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USB 3.1 raid enclosure recomendations

A

Angus Mackay

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I think we're going to need a new portable raid enclosure to use with our old MacPro (no thunderbolt), and I think USB3.1 is the most likely route. So I was wondering what products you guys have experience with and can recommend (or otherwise...)

many thanks

Angus
 
Thanks, Blair,

That looks great, but not really what I'm after. I should have been more specific, sorry. What I'm after is a 4-6 bay enclosure for 3.5" drives.

thanks

A
 
L. Langer said:
USB 3.1 hasn't really caught on yet
Click to expand...

Yikes, than I don't know what I've been doing for the last couple of years :)

4-bay:
HighPoint Rocketstor 6114V
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1344720-REG/highpoint_rs6114v_rocketstor_6114v_4_bay_usb.html

Akitio has a nice 2-bay if you have large capacity drives, the NT2 U3.1 Gen 2.


And it was Jarred who linked to those Mediasonic 2.5" 2-bay bus powered enclosures. I'm also using those. Pretty damn nice if you've got larger SSDs laying around.
 
In the broader sense, USB 3.1 hasn't caught on yet with peripheral makers and is just starting to get a foothold in the newest hardware. Most of what's available in "newish" BYOD external storage enclosures is USB 3.0, eSATA, TB/TB2, USB 3.1, and SAS. Currently, USB 3.0 is the dominant interface in all market segments because that's what came with the last upgrade cycle for consumers and business users. In the creative realm, many are holding on to older PCs and Mac systems from that cycle, so that's what they are using. Last week, I bought a bleeding-edge 4K monitor that isn't even on store shelves yet and it's packing 3.0 because that's what the overwhelming majority of computers that could use it are equipped with. USB 3.1 won't be the standard in external storage or peripherals for at least another 2-4 years, as more chipsets come out and the standard improves.
 
I agree, Mike. I'm surprised that product isn't on the market yet. Even the number of customers still using old Mac Pro's has to make it worthwhile.
 
HighPoint Rocketstor 6114V

HighPoint Rocketstor 6114V

Phil Holland said:
4-bay:
HighPoint Rocketstor 6114V
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1344720-REG/highpoint_rs6114v_rocketstor_6114v_4_bay_usb.html
Click to expand...

I have purchased the Rocketstor 6114V populated it with 6TB WD Red HDD but I cannot get the OS 10.12.6 to see the Array on my new iMac. I have the Mac drivers installed and I can see the Array using Highpoint's WebGUI but no luck seeing it in the Finder. So far online help from Highpoint has been tardy. Has anyone got this enclosure running on a Mac?
 
This doesn't help the OP but until 8bay units show up, here's another 2-bay option that has been working well for me since March: Terramaster D2-310. Very quiet, no complaints.

Not my main array but I use it striped and archive to a slower 4 bay array.
 
I picked up the Rocketstor per Phil's recommendation... seems like the best bang for the buck

I'll be populating it with 4x 8TB WD RED NAS drives with 256mb cache.

These are the drives I pulled from the WD external desktop drives that were on sale at Best Buy

Enclosure should get here some time this week



Does anyone here have any experience with RAID 5 with such large drives ?

Lots of contradicting info online about whether or not it woudl crash and burn when it inevitable gets a URE
 
Keep in mind that the NAS drives have spin-down/power-off protocols that may cause problems. You can find utilities on the WD support page to change the settings.
 
Elias Tejeda said:
Does anyone here have any experience with RAID 5 with such large drives ?

Lots of contradicting info online about whether or not it woudl crash and burn when it inevitable gets a URE
Click to expand...

RAID 5 died years ago, the rebuild will take so long(because of all the data) and can wear out one of the other drives during the rebuild and then all your data is gone.
You better use raid 10 or 6.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/why-raid-6-stops-working-in-2019/

An old article about raid.
 
I got my 4-bay HighPoint Rocketstor 6114V finally running today but any prospective buyers be aware the Mac support in the manual is incomplete and the online help tardy, slow and not useful in my case. With 10% of all PCs being sold running Mac OS why can't suppliers get their shit together when it come to Mac support?
 
Tom Gleeson said:
I got my 4-bay HighPoint Rocketstor 6114V finally running today but any prospective buyers be aware the Mac support in the manual is incomplete and the online help tardy, slow and not useful in my case. With 10% of all PCs being sold running Mac OS why can't suppliers get their shit together when it come to Mac support?
Click to expand...

is this still working for you? I'm considering picking one up.
I'm on Mac Trashcan with Sierra.

Also going to running a windows 10 PC with a thunderbolt 3 card.

Curtis
 
Curtis,

Yes the Rockerstor is working well for my purpose as large cheap archival dumping ground. Connected via USBC I get about 220MB/sec transfer speed with Raid 5. Oddly the Blackmagic Speed Test App gives wildly inaccurate results. Maybe its the USB C connection but I assume the USBC connection is using the USB3 protocol as the Rocketstor doesn't support TB3?
 
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