Non-Apple RAID card for Mac PRO (TOWER)

I have the following:

MAC PRO (Model Number: A1186) (PCIe - SLOTS)

At present I am using the software RAID however I wish to move to the hardware raid because of the following:

Performance (4 x 300gb SATA II in RAID 5)
Redundancy (Raid 5, 1 drive can fail and system will be online)

I do not wish to use the Apple RAID card (very expensive), I would like to use an aftermarket one which is cheaper.

Questions:

Does anyone have a WORKING aftermarket RAID card working in their MAC PRO (TOWER)? -(Have done some research, ROCKETRAID, need confirmation)
If so to the above, does it work from boot?

Thanks

Arthor

Posted 2012-03-22T00:37:02.903

Reputation: 133

From what I've read, most rocketraid cards are fake raid - i.e. raid 5 is painfully slow. Sorry I know nothing about apples. – Robin Gill – 2012-03-22T00:46:24.873

I have had a few Rocket Raid card, no problem at all... Raid 5 @ 400MB read and 320+ Write. – Arthor – 2012-03-22T00:48:26.180

Answers

I'm pretty sure (though it's hard to prove the non-existence of a solution) that there is no such option at this time. If there were, I would definitely expect OWC to carry it, and they don't. Only the Apple RAID card is for sure bootable.

The workaround is to get a non-bootable RAID card and put the boot drive in the second optical bay, using either the ATA connection meant for a second optical drive or a SATA connection from the motherboard (originally intended for an internal drive but now idle because you've switched the internal drives to the RAID card). See a full solution explained here.

Edit: It looks like the HighPoint RocketRAID 4321 is supposed to work. I'm afraid to try it.

Old Pro

Posted 2012-03-22T00:37:02.903

Reputation: 1 751