Pages: 1 [2]   Go Down

Author Topic: Mac Pro - external storage recommendations  (Read 7380 times)

Steve Weldon

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1479
    • Bangkok Images
Re: Mac Pro - external storage recommendations
« Reply #20 on: December 20, 2013, 01:25:04 pm »

At the time I was doing my shopping research, LaCie had the only ~$1000 solution capable of +750MB/sec, period. For day to day work under pressure, not for redundancy or data safety.
Of course, I keep a separated backup, what of course doesn't need to be as fast as the main fast storage. That's also why I don't need RAID5, 10, 6 or any other. RAID0 is the fastest.
NAS, personal cloud, FTP, mail, sure are pretty, but that's not my point here, I need a fast, very fast storage for day to day use. All that NAS features are complementary, I would not mix them here.
And you can have some of these features and some more just upgrading the free Mavericks to Server, for ~$20. But again, that's not our topic here.


1.  What are  you doing that requires that much speed?  Not even the fastest SATAIII SSD's are that fast, only PCIe SSD's (which are set up as RAID0) and fast RAID's can achieve those speeds.  I recommend a quality NAS for archive purposes, and anywhere the speed of say a WD Black is sufficient a good NAS can easily match those speeds.  This makes them useful for mos peoples image processing needs.  Video is a different animal.

2.  Agreed.  The op wasn't clear if he was looking for a work or archive drive.

3.  Features are added value.  When choosing storage, if you're sitting on the fence between two solutions it could be beneficial to consider features. 

4.  You could, but IMO there are many benefits to keeping your workstation separate from server duties.  Security being the most important reason followed by the extra resource drain on the workstation, the workstation might not be up 24/7 or you might not want to leave it on 24/7 while on vacation, and then there's the ability to remotely manage your RAID with a good NAS that you wouldn't otherwise have.


Bottom line, if the OP is processing images and looking for a storage or work drive, a NAS on a wired Gigalan (not wifi) a NAS should be considered.   If his needs are for a super fast work drive for any reason (though for images it is probably overkill, even large multilayer tiffs take less than a second to load from my NAS) then a TB device starts to make sense.  Or if he just doesn't want to manage a NAS,..  It's all about needs and for most of us.. value.
Logged
----------------------------------------------
http://www.BangkokImages.com

Steve Weldon

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1479
    • Bangkok Images
Re: Mac Pro - external storage recommendations
« Reply #21 on: December 20, 2013, 01:36:15 pm »

Friends,

Thank you for your fantastic help.  I have follow up on all the leads that you have provided.

I regret not having made it clear that, once my files are removed from the old Mac Pro, that I do not have further plans for it.

I have looked at a review on CNET of the Promise Pegasus 2 R4 RAID 5 - 8 TB, and it seems that this would be a fine storage for my files, but it seems that I would also need a back up too (even though the RAID 5 is designed for that purpose and wholly separate drive seems to be the safest next step.  Right now I am using a DROBO for backup.

With the TB 2 being so fast, I really do not need a RAID for speed, just to meet current and future capacity needs. 

I am open to your further excellent suggestions.

Jerry Reed

What are your requirements for a work drive? 

Since the Mac Pro can be configured with up to a terabyte of very fast PCIe storage, couldn't you partition say 256gb for a system partition and keep the rest for a work drive?  Then you'd only need storage and backup.   

Without knowing exact where you want this to fit in (work drive, accessible archives, long term back up, etc..) we're all kinda guessing and projecting our own needs.
Logged
----------------------------------------------
http://www.BangkokImages.com

Wayne Fox

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4237
    • waynefox.com
Re: Mac Pro - external storage recommendations
« Reply #22 on: December 20, 2013, 02:26:50 pm »

Also, I can recommend Lacie's eSATA -> TB hub.  You get two eSATA ports into your Thunderbolt port.
My temporary solution also.  I have 2 8TB OWC 4 drive raids that have eSata as well as FW800.  I have an eSata card in my current Mac Pro and have one of these Lacie hubs ready to go for my new macPro when it arrives.  eSata isn’t as fast as TB or TB2, but it’s much faster than FW800, and for large raids is a better solution the USB3.

The downside to eSata is the cable length.  I will most likely migrate to a TB2 raid solution as they become more readily available, since the current raids are a few years old, and I tend to begin distrusting hard drives that are more than 2 years old.  Once I move to the TB2 raid, I will probably bite the bullet and use enterprise level HD’s instead of consumer ones. This also means I can use longer cables and put the raids out of site and under the other side of my desk.

If I didn’t have the eSata drives now, then I would look at one of the two raids listed here at OWC site. Some are even on sale right now.

