New MP about to arrive - advice on storage, etc. pls...

[BKK-OZ]

My new trash-can is supposed to arrive in the next few days (maybe even Monday!). I have a couple of questions that I would appreciate some advice on, pls see following.

Pls keep in mind that I live in the land of Oz, where the current exchange rate is ~$1USD - ~1.10AUD, or, going the other way, ~0.90AUD buys me ~$1USD. Anything over $1k (AUD) that is shipped from the US attracts a 10% additional tax when it lands here in the land of OZ. So that means I have to add approx 20% to most US prices, shipping is more, and if I buy enough, the tax kicks in.

STORAGE
My existing tower has a couple of 1 TB WD (WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0) drives set up as a simple 2TB RAID array.
Plan 'A' has been to keep these in the tower for the time being, accessing them from the new MP via Ethernet, until the Thunderbolt external market opens up a bit.
But now I am wondering if I should go for one of the 'Promise Pegasus2 R4 Diskless 4Bay' enclosures.
(I have linked to the Apple store here, but I would buy elsewhere, ~$50. cheaper.)

Storage Questions:
- is the Pegasus from Promise a reasonable option? (Reviews seem fairly positive.)
- could I sometime later add another couple of drives to the Pegasus enclosure, (higher capacity, maybe even a different brand, etc.) without any hassles? (is mixing and matching a no-no?)
- would it be more sensible to just populate the Pegasus enclosure with a couple of new drives, if so, what drives should I consider (reliability plus speed are important - I do video & audio)
- the current options for Thunderbolt enclosures seem limited, should I wait a month or so, or…?
- I have seen the WD Velociraptor Enclosure for about the same $ as the Pegasus - what would be the advantages of the Pegasus?

Extended Warranty Question:
I understand that I can add the Apple-care extended warranty anytime before the end of the first year after purchasing my new MP - is that right, or...?

RAM
Pretty much everything I do likes lots of RAM, so I am considering how long before I upgrade - probably first to 32Gb, then sometime later to 64Gb, so I need to go with 2x16Gb modules to keep the other slots free.
The RAM prices from my new MP retailer are quite a bit higher than RAM City here in Oz (who I have bought from before and got excellent service) and OWC (same thing, great service).

OWC will give me a little something back if I trade-in the RAM sticks that ship with my MP as well.

RAM Questions:
What to do?
Wait for the prices of RAM to fall? (Will they?)
Wait until I can afford all 4x 16Gb modules?
Buy local, or from OWC?
I'm not trying to be a smart-arse but I honestly can't see why I would buy a RAM upgrade from my new MP retailer who wants ~$725 (AUD) for 32Gb (unless I am missing something? - They refer to their RAM as 'Premium', but offer no brand details.)
OWC's tech specs on their RAM make extensive mention of getting the thermal aspects to meet Apple's specs - is this a big deal, or...?

Any advice offered will be gratefully received.

All advice will attract positive karma points that you can put in your personal karmic account to balance out any evil you may do.

[mikehalloran]

The only way to maximize speed over TB or TB-2 is with a RAID array. Otherwise, you are limited by platter speed or transfer rates with SSDs. You will have to research the various types or RAID to see what will work best for you. It's all much faster than Ethernet.

Mixing drives depends on the RAID configuration. With JBOD, the individual drive types don't matter as they each appear individually - but the Pegasus doesn't appear to support JBOD. JBOD also let's you mix RAID types 2+2 if you want in a 4 bay rack, for example.

A rack that supports both RAID and JBOD can be configured however you want. Perhaps three into a RAID for speed with the fourth being a 3T mechanical Time Machine drive.

Time Machine doesn't require great speed although it never hurts. A Time Capsule or any other Ethernet drive is perfect for that. The new Time Capsule supports 801.11ac as does your nMP - 801.11ac wifi is actually a bit faster than Ethernet but a lot slower than TB, of course.

Remember that you have USB 3, also. If looking for a temporary solution, this will let you install your drives with much higher performance (up to 5x faster than Ethernet)
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire ... rmanceRAID

This ThunderBay IV supports various types of RAID and JBOD. It does not support TB-2 but it is priced much better than the Pegasus. The ARC drives support JBOD.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Thunderbolt/

Yes, you can add AppleCare within the first year after purchase. Your extended warranty is based on purchase date no matter when you purchase AppleCare. The best thing about it is the unlimited phone support during the duration of the warranty period rather than the 90 days with the standard one year warranty.

OWC is great and honors their warranty - even when the problem is caused by an Apple update that makes their RAM incompatible (OS 10.5.7 I think it was). However, if you have a good vendor down under who has been business a long time and has a great reputation, why not use them?

