Re: Sonnet tempo E4P - results ?

Hi Kevin -
well, this is your 2 cents. (It's amazing how a technical question turns into a debate like this). I put in countless SATA boxes from Sonnet, Cal Digit, and Firmtek. Sure I have seen problem boxes, but that is every product. Any of the newer RAID 5 SATA products that I have installed from Dulce and Cal Digit have not failed - but these are new products - who knows what will happen 2 years from now with them.

With that said, I have NEVER seen more drive array problems than with the Apple XServe RAID. Compared with any other Fibre Channel Array from Ciprico, Rorke, ProMax, etc., ALL are more reliable than the Apple XServe RAID. And when your Apple XServe RAID develops a problem, does Apple gladly send you replacement parts, like Ciprico, Rorke, ProMax, Cal Digit, Sonnet, Dulce and Firmtek will, or do they DRIVE YOU CRAZY and tell you to bring it to the mall, so you can have a Genius look at it (for 2 weeks). Of course, if you pay thousands for an Apple Enterprise Group support contract, then you can get better support from Apple.

There are people with Sonnet 500P chassis that NEVER have problems - but ALL PRODUCTS (even AJA cards - this is the AJA forum you know) - develop problems, especially ones with moving parts. Your post reminds me of people that used to say "I don't know, I buy AVID drives, and never have had a problem" - what kind of crap is this - AVID drives were either Seagate or Hitachi drives in a plastic box. Did AVID wave a magic wand over these drives. If you have an Apple XServe RAID, and keep it for several years, you will one day have a drive fail on you. This is not to blame Apple here - the Hitachi Deskstor drives eventually fail (and this is expected, and that is why the RAID 50 is teriffic on this product). But you may develop bizarre controller problems (launch RAID Admin right now - can you get in - you can't half the time, and have to power cycle the XServe RAID to get it to launch).

Please don't make it sound that if someone buys an Apple XServe RAID, that all their problems will be gone. This is simply not true.

Bob Zelin