New Hackintosh with RAID-Hardware Controller Support

[calaverx11]

*snip*

I have the RocketRAID 2720 Controller, equipped with 8 SATA Ports, running on my Hackintosh. It is connected to 8 ST3000DM001 by Seagate, so i have 24TB, in RAID 5 21TB of Space. A ninth HDD is connected directly to the Mainboard via SATA, running OS X 10.8.4.

*snip*

Necro'ing for info, assuming you're still subscribed to this. What did you need to get it to work in OS X? Did it function out of the box non-boot, or did it require a kext install?

Also, is that the 2720SGL as seen here? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115100

 

[neuroman]

I've worked with HP, areca and Atto cards. There are ways to boot from hardware raid disks and in the regular mac, this needs to have the card boot on EFI mode. I imagine this is not necessary on a hack.
Only way to know is to try it. If the installer thumb has drivers, you may be able to do it.
Let us know how it works.

 

[Enigmactic]

The hardware raid in the bios will not work with os x. You have two choices:

1. software raid setup through the disk utility
2. raid card

There is a fix here (on the second page): >NIL:'s Techno Feats: Installing OSX (Snow Leopard) + Linux (Slackware 13.37 x86_64) on a GUID/GPT disk, with Software RAID enabled (ICH8R) - Part 1

 

[Going Bald]

There is a fix here (on the second page): >NIL:'s Techno Feats: Installing OSX (Snow Leopard) + Linux (Slackware 13.37 x86_64) on a GUID/GPT disk, with Software RAID enabled (ICH8R) - Part 1

That guide is for a board with an ICH8R north bridge - Z6, 7, 8, 9, 10 boards do not have an ICH - they have a PCH.
Whether that guide will work or not is very unlikely.

 

[Enigmactic]

That guide is for a board with an ICH8R north bridge - Z6, 7, 8, 9, 10 boards do not have an ICH - they have a PCH.
Whether that guide will work or not is very unlikely.

Please… does that mean only that that procedure is inapplicable, or that the whole concept is lost? (I was so looking forward to my Hackintosh being able to see the RAID drive(s)!)

 

[neilhart]

Please… does that mean only that that procedure is inapplicable, or that the whole concept is lost? (I was so looking forward to my Hackintosh being able to see the RAID drive(s)!)

About three years ago I wrote this guide: “Guide for RAID-0 on OS X 10.8.5 using tonymacx86 tool set” seen here http://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-for-raid-0-on-os-x-10-8-5-using-tonymacx86-tool-set.111831/

And in the same time frame, I purchased and evaluated a HighPoint Rocket 640L Lite Version 4-Port PCI-Express 2.0 x4 SATA 6Gb/s RAID Controller.

With a compatible BIOS the RAID drives are configured in a pre-POST utility that runs from the Rocket 640L card.

Back in the day I observed that the performance of a OS X software RAID-0 out performed a RAID-0 setup on the Rocket 640L.

As time passed, SSDs appeared and the prices fell, and then m.2 form factor came on the market and the Samsung XP941 and SM951 became the easy way for extremely fast boot system drives.

IMHO there is not much reason today to RAID-0 drive sets.


Good modding,

neil

 

[Going Bald]

About three years ago I wrote this guide: “Guide for RAID-0 on OS X 10.8.5 using tonymacx86 tool set” seen here http://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-for-raid-0-on-os-x-10-8-5-using-tonymacx86-tool-set.111831/

And in the same time frame, I purchased and evaluated a HighPoint Rocket 640L Lite Version 4-Port PCI-Express 2.0 x4 SATA 6Gb/s RAID Controller.

With a compatible BIOS the RAID drives are configured in a pre-POST utility that runs from the Rocket 640L card.

Back in the day I observed that the performance of a OS X software RAID-0 out performed a RAID-0 setup on the Rocket 640L.

As time passed, SSDs appeared and the prices fell, and then m.2 form factor came on the market and the Samsung XP941 and SM951 became the easy way for extremely fast boot system drives.

IMHO there is not much reason today to RAID-0 drive sets.


Good modding,

neil

+1

Given a modern SSD, the speed advantage to RAID is not worth the hassle to set it up or the possible loss of the system if the RAID0 has a problem with a single corrupted file which makes the entire thing un-bootable.

Modern SSDs, especially the m.2 socket blades, are faster than any spinning platter drive RAID0 you can set up.

 

[lazerbean]

Hi all,

I hope some of you earlier posters are still sunscribed to this thread.

I'm putting a new Hackintosh together, and as this is my first build, I really need to do my homework, and find I'm having a steep learning curve.

As Going Bald said in the previous post, there may not be much point in using RAID for boot drives in the age of fast SSDs, so that's not what I'm trying to achieve. I have purchased a Kingston Hyper X Predator M.2 SSD with a PCI-E card for my boot (haven't yet decided to mount it through the M.2 slot or the PCI-E adapter), but I need lots of storage and have a bunch of spinning disk drives left over that I would like to set up as a RAID in my new Hackintosh for near-term storage - I'd really like it to be fast enough to make it practical to work from in a pinch.

More info about my hardware and specific problems in this other thread I just started for those that are interested:

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/advice-for-internal-raid-first-customac-pro-build.213916/

Now, I'm really interested in something like the Highpoint RocketRaid 2720SGL. The price is about right for my budget, and the size, power and heat properties of this card seems manageable, unlike some of the second-hand Areca cards that some people seem to favour. My understanding is that some of those cards can consume as much as 400w, and nneds extra cooling. That sounds like serious overkill for my build. An earlier poster in this thread reported success with the RR 2720SGL card during the first 6 months of use. I'd really like to hear if the sucees continued, or from everybody reading this with first-hand experience using this card or any close competitors, and their reasons for choosing this or that card over the others, and what their experience has been with whatever card they eventually ended up buying.

