Today 1TB of storage is not that much anymore. We needed a backup disk that follows these criteria:
- At least 2TB net
- Some built in reliability (not as a replacement for backup but to have more likely availability). We wanted it also to use for our Mac Time Machine backup storage.
- Good speed
- Firewire 800 and eSATA interfaces (eSATA more for the future)
This requires a RAID 5 system. Unfortunately most RAID systems had been very expensive in the past. Here the OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 seems to be a RAID that is reasonable priced.
Installing the RAID is easy as you have only to install the disks (you can buy the disks pre-configured - means mounted to the frames). We installed four 1TB drives.
We set the unit at RAID 5 (actually the default) which is a good compromise in terms of speed and reliability. The Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 supports also other RAID configurations (RAID 0 striping, RAID 1 mirroring) but they did not matter to us.
- The fan is effective and not too loud (with 4 disks you need a fan)
- The unit is noisy (disk rumble) during backup but otherwise ok (we have it only on at backup time). I think nearly all RAIDs make this noise because they work on all drives while accessing data.
Note: We learned fast that our new home is in an area where short or longer power outages can hit anytime. Especially for a RAID it is advised to use a UPS unit to avoid shutting down the unit in the middle of some operation.
We bought this unit and think it is a pretty good value for the money.
More info can be found here at OWC.
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