Desktop Mac Pro with OS 10.11.3.
I am considering replacing my external BU HD's with a 6 TB Raid drive. The desktop does not come with a Thunderbolt port so would like to add a Thunderbolt expansion card. Any suggestions?
Having a lot of 1 TB drives is a mess but I do understand there are some misgivings and other limitations like where to insert the Thunderbolt expansion card.
would like to add a Thunderbolt expansion card.
There is not now, nor will there EVER be a ThunderBolt add-on card. Only computers that left the factory ThunderBolt-equipped (or in the case of a few ASUS Systems, ThunderBolt-capable) can use ThunderBolt.
Intel controls the custom chips you would need, and they do not want a ThunderBolt add-on card. Case closed.
would like to add a Thunderbolt expansion card.
There is not now, nor will there EVER be a ThunderBolt add-on card. Only computers that left the factory ThunderBolt-equipped (or in the case of a few ASUS Systems, ThunderBolt-capable) can use ThunderBolt.
Intel controls the custom chips you would need, and they do not want a ThunderBolt add-on card. Case closed.
What about an external unit or Cable that will at least link up to a 800 port? I thought Apple released a cable for this purpose.
There are Thunderbolt>FireWire adopters but the computer has to have Thunderbolt. The adopters do not convert FW to TB.
Thanks. I should have remembered that. I do recall a number of boxes on the market that do some converting but they are very expensive.
Maybe it's best to forget the whole idea of large raid drives for desktops.
Desktop external RAID boxes are still available. Apart from Thunderbolt ones which as discussed cannot be used with your classic Mac Pro, there are FireWire ones, USB ones, and eSATA ones all of which could in theory be used.
I would advise against USB as apart from the fact the classic Mac Pro only has USB2 built-in even via a USB3 PCI card you would not be able to boot from it.
eSATA would be a possibility and can even be done on new Mac using a Thunderbolt to eSATA adapter. However FireWire will be the easiest solution for you.
See Four Bay Enclosures for examples. In particular this one http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Stardom/SR4WBS3/
Thanks for the update. I should have mentioned I already have 4 internal drives and 4 external drives all used as backups (1.5 TB's). What I am trying to do is upgrade my system to larger capacity, faster, and with less backup complexity. This would seem to mean replacing the external drives, at a minimum, with a raid drive or just one larger drive but with an Firewire hookup. Example, a single 6 TB drive.
An external RAID5 system with 4 x 6TB drives would give you a single volume size of 18TB. If you sacrifice RAID5 and use it just as JBOD then you would have 24TB of space.
I looked at the four bay unit but believe it does not come with drives. That's a lot of money. Question is: Can I use my external drives by installing them within the provided cases as a raid drive 5? I thought they all had to be of the same size or did they get away from that?
I checked my desktop external drives and only two are of the same size. This would mean I need to purchase more drives. Hmmmmm
Ideally you need four identical drives, otherwise at best you get the lowest common denominator and the rest of the space is wasted.
Thanks John. I'll see if I can get drives from the 4 bay enclosure people or will check web sites. Would welcome a good/reliable drive manufacturer and good model if you could do that.
budspwr wrote:
Thanks John. I'll see if I can get drives from the 4 bay enclosure people or will check web sites. Would welcome a good/reliable drive manufacturer and good model if you could do that.
I like HGST NAS drives. See http://www.hgst.com/products/hard-drives/nas-desktop-drive-kit
budspwr wrote:
Thanks John. I'll see if I can get drives from the 4 bay enclosure people or will check web sites. Would welcome a good/reliable drive manufacturer and good model if you could do that.
I like HGST NAS drives. See http://www.hgst.com/products/hard-drives/nas-desktop-drive-kit
John, I don't think I need 4 drives (I just happen to have 4 around) wouldn't a two drive RAID enclosure, 4TB each, with 800 firewire do well enough? We're looking dollars so it's a tight fit.
Thunderbolt Expansion Card for Desktop Mac Pro
