Mac Pro with OS X on 1 PCI card with 2xSSD in RAID1

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Nice Cat Author

Level 1

4 points

Mac Pro with OS X on 1 PCI card with 2xSSD in RAID1

Hi All. I want to upgrade my Mac Pro 2009, 4.1, CPU:2x2.26 😊😊

-> I need the safest and fastest system os x disk possible <-

There is this OWC Mercury Accelsior E2 PCI card with two SSD drives on it:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/PCIe/OWC/Mercury_Accelsior/RAID

They wrote that this setup itself is capable of writing same data

simultaneously in both drives - which is exactly what I want.

so I gonna need for this two same 500GB SSD Drives/Blades

I do Music and Sound Design, I never backup/time machine my drives before..

now I want to do this because on system drive there is a lot of preferences/references

and often own presets saved - I want to have it backuped in real time.

I know the difference between Raid 0 and Raid 1, but I never had Raid setup in any computer..

so sometimes it's hard to me to read product descriptions and know exactly to what I should pay attention..

So far I can't find any other alternative to OWC Accelsior..

Ok there is this Tempo SSD Pro Plus card*, but the price of the card it self is just too much for me..

(I would still need to buy two large expensive SSD, so no)

http://secure1.sonnettech.com/product_info.php?&products_id=414

There is also a bit less expensive Apricorn Velocity Duo x2 card*

- they have some info about Raid0, but no info about Raid1

http://www.apricorn.com/products/desktop-ssd-hdd-upgrade-kits/vel-duox2.html

_ _ _

Speeds - on OWC they say that their card is fast, but I saw on internet that people on the same

older Mac Pro using pci with some ssds can get even twice of that speed!

It will be an expensive upgrade so of course I would like the faster disk solution..

but is it possible to have this faster solution but like in OWC Accelsior

(one pci card with two ssd in raid1) and working rock solid?

_ _ _

*There is one more thing with all these card mounted to pci and working as system drives - booting problem,

when I search net people reporting problem with booting.. some comments are few years old some more recent..

If there are two drives, one pci system drive and another separate with another system,

option key/booting screen doesn't work or something similar..

_ _ _

** Just short question about trim - is it still issue or this new apple trim enable by terminal method ended all problems

and now we can say that just about any third party ssd should be able to do trim

or some brands/models are more compatible and other can have problems?

_ _ _

*** Not sure if this matter or not, but I will upgrade firmware to 5.1 in the future

What do you Guys and Gals think?

I will appreciate any kind of advices, suggestions or opinions about possible setup or solutions 🙂🙂

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Early 2009, 4.1, CPU:2x2.26

Posted on Dec 21, 2015 12:24 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 27, 2015 9:26 PM in response to Nice Cat

Hello Nice Cat -

I upgraded that same Mac Pro model a couple weeks ago using the Mercury Accelsior 2 PCI card (OWC) with the OWC 6G 480Gb SSD installed in PCI slot 1. In addition I replaced the eSata PCI card (3g/s) I had previously installed in slot 2 with the Sonnet Tempo SATA Pro 6Gb PCIe 2.0 eSATA card. On the SSD I installed the latest version of El Capitan and the trial version of FCP X (10.10.2). The only other program installed is Audacity. Luckily I have my boot drive with Snow Leopard that I have been using because truthfully it has been frustrating. The computer hangs up in the finder, sometimes after just a few minutes or sometimes in a couple hours, or not at all almost all day long. When this happens you have to restart. I have had no luck relaunching the finder. If you have any external drives hooked up you will not be able to unmount them and they will be subject to corruption, which is what happened to one of mine. I've tried all combinations of various drives in the computer bays and even disconnecting the eSATA dock I use, but the finder still hangs up, usually at the most inopportune times. I purchased the black plastic version of the ICY DOCK 2.5 adapter (caddy) and installed the SSD in one of the four HD bays. Didn't make any difference. The finder still hung up. Maybe the OWC Mercury Accelsior E2 PCI card you are considering will work for you. For me, the Accelsior 2 with the 480Gb SSD has been nothing but problems, which is a shame because FCP X is really fun working in. So beware if you upgrade to El Capitan, which is what I think is at the root of my situation, there may be problems, and serious ones. If you do upgrade your system do not override your current boot drive. You may need it later.