You can mix 4g and 8g modules on the nMP but 16G modules can't be mixed. OTOH, you don't need matched pairs - you can install them one at a time as your budget permits.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/M ... 866-memory

[BKK-OZ]

Thanks very much for taking the time to give me that advice, it is most appreciated. The next time you check, your karmic bank account will show a significant net positive increase.

I saw that OWC Thunderbay after I posted. For almost the same $$$ as the Pegasus (~$150 more) I could get one fully filled up with 8Tb worth of drives. It uses Toshiba platters spinning @ 7200, I need to look into those in terms of reliability, etc. I also need to see how that thing is powered. If it has an automatically switching power supply and uses the standard IEC plug, it could be the way to go. It is a fair bit of moolah, but it would be pretty high performance. I didn't realize it doesn't support TB2 though - but I'm not sure that is really important here.

[dosuna11]

I just bought a Toshiba drive from OWC. The customer service rep told me it was a very reliable drive. It was a little more $$. I use it with Time Machine.

[BKK-OZ]

Yah, on Amazon and elsewhere they seem to get pretty positive reviews. Toshiba (Hitachi) mentioned favorably in this thread too. The power supply is auto-switching, making it an attractive option for me.

[mikehalloran]

The Toshiha drives have an excellent reputation and are spec'd by IBM.

WD Caviar Black, likewise, are excellent and have a 5 year warranty.

You can use your current RAID over Ethernet for time machine - or one of your TM drives if you use one of the 2T derives in the TBIV rack for another. With 8T and both RAID and JBOD support, you can stay up nights figuring how best to configure.

[BKK-OZ]

...you can stay up nights figuring how best to configure.

Too true, but I only want to stay up nights playing music and doing my animation!

I think I will keep it simple - probably go for the OWC Thunderbay, fully loaded (8TB). That will give me plenty of storage for a long time, and plenty of performance - my new MP is coming with the 512Gb SSD, so I plan on keeping live audio projects on there for performance reasons, moving them to the RAID as I finish them. (IF I ever finish them...).

At some point in the future the Thunderbay can become my back-up set.

Thanks for your advice.

[BKK-OZ]

Well, I have decided to go with my retailer's offer on the RAM - they will buy back the 4X16Gb modules shipped for a whopping $100, meaning an upgrade to 2X16Gb will cost me ~$700(AUD), which is about $125 more than any other options.

When asked, my retailer disparaged OWC and other RAM as being '...nasty cheap...' even though their offer was for Micron, and one of the other options was Crucial. If I understand the situation, Micron actually own Crucial, so you wouldn't think it would be that bad, and I know from my own experience that OWC is pretty good, but oh well, this way I get it installed (no big deal I know) and I get it all in one go without any hassle and if something goes wrong, I have only the one (proverbial) throat to choke.

Still haven't made the call on storage yet. Prices here for a loaded Promise Pegasus R4 are ~$790 empty, but most places want another $1k for the four drives, which, AFAIK should cost less than $100 each (2TB each), not sure why they all think they can charge an extra $600, unless I am missing something?

[OLB]

I'm also considering updating my Mac Pro 2008 to the new 6core MP.

For storage I came across these: http://www.akitio.com/thunderbolt-series

May be you've already seen these but they come with 2 thunderbolt ports for daisy chaining. Very interesting one is the Thunder Dock, that can be used as a dock for esata, firewire and usb3!!

[BKK-OZ]

Haven't seen that brand - quick ask of Mr Google tells me that 2 out of the 3 customers on Amazon were shipped units that were D.O.A., hmmmm...

They are only for 2.5" drives, don't know if I want to go there.

[BKK-OZ]

Not a lot of good news on the Pegasus see here: https://discussions.apple.com/message/15630806#15630806

Methinks the Thunderbay direct from OWC is the way to go.
The price here in Oz for the bare enclosure is about the same as getting the 8Tb version shipped from the US.

[OLB]

yes that OWC thunderbay looks great, missed that one!

I'm still thinking of moving to SSD only and have a TimeCapsule as backup.

[BKK-OZ]

I've decided to wait and see awhile on the storage front. The news on the Promise enclosure isn't all that encouraging, and I can get by for awhile with what I have - I can run my projects on the SSD until they are ready for finalizing, then move them to another drive.

I would like to see some more competition out there on the TB storage front.

[BKK-OZ]

New MP is here!
I am using it to make this post, so far it works!

Tho - when I set the Dock to auto-hide, it disappears to never come back.
Obviously, got a few kinks to sort out.

[HCMarkus]

New MP is here!
I am using it to make this post, so far it works!

Tho - when I set the Dock to auto-hide, it disappears to never come back.
Obviously, got a few kinks to sort out.

Whooo Who!