I've read a lot of accounts of both this card and a bunch of different Areca cards, and people seem to either love them or hate them. I suppose this lies in the nature of this kind of hardware - as long as they perform, people love them, if people ever get stung by them, then they hate them. But my hope is that this thread will be a bit more sober and factual than some of the reviews found on Newegg, and provide some solid info to help anybody reading it to make an informed purchase decision.

Also, I wonder if it would be possible to set up both a 6 disk RAID using spinning disks and a RAID using two SSDs on this card? Would it be able to handle both types of drives in two arrays on the same card without any significant drawbacks?

I'm also wondering if I should expect better or worse performance mounting my two Samsung 840 Pro SSDs through the RocketRaid card vs. mounting the same SSDs on a Sonnet Tempo Pro card that I already have from my old MacPro 2010?

All advice would be most appreciated - advance thanks!

 

[BrollyTheLegendary]

Hi all,

I hope some of you earlier posters are still sunscribed to this thread.

I'm putting a new Hackintosh together, and as this is my first build, I really need to do my homework, and find I'm having a steep learning curve.

As Going Bald said in the previous post, there may not be much point in using RAID for boot drives in the age of fast SSDs, so that's not what I'm trying to achieve. I have purchased a Kingston Hyper X Predator M.2 SSD with a PCI-E card for my boot (haven't yet decided to mount it through the M.2 slot or the PCI-E adapter), but I need lots of storage and have a bunch of spinning disk drives left over that I would like to set up as a RAID in my new Hackintosh for near-term storage - I'd really like it to be fast enough to make it practical to work from in a pinch.

More info about my hardware and specific problems in this other thread I just started for those that are interested:

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/advice-for-internal-raid-first-customac-pro-build.213916/

Now, I'm really interested in something like the Highpoint RocketRaid 2720SGL. The price is about right for my budget, and the size, power and heat properties of this card seems manageable, unlike some of the second-hand Areca cards that some people seem to favour. My understanding is that some of those cards can consume as much as 400w, and nneds extra cooling. That sounds like serious overkill for my build. An earlier poster in this thread reported success with the RR 2720SGL card during the first 6 months of use. I'd really like to hear if the sucees continued, or from everybody reading this with first-hand experience using this card or any close competitors, and their reasons for choosing this or that card over the others, and what their experience has been with whatever card they eventually ended up buying.

I've read a lot of accounts of both this card and a bunch of different Areca cards, and people seem to either love them or hate them. I suppose this lies in the nature of this kind of hardware - as long as they perform, people love them, if people ever get stung by them, then they hate them. But my hope is that this thread will be a bit more sober and factual than some of the reviews found on Newegg, and provide some solid info to help anybody reading it to make an informed purchase decision.

Also, I wonder if it would be possible to set up both a 6 disk RAID using spinning disks and a RAID using two SSDs on this card? Would it be able to handle both types of drives in two arrays on the same card without any significant drawbacks?

I'm also wondering if I should expect better or worse performance mounting my two Samsung 840 Pro SSDs through the RocketRaid card vs. mounting the same SSDs on a Sonnet Tempo Pro card that I already have from my old MacPro 2010?

All advice would be most appreciated - advance thanks!

I am in the same boat. I have a system with 4 SATA ports and recently purchased the drives to use with my system. Sadly, I went to software route and used (even more expensive than a RAID card!!) SoftRAID to put my four hard drives into RAID-5 and am now having trouble getting data to copy to the new volume. It really sucks.

Anyways, by the sound of it any of the RocketRAID controller cards will be compatible with macOS so I am very close to pulling the trigger on this unless someone has a different recommendation.

 

[lazerbean]

Hi Brolly;

I myself ended up buying a Areca ARC-1224-8i card for about €170 barely used, like new in box, from a local listing. Seemed like a very good deal, as I believe a new one is around €450 or so.

I connected 8 Toshiba 5TB X300 drives in RAID6 (had 6 drives lying around from some previous Drobo's, so just had to add two more drives).

Only about a week since I manage to get my build successfully installed and running properly, but during that week it has been flawless.

I've attached a Blackmagic disk speedtest for reference, just a very quick unscientific test. I've not done any tweaking of settings etc., just performed a quick set-up using suggested defaults, so an expert could probably make it perform better for specific tasks.

But - I'm very happy with the performance so far.

I had my doubts about the user friendliness of the Areca system with the web user interface and all, but that fear has been made to shame as it is all quite easy if following guidelines and installers and RTFM (or in my case, rather "leaf very quickly through the manual and make a note of what looks important"

Only time will tell as far as long-term reliability goes, but my initial impression of the Areca card is very good. My impression after doing quite a bit of research is that it seems like the Highpoint cards are more of a mixed bag as far as reviews go, and a bit more hit-and-miss in terms of Mac driver support, whereas Areca seems to have Mac drivers for pretty much all of their cards, even current drivers for pretty old cards.

Areca have a really crowded and confusing lineup, with a myriad of models with very similar names, so do your homework before purchasing anything. When I began to look around, I found quite a few really old cards on eBay, with model names that were so similar to some current models that I almost made a purchase believing I was about to make a steal. So check the specs carefully. I'm not enough of an expert to know if some of the older specs are a dealbreaker or not, but make sure you're not being sold some old rubbish, that's all...