Thunderbolt with Pegasus R4 heavily slows down boot performance of internal SSD

Steve,

Not to confuse you more with different options but check out this...it's totally awesome to see everyones setup. http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1233542

The Mac Mini is another option you can consider although when you add it all up I do believe the iMac is still your best option.

If you pass on the iMac and go with a Macbook Pro or Mac Mini do not pass up on that Thunderbolt Display...it's well worth it's weight in Gold. Look at the image below I got from the link above... it shows the Mac Mini, Mac SuperDrive http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC684ZM/A?fnode=MTY1NDA0Nw and it looks very tidy and professional imo. I still am pushing the iMac but if you throw the SuperDrive on the one side under the Mac and one of these for on the other side for a extra backup it looks very nice and tidy. http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Elements-Desktop-External/dp/B002QEBMCI/re f=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1320258107&sr=8-13

OK... I'm sold on the imac... I'm convinced! 😁

So I've been looking at the RAID 4's.. found a cheaper place, you can get it $100 cheaper!

http://www.ctistore.com/product/279/promise_technology_pr402us_promise_pegasus_r 4_8tb_raid,PR402US.html

Also looking at going the whole hog and getting 8TB.

What would be REALLY nice is to get just the chassis and load it up with Western Digital Blacks... is that possible?.. to get just the chassis?

I've been looking at the external Blu Ray burners and found:

http://http://www.amazon.com/Plextor-6X-Ext-USB-Combo/dp/B001J8V7CW/ref=wl_it_dp _o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=IW667KMKXWFIH&colid=1P34R80JJ9TIB

http://www.testseek.com/computers/optical_drives/computer_blu-ray_burners/plexto r_px-lb950ue_esata/usb3-p-cba04929-973c-3979-1812-b61152ab284f.htmlhttp://www.testseek.com/computers/optical_drives/computer_blu-ray_burners/plexto r_px-lb950ue_esata/usb3-p-cba04929-973c-3979-1812-b61152ab284f.html

Which looks quite nice.

Also a USB/Firewire hub:

Also took a look at the imac today... very sleak..

Thanks!

Steve

Steve,

Sweet! You will love the iMac. 🙂 Let us know which one you get. Like I mentioned Amazon has the best deals if you are looking for base models with no upgrades(no tax) Memory is super cheap on Amazon...I upgraded my 3 iMac's to 16GB of ram with the ram from Amazon and haven't had any issues.

Good deal on the R4. I got my R4 from bhphoto for $949 I got the 4TB because I can upgrade to 2TB HD's for around $320 making the 8TB $1269. 😉 Granted the 2TB HD just went up in price so I have to wait till summer for the prices to come back down but if you aren't in a rush to fill up that R4 it may be an option to consider. Plus you get to keep the 4 - 1TB HD on top of that and you can use them in a seperate enclosure and keep as final backups. 🙂 What you could do is get the R4 4TB and get 4 of these http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/767103-REG/Western_Digital_WDBAAY0030HNC_N RSN_3TB_Caviar_Green_SATA.html giving you 12TB for around $1700. That is the now price...wait till the prices go down and they usually run around $480 for 4...making the total about $1430...for 12TB. The flooding in Thailand has the prices up 100%, its crazy

I'm hoping to have that LaCie Drice soon. Our contract just ran out an my other job so we are waiting to see if we go on strike or not. lol If we go on strike I may need the money. lol They did offer us a $3000 signing bonus which is never good...they also offered to buy out people pension for 19 months of normal pension...not bad if you plan to die within 19 months of leaving work but my one grandfather has been retired for about 420 months...I'm not ******** you...dude worked 30 years and has been retired for about 35 years. 19 months pay is nothing. lol As soon as we sign the contract I will get that LaCie drive and report back...I'm throwing Lion on it for sure and using the internal for a scratch disk. R4 for working files.

Keep us updated. 🙂

Thinking about it, and hearing what you're saying... I recon I'm better just getting the 4TB R4. With 2TB in RAID and 2TB as backup as you suggested and then IF and when I run out orf stjust change the drives for bigger drives which by that time will be cheaper. Who knows SSD's maybe as big and cost the same as mechanical??

I'm better off loading the imac to the max with memory!

Certainly as I'm looking at a base model of imac with standard HD etc then Amazon seems the way to go!

