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kjohansen

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 19, 2008
101
53
Oregon
Ok, the new MP is imminent and I am only buying the bare bones one, I have two SATA drives that I need to connect to it, they hold photos and videos..

What do you think the best way to connect them would be?

I am thinking some kind of external box that connects to the MP
 

bsbeamer

macrumors 601
Sep 19, 2012
4,306
2,702
There APPEARS to be SATA ports inside the machine, but no info if they are directly accessible via standard SATA cable > drive, or how you would power if additional is needed.

The Pegasus products are closest thing to internal drive bays like MP5,1. Probably overkill and over budget for your need. Use a USB 3.1 drive dock for cheapest, or something like this for 5 drives in non RAID. Works great, info in another thread:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ND3JNZ6
 
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OkiRun

macrumors 65816
Oct 25, 2019
1,005
585
Japan
There APPEARS to be SATA ports inside the machine, but no info if they are directly accessible via standard SATA cable > drive, or how you would power if additional is needed.

The Pegasus products are closest thing to internal drive bays like MP5,1. Probably overkill and over budget for your need. Use a USB 3.1 drive dock for cheapest, or something like this for 5 drives in non RAID. Works great, info in another thread:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ND3JNZ6
I'm wondering about the added heat from that internal Pegasus Hard Drive.
 
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bsbeamer

macrumors 601
Sep 19, 2012
4,306
2,702
If heat is your concern, move it all to the outside and a separate unit. The thermals of this machine are designed to be able to handle it. And I would question if this machine is really for you if you’re already concerned about thermals before your hands are on it. At this $6k price, it absolutely should be fine. Real world will verify, I’m sure. Don’t be an immediate preorder, wait for first hands on reviews and you’ll probably find out rather quickly.
 

jinnyman

macrumors 6502a
Sep 2, 2011
760
670
Lincolnshire, IL
If it's two 3.5" SATA, then I think you have to wait some until someone brings out disk expansion frame (without disk) designed for MP 7,1...

I believe the connection ports are already in the 7,1, but placement of disk and cable makeshift are going to be weird and unstable.
 

deconstruct60

macrumors G5
Mar 10, 2009
12,268
3,867
I'm wondering about the added heat from that internal Pegasus Hard Drive.

The MPX provisioned drive? The R4i is sitting in the same slot meant to cool a VEGA II Duo at 400+ watts. Four hard drives and a raid electronics card aren't going to tax that kind of air flow cooling at all. Unless the R4i screws up the fan speed feedback adjustments for the MPX bay 2 fan, that shouldn't be a problem.

The non slot , dual drive adapter? The J2i isn't going to product much heat at all. It is the hot air that is blow at it that is a possible issue. It is basically sucking up output from the CPU heatsink. The heat is spread over a larger area, but will get hotter than ambient air. Hot enough to shortly fry the drive? Probably not with relatively normal temps outside the Mac Pro. Hot enough to impact long term longevity of the drive? Pretty good chance it will ( and longer and hotter run the CPU then higher that chance gets.).

if they are drives with valuable , archival data on them, I'd put them outside. They will be more affordable solutions.


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There APPEARS to be SATA ports inside the machine, but no info if they are directly accessible via standard SATA cable > drive, or how you would power if additional is needed.

It isn't really appears. The J2i has to hook up to something both SATA data and power. The connectors for two drives and a power cable are there. There is also a USB Type A connector internal also. ( use for a iLok or security FOB. Or could probably even be used for a small alternative boot drive. ).



The Pegasus products are closest thing to internal drive bays like MP5,1. Probably overkill and over budget for your need.

There really isn't much to the J2i https://www.promise.com/us/Promotion/PegasusStorage

it is a bracket that holds two 3.5" drives. That's about it. Promise is getting an early 'jump' here because they have had access to the Mac Pro. But once the physical attachment notch dimensions get recorded in an open setting there are going to be 3rd parties machining brackets to put in there. The question is has Apple let Sonnet or OWC or some other vendor have a Mac Pro demo box for last couple of months. Promise will probably have a "first mover" window there for a couple of months, but it won't last long. ( April-May 2020 someone will have something.... even it is some Chinese chop shop knock off. ) .
 
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