 512mbs right now. Replacing the 512's with 1's).

So, in terms of possible RAID setups, I can/could take the two WD 640 drives and load them simply into the G5's available two hard drive bays, letting the RAID be handled by the machine's board. Just doing that is going to be a huge improvement from my current, now very humble, single 250 gig drive, so I can see where I might most comfortably end up there. On the other hand though, I'm just steps away from having an excellent, fully utilizable, and safe, (through mirroring) RAID system. Again, the big thing here that I have to get comfortable with is the forward capable aspect.

One questions bouncing in me now. It's to do with Apple's new 'Time Capsule' automatic backup system....

I have the 500 gig model. And love it. The new OS capability of doing automatic backups for us is awesome. I've used the 'Time Machine' aspect of it numerous times just in the four months I've had it. Question is:

Where does, or can, the Time Capsule system work in regards to RAID? Can not it function as the 'fail safe' backup for a RAID 0 structure? Or are they simply not able to be part of a RAID setup?

Be great to have your help on this one as, for me at this point, I can't begin to answer the question. My rational brain tells me it should function exactly as it does now be it backing up a computer's single hard drive or backing up a four or five drive RAID....

Look forward to hearing from you and thanks again, tons and mucho, for your, and everyone's, help. Its striking me that there's a big need for a complete and extensive 'Mac OS and Mac OS Based Computers RAID Structures' manual!

thanks,

JimQ,
Whitehorse

ps- I thought my X800 XT was the one to hang on to!

I'll cross my fingers and hope I'm okay on this one. I tell ya, diving off into reading this long page of upgrade info (and woes) my mind very quickly maxed out. The 'too much information' syndrome attacking aggressively! (I'll be okay! 🙂 )

I've been exploring at WD and OWC and have run into another 'world of hard drives' question. This one's more of a quandary that rolls out into a question:

Question: With Serial ATA clearly being the best way to connect drives, why are there so few external drive boxes with SATA ports? There are tons of Firewire 400 and USB 2.0's available. And there are some Firewire 800's available. But SATA's are rare and, when I do find them, they're most often a 'Quad Interface' box. Surely, we are paying more for this than we would for a 'SATA only' interface...?

Thoughts?

Jim