The Boss AKA my wife has signed off on the new computer equipment budget, so now I just need to hold my breath and order it!! 😁

Steve,

That's what I would do...long term the HD will come down in price so you can enjoy the cheaper price now along with the speed and upgrade those HD's later...not sure why they made the R4 8TB so much more...it doesn't make any sense $$$ wise.

Get this memory http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Memory-Channel-SODIMM-CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9/dp/B002YUF 8ZG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1320349044&sr=8-3 DIRT Cheap. lol I've loaded my 3 iMac's with this memory and haven't had any issues.

Are you going to get the 2.7Ghz or 3.1Ghz? Remember to get your Apple Care. $149 on amazon i believe. You can also get it later as long as it's within a year of the day you brought it.

I was going to get the 3.1GHz model... does the RAM that you mentioned compatable with 3.1GHz or 2.7Ghz or both?

You read my mind.. my next question was going to be on the applecare. It's for 3 years right?

Is that 3 years from the end of the one year warranty.. woould it benefit me to get it at the end of the year or when I buy it?

Excited at getting my new system :-)

Thanks!

Steve

I just saw that Amazon are selling the RAID 4T at a pretty reasonable price with free shipping

http://www.amazon.com/PROMISE-Pegasus-4TB-RAID-System/dp/B0055SE076/ref=wl_it_dp _o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1JF64ZDPN0X7E&colid=1P34R80JJ9TIB

Looks like I can buy everyting on Amazon!!!

http://www.amazon.com/PROMISE-Pegasus-4TB-RAID-System/dp/B0055SE076/ref=wl_it_dp _o_npd?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1JF64ZDPN0X7E&colid=1P34R80JJ9TIB

Yes, the link to the Ram works in both the 2.7 and 3.1. I also run it in my 3.4 and haven't had any memory issues with the 3 iMac's. I brought them 3 different times for $65, $58 and $49 and now it's down to $47...great price!

I would get the Pegasus R4 from here. I buy from these guys all the time since I'm a photographer. Most online places are kind of fishy but I trust these guys and have brought from them since 2006 without issues. No tax(depending on where you live) and free shipping $969 http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/813106-REG/Promise_Technology_PR401US_4TB_ Pegasus_R4_RAID.html This is where I got mine from. 🙂

I personally would get Apple Care now when you buy you iMac on Amazon. It's $164 right now. There isn't any problem ordering later but getting it now saves you from forgetting later and it's a lot harder to spend that $164 later rather than now...so get it now. 🙂 Apple care is for 2 extra years meaning you have a total of 3 years of coverage(iMac 1 yr + Applecare 2 yrs = 3 yrs)....and for $164...it's well worth it.

You will love the 3.1 iMac...and with the bigger graphics card(1GB) you can enjoy some better graphics on any games you may play. I don't really play any games on mine but the option is nce.

I would not get Office for the iMac....get Numbers, Pages from the App Store. I have Office for the PC and I'm completely happy with Numbers and Pages on the Mac side. I still have 2 PC Laptops sitting on my shelf that never gets used. lol

Post a pic when you got it all up and running. 🙂

Oh, when you get your Pegasus R4...I would format it for Raid 10. It's halves the space 4TB down to 2TB instead of Raid 5 which is 4TB down to 3TB...overall if you have issues...Raid 10 is nicer and safer imo....you just lose 1TB of space. For me that is not an issue. Read here to get a better review of Raid and if you scroll down you will see Raid 10 vs Raid 5...the choice is yours but it explains it well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

What is your plan for backup to the Pegasus R4 using Time Machine? If you went with Raid 5 you could get this... http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/761695-REG/Western_Digital_WDBAAU0030HBK_N ESN_3TB_Elements_Desktop_Hard.html $199 (amazon is expensive right now for this $279 price may drop so watch it for sure)

Or if you went with Raid 10 you could get this $113 right now http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Elements-Desktop-External/dp/B002QEBMCI/re f=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1320416244&sr=8-12 This is what I am using along with this...http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-My-Book-Studio/dp/B002BH3ZCU/ref=sr_1_4?ie =UTF8&qid=1320416451&sr=8-4

Let me know what you go with.

I just picked up one of these from Best Buy...$129 and Staples has them as well...$129. http://www.staples.com/Western-Digital-My-Book-Essential-3TB-External-Hard-Drive -USB-3.0/product_912287 This is going to be a backup to the R4(Raid 0) Time Machine. I'm also going to have my other WD HD as a 2nd backup to the R4 but using http://www.bombich.com/ Carbon Copy Cloner. I still suggest you do Raid 10 until you are comfortable with backups. I'm backing up my back ups consistently. lol I'm taking a risk but I want that 500Mbps speeds. lol I'm also putting Lion on the R4 and using the internal HD for a scratch disk.

