OS9 PCI RAID CARD SOLUTION - Macintosh Garden

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2013, September 19 - 4:16am

supernova777

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Joined: 2013 Mar 18

OS9 PCI RAID CARD SOLUTION

Hi there i have spent the day researching which cards i can get for my os9 machines..
i have about 4 250mb IDE drives but they will probably be the last ones i will own
from my research heres what i found:

##################
##NON RAID IDE + SATA CARDS
##################

ACARD AEC-6280M
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816123110R
features booting into os9
this card supports IDE drives.. up to 4 (2 ide channels supporting 2 drives on each)
im not sure if this card stripes teh multiple volumes into a single logical volume
i think it is NON-RAID but im not sure
----------------

ACARD AEC-6290M
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816123109R
features booting into os9
this card supports SATA drives.. up to 2 (1 per sata port)
im not sure if this card stripes teh multiple volumes into a single logical volume
i think it is NON-RAID but im not sure
----------------

##################
##HARDWARE RAID IDE + SATA CARDS
##################

ACARD AEC-6880M
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816123007R
features booting into os9
this card supports IDE drives.. up to 4 (2 ide channels supporting 2 drives on each)
card also features hardware RAID, controlled via dipswitches to change between
normal mode (non-raid) and RAID0 (striping) and manual also mentions RAID1 (mirroring)
----------------

ACARD AEC-6890M
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816123111R
features booting into os9
this card supports SATA drives.. up to 2 (1 per sata port)
card also features hardware RAID, controlled via dipswitches to change between
normal mode (non-raid) and RAID0 (striping) and manual also mentions RAID1 (mirroring)
----------------

ACARD AEC-6885M
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816123008R
up to 4 'Individually connected via its own cable' IDE drives (i assume for full ATA133 bandwidth possibilities?)
card also features hardware RAID, controlled via dipswitches to change between
normal mode (non-raid) and RAID0 (striping) and manual also mentions RAID1 (mirroring)
***Also features RAID0+1 (stripe+mirror) with 4 IDE drives are installed
----------------

the 6890M i cant find anywhere...and it seems like the perfect card for me!
im wondering if anyone else has any other card models that i might find available and for a cheap price.. my criteria im trying to fulfill:

a) bootable into os9
b) supporting SATA hard drive (if possible)
c) supporting switchable from RAID0/RAID1 (and possibly RAID 0+1 if available!)
d) PCI interface (compatible with G4 sawtooth/MDD) (and possibly MAC g5 PCI models)

if u have os9 raid working with larger drives then 128gb... at ata133 or sata150 speeds! please i need to hear from you;)

various articles on sleep issues with raid pci cards:
www.xlr8yourmac.com/IDE/Acard_OSX_deep_sleep_fix.html

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2013, September 19 - 4:21am

supernova777

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Joined: 2013 Mar 18

i did also find that there are some SIIG ultra 133 pci adapters that are rebranded ACARD AEC-6280M cards... and seem to be available for very cheap on ebay + the usual suspects.. but i dont believe the 6280M offers any sort of RAID, be it striping or mirroring.. if it does, it would be striping only? possibly? im kinda hoping? ive emailed ACARD but they are probably not used to having inquiries regarding these old adapters

2013, September 19 - 4:27am

supernova777

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Joined: 2013 Mar 18

i also learned that , of the SONNET TEMPO IDE cards..
some feature hardware RAID.. (raid1/raid0 modes)
and some merely provide ATA133 ports (no striping or mirroring)

The non-raid ones are almost always rebranded promise pci cards..
and the raid ones are almost always rebranded acard ACARD (6880M) pci cards...

2013, September 19 - 5:31am

themacmeister

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Joined: 2009 Oct 26

There is 3rd party software that supports disks >128GB under OS9/OSX.

Whether or not this also supports RAID is questionable?!

