Sonnet G5 Jive: any performance penalty for the drives it houses?

Question

Sonnet G5 Jive: any performance penalty for the drives it houses?

In the final stages of rebuilding and upgrading a G5 Quad, I'm now trying to decide whether to add a Sonnet G5 Jive enclosure or to go with external FireWire drives.

Ideally, I would like to keep my Tiger boot drive (obviously) with included Classic and my dedicated Photoshop scratch drive (possibly an SSD) in the two original bays of the Quad, The G5 would house one Leopard boot drive/volume (just in case) and file storage and/or backup drives.

Just wondering if anyone who's using a G5 Jive has noticed any performance hit to the drive(s) it houses, or any other undesirable consequence, such as heat issues, etc.

So far I have the following: 2.5GHz PowerMac (PPC) G5Quad, 16GB RAM, 550MHz nVidia GeForce 7800GTX, 1,700MHz 512MB VRAM, Mac OS X (10.4.11), dual 22" CRT monitors, USB wireless n, FW flatbed scanner, 2 SCSI scanners (film and tabloid scanners), 300 GB Tiger 10.4.11 boot drive and 1 TB (3 partitions) internal drive. There's a 100 GB Leopard 10.5.8 boot-volume partition on the 1 TB internal drive, as well as 200 GB Photoshop scratch disk partition, with the rest, 571 GB, as a partition for file storage.

Naturally, this is not a decision I have to make immediately. 😀

Thanks in advance for any input.

PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 2.5G5Quad,16GB,7800GTX 512MB, Tiger

Posted on Aug 23, 2011 9:36 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Aug 24, 2011 3:55 AM in response to Ramón G Castañeda

There isn't any reason for a performance hit.

The only variable to using a jive is the SATA controller card used to connect the drives to.

Since the PCIe bus is faster than the native SATA bus, one can actually expect better performance, especially if the 3 drives are connected to a RAID controller card.

The only real downside to the jive is the increased interior heat due to three drives.

Some additional fan noise is to be expected.

Of course, heat and noise will be the greatest with an active RAID and least with storage drives that have energy settings allowing them to sleep.

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Answer 2

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Aug 24, 2011 1:05 PM in response to japamac

WD 10K VelociRaptors do fine there, audible, but those things are always COLD.

If you wanted to, throw an SSD in. Sonnet or FirmTek tend to work well.

Seeing how it has been around for 5 yrs I have yet to hear of any problems associated.

Great place for scratch, data, and depends on if the controller is one that is bootable.

Backups I tend to feel would be a waste there and properly belong in FW400/800.

1.5TB WD Black make great drives and would recommend them now over 1TB, and cheaper than 2TB model.

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Answer 3

Aug 24, 2011 3:01 PM in response to The hatter

Thanks for the speedy response, hatter.

The hatter wrote:

WD 10K VelociRaptors do fine there, audible, but those things are always COLD…

That's good to know. For some reason I had steered away from 10K drives because I have a vague recollection about 7200rpm being the upper limit for a Power Mac G5 Quad. Maybe I misconstrued whatever I read.

The hatter wrote:

…Great place for scratch, data, and depends on if the controller is one that is bootable…

I'n not following there. The Photoshop scratch disk ideally needs to be on a physically separate internal drive. Why does it have to be bootable, though?

Also, the second original drive is indeed bootable. I have the Leopard boot volume there for now, and it boots the machine. 😕

Would my scheme work just as well if I leave the two original bays as they are and put just the SSD for a Photoshop scratch disk in the Sonnet G5 Jive? Does the Sonnet G5 Jive come with its own card, or do I look for one on my own? The Sonnet blurb online doesn't specifically say one way or the other.

Point well taken about leaving backups and storage to FW.

Thanks for all your help so far.

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Answer 4

Aug 24, 2011 3:03 PM in response to japamac

japamac wrote:

There isn't any reason for a performance hit…

Thanks, japamac, that is reassuring.

japamac wrote:

…The only variable to using a jive is the SATA controller card used to connect the drives to.

Since the PCIe bus is faster than the native SATA bus, one can actually expect better performance, especially if the 3 drives are connected to a RAID controller card.

The only real downside to the jive is the increased interior heat due to three drives.

Some additional fan noise is to be expected.

Of course, heat and noise will be the greatest with an active RAID and least with storage drives that have energy settings allowing them to sleep.

I'll have to digest that.

Thank you again.

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

239,219 points

Aug 24, 2011 3:59 PM in response to Ramón G Castañeda

Includes all necessary mounting hardware and cables (SATA host controller card, such as Tempo SATA E4i or Tempo SATA X4; sold separately)

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%20Technology/ENCG53HD/

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Answer 6

Aug 24, 2011 4:13 PM in response to BDAqua

BDAqua wrote:

Includes all necessary mounting hardware and cables (SATA host controller card, such as Tempo SATA E4i or Tempo SATA X4; sold separately)

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%20Technology/ENCG53HD/

😊

Oooooops! I obviously need new glasses.

Thank you.

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Answer 7

BDAqua

Level 10

239,219 points

Aug 24, 2011 4:48 PM in response to Ramón G Castañeda

Glasses! How many? What kind? Tall ones?? 😉

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