Does OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 work with PT8?

[5by5_audio]

Hello all!

This is my first post to the forum.
Good to see here is nice and active community around Pro Tools.

I'd like to upgrade my record hard-drive system to external raid10 stack connected via eSata.
I've searched all over the internet and DUC forum which raid systems works with PT if any. I found Glyph ForteRaid which is proven to work by manufacturer.
OWC Mercury Elite Pro Qx2 looks very much same with Ofxord 936 chipset which should be "the chipset" if I've understund right at all. OWC is preferred due price and it's possible buy without any hard-drives which I allready have.

I found Hands On: OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 external RAID article but I'd like to ask if here is anyone who is using OWC raid system and can prove it is really working before I spend $400

Thanks in advance,
Paavo

[sensation]

I have not used the Qx2 with Pro Tools so I can't give you any concrete information, but I'm actually looking at the exact same thing for myself and have done some research into the functionality of a RAID system with Pro Tools. From what I understand, as long as the volume Pro Tools is reading and writing from is not bigger than 2TB it should work fine. So for example, the largest RAID 10 setup you could use is 4TB (4 x 1TB) because RAID 10 would split it into 2TB for read/write and 2TB for mirroring. There is also THIS quick article on the Glyph website.

I hope this helps.

[DigiTechSupt]

RAID isn't technically supported in any form - with that said, we've seen some people have success with hardware RAID drives. I've used one of the Guardian Maximus drives (also from OWC) with Pro Tools and not had a problem.

Since it's not specifically tested or supported, I can't recommend it - I'm only giving you info on what I've seen and experienced myself.

[5by5_audio]

Originally Posted by DigiTechSupt

I've used one of the Guardian Maximus drives (also from OWC) with Pro Tools and not had a problem.

Thanks for your answers.
Because Guardian is also made with Oxford 936 chipset I think it's safe to buy Mercury so I'll gonna try that one.

All the best,
Paavo

[DigiTechSupt]

Originally Posted by 5by5_audio

Thanks for your answers.
Because Guardian is also made with Oxford 936 chipset I think it's safe to buy Mercury so I'll gonna try that one.

All the best,
Paavo

Make sure that, whichever one you get, that it is a hardware RAID, not software, as many of the Mercury drives are just that - and they won't work with Pro Tools. I know, I've tried - I have several Mercury Elite AL Pro's and they cannot be designated as a record volume in Pro Tools because they use a software RAID config.

[5by5_audio]

Originally Posted by DigiTechSupt

Make sure that, whichever one you get, that it is a hardware RAID, not software

As far I understand Oxford936 is hardware raid chipset.
Anyway macsales tells this in their site:

User Selectable Hardware RAID Settings
Thanks to a front panel selector switch, the Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 enables easy configuration of the Hardware RAID settings - NRAID, 0, 1, 5, 10 - so you can select the best combination of speed, capacity, redundancy, or any combination of the three.

Thanks for pointing this out.

-Paavo

[DigiTechSupt]

Originally Posted by 5by5_audio

As far I understand Oxford936 is hardware raid chipset.
Anyway macsales tells this in their site:


Thanks for pointing this out.

-Paavo

Looks like it has what you need then!

If you can, let us know how it works out.

[relaxo]

Any results to report yet?