2013, September 19 - 7:58am

bertyboy

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Joined: 2009 Jun 14

I have the Acard 6280M, for my dual 533 DA. No RAID of any sort. It works as far back as OS8.6.

You may have many more options for RAID if you can give up using this for a boot drive - then you have the chance for drivers to load.
SATA might be pushing it, but again, if you're willing to give up the option of booting from the drive.

As you may have guessed, the 128GB drive limit doesn't apply in the MDD, nor in the 2002 QuickSilver. Nor in an external Firewire drive, but be careful of green drives and enclosures, some may not spin up the drive until they detect a listening computer on the other end (my WD Book drives suffer from this), while others will be fine (my old LaCie was good like this).

2013, September 19 - 9:30am

(Reply to #5) #6

supernova777

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Joined: 2013 Mar 18

well im looking for actual raid0 striping speed in os9.. where 2 or 4 disks are being utilized as one disk to provide a higher bandwidth..for faster speeds loading audio + video and all around system performance + backup

the acard 6880M + 6890M seem to be some of the best options. i was just trying to see if anyone knew any additional makes + models, I know that firmtek made some of the sonnet tempo cards aswell, i have a sonnet tempo SATA card that is realy a firmtek 1s2 that it is supposed to boot into os9 but i dont think it will provide RAID under os9... and thats what im after;)

2013, September 19 - 10:11am

supernova777

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Joined: 2013 Mar 18

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=...

also found this japanese company "MATHEY" that make some sata raid capable cards but i dont see any with dipswitch control over raid modes in a similar fasion to the acard units!

2013, September 20 - 8:00am

themacmeister

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Joined: 2009 Oct 26

There are decent SATA->IDE conversion boards (some small enough to fit in Apple enclosures), couple this with ANY size SSD, and you will probably get the best speed the Mac's internal bus can handle.

I don't think that disk speed is your bottleneck here

If you MUST have the best speed available, I would go with a 2-disk RAID0-striped setup with 74GB 10,000rpm SCSI3 LVD drives and a matching SCSI3 LVD card (Adaptec?). Make sure you get the cable with the card, AND THE TERMINATOR, as they are very rare indeed (only seen ONE in my life, and that was recently when I had to recover files off a 50pin LVD Windows setup). I was successful by the way

Heck, even a single drive will give you outstanding speed. I remember using SCSI2 fast and wide drivers and writing 8 gigabyte files in no time (on a fast Mac clone). SCSI 3 LVD will be faster still.

2013, September 20 - 4:57pm

(Reply to #8) #9

supernova777

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Joined: 2013 Mar 18

SCSI? they dont even sell SCSI drives anymore.. do they? i meant with SATA hard drives.. that i can buy at any computer store anywhere..i dont want to be special ordering hard drives!

2013, September 20 - 10:07pm

#10

supernova777

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Joined: 2013 Mar 18

*****There are decent SATA->IDE conversion boards (some small enough to fit in Apple enclosures), couple this with ANY size SSD, and you will probably get the best speed the Mac's internal bus can handle.*****

thats just it exactly im trying to bypass the internal bus 100% and use only a pci addon card! 66mhz wide pci capable of providing bandwidth of.... id have to check the numbers exactly but i think its on par with sata150? first generation sata spec.. juts below sata300 or SATAII as most would call it

anyways ive been in contact with ACARD and they said the 6890M is sold out + EOL (end of life?) but they are checking another warehouse to see if they can scrounge one up for me....

i also found some other forum posts saying that the acard AEC-6890M performed at slower speeds then the FIRMTEK SERITEK 1S/2 (?) card according to benchmark tests.. that coincides with another email i received from a firmtek rep called michael who claimed they didnt make a hardware raid card because in their tests software raid + their 1s2 card performed pretty much the same... so there was no benefit..... youll notice that on all of hteir product pages they refer to each card as supporting software raid for os9 but they dont say for certain which software was used to achieve this.... would anyone know?? is this the same software that is on the site presently? Conley softraid or something?