Personally I would never use a NAS for direct work, but I have very large files (1 to 3 gbs) and ethernet just doesn’t deliver the throughput.
« Last Edit: December 20, 2013, 02:29:51 pm by Wayne Fox »
Logged

JerryReed

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 277
  • jerry@jerryreed.net
    • http://jerryreed.net
Re: Mac Pro - external storage recommendations
« Reply #23 on: December 20, 2013, 02:29:29 pm »

I am ordering the Mac Pro with only 256 gigs sad, this will be for applications; the data file will be external.  Adding more SDD is quite expensive, more than the price of an external drive, and insufficient for the data: max is one terabyte.

Jerry
Logged

ctz

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 223
Re: Mac Pro - external storage recommendations
« Reply #24 on: December 20, 2013, 02:30:18 pm »

1.  What are  you doing that requires that much speed?  Not even the fastest SATAIII SSD's are that fast

Exactly ;D
If you want more, you have to look after something faster. My LaCie fits the bill.
Once this kind of speed become common or available, applications will be developed with that kind of speed in mind. NAS speed is ok for most storage request, but not for generating thousands of previews at a time, if you want to talk about photo, not video applications. And I rarely edit videos, but when I do, there's a big comfort and a quite a lot of difference between 10-50MB/sec and 700-800MB/sec.
Also, for Photoshop scratch disk, opening and saving, Aperture/Lightroom previewing, anything that has something to do with read/write speed.


2.  Agreed.

Thank you



4.  You could, but IMO there are many benefits to keeping your workstation separate from server duties.  Security being the most important reason followed by the extra resource drain on the workstation, the workstation might not be up 24/7 or you might not want to leave it on 24/7 while on vacation, and then there's the ability to remotely manage your RAID with a good NAS that you wouldn't otherwise have.


Agree.

« Last Edit: December 20, 2013, 02:35:30 pm by ctz »
Logged

JerryReed

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 277
  • jerry@jerryreed.net
    • http://jerryreed.net
Re: Mac Pro - external storage recommendations
« Reply #25 on: December 20, 2013, 02:31:20 pm »

That should have read 256 SSD.
Logged

BobDavid

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3307
Re: Mac Pro - external storage recommendations
« Reply #26 on: December 20, 2013, 04:02:06 pm »

Check out Synology's DS18+ at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822108097. I am quite pleased with mine.
Logged

Steve Weldon

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1479
    • Bangkok Images
Re: Mac Pro - external storage recommendations
« Reply #27 on: December 20, 2013, 04:56:02 pm »

That should have read 256 SSD.

I think your fastest solution for the money is to change your order to the 1tb drive ($800 difference) and partition it.. 750gb can handle most any workload.. and then look at your storage requirements as a separate solution.  If you try to combine a work drive and a storage drive in one.. you're either going to pay a fortune for speed or have less speed for your work.   It sounds like at the moment you're using internal storage for both work and storage.. but the new Mac Pro is designed differently.. a game changer. 

So consider changing your work flow.  Process/work your images on the Mac Pro's SSD via a partition.. store your images via a quality NAS that can handle speeds in excess of 300mbps.. which is plenty fast. 

The person above only getting 10-50mbps (nail in the head slow) either has a slow NAS (NAS's are merely servers with their own CPU's, RAM, etc.. so less power less speed) or a slow wifi.., don't use wifi for storage use.. use a LAN cable and 300mbps is easily possible..

Good luck.
Logged
----------------------------------------------
http://www.BangkokImages.com

Steve Weldon

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1479
    • Bangkok Images
Re: Mac Pro - external storage recommendations
« Reply #28 on: December 20, 2013, 05:03:55 pm »



Ya, this is where the Mac Pro will feel it's first limitations.  When you start partitioning the fast PCIe drive to serve as a system drive, work drive, cache drive, catalog drive.. the throughput will end up being much slower than regular SATA SSD's.   The solution for fast system/work expansion is really limited to TB devices.. and who wants a bunch of small boxes all over their work table?  And its' yet to be seen on a large scale how well TB holds up to such use.

 750mps.. spoiled..  ;D   Once OCZ clears itself and comes out with their next gen of PCIe cards I'll get one.  A few I put into clients builds have exceeded 1200mbps.. awesome speed.  We've learned to only do this with PCIe 3.0 though.. not enough bandwidth in the buses for a powerful video and more than one PCIe SSD otherwise.. no matter what the specs say, with PCIe 2.0 you can feel it.  And soon 3.0 will be limited.
Logged
----------------------------------------------
http://www.BangkokImages.com

Craig Lamson

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3264
    • Craig Lamson Photo Homepage
Re: Mac Pro - external storage recommendations
« Reply #29 on: December 20, 2013, 05:33:52 pm »

Check out Synology's DS18+ at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822108097. I am quite pleased with mine.

+1  I love mine.
Logged
Craig Lamson Photo
Pages: 1 [2]   Go Up