Hardware Controller for SSD RAID

[JonDfox]

I'm gonna make one more attempt to get some answers here because no one seems to care regarding my previous posts.

Simple question this time:

Using iMac 21,5" Late 2012.

I need a Thunderbolt Expansion Chassi, and a Hardware Controller Card so I can Hardware RAID 0 my SSDs to achieve the speeds I'm aiming for.

So far I have found the OWC Mercury Helios PCIe Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis

But I have little experience regarding this matter, does anyone else have any other ideas or suggestions?

Any information will be helpful!

I'm going to use this in Windows 7 Bootcamp.

Thanks guys (and girls)

[fzabkar]

I think performance questions are probably a waste of time in a data recovery forum. The aim is to recover your data using whatever means are available, and that's about it. ISTM that you would get much more relevant advice from end users in forums such as Tom's Hardware or the Mac forums.

[JonDfox]

I think performance questions are probably a waste of time in a data recovery forum. The aim is to recover your data using whatever means are available, and that's about it. ISTM that you would get much more relevant advice from end users in forums such as Tom's Hardware or the Mac forums.

First of all there is nothing on the site saying "If your Harddrive crashed, check us out, other than that, stay away".
I am on those other forums as well, but because this is a well known place I thought I give it a try.

At the end of the day, if you know how to recover data from a crashed Harddrive, the chances that you know of RAID systems are pretty big.

Wouldnt you agree?

[ici_lemmy]

Wouldnt you agree?

I do but it's not because I know how to reconstruct raid that I know about performance.
Really, in DR, if you can access sectors, in most cases the LBA/s doesn't really matters.

[fzabkar]

@JonDfox, I'm an end user like you, and I participate in several storage forums. I'm not suggesting that your questions are unwelcome here. I'm just saying that it is the end user who is concerned about performance, not the data recovery guy, so you would be more likely to get a better response elsewhere. Of course, now that I've said that, somebody will prove me wrong.

[JonDfox]

Wouldnt you agree?

I do but it's not because I know how to reconstruct raid that I know about performance.
Really, in DR, if you can access sectors, in most cases the LBA/s doesn't really matters.

That's true, I understand what you mean, but my argument still stands that if you perform data recovery etc you will probably at some point end up having a guy with a bag of harddrives saying "My raid crashed, help me". Then I assume, that to be able to recover data from a setup like that you must know things about it. I wasnt actually aware that this was like 100 % aimed at data recovery because it doesnt tell you anywhere. But I will remain here in case someone shows up that knows a thing or two about RAID controllers

@JonDfox, I'm an end user like you, and I participate in several storage forums. I'm not suggesting that your questions are unwelcome here. I'm just saying that it is the end user who is concerned about performance, not the data recovery guy, so you would be more likely to get a better response elsewhere. Of course, now that I've said that, somebody will prove me wrong.

Thank you, I understand. And as you said someone will prove u wrong, that's the guy I'm looking for. I could ask someone else to do it for me, for a fee, but I prefer to do it myself, so I then can take this experience and share it with other users. So right now, in this case yes I'm an end user, but in the end, I want to be able to help out other end users as well. We'll see what happens, if there is "a somebody" out there!

[JonDfox]

UPDATE:

What do you guys think of this solution?


Get one of these Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/echoexpressiii.html


Together with two of these PCIe cards for the SSDs (I have 4)

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempossdpro.html


That's the best I've been able to come up with so far!
Let me know what u think!

[JonDfox]

Anyone?

[HaQue]

And there lies the proof.

Of the 8 - 12 PCs/laptops that I have going at any given time, most are standard, some VMs and 1 SSD in the mix only. I don't have time to be researching the performance and Really it is of no benefit in DR anyway as we need space, lots of it and the tools, well most are only just becoming "windows7ised".

Personally, in DR, as stuff comes in, that's when I learn about its features. Enough to figure out how to get the data, or anything else that looks new or interesting.

It was suggested a great forum, toms hardware, that talk about performance of everything from machines to VGA cards, BIOS hackes etc. There or whirlpool.. Even the Mac forum would be a good idea for all the bootcamp related issues that I have seen in passing related to differing performance.

Its like asking ina pastry making forum the best carrots to use for juice and justify it by saying, well you probably made pasties, and pasties have carrots so... Sorry I could think of a Ferrari v Kia analogy here.

I am speaking for myself, but I reckon it is simply the wrong forum.

Hope you get your info, no offense intended.

Cheers

[JonDfox]

And there lies the proof.

Of the 8 - 12 PCs/laptops that I have going at any given time, most are standard, some VMs and 1 SSD in the mix only. I don't have time to be researching the performance and Really it is of no benefit in DR anyway as we need space, lots of it and the tools, well most are only just becoming "windows7ised".

Personally, in DR, as stuff comes in, that's when I learn about its features. Enough to figure out how to get the data, or anything else that looks new or interesting.

It was suggested a great forum, toms hardware, that talk about performance of everything from machines to VGA cards, BIOS hackes etc. There or whirlpool.. Even the Mac forum would be a good idea for all the bootcamp related issues that I have seen in passing related to differing performance.

Its like asking ina pastry making forum the best carrots to use for juice and justify it by saying, well you probably made pasties, and pasties have carrots so... Sorry I could think of a Ferrari v Kia analogy here.

I am speaking for myself, but I reckon it is simply the wrong forum.

Hope you get your info, no offense intended.

Cheers

I feel ya, It's just that I have the same post on 6 other forums and I'm not receiving any answers at all.
It's like people don't give a **** any more.
Getting quite frustrating, so I'm just gonna order this stuff, put it together, if it blows up or doesn't work, then I'll know the expensive way.

Personally, I love carrots, can u recommend me any good export? t-t

[Kum Ruzvelt]

Did you check DROBO mini?
http://www.drobo.com/products/professionals/drobo-mini/

[hddguy]

Did you check DROBO mini?
http://www.drobo.com/products/professionals/drobo-mini/

Just make sure it never fails!

[labtech]

Using iMac 21,5" Late 2012.

I need a Thunderbolt Expansion Chassi, and a Hardware Controller Card so I can Hardware RAID 0 my SSDs to achieve the speeds I'm aiming for.

Do not mean to shoot at you either..

Though I think the majority of folks here are more or less in my predicament, from my perspective, your set up is highly outside the scope of what various equipment configs a data recovery person/company would have. They are not replying with the answers you are looking for because they do not have a good suggestion. As I grew in this community, I learned that for the most part folks here give suggestions if they have a good one. If the suggestion is not so good, they tend not to give it because of the screw up risks involved (or high cost without accomplishing their goal, so a total loss)

There are too many factors to consider in what would be the bottleneck for your aimed set up and whether it is even feasible to achieve the speeds you intend. Saying this as you have already seen in your own test from the other thread (I think it is your post) that certain technology interfaces do not necessarily meet the speeds they have been calculated and tested to deliver on their own by manufacturers or 3rd party testers. There are other intricacies that play a factor within each element within your set up as a whole. I would think here as an analogy for example the fuel mileage for a. electric car vs. hybrid vs. a diesel vs. gas. Well, who is driving the say car, what kind of driving (highway, local), is the driver an aggressive type, at what speeds, etc.

If I was in your shoes, to get as good of an idea as possible, though still not guaranteed it will achieve the results you are looking for, I would begin by breaking down the set up into separate components and collect speed specs for each (collecting info speeds for each is much more attainable from the various places, such as manufacturer, forums, your own experience, etc.) Then try to predict what the average would be. I would say reduce that average by 20% to 30% to comp for misrepresentation. Then decide if the predicted speed satisfies your expectations.

Best wishes