External RAID - SeriTek/RocketRaid vs LaCie 4 Big

Question

External RAID - SeriTek/RocketRaid vs LaCie 4 Big

Have been thinking about getting Seritek 5PM with RocketRaid 2314 and 5x1tb enterprise drives, total for this now is about $1600. LaCie 4 Big, 4 1tb drives, don't know if enterprise or not, built-in hardware RAID, would have to get a PCIe eSata card, all-in is now <$1000. Other than the 4 drive vs 5 drive difference (and resulting capacity difference), any opinions on downside of going with LaCie option?

MacPro 2.8GHz 8 core, 17" MacBook Pro, iPhone, 2xATV, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Jan 17, 2009 2:49 PM

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Answer 1

Peggy Ho

Level 1

5 points

Mar 17, 2009 2:11 AM in response to Marshall Burchard

Hello,

RAID card is different. The performance of HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 is very good. I don't know Lacie's RAID good or not but compare the price different, it is not good as RocketRAID 2314.

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Answer 2

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Mar 17, 2009 2:15 AM in response to Marshall Burchard

You won't be disappointed with SeriTek + RocketRAID/Sonnet Tempo, and get what you pay for. The 5PM is nice, quiet, and supports Port Multiplier or direct connecting.

LaCie controllers and cases have been known to be trouble.

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Answer 3

Mar 17, 2009 11:41 AM in response to The hatter

For the SeriTek, how important is it to use enterprise drives? Western Digital Green 1TB drives can be had for $100, would those be OK, or would I need something that is higher performance? I also see that the Seagate 1.5TB drives are down to $130, know these had some problems early on, but maybe sorted out now? Bottom line, will get the SeriTek and would like to fill it with best value/GB that will work OK, 1TB drives or other ...

Thanks!

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Answer 4

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Mar 17, 2009 11:58 AM in response to Marshall Burchard

Sonnet Tempo E4P is your best bet in controllers coupled with SeriTek case.

It is the controller and whether Green will work. I don't think they are recommended. What was and is supported by Sonnet and reommend is the RE-series, which would mean RE3 Caviar. Next down the line would be Black.

Green drives are not designed for RAID but for low power and variable rpm sometimes, great for backup.

The Sonnet E2P has a footnote about drives and cases that are not supported, and FireWire/eSATA/USB bridged cases that don't work. And LaCie is one of them, and we've seen low I/O with LaCie drives coupled with SATA controllers - you want drives that don't have their own bridge, or built in RAID firmware, too.

For 4 drives with a 4-channel host controller like 2314 or E4P, and WD Black or RE3; Seagate Enterprise; or Hitachi Enterprise.

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Answer 5

Mar 17, 2009 12:26 PM in response to The hatter

Thanks for the quick feedback, makes perfect sense. Based in AMUG review I was thinking to get the RocketRaid 2314. I think the Sonnet E4P is a little pricier, if you don't mind what's your reason for preferring the Sonnet card to the RocketRaid card?

Thanks again!

Edit - Think I answered my own question. If I want RAID 5 I think RocketRaid the only choice. E4P is nice because integrates with Disk Utility, and passes SMART status info. So I will go with the SeriTek 5PM, 5x1TB ES drives, and a RocketRaid 2314.

Message was edited by: Marshall Burchard

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Answer 6

Mar 19, 2009 8:09 PM in response to Marshall Burchard

I purchased 5 Caviar Black drives, but now reading up on them and seems they have a firmware setting that may cause problems in a RAID 5 configuration -- TLER. There is software out there to change this setting, but DOS only, and you need a floppy drive, so not gonna happen. Seems like some people are using these drives in RAID 5, but I sure would hate to lose an array if two drives drop out because of the TLER setting. D'u think I need to return these drives and stump up the extra $50/drive for RE3s?

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Answer 7

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Mar 20, 2009 3:54 AM in response to Marshall Burchard

TLER was debated back and forth, only that was two years ago. And for hardware RAID. Some controllers work best with the RE2/RE3.

And those articles on TLER were before the 2008 Black Caviar existed I'm pretty sure.

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Answer 8

Mar 20, 2009 5:24 AM in response to The hatter

I bought the RocketRAID 2314, will use RAID 5 with that, which I assume is hardware RAID. I guess I will try to get through to HighPoint to see what they think. The Caviar Black is not on their list of approved drives. But then the RE3 is not listed either, assume list has not been updated in a little while ...

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Answer 9

The hatter

Level 9

61,031 points

Mar 20, 2009 5:38 AM in response to Marshall Burchard

I've used WD Caviar 500GB, not RE model, on HH RR 2310 as RAID5, and on Sonnet Tempo E4P - which is not recommended. Never a problem. Did it more to see what would happen and used a 4-drive array on both for months.

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Answer 10

Mar 20, 2009 11:35 AM in response to The hatter

HighPoint says they knew there were some problems with earlier WD drives, but that they have not heard of any problems with the Caviar Blacks, and that these are getting to be pretty common.

Tried to figure out how to create a bootable DOS CD that would allow me to run the WDTLER utility on a Dell PC I have (no floppy drive), but I am stumped. I can get into DOS via a CD, but not a CD where I can see or navigate to the utility files.

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