Internal Raid in a Mac Pro: Too hot??

[David Roth weiss]

Bob,

To anyone whose ever built computers in the past, putting a ton of hot-running hard in the CPU tower sure sounds like a bad idea, but people are doing it all over. Just make certain you buy Applecare protection just in case something on your motherboard dies of heat prostration.

All of the newest generation of SATA drives are excellent, just make sure the ones you get have a three or five year warranty. I believe the issue you read about was with Seagate’s first “perpendicular” drives. I believe that has been sorted out now.

DRW

[Peter Wiggins]

Bob,

Having just filled up my MacPro with drives I can say that heat is not an issue.
The machine is still a lot quieter than my G5 10 feet away.

FYI I used 320G drives as these seem to offer the best price/storage option, but
these are a backup to my XSR, maybe bigger drives will run hotter.

Peter

[Bret Williams]

I’d be curious as to what your istat nano specs are reading. It’s a dashboard widget that tells temps internally and fan rpms.

For example, right now surfing the web with 2 internal drives doing next ot nothing on a Mac Pro, one cpu is at 75

[Bob Cole]

[Bret Williams] “I’d be curious as to what your istat nano specs are reading. It’s a dashboard widget that tells temps internally and fan rpms.”

How do you access that widget? I would be glad to test this tomorrow. I put three additional 500 GB drives into a MacPro six months ago and it seems fine.

— Bob C

[Walter Biscardi]

[BobP] “A techie I was talking with recently warned me against this, saying that it
would generate too much heat. What do you guys think about that?”

Folks do build internal raids all the time, but I never recommend it. I much prefer external raids both for the heat issue and for the fact that if something were to happen to my computer, I have three more here in the shop to connect the RAID to in order to keep working. I prefer to leave my computers lean and not overloaded with internal drives.

I only add a 2nd drive internally for graphics.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Peter Wiggins]

[walter biscardi] “Folks do build internal raids all the time, but I never recommend it. I much prefer external raids both for the heat issue and for the fact that if something were to happen to my computer, I have three more here in the shop to connect the RAID to in order to keep working.”

Oh come on Walter, I know you plug external Raid manufacturers, but installing drives into a MacPro is very simple. Its an Apple design too so its not a bodge.

I installed, formatted and got working 3 extra drives within 15 minutes of them being delivered – Most of the time being taken up by screwing the cages onto the drives. If you want a three disk sata raid, this is the quickest and easiest way to do it, I cannot recommend it any more, brilliant design from our Cupertino friends.

[walter biscardi] “I have three more here in the shop to connect the RAID to in order to keep working.”

Eh? Take the drives out and put them in another machine, don’t get the arguement.

Anyway this all might be academic as Leopard has iscsi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iscsi, so we will all be talking about shared storage using GigE switches soon

Peter

[Walter Biscardi]

[Peter Wiggins] “Oh come on Walter, I know you plug external Raid manufacturers, but installing drives into a MacPro is very simple. Its an Apple design too so its not a bodge.”

I didn’t say it was difficult, the drives just snap in with the new machine, I just said I don’t recommend it. I prefer external RAID’s.

[Peter Wiggins] “I installed, formatted and got working 3 extra drives within 15 minutes of them being delivered – Most of the time being taken up by screwing the cages onto the drives. If you want a three disk sata raid, this is the quickest and easiest way to do it, I cannot recommend it any more, brilliant design from our Cupertino friends.”

And if you get an external SATA array it takes approx. 2 minutes to hook up the cables and 15 seconds to reformat. I’m not really sure what the time comparison is for, but there you go.

[Peter Wiggins] “[walter biscardi] “I have three more here in the shop to connect the RAID to in order to keep working.”

Eh? Take the drives out and put them in another machine, don’t get the arguement.”

Yep, you got me there. MUCH faster to open up the Mac, remove the drives, open up the other Mac, install the drives, than to disconnect the external RAID and connect it to another machine.

If internal RAID’s work for you, then use them. I don’t like them, don’t recommend them, and prefer external RAID’s. They work better for us.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Peter Wiggins]

[walter biscardi] “I didn’t say it was difficult, the drives just snap in with the new machine, I just said I don’t recommend it. I prefer external RAID’s.”

Have you actually tried doing it? I have both internal raid and an external XSR, so I’m neutral really when it comes to the arguement, I’m just trying to redress the balance. Internal raids within a MacPro are an excellent and inexpensive way for more storage. Not everybody wants to run out and buy an XSR like I did or your championed Medea.

[walter biscardi] “And if you get an external SATA array it takes approx. 2 minutes to hook up the cables and 15 seconds to reformat. I’m not really sure what the time comparison is for, but there you go.”

Yes on the basis you have a sata card already installed and if you dont, then its door off time. Oh, yes and if you only have one card you have to take that out of one machine and put it in the other. I haven’t done this, so correct me if i’m wrong but you might need to install drivers too. This isn’t really the point though.

I can’t really understand your negativity about this, the cheaper & easier everything becomes is surely beneficial to everybody. I love the fact that technology that was only accessable to a select few a few years ago is now readily available even on the high street!

Peter

[Walter Biscardi]

[Peter Wiggins] “Have you actually tried doing it?”

Nope, no desire.

[Peter Wiggins] “Internal raids within a MacPro are an excellent and inexpensive way for more storage. Not everybody wants to run out and buy an XSR like I did or your championed Medea.”

I haven’t run Med

[Peter Wiggins]

[walter biscardi] “[Peter Wiggins] “Have you actually tried doing it?”

Nope, no desire.”

Thankyou for putting your recommendations into perspective

Peter