Does my G5 support RAID?

[GamezUK]

I can't seem to find a yes or no anywhere - hopefully these forums will throw up an answer!

My machine: 2Ghz Dual Core G5 Power Mac

I'm suspecting that the answer's no because I can't find any mention of it

Do I have any options if this is the case?

 

[Thor]

throught the standard onboard controller, i beleave not.

but you should be able to buy a scsi raid card for it...

if your gonna pony up for a scsi card, and at that a raid card, you might as well go raid 5... by the time you get the card your in it for a few hundered already... whats a few more hundered

you should be able to get a small scsi raid 5 set up for about 1k$... give or take

 

[GamezUK]

Ah OK.

I was going to go with a simple raid 0 SATA array but for that money I feel I'd be better putting it towards a Mac Pro (which does have onboard SATA raid anyway!).

Thanks for the help thore.

 

[CreativeMac]

I can't seem to find a yes or no anywhere - hopefully these forums will throw up an answer!

My machine: 2Ghz Dual Core G5 Power Mac

I'm suspecting that the answer's no because I can't find any mention of it

Do I have any options if this is the case?

Well. . .the answer is yes you have options. The path you take will depend on whether you're looking for hardware RAID.

OSX has had built-in capability for RAID0 and RAID1 since at lease OSX 10.2.x. You simply use Disk Utility, tell it if you want mirroring (RAID1) or striping (RAID0) and off you go. 500GB SATA drives can regularly be found for under $150 each. . .so you could easily do a large RAID0 setup for <$300.

If you want hardware RAID, there are some options. And you do NOT need to use SCSI. In fact, I've found SCSI to be a major hassle in OSX and with G5s.

-- Some companies sell external Firewire/eSATA drives already in RAID configurations. OWC, Lacie, G-Technologies and several others sell a pre-packaged external RAID0 setup.
-- Companies like Granite Digital and Wiebetech sell more robust PCI-X based SATA/eSATA RAID controllers and systems. Obviously, this is a step up in money.

General advice about RAID setups. . .

- Whether you go with a hardware or software-based RAID, you want the drives to be as closely matched as possible. I urge clients to buy all drives of the exact same part/model and prefer they come out of the same production batch.

- Remember, there is NO REDUNDANCY AND NO FAULT TOLERANCE WITH RAID0!!! If one of the drives takes a dump, you've lost it all! So back up or archive anything you have on a RAID0 volume.

Another note - while the Mac Pro comes with more drive bays, it has no more or less RAID capability than does your G5. The fundamental considerations are the same - hardware or software. On both machines, the software capability is built into OSX and you'd need to add whatever hardware RAID solution you choose. The only benefit of the Mac Pro in this regard is it holds more drives internally - enabling you to add a RAID controller allowing you to do RAID 0+1 or RAID5 internally.