Apple ships RAID cards for Mac Pro and XServe

Let me ask you something: do you like fast storage? Redundant, fast storage? Lots and lots of gigabytes of fast, redundant storage? Sure you do, buddy -- but what's with the software RAID on your Mac Pro or your Intel-based XServe? That's so last week, now that Apple is shipping the RAID cards for Mac Pro and XServe; you can now do hardware RAID 0, 1, 5, or (Mac Pro only) 0+1 arrays of SATA drives, or superfast SAS drives on the XServe, for the precise mix of speed and reliability that you're craving.

Formerly only available as build-to-order options but now shipping as add-in parts for $999 each, the cards come with a raft of requirements. First, they're only for the machines mentioned above; G5 XServes are out of luck. Second, you can't mix and match drive types on the XServe, it's all SAS or all SATA please. Third, a minor point, barely worth mentioning really, but both these cards are listed as requiring some sort of OS update. Yes, on the heels of this morning's announcement of the MacBook revisions, we now have a total of three pieces of Apple hardware that demand Leopard to work at all.

Update: Clarified that the cards were previously available as BTO parts. Note that even though the specifications say Leopard-only for these cards, existing RAID cards (and possibly these as well, for anyone brave enough to spend a grand to test them) continue to work with Tiger.

via Apple Hot News -- thanks Nelson

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Source: http://www.apple.com/macpro/expansion.html?sr=hotnews

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Desktops Hardware Peripherals Xserve Apple Mac Pro Leopard

Let me ask you something: do you like fast storage? Redundant, fast storage? Lots and lots of gigabytes of fast, redundant storage? Sure...

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Alex Valentine

@jay

First off I wouldn't touch sata on a server class system. The 8-way 256mb HP P-400 SAS controllers we use cost $500.

November 05 2007 at 8:08 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

john

@ jay

Why do you feel like you have to jump a guy who brings up a valid point? $999 *is* too much for a SATA RAID card. I love Apple's stuff, but let's not run to their defense when something seems overpriced. I'd love Apple even more if they didn't charge so much for their upgrades and add-ons.

November 02 2007 at 2:28 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jim

@Michael Rose: Tiger can do 0+1 using concatenation. Make two striped sets in disk utility then nest them inside a mirrored set and bingo!

November 02 2007 at 12:11 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jdk_lev

@ alex valentine

so go buy a dell and quit your whining.

November 02 2007 at 12:08 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Alex Valentine

999 for a SATA raid card is highway robbery.

November 01 2007 at 7:58 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Michael Rose

FYI -- Apple store:

The Mac Pro RAID Card delivers enhanced storage performance and data protection through a powerful hardware RAID engine, 256MB of cache, and an integrated 72-hour battery for protecting cache data. The card occupies the top PCI Express slot (slot 4) of your Mac Pro and requires Mac OS X v10.5 or later.

November 01 2007 at 7:23 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Michael Rose

John, my apologies for being snotty.

It would be great if someone could cross-check the listed part numbers against the already-deployed cards and determine if they are actually the same part, or different... I don't have one in-hand...

November 01 2007 at 7:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Michael Rose

Tom -- clarified the post, thanks.

The specs on the store are explicitly saying that these parts require 10.5, but if anyone wants to buy one and try it...

November 01 2007 at 7:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Tom Rodgers

The RAID card options have been available for months on Mac Pros and XServes, it runs under Tiger just fine. I should know, I have three XServes with RAID cards, they work great. You don't need leopard to use a Mac Pro or Xserve RAID card. The reason you are seeing it in hot news is the fact you can buy them after you order a system. Until today, you needed to add the card as a CTO option while ordering your machine.

November 01 2007 at 7:00 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Michael Rose

Gascar: yes, software v. hardware. The software RAID is limited to 0 or 1; the hardware RAID (with enough drives) can also do RAID 5 or 0+1. Hardware RAID is noticeably faster.

November 01 2007 at 6:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply