G5 2.7GHz

[TZ]

kaye,

At some point, your RAID will be as fast as memory performance if this keeps up!

[kaye]

Wish I could afford a couple more Raptor 150GB TZ. But then this G5 may already be maxed out. k

[kaye]

For fastest I/O 8xRap150 with SoftRAID 3.6, 64KB SU, 10.4.9:


64KB SU still does not yield the fastest Pshop 2.1 test results in Photoshop CS2 however. 32KB SU still the best. k

[ricks]

Holy shit, nearly a GB.sec. Woof.

[Nicolas]

Kaye,

your a hard drive speed junky

BTW but I guess this setup is no longer silent

Regards

Nicolas

[kaye]

Updated diagram for Raptors, enclosures, and G5 info:

k

[ricks]

Kaye,

but I guess this setup is no longer silent

Kaye says: "WHAT WAS THAT?? I couldn't hear you."

[kaye]

Only time it gets silent around here is when Da Boss speaks. Then all fans go silent out of fear. k

[kaye]

Sometime back I purchased this Burly Hotswap U6:
http://macgurus.com/productpages/firewire/U6SATA.php in particular the Burly Firewire800+USB2 for SATA Drives - U6SATA along with a spare tray. The newer model http://macgurus.com/productpages/fir...FirewireHS.php might be faster and more versatile now but was not available when I purchased the U6. Purchased for a relative with an early Intel iMac.

I installed an earlier Maxtor 300GB SATA drive (used to be inside my G5), 7B300S0, 7200RPM with 16MB cache. Zeroed out the drive and initialized. Later will need to reinitialize with GUID for the Intel iMac.

Previous test on the DB of the Maxtor on G5 mobo SATA, 10.4:
QB2.1-100MB Extended Read 56MB/Sec, Sustained Write 72MB/Sec

QB3.1 with FW800 connection, G5, 10.4.9:
Extended Test Results:
Test Cycles: 10

Ext. Xfer Size Extended Read Extended Write
20 MBytes 61.070 MB/Sec 55.122 MB/Sec
30 MBytes 69.479 MB/Sec 55.448 MB/Sec
40 MBytes 68.038 MB/Sec 54.694 MB/Sec
50 MBytes 66.233 MB/Sec 55.245 MB/Sec
60 MBytes 66.125 MB/Sec 55.354 MB/Sec
70 MBytes 65.295 MB/Sec 55.282 MB/Sec
80 MBytes 64.589 MB/Sec 55.300 MB/Sec
90 MBytes 64.626 MB/Sec 55.337 MB/Sec
100 MBytes 64.475 MB/Sec 55.319 MB/Sec

With FW400 connection (Granite premium FW400 cable with Granite FW400 to FW800 adapter on one end):

Extended Test Results:
Test Cycles: 10

Ext. Xfer Size Extended Read Extended Write

20 MBytes 40.008 MB/Sec 34.387 MB/Sec
30 MBytes 40.477 MB/Sec 34.409 MB/Sec
40 MBytes 40.703 MB/Sec 33.797 MB/Sec
50 MBytes 39.900 MB/Sec 34.415 MB/Sec
60 MBytes 40.864 MB/Sec 34.138 MB/Sec
70 MBytes 40.913 MB/Sec 34.425 MB/Sec
80 MBytes 40.874 MB/Sec 34.300 MB/Sec
90 MBytes 39.379 MB/Sec 34.078 MB/Sec
100 MBytes 40.942 MB/Sec 34.339 MB/Sec

Works very well. Easy to install the drive in the tray. Trays have two easy to see LEDs, blue for power and yellow for drive activity. No complaints at all. Kit comes with FW800 and USB2 cables. k

[kaye]

FWIW I purchased two more Rap150 drives to replace the two earlier firmware Rap150s. Now all 8xRap150 drives are the same firmware, and the two earlier firmware Raptors are relagated to replacements if any of the later models fail. I had noticed that in SoftRAID 3.6, the later firmware drives initialize quite a bit faster but other than that I see no difference in thruput measured in QuickBench.

I did want to try a couple of things though with my 3xSeriTek/1VE4 PCI-X cards:
1. 10xRaptors
This turned out to be much slower than 8xRaptors with one 1VE4 card in the 133MHz slot and one in the 100MHz slot. Use of the 3rd 1VE4 in the other 100MHz slot dragged down thruput significantly in QuickBench and the Pshop 2.1 test, much less thruput than 8xRaptors. I can only conclude that with my G5 and setup, I have reached the max I can with 8xRaptors.

2. 8xRaptors scratch and 2xRaptors for boot in a SeriTek/1EN2 external enclosure. I cloned with SuperDuper to the 2xRaptors and then trashed a bunch of stuff to streamline the RAID and get it down to about 31% full then defragged it. Again I had to use the other 1VE4 card in the other 100MHz slot. Everything slowed down again, the 8xRaptors in QB and Pshop 2.1 tests, and the 2xRaptors failed to boost Pshop 2.1 test performance. Just cannot get more out of my system. k

[TZ]

I don't think it is my imagination, but the Raptor I bought last week doesn't have any of the hum or high-pitch that plagued last September model. But they appear to be same model/revision.

I might even pick up another. Chose to use a pair for boot RAID and really like it, QB numbers, about 45% use.

[kaye]

I tried Geekbench, previously mentioned by TZ in another thread, and this G5 does pretty well for a DP, score 2371, http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/5501 and it is the fastest Power Mac G5 (June 2004) in the Geekbench db. k

[kaye]

Latest UPS diagram:


The iSight, SanDisk USB2 12in1 Reader, and hueyPRO I only connect to the front of the G5 when I want to use them. The SanDisk FW800 CF Reader, the cable is always connected to the the FW800 Hub, but the Reader itself is not connected to the cable unless I need to use it. k

[Nicolas]

Just... counting HDs = 4 SCSI + 4 SATA + 8 SATA + 2 Mac (I guess)+ 2 FW = 20 Thats... counting... $4k to $5k for drives man
Impressive!

BTW downloaded Geekbench:
http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/16991

Nicolas

[kaye]

Nicolas,

You killed me on the Geekbench score.
Just... counting HDs = 4 SCSI (yup) + 4 SATA (yup, SATA Burly) + 8 SATA (yup, SeriTek/1EN2 enclosures) + 3 Granite Alum SATA trays (1 in the Granite, 2 off site in fire and water proof safes) + 1 in the Granite FW400 + 2 Mac (I guess, yup)+ 3 FW (one is a dual RAID) = 25

I hadn't thought of it that way but certainly an overkill. And with the wife's iBook and my GigaMDD, I think I spend half my life keeping them all up to date and backed up. k

[kaye]

APC has new models with LCD similar to Kill A Watt. http://www.apcc.com/resource/include..._sku=BR1500LCD

k

[kaye]

Laurie, Rick, and Brian hooked me up with the following.
I purchased from the Gurus BurlyStorage Store:
http://www.burlystorage.com/ccp0-pro...GBurly1HS.html

Bundle deal:
1. Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1000 GB (1TB) SATAII 32 MB cache ST31000340AS
2. External enclosure Burly 1 Bay Hot Swap Enclosure Black MGBurly1HS
3. LCD Bay
4. External 2 Meter eSATA-TypeA cable (to connect to one of my existing typeA FirmTek host cards). On the BurlyStorage page linked above, I could not order this cable so I followed up with a request to substitute the 2 Meter eSATA Cable ordered for the 2 Meter eSATA-TypeA cable.

I don't need extra LCD SATA Drive Trays BurlyHSLCD-b-t because I purchased extras for my MGBurly1FWHS FireWire and the part number is the same. Brian assembled the order, formatted the drive with journaling enabled, named it "test 1TB", and set the jumper for SATA1. Removal of the jumper would be SATA2.

Amended order complete by Oct 30 6:37pm my time and received yesterday morning 11/06.

I didn't change anything, left it journaled, all my normal stuff running such as DSL, USB and USB2, FW400 and FW800 hubs, and so forth. I did disable Spotlight for the volume. Volume connected to one of my 3 FirmTek/1VE4 cards, one of two on the 100MHz bus. All other drives on all 3 cards off. External cable is white which is great since all of the others connected to the cards are black.

Spectacular results QB3.1
With Allow Write Cache Purging disabled

With Allow Write Cache Purging enabled

This will be my boot drive for Leopard while I work out its kinks. k

[kaye]

I should have also mentioned the case. Temperatures never exceeded 29.1C during the QB3.1 tests as well as about an hour of IntegrityX. Max Operating Temperature of the drive is 60C according to Seagate. k

[ricks]

Kaye,

We really like the quality of those cases. Thanks for your approval. They are a little big in overall size but we have yet to ever have one issue with a power supply and the cooling is superior. Drive longevity = power and temperature stability... or vice versa.

Just turned Granite Digital on to the same manufacturer. Wouldn't surprise me if they come out with a bunch of stuff using the same case.

Rick

[kaye]

Yes Rick it is larger but for all the reasons you stated. Here is a comparison with the Granite Digital FireVue (the smallest FireWire case I have):


k