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News Archive for: Tuesday Aug 7, 2007 (Later added items first)
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| Mac Pro gets RAID card CTO Option |
Kevin sent a note there's a new (internal) RAID card option at the Apple store for Mac Pros.
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While the front page of the Apple Store makes no indication in the Mac Pro line up, Apple did manage to sneak in a PCI-E RAID card option. (costs $999) Of note it supports RAID5 and 256 MB of cache with a 72 hour (cache) back up battery.
-Kevin
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I checked the Apple Mac Pro Expansion page and it shows/mentions the card now, as does the Mac Pro Specs page ("Optional Mac Pro RAID card with 256MB cache and 72-hour cache battery backup - Supports Mac OS X only.")
The Expansion page includes some benchmarks with the RAID card and says
"With 256MB of RAID cache, a 72-hour cache protecting battery and hardware RAID levels 0, 1, 5 and 0+1, the Mac Pro RAID card delivers sequential read performance up to 304MB/s in RAID 0 and up to 199MB/s in RAID 5 -- without the need for any external drive enclosures, power bricks, or cables. And of course Apple's RAID Utility software makes setting up and managing the RAID card simple." |
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| RAlink 802.11N chip based PCI cards and USB 2.0 Adapters |
Update: (8/23/2007) Site sponsor OWC is now offering the Edimax 802.11n PCI, PCMCIA/cardbus and USB 2.0 adapters on the Xlr8yourmac Site Specials page for $59 each with low-cost shipping ("$4.50 for UPS Ground ($2.95 if they order over $150 in goods) or $7.95 or less for 2nd Day Air").
(original post from Aug. 7th follows)
In the news item earlier today on downloads of OS X 10.3/10.4 802.11N drivers from RAlink, a reader sent info on two PCI cards based on RAlink chips. One is the Asus WL-130N Wireless-N PCI Adapter (under $90) that has a cabled antenna "pod" that lets you locate the 3 antennas in a better location than when attached to the card.
Another is the Edimax nMax EW-7728In that looks a lot like the GW-DS300N (and Quickertek $149.95) card (see earlier post below). The product page does not mention RAlink but I downloaded the User Manual PDF for it which mentions using the Ralink conf. Utility (for windows).
Edimax also lists a USB model EW-7718Un that per the PDF manual also mentions Ralink.
These may work fine with the RAlink drivers but if you could find one of them at a local (brick and mortar) store, that may give you a easy return option just in case. (I'm going to check local stores here to see if they carry them.)
If any reader tries one of these (or another RAlink based adapter) with the OS X driver downloads, let me know. Thanks.
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| OWC Sale on 500GB/750GB SATA Drives, Price Cuts on Ministack v2 Drives |
| (from site sponsor OWC)
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| First Feedback on nQuicky 802.11n PCI Card (in G4 Tower) |
| First reader feedback on the (RAlink chip) Quickertek 802.11n PCI card announced in June. (Update: For reader feedback on a literally identical the same base 802.11N PCI card for a LOT less, see the page here of Mac user reports on $59 Edimax 802.11n PCI card)
"I just want to report that I stuck the new nQuicky (802.11n) PCI card from QuickerTek
into my PowerMac G4 Sawtooth (w/Sonnet 800mhz upgrade) and installed the
driver, and it worked perfectly. (running OS X 10.3.x or 10.4.x I assume-Mike) 10.4.10.
It connected fine with a Dlink 650 router. (DIR-635 - RangeBooster N 650 Router??) My mistake. It's the DIR-655 with the gigabit ethernet. (D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router)
And even though I have the antennae nearly on the floor, screwed into the card itself, I am getting much better signal strength reported by the dlink (30-40 ft away), and much better reliability and latency, than I have gotten with other N or G clients. (I don't have an Apple N base, so cannot comment on that.)
-Mike J."
Back in April I posted info on an Ralink card that I think Quickertek is rebranding - the GW-DS300N - here's a photo of it:
The Quickertek nQuicky PCI card lists for $149.95 currently. As mentioned below, Ralink has now (finally) publicly posted Mac OS 10.3.x/10.4.x drivers for
their USB and PCI/miniPCI/Cardbus 802.11n chip (28xx series) adapters - See later post above for info on two RAlink 802.11N PCI cards and a USB 2.0 Adapter. (Quickertek also announced USB and cardbus adapters earlier this year and I'm guessing they're also RAlink chip based.) I've added this to the catch-all Mac 802.11n page.
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| Sonnet Tempo Trio PCI Card Discontinued |
| (from a reader mail)
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I thought I'd pass this piece of useful information to readers interested in preserving their older Macs: Sonnet Technologies has quietly discontinued their Tempo Trio (ATA/133 + FW + USB) PCI Card (T133FWU2-M). After placing an order through an
online reseller, I was told a week later that the item had been discontinued by Sonnet. Being somewhat sceptical because there was no indication on the Sonnet website that the product had been discontinued, I contacted Sonnet customer service directly. The following is a transcript of the correspondence (made 20 July 2007):
"...I just attempted to order a Macintosh version of the Sonnet Tempo Trio PCI Card (T133FWU2-M) from a US reseller and they informed me that Sonnet had discontinued this product. Could you verify that this information is indeed correct and if Sonnet intends to replace the current card with a similarly redesigned card?
(reply)
"Yes that is correct, it has been discontinued and there is no forth coming product to replace it."
On my third attempt at ordering the card, Other World Computing were able to fulfill my order. (currrently has some stock.) So if anyone out there thinks they may want this card, then this would be the time to buy it whilst some resellers still have stock of the product.
Regards, Gary
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