Pegasus2 R4 Thunderbolt 2.0
RAID 0 box with four 6Gbps SSDs

Originally posted Friday, December 27th, 2013, by rob-ART morgan, mad scientist

We don't have a 2013 Mac Pro in the lab yet but we do have a 'late 2013' Retina MacBook Pro 15" with dual Thunderbolt 2.0 ports. Four striped 6Gbps SSDs are capable of an aggregate speed of 2000+ MB/s. How fast will they go in a Promise Pegasus2 R4 Thunderbolt 2.0 RAID box when connected to a Thunderbolt 2.0 port?

GRAPH LEGEND
rMBP R4 = 'late 2013' Retina MacBook Pro 15" with one Thunderbolt 2.0 port connected to the Pegasus2 R4 with four TransIntl SwiftData Synchronous 6Gbps SSDs in RAID 0 set.
iMac R4 = 'late 2013' iMac 27" with one Thunderbolt 1.0 port connected to the Pegasus2 R4 with four TransIntl SwiftData 6Gbps SSDs in RAID 0 set.

SIMULATED VIDEO CAPTURE and PLAYBACK
We used AJA System Test to test file level, large sequential transfer speed using a 16GB test document that simulates capture and playback of a 4096x2160 10-bit RGB. (HIGHEST number means FASTEST.)

LARGE SEQUENTIAL TRANSFER
We used the Custom Sequential Test in QuickBench specifying 1GB test size and 5 cycles. Below is the MAXIMUM transfer rate we observed. (HIGHEST number means FASTEST.)

GOOD NEWS: When connected to the 'late 2013' Retina MacBook Pro's Thunderbolt 2.0 port, the Pegasus2 R4 with four 6Gbps SSDs performs large sequential transfers from 36% to 57% faster than when connected to the Thunderbolt 1.0 port of a 'late 2013' iMac.

BAD NEWS: It transfers for less than 1600MB/s we hoped to see. As we said earlier, the four 6Gbps SSDs we used are capable of an aggregate speed of 2000MB/s. So what we measured is as good as it gets no matter how many drive bays your Pegasus2 may have.

Feedback or comments? Contact me , mad scientist.
Also, you can follow me on Twitter @barefeats

WHERE TO BUY PEGASUS2 Thunderbolt 2.0 RAID systems
Apple USA has them. Search on "Pegasus2" to find the various models. or UK readers, visit Apple Store UK.

WHERE TO BUY SOLID STATE DRIVES

• Choose from six different brands of SSDs at Trans International
• Order the Mercury Extreme Pro 6Gbps SSDs from Other World Computing
• Order Samsung, Intel, and Crucial SSDs from MaxUpgrades
• Order the Samsung 840 Pro SSDs from Amazon
• Order the Crest SSD for Mac with TRIM support from Angelbird direct.

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Help support Bare Feats by clicking our Apple display ads or THIS Apple USA link when ordering any Apple product.

PowerMax not only sells new and used Macs, but will give you a generous trade-in offer on your old Mac.

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copyright 2013 Rob Art Morgan
"BARE facts on Macintosh speed FEATS"
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