Promise Pegasus R6 opinions

[dseelig]

Wanting to know-how this unit or am I better off getting an owc thunderbolt enclosure

[Schewe]

It's pretty early to say...TB2 is so new that all of the 3rd party TB2 products are relatively untested. So, it'll be a while before legit reviews are in. I'm still waiting to pull the trigger on the new MacPro because there's a lot of stuff for TB2 in the pipeline but not yet shipping.

So, it would be useful to know how you would be implementing the external enclosure and for what purpose.

[dseelig]

I have not decided if for main hd storage or time machine storage. Does anyone know if you can change out drives for larger drives your self as time goes on?
David

[Christopher Sanderson]

I have had a Pegasus 2 R6 paired with a 2013 MacPro for a couple of months now - using it for video editing. The Pegasus is configured as a RAID 5 with 3TB drives. Thus 18TB of capacity gives an available 15TB of usable space.

The drive is a solid performer and I now have no issues with it.

Initially I had problems with one drive but after a session with Promise support, the issue was traced to a firmware deficiency which an available update fixed.

My only regret is not having purchased the R8 which would have given me the more feasible option of a 'hot spare' drive.

Due to those initial problems with one drive, I purchased two additional spare drives. It is apparently critical that all drives be identical. That possibly suggests that one can replace all drives at once. There is a list of 'acceptable' drives somewhere on the Promise Web site I believe.

The drive is quiet, fast, has very good power management and the rather complex software controller seems pretty solid and well thought out. The self-diagnostic & reporting features are good.

I currently use an older Sonnett eSATA 4 drive enclosure with 4TB drives as a backup to the Pegasus. I would not recommend this as the RAID 0 with 4TB drives is a little flaky. The OWC Thunderbolt enclosure would have made a better backup system I think.

[dseelig]

So better then a drobo 5d

[Christopher Sanderson]

So better then a drobo 5d

I never really have come to terms with a drive system that requires proprietary sftw to read. YMMV  ))

To me it's analogous to saving all your photos as PSDs instead of TIFFs

[tived]

TB2, sounds great for a single user scenario where it's connected to the host computer.

Do any if you have multiple computers in your studio and how do you share your data from your TB2 storage devices?

Henrik

Ps: do you just share the drive and it pops up in your network?
Currently it just doesn't seem like a viable solution in a multi-computer setup

I guess the new Macpro is so limited in storage that it just becomes part of it and the TB2 storage and Macpro is seen as one. storage of shared files is then delegated to other devices??
What's the go here?

[dseelig]

Well it turns out the one I have aline on is the first pegasus r6 thunderbolt 1 for 700 bucks with 6 2 tb hds. Does anyone have this unit?

[BernardLanguillier]

I have been using a R8 32GB unit configured in Raid 6 with 2013 Mac Pro for a few months as well.

Very happy so far. Fast, reliable and quiet.

Cheers,
Bernard

[jerryrock]

Wanting to know-how this unit or am I better off getting an owc thunderbolt enclosure

The difference between the less expensive OWC raid enclosure and the Promise Pegasus Thunderbolt is that the latter has it's own hardware raid controller (PMC Sierra 8011 with 512MB DDR2 SDRAM). It does not rely on a software raid solution.

[Schewe]

I have been using a R8 32GB unit configured in Raid 6 with 2013 Mac Pro for a few months as well.

Bernard, do you mean 32TB? 32GBs ain't much for an 8 bay :~) What drives did you pick?

[BernardLanguillier]

Bernard, do you mean 32TB? 32GBs ain't much for an 8 bay :~) What drives did you pick?

Jeff,

Yes, 32TB. :-)

Promise doesn't let you install your own disks in the R8, the unit came with the drives already installed. Not sure what make they are.

Cheers,
Bernard

[Schewe]

Promise doesn't let you install your own disks in the R8, the unit came with the drives already installed. Not sure what make they are.

Hum...you should check them out...(in case you need a replacement). Some are "better" than others. I like Hitachi drives, others, not so much...

[jerryrock]

This is the drive compatibility list for the Promise Pegasus2 series SAS. There has been a firmware upgrade since this list was published but no new list has come out yet.

[dseelig]

Well I bought the R8 used first model so far so good . Got it with 6 2 tb drives changed out to 3tb drives Pegasus has helped with a use unit and all seems good. Anyone want to buy a drobo LOL
Thanks all David