Suggestions for RAID

[Alex Gerulaitis]

[Richard Windsor] “I just purchased a new Mac Pro and I need to buy a RAID for it.”

What is the reason you’re getting a RAID and not just an external TB drive? Capacity? Speed? Redundancy?

[Richard Windsor] “I am currently torn between a Pegasus2 ($1,400) or a GDRIVE 8TB external drive. Does anyone have any suggestions based on experience?”

If you’re looking for a 2-drive RAID, G-RAID is the main choice.

If you *may* be looking for future expansion, another option is to get a 4-bay CineRAID ARC-5026 ($900 with no drives) with just two drives, add more in the future.

— Alex Gerulaitis | Systems Engineer | DV411 – Los Angeles, CA

(edited to correct errors)

[Richard Windsor]

[Alex Gerulaitis] “CineRAID ARC-5026”

I am looking for something that is a nice combination of all those things but speed is very important. Like I said though I am never gonna be doing 4K work or any thing that demanding. I am mainly working in After Effects and Cinema 4D. I just need a drive with at least 8TB of storage that is fast enough to handle those programs with ease. I already own a large drive that I use for backup and I will transfer that to my new system so data protection is not as huge an issue.

[Alex Gerulaitis]

[Richard Windsor] “I am looking for something that is a nice combination of all those things but speed is very important.”

Pegasus2 R4 then: faster, supports advanced RAID levels, supports TB2.

[Alex Gerulaitis]

[Alex Gerulaitis] “Pegasus2 R4 then: faster, supports advanced RAID levels, supports TB2.”

The only thing about it (now that I read some reviews): it’s relatively slow – under 400MB/s reads, and probably under 300MB/s writes in RAID5. (I didn’t see Pegasus2 R4 benchmarks but extrapolated from P2-R8 rather disappointing numbers of under 400MB/s, and P-R4 numbers.)

According to CineRAID, their ARC-5026 is faster: 600MB/s writes and 450MB/s reads. (The write speeds seem to be affected by caching however: RAID5 writes are usually slower than reads unless cached.)

ARC-5026 is TB (not TB2) – shouldn’t matter though as it doesn’t saturate the TB channel; it also supports USB 3.0, unlike Pegasus.

Pegasus got the looks though. 🙂

— Alex Gerulaitis | Systems Engineer | DV411 – Los Angeles, CA

[Alex Gerulaitis]

Never mind that – CNet review is bad, bad, bad. They don’t know what they’re doing. Pegasus is likely as fast as CineRAID.

You can also get the R4 even cheaper (or better): get it diskless for $700; 2TB WD Blacks or Se drives are around $150 ea; total – $1.3K. With WD Se drives, there’s also the benefit of “enterprise class”: allegedly better reliability vs. “consumer” drives used in G-RAID and Pegasus R4.

Hope this helps…

[Richard Windsor]

Thanks for the help, but I have one more quick question. Looking at the Pegasus website the compatibility list for the drives seems weak. https://www.promise.com/media_bank/Download%20Bank/Compatibility/Pegasus2_Compatibility%20List%20v1.1-201301216.pdf

I would like to start of with two WD enterprise class drives at 4TB a piece, will those work ok or is this list just a recommendation on this list?

[Alex Gerulaitis]

[Richard Windsor] “I would like to start of with two WD enterprise class drives at 4TB a piece, will those work ok or is this list just a recommendation on this list?”

Nobody can guarantee anything until they either tested it, or bought an umbrella insurance policy, but it’s 99.99999% they’ll work. The list has decidedly consumer drives (e.g. ST4000DM000) on it – enterprise class drives should work.

[Richard Windsor]

One last question. If I but a Pegasus2 R4 and I put in two 4TB drives, when time comes I need more space can I just slip in another 4TB drive under RAID 0 and keep going or do the drives need to rebuild because of the way data is written?

[Alex Gerulaitis]

Adding drives to an existing RAID0? Rebuild, most likely – but I’d consult Promise to be sure.