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Mac Pro RAID Card & Drive Compatibility

jessenator

Well-known member
Posting here, since I don't want to clutter up the main forums with Intel shenanigans. This is for the first-gen Intel Mac Pro (1,1/2,1)

So, relative to a trading post thread I created, I discovered I bought some SAS drives and not SATA drives. On top of that they are 4TB drives which, from everything I've been able to find, won't work properly or at all—at least that's what I've found, but as even 1TB drives were not cheap in 06-07, there may just be lack of documentation due to availability/feasibility.

So my question about the RAID card centers around those two points. I've been told things about both of these, but I'm taking no chances since I'm potentially sinking more money into a problem, and I'd rather not if I can't use it:
  1. Will the RAID card support current-gen SAS drives? e.g. the HGST Ultrastar HUS724040ALS640
    • I ask out of ignorance. I'm looking to use these in a strictly non-RAID fashion, and I've noticed the extra pins on the SAS drives, and I don't see corresponding pins on the Mac Pro's drive bay connectors
  2. Will the RAID card support volumes over 2TB (specifically 4TB)?
 

Compgeke

Well-known member
Unfortunately the size limitation is due to the LSI controller chip on the card, rather than limitations of the time. A bunch of other controllers such as the Dell PERC 5/i and 6/i have the same limitation due to using the same chipset.
 

Melkhior

Well-known member
If the card is based on the LSI 1068e chip (or something else in the family, 1064, ...) then the limit is for SATA and/or RAID. However, the chip can handle larger SAS drives when used in non-RAID mode (Supermicro has a note on the subject). Whether Apple allowed to use the chip in non-RAID mode, I don't know. I have a bunch of 1068e, mostly used with IT firmware (non RAID) under Linux for ZFS, but one was able to boot a G5 (with caveat) using a Sun firmware.
 

jessenator

Well-known member
Thanks for chiming in. So unless we know what the controller on the card is, there's not a 100% guarantee it will support the larger drive capacity.

And unless someone has a first gen Mac Pro RAID Card (since I'm not sure the 2nd gen used the same controller) to show and tell, it's going to be a gamble for me 😅

Well, I've spent more on worse in my time!
 

macuserman

Well-known member
Thanks for chiming in. So unless we know what the controller on the card is, there's not a 100% guarantee it will support the larger drive capacity.

And unless someone has a first gen Mac Pro RAID Card (since I'm not sure the 2nd gen used the same controller) to show and tell, it's going to be a gamble for me 😅

Well, I've spent more on worse in my time!
When I was using my raid card in my 5,1 I never setup drives as a raid just used them individually, I also had to buy a drive plug adapter tray to work in my 5,1 for my drives as the connector was different on the drives I was using however they were 2.5" drives from a server so that may have been part of it. What I found when I was doing it is pretty much what your finding now there is nearly zero documentation and I ended up just having to try it and see...
 

jessenator

Well-known member
The description from this video is (possibly) telling. It's a 2nd gen, but all the same, something to think about:
The Mac Pro RAID Card is known as one of the most underperforming and featureless RAID cards in the market. It blocks you from running Windows via Boot Camp. It eats a lot of electricity. It is not (if at all) much faster than software RAID 0. It is long, runs hot, consumes a lot of electricity and doesn't accept drives larger than 2.2GB (2GB practical). It doesn't make sense to migrate to such setup anymore.
Now, I don't know if the limit was tested later in a RAID configuration or not. The video only shows a simple boot and drive test with a 1TB drive being the largest.

When I was using my raid card in my 5,1 I never setup drives as a raid just used them individually,
Were your drives >2TB? Sorry if you already mentioned that explicitly in the trading post thread.
 
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