Best RAID solution for Mac mini server

Question

Best RAID solution for Mac mini server

Hi,

we are getting a Mac mini server (Lion) for a small company (4 people) using a lot of files (~20MB) totalling around 4GB. Of these 4GB only 1GB of more recent files are regularly used. Speed is important. We were thinking of getting a RAID solution to connect to the server and setup File Sharing for access through the network and from outside of the office.

The Pegasus Promise looks good but are there any better alternatives? Low noise and power consumption would be great.

thanks

Henk

Posted on Aug 23, 2011 4:11 AM

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Answer 1

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Stress Test

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1,272 points

Aug 23, 2011 5:30 AM in response to Henk Cortier1

The Mac mini just have 1GB connection, so the max throuput with the Mac mini with a single ethernet cable is (theoretically) 120MB/s. Nearly any RAID would get this transfer rate. So getting an expensive RAID which could deliver 400MB/s would'nt speed up the transfer rate, als long as the Mac mini has just one gigabit connection.

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Answer 2

Aug 23, 2011 7:52 AM in response to Stress Test

We bought a G-Technology G-Safe a few months ago and we love it. It's a hardward RAID 1, so you basically take out of the box, plug it in, and you've got instant RAID protected storage. Couldn't be eaiser.

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Answer 3

Aug 23, 2011 10:52 AM in response to Jonathan Melville

thanks but is a little limited in disk size and not much expandable

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Answer 4

Aug 23, 2011 10:53 AM in response to Henk Cortier1

3 Terabytes is limited? You must generate a lot of data.

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Answer 5

Aug 23, 2011 11:02 AM in response to Jonathan Melville

We do, in my description I made a little important mistake writing 4GB instead of 4TB, that's our actual status and rapidly growing.

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Answer 6

Aug 23, 2011 11:06 AM in response to Henk Cortier1

In that case...

Promise Pegasus 12TB (6x2TB) R6 RAID System

And it's Thunderbolt!

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Answer 7

Aug 25, 2011 12:13 PM in response to Jonathan Melville

I just ordered a Synology DS411+II

will connect it directly to the network, plenty of space and speed

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Answer 8

Dec 19, 2011 2:29 PM in response to Henk Cortier1

Any recent experiences with the Mac Mini running Lion Server as a file server, and using the Promise Pegasus 12 TB as storage? It seems some folks have had poor experiences, not just here but also 11 pages here

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3181015?answerId=16474591022#16474591022

We would get 8 GB of RAM. We need something reliable. Am actually thinking of daisy-chaining two into RAID6s

Thanking anyone for feedback.

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