[GraphicX]

Looking for some opinions, have a Dual 867mhz MDD G4. Purchasing a PCI USB 2.0 card for it which has 4 external USB ports & 2 internal.

Wondering what result I'd get if I added 2 USB 2.0, 2 or 4 gig flash drives to the internal 2 USB ports & configured them to appear as a single RAID stripping disk in OSX (so they would appear as one large disk).

Don't know how quick it would be, should be fast as it's 2 USB 2 drives operating as 1, but maybe slow as it'll be software operated & because the speed of USB 2.0 is greatly exaggerated.

Thinking it may be good to use as a scratch disk in Photoshop/Illustrator or the like but not sure.

The MDD already has the max 2 gig of ram, this may give a slight speed boost when the usual drive flogging kicks in when working with large files.

If anyone knows of anyone who has tried this, or of any website discussions on it please point me their way. Or if anyone just knows the result I'm all ears, otherwise I'll just give it ago - thanks GraphicX.

[mickdevlin]

A G4 running at 867MHz is the minimum that Leopard will support, as you're no doubt aware. You can bet that the next update to Mac OS X will exceed the capabilities of you machine. Also remember that the FSB on the fastest G4 maxed out at 167MHz, which is exceeded these days by even a Mac mini. I think you'd be better off saving your brass for a second hand G5 PM or even a new mini.

Mind you if you're serious about adding such a setup to your system, I'd consult Accelerate Your Macintosh and see what people there have to say. System configurations like yours are mentioned there often.

[GraphicX]

A G4 running at 867MHz is the minimum that Leopard will support, as you're no doubt aware. You can bet that the next update to Mac OS X will exceed the capabilities of you machine. Also remember that the FSB on the fastest G4 maxed out at 167MHz, which is exceeded these days by even a Mac mini. I think you'd be better off saving your brass for a second hand G5 PM or even a new mini.

Mind you if you're serious about adding such a setup to your system, I'd consult Accelerate Your Macintosh and see what people there have to say. System configurations like yours are mentioned there often.

Thanks Mick, yep aware of the age of this machine, it's done ALOT of hours in the office!! But it's to reliable to throw out (broke my heart when we deleted the saw tooth from the office years ago). Probably end up chucking a RAID card in it with dual 400gb drives & run it as a basic server in the end. Just like to tinker & came up with this arcane idea of the dual usb flash drive (still keen to try it).

Funny thing about the speed of the machine though, we're running 2 iMac IV's & one is the 2.8ghz Extreme & the old mirror door feels just as quick with alot of tasks & only mildly slower with many others. Never had a problem with the mirror door but the iMac 2.8 is borderline drop & claim on insurance. Already had a new powersupply & logic board. It's been down for almost 2 months, once 3 weeks after purchase & again 4 weeks later, so much for the new machines. Even now the powersupply is running at 82º C again, only a matter of time before it dies again ... - GraphicX

[mickdevlin]

Funny thing about the speed of the machine though, we're running 2 iMac IV's & one is the 2.8ghz Extreme & the old mirror door feels just as quick with alot of tasks & only mildly slower with many others. Never had a problem with the mirror door but the iMac 2.8 is borderline drop & claim on insurance. Already had a new powersupply & logic board. It's been down for almost 2 months, once 3 weeks after purchase & again 4 weeks later, so much for the new machines. Even now the powersupply is running at 82º C again, only a matter of time before it dies again ... - GraphicX

If I were in the market for a new iMac, I'd be waiting for the next update. The current crop have had too many problems right from day 1.

[GraphicX]

Yep, wish I had hindsight, forums everywhere reporting on their problems.

Anyway back on topic. Do you think I'll get any performance out of this flash raid array??

Most people get around 100meg per second read & write with their normal platter drives configured in a raid. Can't remember what the bus speed of the pci slots is (I think that would be my main limiting factor), could run 2 separate pci usb 2.0 cards for greatest effect 1 flash drive on each.

with 2 drives set to stripping i'd get a solid state 8 gig drive with little outlay & with the stripping could potentially double the read/write speed of the drives, if the whole thing goes toes up I'll dismantle it, all in the name of science - GraphicX

[mickdevlin]

Do you think I'll get any performance out of this flash raid array??

I doubt you'll see any difference. You can always try it as two separate drives, record the performance of each drive then reconfigure them to stripe and check the performance.

Post the details to this forum irrespective of the result.

[the_cable_guy]

the question is what do you need the comp for what is its purpose?