I'm still struggling to understand the RAID options 😕 I've read the info but am still struggling.

So can you lay it out really simply for me:

If I have the R4 in RAID1-0 then in very simple terms how will this work for me....

What I'd like is to split this into two pairs one RAID pair as my main startup disk and the other RAID pair as a backup disk. Both pairs in a RAID of 2 x HD in 1-0 configuration.

So when I look at my Desktop I can See RAID-1_MAIN and RAID-2_BACKUP

And then as a second backup put one of these 2TB USB drives that you've mentioned on a USB port.

One last thing.. when I boot from the RAID over thunderbolt is the time significatly slower than over the internal SATA drive?

I really want to leave that internal SATA drive dormant and not use it at all except maybe for debugiing issues in the future as I will have a clean drive as a benchmark with OSx on it.

Thanks Again!

Steve

Ok, as I understand it when you have Raid 10 you only see 2TB(out of 4TB)...you don't actually see the other 2TB(backup). It's there but you just don't see it. What happens is you have your 4 drives...lights are blinking good and one day, bam one drive goes bad and blinks red. You pull the drive out, put a new one in and the raid rebuilds the data onto the new drive. You don't actually do anything except replace the drive. In raid 5, it's the same thing however there is like a 10 hour rebuild and not 100% sure but you can't use the system until the drive is replaced. Again not 100% sure but what I do know is the repair process on Raid 5 is worse than Raid 10 and you have more protection because of the raid setup in Raid 10.(it's got to do with the writing of data and how it's stored)

What you have in your Setup is your working drive as in Pegasus R4 2TB(plus hidden backup of that 2TB) and your USB WD Backup via TM(of your 2TB R4) and also your internal HD....that's what you see on your desktop.

I do believe lion will run faster of installed on the R4(over 1TB HD). I'm doing this Monday so I will post results then. Boot times will not increase however app loading will. Only internal SSD provides the fast boot time.

I think the reason Lion boot slow on a thunderbolt drive is because the drive is at the back end of the loading process. An installed SSD is higher up the loading so you automatically get faster boot time. An internal 1TB HD is also higher up the loading process but is slow so it evens out when compared to Boot times of the Thunderbolt Drive. Once the machine has loaded. Opening you apps on a SSD or Thunderbolt Drive will be fast because the read/write speed of those drives are fast compared to the slow internal HD. Make sense?

SSD - fast boot time and loading of apps

Thunderbolt - slow boot time and fast loading of apps when Lion is installed on R4

Internal 1TB HD - slow boot time and slow loading of apps when lion is installed on internal HD

Steve,

Check this out... http://hamed.dk/blog/101-pegasus-r4-r6-review

This is what I am going to try Monday...

Write Back

Read Ahead

512 Sector

513 Stripe

Raid 1E.

It appears from this guy doing a lot of testing shows Raid 1E as being faster than Raid 10, offering the same protection(you can have 1 drive fail and be ok)

I'm getting like 300mb Write and it's down to 60mb read...this must have to do with the sector and strip settings I am using which I'm not home to check out right now but I will post the results Monday. The biggest issue is its a 10 format...basically you get one try per day. lol.

I really do appreaqciate your help on this 🙂

Anyway.. I just spent the evening buttling down and reading everthing I can about RAID configurations....

So I now understand what you're saying... and I missed it before. in RAID 1 is my backup... or in RAID terms "Mirrored" and in the RAID 0 is where my data is spread across the disks to improve the access times

Am I begining to get this through my thicj skull? 😀

So 1-0 wil give you the best of both worlds. But as they say in the info the drawback is that you need more drives as storage effoiciancy is only 50%...

But putting my laymans hat on again then this fact doesn't bother me as I accept that in a backup drive anyway!

So my next question is on how do I setup the RAID 1-0. I heard in my reading tonight that disk utilities is not very good and 3rd party SW like

http://softraid.com/

Is the way to go.. do you agree?

If not then a step by step proceadure for setting up a RAID 1-0 in disk utils would be really useful!

One other question: When I finbally get the RAID setup then when I come to install OSx Lion on it then will it just appear as a drive in the lion setup at the beginning. And I just select that driv and continue with the install?

Thanks Again,

Steve