HELP!: MacPro Meltdown. Deadline Looms [RESOLVED]

[mikehalloran]

No idea how quiet this one is -- or isn't but it should do the trick.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

I've mentioned this before but any reference to Hot Swap refers to USB only.

[dix]

Looks fine except that it does not support eSATA, only USB 3.

Ah. So it is. Good eye! This one then https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-Ext ... e+%2B6Gbps

No idea how quiet this one is -- or isn't but it should do the trick.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

I think that SATA III in this and the dock are referring to drive compatibility. The max Gbps should be 6Gbps, should it not, if it supports SATA III?

[mikehalloran]

Yes - and since it looks like a match for the cheesegrater, that may be the case (pun intended?).

Oftentimes, though, the internal components get upgraded and marketing never updates the info. I can't imagine that anyone's using a current ship set doesn't support eSATA III. Of course, there's no way of knowing how old these are. Without contacting the manufacturer, nothing is for certain.

[frankf]

Can't beat the price on the dock you linked to Mike. The Newertech docks you pointed to are also available from OWC. I like them only because the first one worked, then the 2d, 3rd, 4th and 5th. All going strong.


Frank Ferrucci

[dix]

Good for USB3, but it looks like the NewerTech docks operate at SATA II speeds (3Gbps) for eSATA. ...though I'm still not sure if the slightly faster speed SATA III offers over USB3 will be noticeable.

Frank, are you saying you have 5 docks as part of your everyday rig?

[HCMarkus]

Sittin' in the dock of the bay, watching' my drives write away...

Don't forget that you can route SATA cables internally and house a drive or two (or four SSDs) in ye' old optical bay. I use the optical drive in the lower bay of my cheesegrater as an SSD shelf upon which rest four SSDs, two connected via native SATA2 optical ports (my optical drive is disconnected - I use an external burner), and two connected via a SATA3 PCIe card. Power via a splitter fed from the optical power port.

USB3? This might prove interesting:

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/usb ... o.1501482/

[mikehalloran]

though I'm still not sure if the slightly faster speed SATA III offers over USB3 will be noticeable.

With an SSD, maybe. There will be no speed difference with an HHD (Time Machine) as the platter speed is the limiting factor.

[dix]

Yes. I'm working on two things here. 1] Move the SSD on my SATA III PCIe card to an external enclosure or dock that will run at SATA III speeds (VIs might need the extra 16%ish boost from SATA III) and 2] Enable my external 6tb USB 3 drive to create a backup with Time Machine sometime this year.

Having my fastest busses/drives on an eSATA III/USB 3 card seems a lot more flexible than keeping it on the internal card.

[dix]

USB3? This might prove interesting:

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/usb ... o.1501482/

Why? Is it the stuff about USB 3.1 on a Mac that interests you?

...and yes HC, I'm currently using an optical bay for a SSD on my MP's SATA II bus - thanks to your helpful guidance as I recall!

[HCMarkus]

USB3? This might prove interesting:

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/usb ... o.1501482/

Why? Is it the stuff about USB 3.1 on a Mac that interests you?!

Just throwing it in the mix. I'm not feeling the burn for any new hardware at the moment.

[dix]

Backing up VIs and other relatively "static" directories is critical in a studio working on deadlines. You have to be able to get up and running if a disk fails. Again, a Time Machine backup of such disks is a waste of backup disk space. Clone it and update the clone every time you add a VI.

MLC, when you say clone, do you use a cloning app or something rather than just dragging to a backup disk?

Btw, the new eSATA/USB 3 card is working nicely. Backing up my project and boot drive to Time Machine only took 2 hours via USB 3, rather than the 2 days it would have taken to do it via my Airport Extreme.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I use Carbon Copy Cloner most of the time.