Good Luck,

Dennis

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Answer 2

Nice Cat Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 2, 2016 6:44 AM in response to Big Daddy D

Thanks for your info. Snow Leopard after some time from installation can do some odd things with finder or spotlight, etc it's happened to me too, but not that bad as in your case..

My system is still in quite good shape and as for my sound work and software it's working rock solid, but I never tried install second or new drive - I have still stock drive.

I don't have access to new software and updates that's the down side of 10.6.8

also stock drive is very slow and I don't have much space left.. so I will be happy to change it for a bigger and faster disk..

(but yeah..not just any disk - I am looking for the safest and fastest one)

I will clone old drive on bigger separate drive as I have almost no free space and keep it that way with all my work and settings and the new SSD drive will be with completely new up to date OS X system, so I gonna have two drives with two different systems.

Maybe with luck I will be able transfer most of the apps and settings from old drive into new drive and system.

So after all your trial and error and problems with old OS X and drives, at this moment the only hard drive in your Mac Pro is Accelsior and you were happy with it until upgrade to El Capitan? am I correct? or there were other problems and you were not happy with it from the start?

Do you or did you use it in RAID1?

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Answer 3

Jan 2, 2016 8:47 AM in response to Nice Cat

The speed boost from using an SSD as your boot drive is substantial.

In my opinion, the incremental speed boost for RAID-ing your boot SSD is negligible, and the cost and complexity it adds is overwhelmingly awful. I strongly suggest you forgetaboutit.

Instead, look at having Boot drive, Source Drive, and Destination drive (or for sound work, Samples drive) be separate drives. This reduces the competition for the different drives, and speeds up editing and creating.

Samples on a separate SSD drive comes highly recommended by sound editors here.

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Answer 4

Nice Cat Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 2, 2016 12:33 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Hi Grant, thank you for your answer and advices.

I didn't mentioned that in my post, but yes definitely, later I will be have extra dedicated drives,

one for My Projects, one for Sample Libraries, one for doing Live Recordings directly on it or to transfer outdoor field recordings..

+ maybe one extra for video and game content..

I was thinking about them as 1TB-4TB disks - at this moment I will be able afford maybe hybrid SSHD 7200rpm

drives in this capacity, but in future I would love to buy the SSD versions.

and as for Boot SSD drive in raid, in my case I am interested in RAID1 so not really for speed reason, but for safety..

This Accelsior drive it's a two ssd drives (blades) on one pci card

- so if I am not wrong it's only fast like one normal ssd in pci slot when used in raid1

- on one drive is system disk and on second it's mirrored copy.

The Idea of having instant backup of whole system drive sound good to me..

although in my case it would be expensive 1pci with 2xSSD480GB cost around €700

- that is why I try to research the whole thing now..

From the other thread:

Re: Re: SSD Blade Drive for "Classic" Mac Pro

it looks like Accelsior can be significantly slower that other ssd drives in pci..

so that makes me uncertain about it..

(but it might be the only one offering raid1 option on the market, I am not sure..)

and second thing I never backuped my computer so for me this boot drive in raid1 can be briliant idea..

but I would like to hear what other people think and use..

Beside the system/boot drive when I get all mentioned additional 3 or 4 SSHD drives

I will need to figure out some smart convenient and safe way to backup them too...

and I guessing it's not gonna be raid1 for them.. don't know..

I want to start with decent system drive with it's backup and then I'll gradually buy other drives.

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Answer 5

Jan 2, 2016 12:47 PM in response to Nice Cat

and as for Boot SSD drive in raid, in my case I am interested in RAID1 so not really for speed reason, but for safety..

The Mac OS X system software is invariant. It absolutely does not modify itself. Any "customization" is provided through preferences that are stored in your User home Directory under the /Users directory.

When you can re-Install Mac OS X in an hour or two, and have exactly what you had before, running it in Mirrored RAID mode is a waste of a perfectly good drive that could be used for other things, in my opinion. It also precludes some other things such as having a Recovery HD on that drive, and adds a lot of similar needless complexity.

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