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G-Speed eS RAID 0 with MacBook Pro; EX-1 Footage
Just for information, I confirmed with G-Tech yesterday that the Griffin eSATA card ($79 USD) sold at Apple stores will NOT work properly with the G-Speed eS (they say that they just determined this). G-Tech recommends the FirmTek model (I ordered directly from them as B&H had this on backorder; $119 USD, same price). The symptom was that the MBP would crash after about 5-10 minutes of rendering EX-1 footage, either HD or downconverted SD. The G-Speed, potentially three to four times faster than FW800, could only be used for archiving and storing files, not what I needed.
Originally, I thought the problem was related to Sony software for the ExpressCard32 port and the Clip Browser software. The former was just updated at the end of November (it caused slow startups on the MBP). G-Tech incorrectly told me a week ago that the Griffin card would work fine–it does not.
G-Tech confirmed that the two-meter eSATA cable will work. I’ve got this on backorder with B&H, using the one-meter cable that came with the G-Speed eS.
Traveling with the small four-drive RAID isn’t too bad, although the little aluminum ”block” weighs in at about 12 lbs.
Tom Parke
ProScan DP -
4 Replies
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[Tom Parke] “G-Tech confirmed that the two-meter eSATA cable will work”
I like the flexible eSATA cables. Easier to route in the field and less tension on the connectors. I’ve been using these successfully (scroll down the page to find the flexible ones):
https://www.satacables.com/html/esata-external-esata-shielded-.htmland these look interesting too:
https://www.meritline.com/esata-6ft-cable-blue.html -
The G speed es box without its 2314 PCI-E card is only a port multiplier box. The g speed es box will only function as a regular port multiplier box which will let you set the volume as raid 0 or JBOD. It will also work with any port multiplier PCI-e card, such as Sonet, Caldigit or firmtek. Not only firmtek. If your purpose is only getting a raid 0 machine with an express card solution on your laptop, there are plenty of solutions out there that can get you the same speed as a 4 drive g speed es with much lower pricing and a much smaller size. Under the express card, it really doesn’t make differnce between 2 drive raid 0 or 4 drive raid 0, it can’t go faster than the speed of the express bus anyway.
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Thanks for that, Anne. I was making the point that the Griffin eSATA card sold by Apple in their stores will not work properly with the MBP and is now not recommended by G-Tech, the maker of the G-Speed. There are a number of products that I have purchased in Apple stores that were poor performers and there were few that provided warnings. I am glad that there are other solutions, however, neither the Apple Store Genius Bar nor Apple Tech Support could provide me answers.
If I understand correctly, I can only use the G-Speed at RAID level 0 with my MBP. I could use it at other RAID levels with the proper card and additional G-Speed units with a Mac Pro.
Tom
Tom Parke
ProScan DP -
I just spoke with a representative from Sonnet Tech today who told me that achieving raid 5 on a laptop is not possible with the g-speed es to Sonnet Tech Express34 port multiplier eSata card. However, I seem to get conflicting answers when researching all of this.
The gentleman I spoke with went on to confirm that the driver for this particular card I was using to connect the 3tb G-Speed es to my MBP would be updated for snow leopard by October 2009. When I spoke with G-Tech they told me that I needed to purchase a Pro version of the eSata connection before I could run in Raid 5. I don’t know who to believe.
At this point I am just waiting for a driver for the Express34 eSata connector card so I can at least run in Raid 0 or Raid 1 on my MBP.
Wish I would have heard of all this before I threw away $800 on a 3TB array that has the same level of safety as my crappy WD hard drive!
Happy computing…
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