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Is it possible and are there motherboards that feature onboard RAID? My strategy (given SSD prices), is to buy 5-6 cheaper, and lower capacity SATA SSD's and set them up in either a RAID 0 or RAID 5. Basically, all I need is performance and would consider the storage as disposable. If it goes down, I replace the drives, rebuild the raid and restore from a clone. I would prefer to stay with a Micro ATX board and add Thunderbolt, Firewire and a 10GbE cards.
 
Mac OS will not recognize the BIOS/UEFI RAID setup as valid. Like most things Apple, only the Apple Disk Utility RAID setup is available for use with the Mac OS. It also will not recognize any RAID array set up with Windows.
A Mac Disk Utility created RAID array will work fine, but my preference is for non RAID boot drive and use RAID for storage only, staying away from RAID 0 as it is not dependable enough.
OTOH, if you do not care about rebuilding the array on a frequent basis and want a crazy fast boot system, then SSDs in RAID 0 will get you there:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-for-raid-0-on-os-x-10-8-5-using-tonymacx86-tool-set.111831/
See post 34 for my results of a pair of Samsung XP941 drives in RAID 0. You likely will not get this speed with SATA drives.
 
Mac OS will not recognize the BIOS/UEFI RAID setup as valid. Like most things Apple, only the Apple Disk Utility RAID setup is available for use with the Mac OS....A Mac Disk Utility created RAID array will work fine...
Which makes is software RAID, right?
my preference is for non RAID boot drive and use RAID for storage only, staying away from RAID 0 as it is not dependable enough.
I agree. My first preference was to combine the ultra fast (but low capacity) 512GB 960 EVO NVME drive with as many SSDs as I can afford. If one of the disks fails, I pop a new one in, restore from a clone and good to go. My dilemma is coming off of a 4TB (2TB of which are full) Mac OS drive now and having to lean out rather then spending a ton of money on a 2TB SSD. :think:
OTOH, if you do not care about rebuilding the array on a frequent basis and want a crazy fast boot system, then SSDs in RAID 0 will get you there:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/guide-for-raid-0-on-os-x-10-8-5-using-tonymacx86-tool-set.111831/
See post 34 for my results of a pair of Samsung XP941 drives in RAID 0. You likely will not get this speed with SATA drives.
Again, since you said that anything outside of Apple Disk Utility will not work, your method in the link is still considered "software RAID?"
Sorry if my questions seem stupid. I was hoping that I'd just buy a LSI 9210-8i SAS controller, flash it to IT mode and set the drives up in RAID 0. :oops:
 
Which makes is software RAID, right?

I agree. My first preference was to combine the ultra fast (but low capacity) 512GB 960 EVO NVME drive with as many SSDs as I can afford. If one of the disks fails, I pop a new one in, restore from a clone and good to go. My dilemma is coming off of a 4TB (2TB of which are full) Mac OS drive now and having to lean out rather then spending a ton of money on a 2TB SSD. :think:

Again, since you said that anything outside of Apple Disk Utility will not work, your method in the link is still considered "software RAID?"
Sorry if my questions seem stupid. I was hoping that I'd just buy a LSI 9210-8i SAS controller, flash it to IT mode and set the drives up in RAID 0. :oops:
So far as drives connected to SATA ports on the mobo, then yes, software RAID is what you get.
OTOH, if you purchase a PCIe RAID controller card, connect as many drives as the controller will take (or you have on hand) and RAID them with the controller card firmware, then Mac OS will recognize that as a valid drive. You can also purchase an external RAID storage like a Synology or Buffalo or Drobo NAS and Mac OS will recognize it. (basically puts the PCIe controller card in an external enclosure). You can buy them as network or USB connected. Some used to come with eSATA connections.
 
So far as drives connected to SATA ports on the mobo, then yes, software RAID is what you get.
OTOH, if you purchase a PCIe RAID controller card, connect as many drives as the controller will take (or you have on hand) and RAID them with the controller card firmware, then Mac OS will recognize that as a valid drive. You can also purchase an external RAID storage like a Synology or Buffalo or Drobo NAS and Mac OS will recognize it. (basically puts the PCIe controller card in an external enclosure). You can buy them as network or USB connected. Some used to come with eSATA connections.
That's the information I needed. Sounds like PCIe is the answer for me. Synology or any other external RAID solution isn't what I'm looking for. I have a FreeNAS server running ZFS with 48TB of storage. I need an internal RAID solution for speed and/or basic redundancy. I just need to find one that can support at least 5 drives. I prefer one with SAS ports like the LSI 9210-8i and use SAS to SATA breakout cables to help with cable management.
 
@luckyal sorry for bringing this thread up, but what did you end up with? Looks like I have similar basic requirements, and I also would like to stick with PCIe x4 card for max compatibility and HDD-only RAID volumes.
I'm looking at https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...t_RR2680SGL_RocketRaid_2680SGL_8_Channel.html, but Highpoint still hasn't confirmed that this card is compatible with recent MacOS releases. I wonder what you're using and how you like it.
 
@4min I went with this card because it offers 6Gbps speed vs 3 Gbps speed of the one you mentioned.

HighPoint RocketRAID 2720SGL 8 Port SAS 6Gbps PCIe x8 RAID Controller HBA Card

Paid $70 on Ebay

Plug and play - only complaint is when you boot up, it takes a while to go through and initialize the drives connected to it and that the drives appear as external drives within macOS. Other than that works great.
 
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