3Ware Sidecar external RAID

[Nate Stephens]

It seems that everyday a new Raid vendor is discovered. If the Hard drives are equal and the enclosures look like everybody’s using the same manufacturer (and they do). The big difference in raids is customer support. Customer support is what you pay for.(knowledge of raid cards, cables, etc.) But customer support can be good one month and terrible the next. So the guys, who have recent history with raid customer support and post here on the Cow are your most valuable resource. I purchased a Medea RTRX 4 years ago and it is still going strong with great customer support, but since Avid acquired Medea, for some reason the name has disappeared from the FCP forums.

I have targeted June to buy my next MacPro and have been struggling with the thought of just buying the enclosure (https://www.addonics.com/) and building my raid. Which should be at least 40% less than a name brand. But as Wally keeps reminding me, when the new raid gets the ‘hiccups’ – “who do I call” distributors like Addonics state right on their Web page that they don’t do customer service support. Ya got to fix it yourself.

[Arnie Schlissel]

[Nate Stephens] “It seems that everyday a new Raid vendor is discovered.”

I wouldn’t exactly call 3Ware new, but they are new to the Mac. I think the Side Car is an overpriced product, and it’s limited to only 4 drives, limiting the speed of the RAID.

Compare it to 8 drive products from any of the RAID vendors that advertise here on the COW, and you’ll see that you can get a better deal. From what I’ve heard around here, all of these vendors are providing good products with decent support.

Or, if you’re handy & not put off by being alone in the wilderness of providing your own tech support, you can do as Nate suggests & build your own RAID. I did this on Perestroika, the project I just finished, & was not unhappy with the results. In fact, I’m looking at doing it again, but this route is not for everyone.

If you do decide to build your own, buy a RAID SAS controller from Atto, Areca, or maybe the new controller from Cal Digit, and shop around for a good quality enclosure that will support the connectors and maximum number of drives on that the card supports.

Arnie
Now in post: Peristroika, a film by Slava Tsukerman
https://www.arniepix.com/blog

[Walter Biscardi]

[Nate Stephens] “But as Wally keeps reminding me, when the new raid gets the ‘hiccups’ – “who do I call” distributors like Addonics state right on their Web page that they don’t do customer service support. Ya got to fix it yourself.”

At least they have the decency to put that on their website right up front.

Yeah, building it yourself is something that is easily done these days and I could do this no problem. But tracking down an issue with my hard drive array is the last thing I want to do so that’s why I’ve never built one myself.

I’ve honestly never heard of 3Ware so I can’t comment on them. But if you look at my Profile you’ll be able to see what we’re running and there are some great vendors here on the Cow who all offer products that will work.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!

[Christopher Kinsman]

I haven’t heard of the Manufacturer, but I have had great experience with Macgurus “roll your own” raids. There are numerous options from bare bones build it yourself models to decked out plug and play versions. The owner Rick has even called me back to double check on a problem (my own stupidity) they had helped me solve earlier. If customer service is a must for you – do yourself a favor and put them on your list. Best of luck, Kind Regards, Chris K.

[Tom Brooks]

I recently built an 8-drive RAID myself. There is a lot to learn and there are many pitfalls you can run into. You need to get enough drives to populate the case and a spare or two — all of the same model and firmware. You need assurance that the case, the drives and the controller card are all compatible with each other and with your software. This info is probably available on the various websites. But it’s hard to pull all of the information together from different manufacturers and suppliers. I would recommend the cases from Enhance Technology. I chose a Highpoint 2322 controller because it saved me a few hundred bucks. I now wish I had gone with either the Areca, the Atto or the CalDigit. The Highpoint was recommended for the box, but it doesn’t handle all of the I/O with it’s own hardware–it relies on the Mac cpu for part of it. The CalDigit looks really good on paper and there is the possibility that you could get some advice and support on how to use it and integrate it with the other components. It has four internal and 8 external ports.

All in all, it’s a good experience to build yourself—in some ways. You can save a grand or two for an 8-drive box. But, I’d do the math a little differently now, putting more value on the expertise you can draw from a manufacturer that already has the experience of making systems that are proven to work together. Above all, I’d look for that–experience with systems that are proven to work.

[Hong Tang]

Thanks for all the input folks, I guess this is the “you get what you pay” scenario. Peace of mind does come with a cost.
Unless I can get the assurance from the vendor that the support is good, otherwise it would be as good as building your own system 🙂

Cheers,
KH

[Rich Campbell]

Hi Nate,
The Medea storage forum would now be incorporated into the Avid VideoRaid forum. Storage is ever changing with new technologies being introduced all the time. Currently, the Avid VideoRaid would be the next step up from the Medea RTRX. Look for Avid Technologies to notify the video communities of any new video stroage products as they become available.
Regards,
Rich Campbell
AVID Technology, Inc.
Technical Support
Video/Storage Division
805-584-8743
richard_campbell@avid.com

[Chris Rye]

Areca is also offering a similar solution. They have 4 and 8 bay tower and rackmount products. They had them on display at NAB. Really nice looking and had a live demo running 8 drives in RAID 5 delivering over 700+ Reads, simply amazing to think that this can now be acheived by using only 8 drives.